Mentors


  • Максим Ищенко Максим Ищенко

    Bio: Максим Ищенко — основатель и руководитель проекта DOU.ua, крупнейшего украинского сообщества разработчиков. DOU.ua объединяет свыше 20 тыс разработчиков и является организатором целой серии мероприятий: ДОУ Хакатоны для программистов, Hackers & Founders и Startup Mixer для предпринимателей.


  • Janarbek Matai Janarbek Matai

    Bio: Janarbek Matai (S’11) received the B.S. degree in computer science from the Mongolian University of Science and Technology, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, in 2004, and the Master of Computer Science degree from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, South Korea, in 2007. From 2007 to 2009, he was a Research Fellow with the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Daejeon. Currently, he is pursuing the Ph.D. degree at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California, San Diego. Since 2010, He is working on a SoC (System on Chip) and High Level Synthesize projects supported by Intel Labs where he is a lead researcher. Between July 2011 and October 2011, he developed an FPGA based face detection system at Xilinx labs Dublin, Ireland. His current research interests include field-programmable gate arrays, graphics processing units, reconfigurable computing, computer security and application specific processors for graphics applications.


  • Nikolay Savin Nikolay Savin

    Bio: Управляющий директор бизнес инкубатора GrowthUP (Киев). В отрасли с 2008 года. Все это время принимал активное участие в развитии сообщества IT предпринимателей в Украине. Имеет большой опыт консультаций проектов на ранних стадиях. Один из организаторов Startup Crash Test и IDCEE.


  • Maja Adriaensen Maja Adriaensen

    Bio: Bio: Maja graduated with with a Msc in Economics and Business and Administration from NHH in 2009, with a major in Finance. She has been studying Finance at McGill University in Canada, and Entrepreneurship at Berkeley University, California. She is now project manager for Startup Weekend Norway, responsible for establishing the concept in Norway, while she work on organizing Startup Weekend in Prishtina, and a matchmaking between IT-companies in Kosovo and companies in Norway. She is on the board of Norwegian Entrepreneur Forum and Gründerskolen Alumni, and has recently initiated another startup initiative, Startup Norway.


  • Juris Bariss Juris Bariss

    Bio: As co-founder of Ukko Mobile, Juris oversees the marketing and finance aspects of Ukko’s business. Prior to Ukko Mobile, Juris was a Senior Director at Oriflame Cosmetics S.A., where he presided over operations in the Baltic countries and Byelorussia and led multiple strategy, supply chain and sales projects of the global cosmetics company. Before joining Oriflame, Juris started and served as a Director of Mobinter Baltics, a joint venture between Nokia Mobile Phones and Makitorpa Oy. The company was distributing and servicing Nokia mobile phones in several countries of the Former Soviet Union and achieved the #1 market share in most of these markets. Previous to Mobinter, Juris established the presence, and headed operations of Froviforsbruk (of ASSI-Domain group) in the markets of the Former Soviet Union, achieving a leading market share and establishing multiple partnerships with local packaging and printing companies. Juris is an MIT Sloan Fellow and holds an MBA from Sloan School of Management of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a M.Sc. EE from Riga Technical University.


  • Nurzhas K. Makishev Nurzhas K. Makishev

    Bio: Nurzhas K. Makishev is an engineer and product strategy manager at Oracle Corporation in California since 2009. His previous work experience includes: JPMorgan Investment Bank in New York, Renaissance Capital in Almaty, Banc of America Securities in New York, KazInvestBank in Almaty, and KazMunaiGaz in Astana. Nurzhas also runs a non-profit program that helps students in Kazakhstan apply to top US/UK universities. Nurzhas was part of Viral Communications Group at MIT Media Lab, where he developed peer-to-peer networking applications. He also led the team covering private equity and venture capital research in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East for Developmental Entrepreneurship Program at MIT Media Lab. Nurzhas has B.Sc. degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied Computer Science and Engineering, Economics, Mathematics, and Management Science at Sloan School of Management. He was a member of MIT’s Varsity Fencing Team, and has a paper published in MIT’s Undergraduate Journal of Mathematics. Nurzhas is a native of Almaty and currently resides in Silicon Valley.


  • Эрдин Бешимов Эрдин Бешимов

    Bio: Эрдин Бешимов закончил Центрально-азиатский американский университет по специальности «Сравнительная политология». В период с 2001 по 2004 г. обучался в университете Брэдфорда, получив степень бакалавра по специальности «Политика развития и мира». С 2004 по 2006 гг. г-н Бешимов обучался в Гарвардском университете по направлению Регионоведение с региональной специализацией Россия, Восточная Европа и Центральная Азия. В 2009 г. г-н Бешимов поступил в школу бизнеса «Слоан» в Массачусетском Институте Технологий с фокусом на развитии предпринимательства и инноваций. Он также является основателем журнала MIT Entrepreneurship Review.


  • Erik H. Eriksen Erik H. Eriksen

    Bio: Erik Holthe Eriksen works in KPMG Advisory and organizes Startup Weekend in Norway. He has interests in mobile telecom, IT, information security, entrepreneurship and business management. He is an electrical engineer and has a MBA in Technology Management from NTNU in Trondheim and MIT Sloan in Cambridge. He has several years experience within IT, telecom and operations from work in defence, government and private sector.


  • Акмарал Омарова Акмарал Омарова

    Bio: Акмарал - консультант в Бостон Консалтинг Груп (BCG) в Нью Йорке. Она работает с крупными международными компаниями по вопросам стратегии, операционной эффективности, HR и других областей менеджмента. До Нью Йорка Акмарал проработала 2 года в московском офисе BCG, где она приобрела значительный опыт консультирования компаний в России и на Украине в отраслях финансовых услуг и потребительских продуктов. Опыт Акмарал также включает 4 года работы в отделе корпоративных финансов Эрнст энд Янг в США, России и Казахстане. Акмарал имеет степень MBA из Harvard Business School.


  • Catherine Shiang Catherine Shiang

    Bio: Dr. Shiang has been based in Hong Kong since 2006 and her most recent role was Head of Hong Kong Office, Global Head of Investor Relationships for UC Rusal (Russian Federation) supporting their IPO on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, instituting their corporate compliance program and structuring their global investor relations program.


  • Gaurav Agarwal Gaurav Agarwal

    Bio: Gaurav Agarwal graduated from MIT’s System Design and Management Program in 2010. After graduation from MIT, he worked with MIT’s department of political science and worked as research affiliate on a joint MIT-Harvard project on the role of cyberspace in international relations. Currently, he is working a German pharmaceutical company, Bayer, to help improve their supply chain and optimize their global network. Prior to attending MIT, Gaurav with Virginia based company on the design and development of an experimental unmanned aerial vehicle for US Air Force Research labs. Previously, he also worked as project engineer in Customer Service Education Department at Honda Motor Co. Ltd in India. He holds a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station, Tx, USA.