2025 Speakers

Hicham Najem is fundraising specialist for EIT Digital. He has over 25 years’ experience in asset management and alternative investment strategies. He successfully raised and managed €1.2bn in market neutral quantitative equity and Global Macro portfolios at SAMCo (Shell Asset Management Co), Brevan Howard Asset Management, Tactical Global Management, and HSBC UK. Before that, he worked for the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority as a quantitative analyst. More recently, he was Managing Partner at ARADII Capital , a multi-strategy investment platform, where he oversaw fundraising and business development.

Hicham has an MBA from INSEAD and an Engineering degree from the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium).

Dr. Werner Lanthaler is the founder and CEO of Wlanholding, an investment company focused on driving innovations and sustainable growth in cutting-edge technologies. With over 20 years of management experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors, Dr. Lanthaler supports visionary entrepreneurs in transforming innovative business ideas into scalable, successful organizations. As CEO of Evotec SE, he led the company through significant global growth. Prior to that, as CFO of Intercell AG, he was instrumental in establishing Austria’s first Biotech IPO and several product approvals. Dr. Lanthaler brings an extensive network, top class expertise in due diligence and a hands-on approach to building all aspects of a business.

He is the chairman in leading high-tech companies, including Fair Journey Biologics (Portugal), HAL Allergy (Netherlands), aTenstion.life (Austria), OncoDesignServices (France), and Proxygen (Austria).

His career is further supported by a strong academic background, including a PhD in Business Administration and an MPA from Havard Universit.

Recent key investments of Wlanholding include Proxygen GmbH, Cerabyte GmbH, Solgate GmbH, Planet Pure GmbH, Cyment GmbH, Pirche GmbH and Pexxes GmbH.