Stephane Kurgan
Venture Partner, Index Ventures, Founder Queen, former COO King (Candy Crush)
Stephane has been Venture Partner at Index since 2020, focusing on supporting entrepreneurs with a strong belief in purpose-driven leadership.
Prior to joining Index, Stephane was COO of King Digital Entertainment, maker of Candy Crush Saga. He was part of the team that oversaw its $7B IPO – one of the largest for a European tech company at the time – and subsequent acquisition by Activision Blizzard.
MEET EUROPE’s leading ambassadors
Learn from Europe's most respected AI and tech leaders
Boardwave Ambassadors are the experienced leaders who have helped define European tech in their respective roles and fields. They've spent careers building successful businesses. Now they're helping the next generation scale faster.
Louise Hill
Founder & Executive Chair, GoHenry
UK
Vin Murria, OBE
Chair, CEO, Founder, NED & Investor; Softcat, Bunzl, ADVT, Molten Ventures
UK
Nic Humphries
Senior Partner & Executive Chair, Hg
UK
Elona Mortimer-Zhika
Chair, NED, Investor, Mentor; Former CEO IRIS Software Group
UK
Jean-Philippe Courtois
President & Co-founder, Live for Good; Former President, Microsoft Corp
France
Sabine Bendiek
Plural Chairperson & NED; Sensio, Suse, VISTRA, Schaeffler; Former Chief People Officer SAP, Managing Director, Microsoft GmbH
Germany
Chano Fernandez
Co-CEO, Klaviyo; Former Co-CEO eightfold and Workday
UK
Martina King
Board Chair, Luminance; former CEO Featurespace
UK
Adam Warby
Chair, Ocado Group, Heidrick & Struggles; Non-Exec Director VISMA
UK
Dawn Marriott
Serial Exec Chair, Geomartikk, team.blue,Kinapse; Former Partner Hg, Joint COO Capita
UK
Chris Bayne
CEO, The Access Group
UK
Erin Platts
CEO, Octopus Ventures; Former CEO HSBC Innovation Bank, Silicon Valley Bank
UK
Léo Apotheker
Chairman; Syncron, Eudonet, Harvest; Former CEO, SAP & HP; Boardwave NED
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Switzerland
Sherry Coutu CBE
Independent NED Pearson, Standard Life, Raspberry Pi
UK
Fred Hessabi
Investor, Advisor, Board Member; Strategic Advisor C3.ai, NED Intescia
France
Shruthi Chindular
NED & Board Member, Access Group & Byte Technology
UK
Franck Cohen
Venture Partner & Board Advisor; Chairman GoCardless,CYE,Geektime
France
Jean-Pierre Saad
Managing Partner, CVC
UK
Oystein Moan
Executive Chair, VISMA
Norway
Nezahat Gultekin
Independent Board Member, Logo Yazilim
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Turkey
Jose Duarte
Chairman & Investor; Chair proALPHA, Hallo, Tax Systems
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Portugal
Federico Leproux
CEO, TeamSystem Group
Italy
Melissa Di Donato
CEO and Chair, Kyriba; NED, Porsche AG, iNED JP Morgan (Europe) Ltd; Former CEO SUSE, Board Member DSIT
UK
Simon Walsh
CEO, OneAdvanced
UK
Steve Garnett
Angel Investor & Board Member; former President & Chair Salesforce Europe
UK
Rich Waterworth
Founder & Former General Manager, Europe, TikTok
UK
Vincenzo Esposito
CEO, Microsoft Italy
Italy
Gavin Patterson
NED, Advisor & Investor; Chair Kraken, Kahoot! NED Ocado; Former President Salesforce WW, CEO BT PLC
UK
James Bennet MBE
Former Partner EY
UK
Karen Slatford
Chair Bright Software, Chair Autorek and Chair Zaptic
UK
Franz-Josef Seidensticker
Board Member & Investor; former Chair proAlpha, Wittur Group & Board Member, BAIN & Co
Germany
Maurizio Carli
Board Member, Temenos & Board International; former NED TIM, EVP WW VMware
Italy
Ajaz Ahmed
Founder, Studio.One ; Founder AKQA
UK
Wol Kolade
Managing Partner, Livingbridge; Deputy Chair, NHS England; Co-Founder, 10,000 Black Interns
UK
Esther Kerstholt
Creator Boardwave Exec Coaching Programme, Co-Founder Aberkyn; C-Suite Exec Coaching & Leadershiip Development
Netherlands
Emma Sinclair MBE
CEO, EnterpriseAlumni, Business Journalist - The Telegraph; former G7 & Unicef Advisor
UK
Rory Cellan-Jones
Technology Writer, Podcast & Consultant; Author & ex-BBC Technology Correspondent
UK
Jonathan McKay
Investor & Chairman, Chair Move.ai & Driftrock; Non Executive Director, Boardwave
UK
Rod Banner
CEO, 3LA
UK
Gillian Wilmot CBE
Chair, ZOO Digital Group; formerly MD, Royal Mail; NED, Admiral Group plc; NED, Nisa Retail
UK
Peter Sweetbaum
Chair, Focus Group; formerly CEO, Ethixbase360; CEO, Content+Cloud
UK
Michel Akkermans
Serial Entrepreneur, Private Investor, Advisor and Board Member
Belgium
Stephen Kelly
Company Builder & Entrepreneur, Angel Investor & Advisor; CEO Cirata, Former CEO Sage
UK
Mattia Mor
Entrepreneur & Producer, Founder & CEO Emotion Network; former Member Italian Parliament, Sr Vice President Alibaba Europe (Mei.com, Lazada)
Italy
Pascal Houillon
Board Member, Volta Software; formerly, President and CEO, Cegid
France
Stephane Kurgan
Venture Partner, Index Ventures, Founder Queen, former COO King (Candy Crush)
UK
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Angie Gifford
Technology & Strategy Advisor for Goldman Sachs Portfolio Companies; Formerly Vice President EMEA, Meta; Supervisory Board Member, TUI, Rothschild & Co
Germany
Trusted and supported by Europe's leading investors and advisors
STRATEGIC Partners
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Alliance Partners
INVESTOR Partners
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