Meet the Entrepreneurs and Mentors of AHEH

AMANDA ROBERTS

Dr Roberts is an artist, educator and researcher with extensive experience in developing and delivering enterprise initiatives and entrepreneurial activities that link Art and Design based education with the commercial context

of the film and television industry. On secondment from UWTSD she set up educational centers at Tonto Studios Swansea and Wolf Studios Cardiff, gaining support from the Welsh Government to establish training hubs that continue to create opportunities for work based and work led learning in a rapidly expanding commercial sector.

As a member of BAFTA Cymru and a director of the Its My Shout filmmaking initiative she continues her commitment to directly addressing the globally recognised need to increase diversity in and widen access to the film and television industry. Through her current educational outreach post at Swansea College of Art, UWTSD Dr Roberts creates engagement activities that links the University and the wider community, aiming to raise aspirations and create supported pathways to studying in Higher Education. As part of her role she develops entrepreneurial opportunities for students combining external public engagement with University based support and training and is currently developing a level 4 module specifically designed to cultivate entrepreneurial arts practice.

Lewis Pearson

Dr Lewis Pearson is an award winning designer with a PhD in Design Communication currently applying his skills and knowledge to empower students in higher education.

His research involved collaborating with a team of user-centred designers to develop novel methods to improve the dialogue between designers and their clients, to achieve better design outcomes. Having completed his PhD in 2017, Lewis now leads on the development and delivery of a pioneering personal development programme at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David called Life Design. Taking the findings of his research forward, Lewis’ design expertise now brings a different perspective to the world of personal and professional development. The Life Design programme provides students with an opportunity to apply design thinking to their lives to help them gather meaningful insights about their values, skills and aspirations.

Lewis has delivered over 200 Life Design workshops since 2016, reaching more than 3,000 students across UWTSD. He is currently developing an online platform called the Life Design Hub that will increase the reach and impact of this programme even further. This platform provides access to Life Design resources for those he cannot reach in-person (distance learners for example) and training tools to allow other educators to deliver.

Lewis also provides training on pitching and presentation techniques to staff and students at UWTSD, combining his background in design, research into communication design, and vast experience delivering workshops.

Ian Simmons

Ian Simmons is an artist, musician and educator with many years of experience in designing and delivering enterprise initiatives and entrepreneurial activities at Swansea College of Art.

He works closely with the university’s commercial services department; organising industry visits and writing reports on entrepreneurship education within UWTSD.

He is an active member of the Musicians Union and on the committee of the Swansea International Jazz Festival, which he helped set up and establish.

He has over 30 years experience in the creative industries. A freelance designer/illustrator working in all areas of the industry for companies such as BBC, NHS (Wales), Ministry of Defence, National Coal Board (Wales), Warner Music Group and agencies/publishers worldwide illustrating books, magazines and graphic novels. He has also set up and run many businesses, something that he continues to do alongside his role at UWTSD.

Ian also works as a Dynamo Role Model, on a freelance basis, for Big Ideas Wales visiting schools, colleges and universities to give talks on business start-up and entrepreneurship.

For the past 15 years he has art directed and edited a fanzine for Swansea City Football Club; proceeds from which go to various local charities and children’s sport teams. There is also an event promotion side to the enterprise that raises money through live concerts and theme nights.

Kathryn Penaluna

As a bank manager Kath supported many entrepreneurs to take their ideas forward, developing a good sense of understanding for what made them successful.

In 1997 she started to teach entrepreneurial studies to artists and designers and quickly realised that whilst business acumen is vital for entrepreneurial success, creativity is the essential ingredient for every aspect, from that initial spark of an idea, through to accessing finance and communicating ideas to diverse stakeholders’ groups.

Kath became UWTSD’s Enterprise Manager in 2005, and her work has been ranked by Times Higher as the third in the UK for the survival of graduate business. She is a Welsh Government Enterprise Champion and helped to develop the first accredited teaching training module for entrepreneurship. She now trains teachers in countries across Europe as well as in Wales, where she is a role model for Be The Spark!

Kath’s experience extends to senior policy work, including research reviews for the United Nations on female entrepreneurship and an invited keynote at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. A regular keynote speaker, she has authored or co-authored over 60 academic papers and presentations, including practice and policy proposals published by the OECD.

With over 600 business start-ups who readily share their expertise and experiences with her, Kath says that ‘I am a champion and a vehicle for entrepreneurship – expertly driven by these alumni!

Silja Suntola

Ms Suntola is a long-term professional with wide experience and references from both the public and private sectors within creative economy development.

She is Master of Music, with degrees from Berklee College of Music, Boston (majoring in music production and engineering) as well as Sibelius Academy (Arts Management).

After 10 years in the private sector and co-owner of one of the biggest studios in Finland, she continued at the Sibelius Academy running large international R & D projects. She was the initiator and Project Director for Creative Industries Finland (CIF) at the University of Art and Design, which soon became the main national network for creative economy development in Finland. CIF was founded in 2007 as coordinator for the “Development Program for growth and internationalization of creative entrepreneurship 2007-2014”, an ESF –coordinating program directed by the Ministry of Education and Culture in co-operation with the Ministry of Employment and Economy.

Her experiences from the music business and academia has led to her passion for furthering the discussion between policy-makers, developers and the private sector in Finland and internationally. In order to realize the potential creative industries have.

ANTTI LEPPILAMPI

He truly considers himself as an optimist like in that favourite quote of him from Winston Churchill.

His optimism comes from his home, but also from working with children and teenagers in Finland and doing volunteer work for 5 months in Tanzania.
Many people are a little afraid about the future and what comes with it, but he believes that people together can make a change. It is his life goal to help people find their own inner motivation and guide people to think different and be creative.

His experience at Xamk has given him possibilities to work with several target groups like youth, elder people, artists and entrepreneurs. He has had a privilege to do what he love the most – being a facilitator in groups and making up new ways to develope communication through social media, writing publications and forming the first Podcast to the University.

paolo montemurro

Director of Materahub, project manager of EU funded projects, is working since 2010 on capacity building actions for the Creative and Cultural

sector and support to young entrepreneurs and startup in the cultural and social sector.
Since 2014, he has worked on cross-fertilization between arts and other sector of economy, society and culture. The main project tackling this topic has been Break In The Desk, a cooperation among 10 European organizations to develop a methodology to foster innovation in companies and public organizations through the disruptive power of arts and
creativity.

Actively involved in the process of candidature and then management of Matera 2019 European Capital of Culture particularly on the capacity building process for cultural organizations that will develop the artistic and cultural program, he has been working on the topic of internationalization and networking at EU level for the Creative and Cultural sector. In this framework he is working in the project ICCI and, as technical expert, in the project CHIMERA Interreg MED where he is supporting Basilicata Region and Puglia Creative Cluster.

Since 2016, he is the person in charge of bringing Materahub in European networks among which the European Creative Business Network, Creative Business Cup Network, European Creative Hubs Network. In this network, he has worked with EC Science HUB JRC on a pilot project to discover how creative hubs can become places to co-design policies to support youth employment through the Creative and Cultural sector.

In 2018, he has started a new project focused on supporting faculties of arts & humanities on developing new spaces for innovation, entrepreneurhsip education for students and academic staff, cross -fertilization with companies.

raffaele vitulli

Vice-President of Materahub, he is senior trainer and researcher on CCI topics. Before 2010 he was the president of a cultural cooperative that has managed the museum of contemporary sculpture in Matera

and one of the rupestrian churches ion the UNESCO site.

Since 2010, he is working in Materahub projects being in charge of research actions, training products development, consulting and innovation. Raffaele is one of the trainer and facilitators of Materahub during capacity building actions. He is also involved in the policy co-design activities the team of Materahub is organizing for public organizations and
private entity. In the last 5 years he has been part of the team working on EU projects like Break In The Desk, Artenprise, Arts & Humanities Entrepreneurship Hub, INCREA.

Fátima São Simão

Fátima São Simão (Porto, 1981) is director of development of UPTEC – Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto. She is also the public lead of Creative Commons Portugal

(volunteer position), being there responsible for the development of the CC Toolkit for Business and the performance-as-tool Copywrong. Fátima also assumed the executive
management of futureplaces.org – medialab for citizenship, at UTAustin-Portugal Colab (2008-2018).

Fátima completed her degree in Economics at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto and her Master of Arts in Cultural Policy and Management, at City University of London. While in university, she worked as an actress and ran the university theatre group (TUP) and collaborated with various theatre and film productions. She has worked with artists pro bono ever since. Fátima is currently PhD student at Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto, researching about the effects of copyright on the generation of economic and symbolic value of the cultural and creative sector.

Isabel Martins Silva

Isabel Martins Silva is Head of Communications at UPTEC – Science and Technology Park of University of Porto (UPTEC),

being responsible for the coordination of internal and external communication, events organization and social network strategy.
During her career, Isabel supported the public relation of several startups, helping to create awareness and disseminate their new stories, projects and awards for the media.

Isabel completed her first degree in Communication Sciences at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto, where she later completed her master’s degree in Culture, Heritage and Sciences’ Communication (2013), researching about the cultural consumption of university students.

Before working at UPTEC, Isabel worked at JPR and JPN (the college’s online radio station and news) as well as in the business section of Jornal I and Semanário Grande Porto (national and local newspapers).

Carmen Santamaría-García

Carmen Santamaría-García (1967), European PhD in Linguistics from Complutense University, Madrid, (2003).

She has been combining teaching and research as part of the Philosophy and Letters Faculty, Alcalá University, for 25 years now, and holds tenure in English Language and Applied Linguistics since 1997. During these years she has been course designer and teacher of more than 30 courses at degree, master and postgraduate levels in more than 10 programmes in Education, Audiovisual communication, English language and Translation Studies at Alcalá University.

Her research interests and teaching fields spread along Applied Linguistics, Communication and Education (intercultural pragmatics, discourse and conversation analysis, translation and methodology of the English language and education) at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. These are also the areas dealt with in her publications, together with corpus linguistics and computer-mediated communication, and has published more than forty articles and chapters in international academic journals and books.

She has been a visiting researcher and teacher at more than ten universities (University of California, Santa Barbara; Birkbeck College, London; Nottingham University; University of Limerick; Charles University, Prague; HUB Brussels; University of Economics, Izmir, etc.). She has also been involved in the design and teaching of courses for cooperation projects in Nicaragua and El Salvador.

Regarding research, she has participated in several research projects on education and gender, spoken corpora and conversation and discourse analysis. The latter projects deal with the expression of evaluative language, emotions and the relationship of discourse with identity and gender (FUNDETT, “Funciones Discursivas: La Evaluación en Distintos Tipos Textuales”, 2011-2014; EMOFUNDETT, 2014-2017, both coordinated by UNED University, Madrid, and AMULIT “The construction of discourse in children’s picture books that challenge gender stereotypes and traditional family values” UCLM, 2018-2021. She has also participated (as member or coordinator) in 5 different projects of innovation in Alcalá University during the last five years.

As to the organization of international mobility for teachers and students, she has been coordinating international programs of mobility in Education for 9 years (2004-2013) and is currently the institutional coordinator of European University Foundation at University of Alcala (since June, 2014).

Experience with European Projects started with the participation in “Small Heroes in Trouble: Boys searching for their Identities” (2006-2009) and EDGE, “Education and Gender”, (2011-2013) both coordinated at EHSAL Brussels. Between 2016 and 2018 she has been main coordinator of BEST+ “Blended Erasmus Staff Training”, an ERASMUS+ K203 strategic partnership and is coordinator at UAH level of K203 “Homopoly”, coordinated by Maastricht University and K2, Knowledge Alliance “Arts and Humanities Entrepreneurship Hubs” (AHEH), coordinated by University of Wales, Trinity Saint David (UK).

Experience with intensive Erasmus Projects includes the organization of 5 IPs (Intensive Programmes), with the exchange of ca. 300 students, and the chance to teach in the following universities: University of Vienna, Austria; HUB Brussels, Belgium; University of Athens, Greece; University of Minho, Braga, Portugal among others.
Erasmus teaching abroad has been facilitated by the European Erasmus program for teacher mobility and other bilateral agreements between universities, (1998-2017) in the following: University of Exeter, UK; University of Limerick, Ireland; Caroline University, Prague, Czech Republic; Yeditepe University, Istambul, Turkey; Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey; HUB Brussels, Belgium; Tartu University, Estonia; Novi Sad University, Serbia.

Dr. Santamaría uses painting and photography as dynamic tools for motivation enhancement in education, the expression of creativity and class materials design. Her first exhibition of photography took place between 28February-31st March, 2017 at Alcalá University.

She has also participated in the MOOC “Emotion and Language at Work: The Pragmatics of Emotion: Politeness and Emotion. Politeness and Emotion in Classroom Language”. Published in Canal UNED and Youtube and is developing more courses in MOOC and blended format.

Raquel Lázaro

Associate Professor (Profesora Contratada Doctora) at the Modern Languages Department of Universidad de Alcalá.

She teaches in the undergraduate degree programme Grado en Lenguas Modernas y Traducción and teaches and coordinates the internships programme of the postgraduate Máster Universitario en Comunicación Intercultural, Interpretación y Traducción en los Servicios Públicos. She is also Visiting Scholar at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Universiteit Gent in Belgium and has given lectures as an invited scholar at American University of Sharjah (Arab United Emirates), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Argentina), and Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz (Germany).

She is part of the editorial committe of the journal FITISPos-IJ, and member of the scientific committee of several translation journals, such as InTRAlinea, Translation & Interpreting, Sendebar, Monti or Translator and Interpreter Trainer. She is also a member of the organizing committee of the Young Researchers in Translation and Interpreting International Conference and the International Conference in Public Service Interpreting and Translation, as well as a member of the scientific committee of International Conference in Science and Translation and the coordinator of the Translation Panel at AELFE International Conference.

She has participated in European projects, such as SOS-VICS – “Speak Out for Support” (2011-2014) or AHEH– Knowledge Alliances (2018 – 2021); national Spanish projects, such as Validación y adaptación transcultural de la Appraisal of Self-Care Agency Scale-Revised (ASA-R) para la medición de la capacidad de autocuidado en pacientes crónicos en atención primaria (2017-2018), COMUNICAR (2016-2018), InterMed (2011-2014), and HUM2004-03774-C02-2 (2004-2007), regional projects, such as “Investigación-acción: Caminando juntos con lenguas y culturas” (2009-11), funded by Castilla-La Mancha or “Creando Puentes: proyecto de integración laboral a través de la formación continua y la utilización de las nuevas tecnologías de la información y la comunicación” (2008-09), funded by Madrid Autonomous Community, as well as local projects, such as “Diseño, compilación y análisis de un corpus multilingüe de interacciones mediadas sobre asistencia en carretera” (2017-18), “Interpretación y Traducción en Centros Penitenciarios” (2013-14), or “Investigación sobre factores que afectan a la calidad de la comunicación oral con población extranjera” (2012-2013), which were funded by UAH and supervised by MINECO.

She is member of the research groups FITISPos-UAH (from 2001) in Spain, and BIAL (from 2015) and BCUS (from 2018) in Belgium. She is a founding member of the Spanish AFIPTISP (Professional Association of Public Service Interpreting and Translation Trainers, Researchers and Professionals) and the European ENPSIT (European Network of Public Service Interpreting and Translation. She has obtained three prizes for knowledge transference for the creation of MOOCs and university – enterprise co-operation for projects about telephone interpreting.

Her research interests revolve around public service interpreting and translation, specialized translation, intercultural communication, telephone interpreting, interprer-mediated discourse analysis and its pragmatics, new technologies applied to translation and interpreting and corpus analysis.

Julio Pinilla Seoane

Initially my work has been devoted to reconstruct the Radical Enlightenment.

From the reading of forgotten authors and cultural situations in the margins (Mandeville, Sade or Rococo) I have tried to propose alternatives to inherited Modernity so that we could obtain some tools with which to account our contemporary disaffections. It must be said that my reading of the past has always been done in a multidisciplinary way (reading philosophers, writers or plastic artists) and with a view to answering the most relevant criticisms of our present (and that is the reason I read the Enlightenment with Foucault,
Rorty or Habermas in mind).

Answering contemporary disaffections has led me down two paths. The first one has placed me into the worry about how to educate citizenship –aware that we are not born with citizen rights, but that citizenship is something that is built on a continuous basis and that has to be learned. Until near 2010 this concern for how to educate the citizenship took a good part of my work that led me to rethink the modes of ethical argumentation (and I was the first author in Spain to propose sentimental education as the foundation of democratic citizenship). From that date I focused education of citizenship on the reflection on culture because I thought that the approach to the contemporary world is done not from more or less basic needs, but from cultural creations that let us “touch” the world in one way or another.

Revisiting the different ways of ethical argumentation with the assumption the emotional or sentimental modes of “reasoning” develop a pivotal rol in our ethics, implies also that the moral problems are posed in a different way to that we usually understand moral reflection. With this statement in mind, besides I become the current director of a Master in Culture Management and Creative Industries at the University of Alcalá.

OUTI RAATIKAINEN

Ms. Raatikainen is a creative industries’ professional, who has a rich background in various fields of culture, event production, marketing communications and management of cultural organizations.

Raatikainen is also the founder (2007) and owner of Pink Eminence Ltd, a company specializing in marketing communications, partnerships and consulting, with its heart in relations between arts and business. She currently consults creative SME businesses, event & festival organizations, cities and public & private cultural institutions in their needs of strategy, business opportunities, fundraising, sponsorship, marketing and communications.

Before her entrepreneurial career she worked the Managing Director of Culture Factory Korjaamo Ltd, Finland’s first cultural center based on public-private partnership. Between the years 2000-2006 she was as the Head of Communications and Marketing of the University of Art and Design Helsinki and 1996-2000 Head of Communications of Design Forum Finland, an organization promoting Finnish design internationally. However, she started her career in creative industries and visual culture as an architect and designer in the 1980’s.

Ms. Raatikainen has graduated from Helsinki University of Technology/currently Aalto University (M.Sc. (Archit.)) and Helsinki School of Economics/Aalto University (MBA). She also lectures on arts & business, owns a strong network and several expert positions in the field of arts management, marketing and communications in Finland.

Paloma Lozano

Co-founder and Managing Director since 2011 at Innogate to Europe, private business support organisation providing information, training, advisory and support services for clusters,

companies, entrepreneurs, associations, foundations, universities and other entities, facilitating public-private cross-sectorial collaboration at European level. She
holds a Law Degree, Master in Laws and Postgraduate Diploma in European Union Law by San Pablo-CEU University of Madrid and a Postgraduate Specialisation Course on Foreign Trade by UNED.

Expert in European Programmes supporting Innovation, Research and Development, she has more than 10 years experience in the promotion, development, management and implementation of collaborative transnational projects involving business,
academia and public authorities. She has coordinated and participated as partner in numerous EU projects supporting innovation and entrepreneurship. She is local contact point of the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme since 2014, managing transnational business exchanges between novel and experienced entrepreneurs and providing support and assistance to candidates and participants. Since 2008 she manages the International Innovation Unit of Madrid Network (Madrid Region Parks and Clusters Network) by providing business support services to its members.

She is member of the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) Sector Group on Women Entrepreneurship and Executive Team Member of the Thematic Group of Cluster Contact Points. Since 2017 she Mentors entrepreneurship projects from students of Primary, Secondary and VET education participating in the Fundación Créate programme.

Adam West

Adam was born and raised in Swansea, south Wales and completed a degree in Law and German at Cardiff University in 2005.

As a directionless humanities graduate himself, he stumbled into a job with a local affordable housing provider (Coastal Housing, UWTSD’s industry partner for AHEH) and has been there for over 13 years, working in the housing department for 8 years before completing a Master’s degree in Regeneration Studies and moving into the team which develops new homes.

Adam is currently undertaking a professional doctorate at Cardiff Metropolitan University, with his interest in research leading to his being nominated by Coastal to work on the AHEH programme.

Adam still lives in Swansea with his wife and two year old daughter and enjoys playing the guitar and avidly following the Cardiff Devils ice hockey team. He voted for the UK to remain in the European Union in the 2016 referendum.

Brian Ogilvie

Brian Ogilvie is Head of Research and Commercialisation with Institute of Technology Carlow where he is responsible for the management

of the Institute’s collaboration with industry, Incubation Centres, Knowledge Transfer function and Research, Development & Innovation (RDI) supports.

He has 25 year’s management experience in product development & commercialisation, innovation, technical and business development. Key interests include implementing supports for regional and national SMEs and entrepreneurs through developing key mechanisms, specialised and tailored programmes, infrastructure and targeted access pathways through which businesses have greater engagement with HEI facilities, researchers, and networks.

Brian has initiated and compiled many successful project applications (€30M) for collaborative RDI programmes. These have been funded by various bodies including the European INTERREG Programme, Erasmus+, the Higher Education Authority (HEA), Irish Research Council (IRC), the Technology Sector Research Programme (TSR, Department of Education & Science Ireland), Enterprise Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI).

He holds a BSc degree from National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG), MSc in Technology Management from University College Dublin (UCD) and MBA from Smurfit Graduate Business School, UCD. Brian is an Associate Lecturer in Entrepreneurship, Innovation Management and Business Research at the Institute of Technology Carlow.

Orla Ryan

Dr Ryan is an artist, curator, writer and lecturer. Her art and research practice is interdisciplinary. Currently Ryan teaches across programmes in Art, Visual Communications and Media Studies.

As an artist Ryan has exhibited nationally and internationally since 1994. Recent collaborative art projects include Stormy Petrel / Guardeall (2016) a large public art commission which launched the Witness History Museum and 1916 Centenary at the GPO, which travelled to The Vietnamese Women’s Museum, Hanoi, supported by Culture Ireland. Ryan has curated and co-curated a number of international artists in Void Gallery, Derry including Dinh Q. Lê’s The Colony, (2016), and Candice Breitz’s Him+ Her, (2013) . In 2015 a large research project in Vietnam culminated in a group exhibition Spring Watching Pavilion.

In 2003 in association with Carlow County Council and Eigse Ryan developed Platform 059, an exhibition and award opportunity for recent graduates. Ryan is a founding member of The Blackstairs Film Society . Over the years Ryan has sat on many cultural boards including Access Cinema, Circa Art Magazine, AICA Ireland, Void Curatorial Board. Currently Irish Film Institute Council Member (2003 – ongoing) and member of Visual’s curatorial board. Ryan has a strong commitment and interest in developing sustainable career paths for Arts and Humanities graduates in the South East.

Massimiliano Dibitonto

Massimiliano Dibitonto is a phD in Computer Science, a UX researcher and an expert of Human Computer Interaction, Internet of Things and Digital Fabrication.

He is a researcher at Link Campus University and it’s main research topics are new interaction paradigms and the relation between man and technology. He teaches Service and Innovation Design at Link Campus University . He took part in various research projects as, project manager and as UX and HCI expert, working with italian and international Universities and companies addressing several topics including: promotion of cultural heritage, Internet of Things, in-vehicle systems usability, mobile systems usability and indoor tracking systems.

He is currently working on a novel method to facilitate the co-design of connected products www.iotdeskdeck.com.

Elisa Cruciani

Elisa Cruciani is an art historian with an adding Continuing Education Course in Management and Digitization of Cultural Heritage.

Her main interests are in the field of training, education, innovation and culture, and she strongly believes in the tools offered by serious play and learning by doing approach.

In 2015 she founded a non-profit association that deals with experiential education and cultural inclusion and from that moment on she has participated in many public competitions on edutainment in museums. She has worked in several museums and art galleries in Rome and she has cooperated in the organization of several exhibitions. Currently, she is an assistant researcher at DASIC (Digital Administration and Social Innovation Center) in Link Campus University, and she works in the field of creative and cultural industries, participating in many European projects.

Carola Pennacchiotti

Carola Pennacchiotti is a research fellow at Link Campus University. She works in the Third Mission Office and she is in charge of managing all the activities with startups and all the initiatives concerning entrepreneurship and new business ideas.

She has a Master Degree in Business Administration and a PhD in Technology Innovation from the University of Rome, Roma Tre. Her thesis was about how technology innovation can improve and widen the protection of the “Made In Italy” brand, with a focus on the textile industry.

She has entrepreneurial experience thanks to her own startup, a brand of leather bags, handmade in Rome called CAROLA ROMA.

She worked for many companies, such as Fendi, Ford and Lavazza. She had the chance to improve her skills about how to manage a business, from the plan to the action.

Boris Ruzic

Boris Ruzic, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Cultural Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka, Croatia.

He teaches on three courses engaged with film studies and visual culture. His scientific interests lie at the intersection of politics of emancipation, (amateur) video footage and the relation of analogue and digital film image. Published various articles in books and journals, as well as a book in co-authorship
regarding film and media analysis. Essayist for various websites in Croatia and an editor for Third Programme of Croatian Radio from 2009-2017. Researcher on STEPS project, monitoring and evaluating participatory-based action plans aimed to build and support community cohesion funded by European Union and Council of Europe.

Cristina Parente

Sociologist, Cristina Parente is an Associate Professor with tenure of the Faculty of Arts and a Fellow Researcher of the Institute of Sociology of the University of Porto (UP).

She currently is the director of Sociology Graduation
PhD (2004) and B.A. (1990), both in Sociology at the UP. M.A. (1996) in Human Resources Politics and Management at the Institute of Work and Organization Sciences (ISCTE, University Institute of Lisbon).
In 2015, she developed a research on “The ecosystem of the Solidarity Economy in Barcelona”, under the Institute of Government and Public Policy (IGOP) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), integrating the Solidarity Economy Network Catalana (XES- Xarxa d ‘Economy Solidària) (Spain). In 2012, she concluded her Post-Doc in Administration in the Centre of Post-
Graduation in Administration Researches of the School of Economic/Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil), about social enterprises e social entrepreneurship.
She conducts activities both as researcher and scientific coordinator and supervisor of projects about social and solidarity economy, popular economy, agroecology, entrepreneurship, human resources management and adult training, as well as about sociology of organizations. She supervises and co-supervises several Master and PhD theses about entrepreneurship, innovation and Human Resources management in Portugal and Brazil.
She was co-founder of A3S [Association for the Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainability of the Third Sector].

Gonçao Marques Barbosa

Bachelor and Master’s degree in Sociology by the Faculty of Arts of the Porto University.

Collaborated as a research fellow with the projects “Climate@EduMedia – Climate Changes: learning through the school media” and “Breaking Ground for Construction: Changes in the Portuguese Construction Field and their Impacts on
Working Conditions in the 21st century”.

Started in Fall 2018 the Doctoral Program in Sociology by the Faculty of Arts of the Porto University, with the research project “Policies, practices and experiences: the Portuguese incubation ecosystem”, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science.

BRUNO GIEISTEIRA

Professor at University of Porto, Design Department, with the main research interests in Cognitive Ergonomics and Human Factors; User Experience.

Director of the postgraduate course “Interaction Design, Web & Videogame: http://ix.fba.up.pt.
Senior Researcher at INESC TEC: At “Center for Information Systems and Computer Graphics: https://www.inesctec.pt/en/people/bruno-giesteira.

Heitor Alvelos

PhD Design (Royal College of Art, 2003). MFA (School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1992).

Professor of Design and New Media at the University of Porto, where he directs the PhD Program in Design and ID+, Institute for Research in Design, Media and Culture / Unexpected Media Lab.

Current Chair of the Scientific Board (HSS) at the Foundation for Science and Technology. Curator, FuturePlaces Medialab for Citizenship, since 2008.

Outreach Director of the UTAustin-Portugal Program in Digital Media (2010-2014), where he curates the FuturePlaces Medialab for Citizenship since 2008.

Creative AV work since 2000 via Touch, Cronica Electronica, Ash International, 3-33.me and Tapeworm. Recent projects include Autodigest and Antifluffy.

Interests include the lexical implications of new media, the ecology of perception, and cultural criminology.

www.benevolentanger.org

Maria Manuela Pinto

Maria Manuela Pinto holds a PhD in Information and Communication in Digital Platforms (University of Porto and University of Aveiro);

a bachelor degree in History (U.Porto); and specialized education and training in IT (IBM), Documental Sciences (University of Coimbra) and Entrepreneurship (Babson College, US).

She is assistant professor at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of U.Porto (FLUP), Department of Communication and Information Sciences, and teaches in the PhD in Information and Communication in Digital Platforms, Master in Creative Industries Communication and Management, Master in Museology, Master in Information Science and Bachelors of Arts in Information Science and in Communication Sciences. She is also researcher and board member of the Centre for Research in Communication, Information and Digital Culture and researcher in the Centre for Innovation, Technology and
Entrepreneurship. She has structured FLUP’s Extension and Community Services office and the New Media for Heritage Lab (eHeritage.Lab), at U.Porto Media Innovation Labs. She also co-coordinates U.Porto Digital Museum project and participates in projects as Mu.SA: Museum Sector Alliance (Erasmus+) and ECOOPE: Cooperative entrepreneurial programs, courses, methodologies and tools (EC Growth – Entrepreneurship and Small and medium-sized enterprises).

Furthermore, Manuela is co-founder and voluntary member of V.IVE! (Living the Innovation and Entrepreneurship at U.Porto), co-coordinating the extra-curricular activity STARTUP Programme, a partnership with Junior Achievement Portugal / JA-YE EUROPE directed to university students, and member of the board of U.Porto Entrepreneurship Club
Her career started as IT senior staff member in private companies (1985-1996) and information manager in a municipality (1998-2004), coordinating e-government projects, the conception and planning of the Memory Centre of Vila do Conde (Municipal Archive, Museum and Art Gallery) and in the project Journey to the Wind Rose (EC-Urban Pilot Projects), focusing innovation in urban regeneration.

Among her interest fields are Entrepreneurship and R&D and Innovation Management.

Joao Paulo Faustino

Joao Paulo Faustino holds a PhD in Media Management (from Complutense University of Madrid) and a Master in Economic and Organizational Sociology, (from the Technical University of Lisbon).

He has also completed Advanced Courses in Media and Entertainment Management (from the Anderson School of Management – University of California, Los Angeles) and
Publishing Management (Stanford University – where he was a member of the Alumni Advisory Board).

Paulo Faustino teaches Marketing in Bachelor’s and Master’s programs in Porto University, namely in the Master in Communication and Management of Creative Industries, as well as Media Management, Economics and Marketing in the Media Communication School of Lisbon and in the School of Education and Social Sciences of Leiria. He is Visiting Professor in various international universities (Brazil, Macau/China and Russia) and was professor of Portuguese media economics, in the Master in Communication, from the Catholic University in Lisbon (here he also coordinated one Master in Media and Entertainment).

His research is focused on the Media Studies and Creative Industries, mainly in its business and market perspective: economics, management and marketing. He is researcher and board member at the Center for Research in Communication, Information and Digital Culture (Porto) and Visiting Researcher at the Centre of Tele-Information of Columbia University (NY). He was Visiting Researcher in several European and North American universities, namely: Stanford University (EUA), North Texas University (EUA), Fordham University (EUA), Suffolk University EUA), Jonkoping University (Sweden), Oxford Brookes University (UK), Manchester University (UK), Navarra University (Spain), and Complutense
University of Madrid (Spain).

Paulo Faustino is a board member of the International Media Management Academic Association (IMMAA) and was board member and co-founder of the European Association of Media Management Education (EMMA), General Secretary of the Portuguese Media Confederation and executive board advisor at Lusomundo Media (Portugal Telecom’s group).
Additionally, he was Vice-President of the Portuguese Press Association, President of the Communication Observatory and board member of the Centre for Professional Training in Journalism (Cenjor).

He is the founder, partner and president of Media XXI/Formalpress, an international company focused on Consulting and Book Publishing, with many published titles in several languages, including Portuguese, French, English, Spanish and Chinese.

Previously, he worked as advisor for the State Secretary and Presidency Minister of the XV and XVI Constitutional Governments and has conducted consultancy work for several private and public institutions (World Bank and the Portuguese Media Regulatory Entity, among others).

Dubravko Matanic

Since March 2015 he’s been working at Drugo more as Program Coordinator and Executive Producer, taking part in organisation of festivals, conferences, exhibitions, lectures and round tables,

with the main focus on onsite production, public relations and community management, editing and creating content for Drugo more’s official website, social media sites and newsletter, writing and disseminating news releases, maintaining relations with audiences and media, etc. He has a BA in Cultural Studies from the University of Rijeka and a MA in Comparative Literature and Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Zagreb.

While not connecting cables, setting up PA systems and designing light for the programmes of Drugo more, he does the exact same thing while organising concerts with his friends from the local DIY hardcore punk collective, not really sure how to divide business from pleasure. One of his preoccupations and favourite conversation topics are cemeteries, whether as the sites of memory or simply as places that give interesting and alternative insights into the history of a town or city.

Davor Mišković

Davor Mišković is a cultural worker from Rijeka (Croatia). He is a Director of the non-profit organisation Drugo More, where his work ranges from programme selection to executive production, including fundraising and PR.

He is also working as a researcher of the cultural sector, actively participating in the creation of cultural policies and the management of cultural institutions and networks (2009 – 2016 he was a President of the national cultural network
Clubture and he was coordinating development of the cultural strategy in the region of Istria and in the cities Pula, Labin and Pazin). He has a MA in sociology from the University of Zagreb. He has published more then 50 articles for cultural magazines and in 2013. he has published a book Research in Culture. He has worked for the Ministry of Culture for seven years and was a part-time associate in a number of cultural associations, market research agencies, daily papers and magazines.