Innovation Council

Innovation Council of recognised senior experts and mentors engaged in ecosystem projects.The council members engage in their personal capacity in our activities.

David Gago (ES)

Dr Gago-Saldaña is an expert in services innovation and ICT/innovation policy advisor. Currently, David is lecturer at San Pablo – CEU University.

David Gago-Saldaña received a PhD in Economics from the University of Alcalá (European Mention) and was awarded the XI Victor Mendoza Prize for the Best Thesis by the Institute of Economic Studies in 2010. He holds an MsC in Economics from the University of Warwick (UK) and a degree in Economics from the University of Alcalá (Spain, Prize of Excellence).

Formerly he worked for the World Bank on projects on innovation and competitiveness in services promotion for Latin America (2014-2015). He was Director of Analysis and Outlook at Fundación Centro Superior para la Enseñanza Virtual (CSEV) (2011-2014) and Advisor for the State Secretary for Telecommunications and the Information Society (SSTIS) in Spain (2008-2010). During 2002-2008 he worked in strategic/economic consultancy firms.

He holds a strong publication/research background in the fields of economic analysis, innovation in services (particularly the education sector) and Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) and their impacts.

Manuel Roque Muñoz (ES)

Manager with extensive multisectorial experience, from an integral vision of the company and a deep knowledge of the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem, to the business fabric and the public and institutional sectors.

Executive MBA by IE Business School, Master’s Degree in Economic and Financial Management by Centro de Estudios Financieros, Master’s Degree in Business Tax Consulting by IE Law School and Bachelor’s Degree in Economic and Business Sciences by CEU San Pablo.

Expert in entrepreneurship, innovation, private and public business and R&D financing and in the impact of emerging technologies on new business models and organizations, with great experience in the design of public policies and support programs aimed at entrepreneurs, at the creation of startups, spin-offs and innovative technology-based companies, the promotion of innovation and ICTs, the improvement of business competitiveness and the development of business financing instruments and R&D.

Currently Associate Director of Twice Consulting (strategic consulting, growth and business development and organizations) and Modelandum (consultancy and training in financial modeling).

Previously, Expansion Director of the Industrial Development Society (SODICAMAN, SA), Instituto de Finanzas y Sociedad de Aval de Castilla-La Mancha (raising of investments and financing of companies through venture capital, loans and Guarantees); Director of the Legal-Economic Cabinet of the Ministry of Finance of Castilla-La Mancha; Director of the European Business and Innovation Center (creation and development of companies, training, financing and business innovation); Counselor and founder of the Business Angels Network, GOBAN.

Mentor of startups, technology spin-off and companies (Global Mobile Challenge, TechHub, South Summit, IE, Area 31, Youth Business Spain, EOI, Yuzz) and associate professor in business schools (IE Business School and EOI) imparting various subjects (digital transformation of organizations and new business models, open innovation, design thinking, lean startup, business plan, finance and business financing and R&D) and business management in the ETS Of Industrial Engineers of the University of Castilla-La Mancha.

Manuel de la Rocha Vázquez (ES)

Manuel de la Rocha Vázquez was born in Madrid in 1972. Currently, he works as Financial Advice Deputy Director in ‘ICEX Exportaciones e Inversión’. Master´s degree in Business Management from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (1995), Master in Iberoamerican Higher Education form Universidad Complutense de Madrid (1996) and Master in Economic Policy from the Columbia University in New York (2000). Manuel has worked for several international organisations, like the European Commission and the African Development Bank or the World Bank, among others in the office of Nairobi, Kenya. Between 2007 and 2010 he was adviser of the Development Policy Director of Foreign Affairs Ministry of Spain. Later on, he was adviser of Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID) and he worked as Senior Financial Analist in ‘España Expansión Exterior’. In 2014 he went into politics and was named Secretary of Economics of PSOE, position that held until October 2016. He regularly cooperate with the ‘Fundación Alternativas’ and with Universidad Internacional de la Rioja (UNIR) and is founding member of Asociación de Economistas Frente a la Crisis. Manuel has published numerous articles and reports about economy and international commerce, global governance, development policies or the euro crisis.

Jennifer Cassingena Harper (MT)

Jennifer Cassingena Harper has been engaged with the Malta Council for Science and Technology since 1989 in various capacities. Until 2011, she was the Director of Policy, Strategy, FP7 and International with core responsibility for the National Research and Innovation Strategy and Foresight and links with the European Union. She currently retains a part-time consultancy role with the Council. Dr Harper is active at European and international level in the area of foresight and research and innovation policy with a particular focus on the EU’s research programme in the role of expert/advisor, reviewer and observer. She has been a member of a number of EU DG Research High Level Expert Groups as chair and rapporteur. Until recently (end of 2016), she was a member of the EU DG Research Expert Group on Strategic Foresight for R&I Policy in Horizon 2020′ (SFRI). She is a graduate of the London School of Economics and the University of Malta. Her current research interests include the strategic use of foresight to address disruption and engineer transition, the evaluation of foresight impacts, and skills foresight; and use of foresight to advance smart specialisation and R&I policies in small economies. She has published a number of books, articles and papers, co-editing The Handbook on Technology Foresight in 2009. In Malta, she is a Board member of the National Commission for Further and Higher Education.

Attila Havas (HU)

Attila Havas (PhD, 1997) is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, regional editor of the International Journal of Foresight and Innovation Policy, member of the Editorial Board of Foresight and STI Governance. His academic interests are in economics of innovation, national and sectoral innovation systems, measurement of innovation, business-academia collaboration, social innovation, theory and practice of innovation policy, and technology foresight. In 1997-2000 he was Programme Director of TEP, the Hungarian Technology Foresight Programme. He has participated in a number of international research projects on STI policies, innovation and transition, as well as on foresight and prospective analyses, advised foresight programmes in several countries, has been a member of EU expert groups, and invited speaker at a number of international conferences and workshops on technology foresight.