Panos Alexopoulos, Head of Ontology at Textkernel BV, specializes in data, semantics, and software, crafting intelligent systems since 2006. Leading a team in HR and Recruitment, he develops a cross-lingual Knowledge Graph. He authored "Semantic Modeling for Data" and serves as a speaker and trainer, bridging academia with industry.

Andreas Blumauer is CEO and founder of the Semantic Web Company (SWC), provider and developer of the PoolParty Semantic Platform and leading solution provider in the field of semantic AI and RAG. For more than 20 years, he has worked with more than 200 organizations worldwide to deliver AI and semantic search solutions, knowledge platforms, content hubs and related data modeling and integration services. Most recently, Andreas has been involved in the development of AI-powered ESG solutions for companies and investors.

Kurt Cagle is the former contributing editor for Data Science Central. Kurt is a published author with more than twenty books to his credit, and has been working as a technology editor for years, writing for Forbes, O'Reilly Media, IDC and others. He has also been a consulting information architect and ontologist with more than twenty years experience working with Fortune 100 companies and US and European agencies, and is a frequent speaker at conferences on data technologies.

Mike Dillinger, PhD, blends human expertise with AI to advance cognitive computing. With experience at LinkedIn/Microsoft, eBay, and Intel, he emphasizes accessible knowledge representation for both humans and machines, aiming to create next-gen hybrid intelligence. He works on making knowledge shareable and valuable to all stakeholders.

Natasa Dimou, an assistant professor at KU Leuven, focuses on Semantic Web technologies and Knowledge Graphs, specializing in Data Quality, Integration, and Graph Annotation. She's affiliated with the Declarative Languages and Artificial Intelligence (DTAI) section and is a member of Leuven.AI. She actively engages in teaching activities related to her expertise.

Ashleigh Faith, PhD in Advanced Semantics, boasts over 15 years in the search and data realm, collaborating with corporate giants like eCommerce and Digital Asset Management, as well as governmental and manufacturing entities such as the Federal Reserve, John Deere, NASA, NATO, Gulfstream, DoD, and NLM on data strategy and knowledge management.

Giuseppe is Research Scientist and Knowledge Graphs Engineer with multidisciplinary experience focused on research, development and communication. He loves to explore new technologies to incorporate human knowledge into intelligent systems. Currently working as a Senior Data Scientist for GraphAware, he was previously Full Stack Developer and NLP and Knowledge Graph Consultant.

​Heather Hedden is an independent taxonomy consultant (Hedden Information Management). She previously did taxonomy/ontology consulting at Enterprise Knowledge and Semantic Web Company and worked as a taxonomist in other companies. Heather teaches various taxonomy workshops and courses, and she is author of the book The Accidental Taxonomist.

Veronica is Knowledge Graph Lead at Capgemini, working on turning unstructured and chaotic data into a wonder of semantic knowledge graphs. Veronica is a public speaker on topics as Semantic Technologies, Knowledge Graphs, Natural Language Processing amongst others. Guest lecturer at the University of Oslo.

With over 14 years at Neo4j, Andreas currently serves as the Lead for GenAI Innovation. His previous role at Neo4j was Product Manager for developer tools like Bloom, Browser and Neo4j Desktop, and you can thank him for adding labels to the Property Graph Model. His experience with Neo4j showcases his expertise in strategic vision, product management, and database technologies. 

Ora Lassila, a Principal Graph Technologist in the Amazon Neptune team at AWS, primarily focuses on knowledge graphs. His extensive experience spans graphs, graph databases, ontologies, and knowledge representation. Notably, he co-authored the original RDF specification and contributed to the seminal article on the Semantic Web.

Axel Ngonga heads the DICE research group at the University of Paderborn, focusing on machine learning, knowledge graphs, and big data, with over 12 years of experience in developing algorithms for Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Text Mining, and the Semantic Web, earning distinctions such as best paper and presentation awards.

Teodora holds a PhD. in Marketing Communication, a Master’s in Creative Writing, and a Bachelor’s in Classics. With 15+ years of experience as a content writer, Teodora is currently working to build bridges between the practices of marketing communications, content operations and semantic technologies. Since 2022, she has been a driving force behind the Ontotext Knowledge Graph project, fueled by her passion for creating meaningful content underpinned by semantic metadata.

Dr. Tara Raafat is the head of Bloomberg's metadata strategy at the
CTO office. Tara is a semantic technologies specialist with 15+ years
of experience in semantic knowledge modeling and knowledge driven
applications in domains including but not limited to finance, healthcare, industrial symbiosis and insurance. In her current role she strategizes the use of semantic metadata across Bloomberg and the build of Bloomberg’s enterprise Knowledge graph.

Brad Rees, Manager at NVIDIA's AI Infrastructure group and lead of the RAPIDS cuGraph team, brings over 30 years of experience in designing and supporting advanced software and hardware systems, specializing in complex analytic systems, particularly graph techniques for social and cyber network analysis, with a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Florida Institute of Technology.

Tony Seale, a Knowledge Graph Architect at UBS, specializes in delivering production-ready Knowledge Graphs for Tier 1 investment banks. With expertise in Enterprise Knowledge Graph architecture, he navigates data pipelines, triplestore optimization, and graph visualization. Tony's adeptness extends to guiding development teams and interfacing with stakeholders across all levels.

Juan F. Sequeda, PhD, is the Principal Scientist at data.world, joining through the acquisition of his startup, Capsenta. He focuses on creating knowledge from inscrutable data, specializing in Knowledge Graphs for enterprise data and metadata management. Juan has received numerous awards for his research and is heavily involved in various academic and industry organizations. He co-authored a book on enterprise knowledge graphs and co-hosts the data podcast, Catalog and Cocktails.

Ivo Velitchkov, an independent consultant, has worked for over 25 years with large public and private organizations, helping them with their strategy, structures and information. He’s the author of the book Essential Balances, the https://www.linkandth.ink newsletter, a couple of semantic technology wikis, and co-author of the book Personal Knowledge Graphs. He has a PhD in Computer Science. Ivo has trained hundreds of people on semantic technologies and has helped large organizations unify their data in enterprise knowledge graphs..

Andrea Volpini, CEO of WordLift and co-founder of Insideout10, is a visionary entrepreneur with 25 years of expertise in semantic web, SEO, and AI, speaking at global events and contributing to publications like the Web Almanac, while initiating RedLink GmbH in 2013 to specialize in semantic content enrichment and natural language processing.