Ana is a scientific academic working in the field of learning games. She is currently working on her PhD at the University of Minho where she is looking at how placing students as educational game designers impacts their motivation and learning.

Previously she has held a number of research and administration roles at various institutions in Portugal. At the Institute of Molecular Medicine, she worked on developing a serious game for medical education. She has been the primary author on a number of papers – including “Games and Learning: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Scientific Production” (ICERI, 2015), and “Developing a Prototype of an Oncobiology Serious Game for Medical Education” (IEEE, 2013) – has presented her work in several international conferences, and published 3 scientific reports.

She holds a BSc in Biology, a MSc in Environmental Biology, and a post-graduate qualification in Science Communication. She has served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the International Technology, Education and Development Conference. Her main interests are games, education and science communication. She has been a competition judge since 2016.

Andrea has being applying technology to solve business challenges throughout his career, working in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for organizations including Olivetti, Hewlett Packard and Ricoh.

He is currently focused on sales and marketing and has over a decade of experience in the sales and delivery of large projects for fortune 500 clients as well as consulting & integration. Prior to that, having started his career as an Engineer in Germany, he spent more than ten years developing products for the IT industry, working in both product innovation and R&D.

Andrea holds a degree in Engineering (University of Trieste) and an MBA (SDA Bocconi) as well as two 2 US patents. His interests include innovation and people and he enjoys going for early morning runs. He has been a competition judge since 2018.

Damien started his career as a software developer with Digital (now HP) and subsequently worked for Nortel Networks (now Avaya) before entering academia. Since 2000, he has taught computing at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, where he is the Programme Chair for the BSc in Computing and Software Development.

In 2003, he co-founded the Games Fleadh – Ireland’s Computer & Console Games Design & Development Festival – where he serves as an Academic Judge, he has been a Games Design Judge for Microsoft’s Imagine Cup Ireland, and has served on games development Academic Review panels and been an external examiner in other third level institutions.

His experience with education is not limited to the academic; he is also a 4th dan karate instructor who has been teaching since 1993. Damien holds a BE in Industrial Engineering and a Masters in Engineering Science and is a member of the International Game Developers Association. His interests include mobile development, artificial intelligence and basketball (which he is delighted to have once played against White Men Can’t Jump star, Woody Harrelson). He has been a competition judge since 2016.

Dianne is an educational consultant and entrepreneur with almost two decades’ experience running her own educational consultancy, providing practical, knowledge-based solutions for education institutions, professional associations, non-profit organizations. Prior to establishing her own company, she worked in Japan, Australia and the US.

Dianne has worked on educational assignments around the globe, notably in Asia and Africa, ranging from curriculum development and the evaluation of educational technology to policy development and program accreditation. She is interested in the effective use of business learning games in organizations and when integrated into curricula at the high school, college and university levels.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physical and Health Education (University of Toronto), an MA in Applied Linguistics (University of Queensland), an MBA (Ivey School of Business), a PhD in Entrepreneurial Education (University of Toronto) and is a Fellow of the Institute. Dianne likes to travel to taste different kinds of chocolate around the world.

Fausto is a Games Engineer at GSN Games (a Sony Pictures Entertainment and AT&T Entertainment Group company). He has a background in corporate engineering and application development but his passion is casual games, digital art and educational games.

He has participated in several games events including hackathons, game jams, and conferences and won the 2nd prize in the 2016 Intel IoT Roadshow Hackathon with his project “The Adventure Cube”, a physical electronic game that connects with all the smartphones in an audience or crowd – a device which can be thrown around for engaging social gameplay with educational, social and debating purposes. Fausto has also collaborated on the creation of science educational activities for the company Kids With Brains in London, and has also worked with them in workshops a science entertainer. He’s currently working on his own educational games for children with the objective of teaching basic programming skills.

Fausto holds a BSc in Computer Science and Engineering (Técnico Institute, Lisbon) as well as a Professional Qualification in Electronics and Telecommunications (EPPET, Lisbon). He has been a competition judge since 2017.

Gillian currently serves as Board Chair for the Australian Network of Art and Technology. She is an award winning Producer with experience working with commercial digital media companies, government agencies and not-for-profit organisations.

She has a passion for developing creative and effective communications solutions and has won the Australian Teachers of Media Award  for best Primary Educational Resource (2003), best Tertiary Education Resource (2000), and best Entertaining Multimedia Production (1999) as well as a Special Jury Prize for “Innovation and pushing the boundaries of Interactive Multimedia” from RMIT (1995). She has also published papers on Educational Games and lectured on Digital Media Production.

Her commitment to education has also seen her manage Learn For Yourself, an Australian not-for-profit educational body.

She holds a BSc in Genetics (Australian National University) and a Master’s degree in Creative Media (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) and is currently completing her PhD in Serious Games (Swinburne University). Her interests include neuroscience, learning behaviours, educational games and experience design. She has been a competition judge since 2016.

Matt is seasoned Business Excellence Professional with over two decades experience helping companies do better. He is also the Institute’s Chief Innovation Officer.

Between 2010 and 2015, as COO of EFQM, he led the project teams which updated the EFQM Excellence Model and developed the EFQM Training Portfolio to support its deployment, which included both classroom and eLearning versions. He has also developed courses for the Business Excellence Institute. Thousands of people have now taken training courses he designed.

He holds a BSc (University of East Anglia) and an MSc (University of Edinburgh) in Environmental Chemistry. He is a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, a European Excellence Assessor, and a Fellow of the Institute.

His interests include making electric guitars and generally making more noise than is advisable. He has been a competition judge since 2016.

Michael is a multidisciplinary scholarly practitioner with experience in design thinking, information systems, knowledge management, education and games. After working in business and management as an executive and entrepreneur, he began teaching in executive education, community colleges and universities. He is an award winning author of papers on educational technology and business and has also won awards for teaching excellence. Michael is an internationally recognized thought leader on Game-Based Learning and has his own consulting firm, FUNIFICATION LLC, which advises businesses as well as higher education faculties and public sector organizations.

Despite being an advocate of innovative and disruptive approaches to education, he has been invited to teach as a professor at a number of universities in the US and is a research advisor for the Harvard Business Review.

He holds BIS in Management Sciences (University of Waterloo) and a PhD in Knowledge Management (McGill University). He has numerous postgraduate certificates including one as a Certified Management Consultant and is a Fellow of the Institute. He has been a competition judge since 2017.

Philip is a Computer Game Development lecturer with the Institute of Technology Carlow in Ireland.

He advocates the use of technology in education and has organised a number of conferences, seminars and events to encourage educators to explore pedagogy through technology. He was the founder of Games Fleadh – Ireland’s computer games festival which has included game design and programming events such as DirectX Ireland Challenge, Robocode Ireland, and Games Studio Ireland Challenge.

He was a committee member for the 7th European Conference on Games Based Learning and has presented at numerous international conferences including the UAE 2015 Challenges Conference, the Games:EDU Develop Conference, the IMTC Conference, and the Exploring ICT in Education Conference.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science (Trinity College, Dublin) and a MSc in Software Engineering (NUI Maynooth) and is completing his doctorate in Human Computer Interaction.

Sergio is a multi-disciplinary consultant and founder of the Spanish consultancy Biable which focuses on innovation, digital transformation, and management. He is also the founder of Somos Farmacia Digital, a company dedicated to the digital transformation of the pharmaceutical sector, and has been an entrepreneur since 2009. He has served as an advisor to the city of Málaga and has worked on innovation management with several Andalusian entities. He is a Recognized Excellence Expert™ and has worked as an excellence assessor for the governments of Dubai and Abu Dhabi as well as for a number of organisations in Europe. In November 2018, he was appointed Head of Business Development for the Business Excellence Institute.

He holds a Bachelor of Environmental Engineering and an MSc. in Quality Management, both from the University of Granada. He has been a competition judge since 2018.

Susan is an educator, consultant, and researcher. She is the Institute’s Head of Research and she also teaches executive leadership programs at Memorial University of Newfoundland and, on occasion, at the Rotman School of Management in Toronto. Her research interests include effective leadership, leadership development, cross-cultural management, and qualitative research.

She has worked extensively in the public education sector as a senior leader in both program development and human resources and in 2005 – prior to becoming a consultant and researcher – was recognized as one of Canada’s Outstanding Principals.

She holds an B.Ed in Primary Education, an M.Ed in Leadership, an MSc in Business Management Research, and a Doctorate in Leadership from Henley Business School. She is a Fellow of the Institute.

Thomas is a senior international business executive with a broad experience base working in firms such as ABB, Boston Consulting Group, and SwissRe as well as in start-ups and in academia. He is currently the eBusiness Architect at Bern University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland.

He has worked in a number of different cultures and functional roles some of which have seen him mentoring and developing both trainee managers and seasoned executives.

He holds a BSc in Applied Physics (University of Dundee) and PhD in Solid State Physics (Albert-Ludwigs-Universtät), a BBA from GSBA (Graduate School of Business Administration, Zurich) and is an alumni of IMD Lausanne. He is an European Excellence Assessor, a Six Sigma black belt, and a Fellow of the Institute.

His interests include information security, the environment, photography and sailing. He has been a competition judge since 2016.

Yiannis is a human capital professional who champions the use of people focused approaches to organizational performance in his work with organizations to help them define and implementing talent, performance, and business strategies.

He started his career in banking in Greece then joined the Indian educator NIIT before going on to work in a number of other sectors. He has worked in the Americas, Asia and Europe and in his younger days, led the global operations of the Junior Chamber International. He is a co-founder of Humantelligence and a board member of The Business Excellence Institute.

Yiannis holds a Diploma in Business Administration (Xinis College, Athens) BSc in Computer Science (Walsh University, Ohio) and an MSc in Business Administration (Imperial College, London). He is a Fellow of the Institute and has been a competition judge since 2018.