Rastislav Machel
National Liaison Officer for Slovakia, European Network and Information Security Agency, Bratislava

Mr. Rastislav Machel studied Electrical Engineering at the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava. He earned his Master’s degree in 1992, and soon afterwards started his professional career at the Ministry of Defence of former Czech and Slovak Federal Republic (CSFR) as a Pilot Project Leader. Later he served in various IT consultant positions in institutions such as IBM, DATACENTRUM (Ministry of Finance of Slovak Republic), META Group, Cartography and Cadastre Authority of the Slovak Republic. He held many positions at different ministries, where he was responsible for IT projects. He is an Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) member – since 1999. Former Consulting Engineer of the Slovak Republic Government Plenipotentiary for the Information Society (2005 – 2006).

Amb. Jüri Luik
Permanent Representative of the Republic of Estonia to NATO, Brussels

In 1996 he became Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Estonia to the BENELUX countries and NATO. Since 1999 he was a member of Government of the Republic of Estonia, Minister of Defence and later Minister of Foreign Affairs. Later he served as an Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Estonia to Canada, United States and Mexico. Since 2007 he has been serving as the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Estonia to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

Rex Hughes
Visiting Fellow for Cyber Security, Wolfson College, Cambridge University, Cambridge

Rex Hughes is a visiting fellow for cyber security at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge and at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto. As a member of the Cambridge-MIT Institute from 2005 – 2008 he advised affiliate companies including BT, Fujitsu, Nokia, and T-Mobile on disruptive technology roadmaps while completing his doctorate on The British Response to Global Telecommunications Convergence, 1997 – 2007. A cyber defence advisor to NATO since 2008, Hughes authored the joint Chatham House-German Marshall study ‘NATO and Global Cyber Defense' and is lead author on the NATO sponsored ‘Final Advisory Report on Cyber Defence and the 2010 Strategic Concept’. In 1999 whilst a student at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, he founded the first university based Internet studies programme, UW Center for Internet Studies. There in partnership with IBM and Lotus, Hughes led the development of iEnvoy™, the first secure Internet communications platform for diplomats.

Robert Kosla
National Security/Defence Industry Manager, Microsoft Central and Eastern European Headquarters

Mr. Kosla is Microsoft’s Regional Manager responsible for Public Safety, National Security and Defence across Central and Eastern Europe working with national, NATO and EU information security bodies, law enforcement agencies and military structures. Before joining Microsoft in July 2008, Mr. Kosla served over 19 years in the Polish Armed Forces and the Polish Government agencies responsible for information assurance. He retired as Lieutenant Colonel from the Information Assurance Department of the National Internal Security Agency in Poland, where he held the position of Deputy Director. He was responsible for development, implementation, evaluation and accreditation of governmental classified information systems and networks – national as well as EU and NATO. In parallel to this function, Mr. Kosla was asked to draw upon his knowledge and experience in modern technologies standards and laws development, when he was appointed the National Project Manager for Schengen Information System implementation in Poland, which was successfully implemented across and within all law enforcement services.