Board of Directors | Advisory Board

H2's Advisory Board consists of industry leaders and influencers across the startup, corporate and investor spheres and helps to guide H2's membership growth and platform development.

Global | North America | LATAM | EMEA | APAC | Platform

Aakrit Vaish - Co-Founder & CEO @ Haptik: Aakrit is the Co-Founder & CEO of Haptik, one of the world's largest conversational AI platforms. Aakrit started the company from his house in 2013 way before AI or chatbots became cool. Today, the company processes more than 10 million bot queries a month and has some of the biggest global brands on its roster. Aakrit has been instrumental in shaping the chatbot industry over the years, which is finally going through its inflection point in 2018. He got his BS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign and was part of the Business World 40 Under 40 List of 2017. He started his career at Flurry, which was acquired for $300m in 2014.
Matthew Romaine ā€“ Co-Founder & former CEO @ Gengo: Matthew co-founded and led Gengo, a human crowd-sourced AI training data platform launched from Tokyo, Japan. Gengo was backed by notable investors including 500Startups, Atomico, Intel Capital, and Recruit, and was acquired in January 2019 by Lionbridge. Prior to Gengo, Matthew was an audio research scientist at Sony Corporation. He studied music theory and computer science at Brown University, and received his Masters at Stanford University. As an early entrepreneur in Japan's internet tech venture ecosystem, Matthew is a big supporter of new generations of entrepreneurs and gives back through mentorship and the occasional investment.
Fabiana Salles ā€“ Co-Founder & CEO @ Gesto: Fabiana is an engineer, entrepreneur and CEO at Gesto - a Data Driven Decision Making Platform that allows its clients to identify and manage risks, choose the best health insurance scheme for their employees and negotiate better rates. Recently, Fabiana became an Endeavor Entrepreneur. She is an expert in healthcare and business intelligence having more than 18 years experience developing and providing solutions in telemedicine, corporate health, health insurance among others. Fabiana is a foodie and loves trying and cooking different flavours.
Rowan Barnett - Head of Google.org EMEA @ Google: Rowan is responsible for leading Googleā€™s philanthropy in the Europe, Middle East & Africa region. Google.org brings the best of Google to innovative nonprofits that are committed to creating a world that works for everyone. Previously, as Head of Google for Startups, Germany, Rowan was responsible for supporting the startup ecosystem in Germany to work with Google and grow, and helping to enable a new generation of diverse entrepreneurs to succeed. Prior to Google, Rowan spent nearly 5 years at Twitter where he was Senior Director for strategic market development in D/A/CH, Benelux, Russia and Emerging markets. Previously he spent 8 years leading digital and social innovation at the German publisher Axel Springer and news site BILD.de. Rowan has always been passionate about startups and has played an active role in the Berlin ecosystem. Rowan, born and raised in England, studied History at Oriel College, Oxford, before moving to Berlin in 2004.