Speakers & Pitching companies

Irina
Anghel-
Enescu
Managing-Director South Eastern European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association

Internationally-minded innovation and entrepreneurship expert, traveled for work to more than 40 countries around the world.

Pioneer of legal advice for private equity and VC funds financing entrepreneurial ventures in South Eastern Europe, Irina founded and ran the first law firm specialized in advising funds and entrepreneurs in Romania. After more than a decade dedicated to private equity & VC transactions, Irina took advantage of her year spent as a Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School to focus from an academic perspective on VC's role in stimulating entrepreneurship and innovation around the world.

Back to Europe, Irina continued her activity as Managing Director of the South Eastern European Private Equity and VC Association, became a member of the Representative Committee of the European VC Association and was appointed as President of the Romanian Innovation Ecosystem Commission for 2 years. She also created an NGO, Triple Helix, which develops and implements projects related to entrepreneurship, education and leadership.

Irina is frequently invited to be a panelist or moderator at conferences organized by at prestigious universities (like London Business School, Stanford University, Harvard Business School), or governmental agencies of various countries interested in stimulating entrepreneurship and VC investments. Currently advisor for Harvard Innovation Lab and contracted as expert by the Entrepreneurship Center at University of Oxford (Said Business School).

Selected in 2012 among the top 100 women in tech in Europe by Girls in Tech London, Forbes Magazine recognized her as one of the most influential 50 women in Romania twice and she was included in top 100 Foreign Policy Romania.

Irina was recognized as an Eisenhower Fellow in 2008, became a Mason Fellow at Harvard in 2009 and was honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2014.