Meet our top UK speakers at SOUTH SUMMIT

South Summit, co-organised by IE University, will have exceptional protagonists from UK in this year's edition. John Elkington, founder board member and chief pollinator of Volans; Alec Oxenford, co-founder of Alpha Capital; Charlie Harris, COO of Octopus Hydrogen; Pierre Yves-Paslier, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Notpla and Anton Soulier, Founder and CEO of Taster. At South Summit Madrid they will share their concerns and experiences on entrepreneurship.

John Elkington. Founder, Board Memeber and Chief Pollinator of Volans

"John Elkington, Founder & Chief Pollinator at Volans, is one of the founders of the global sustainability movement, an experienced business advisor, and a highly regarded keynote speaker and contributor, from conferences to advisory boards.

John tackles some of the world's most challenging problems, helping key actors move from the responsibility agenda through resilience to regeneration. In 2021, John won the World Sustainability Award."

Alec Oxenford. Co-Founder of Alpha Capital

Argentinean entrepreneur and co-founder of Alpha Capital, one of the most important capital acquisition companies in Latin America and listed on the US NASDAQ. He was elected Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and is also a member of the Latin American and Caribbean Fund at the MOMA in New York. He collects contemporary art with a collection of more than 500 pieces.

Charlie Harris. COO of Octopus Hydrogen

CTO at Octopus Hydrogen, Harris leads the team in the development of an Industrial IoT platform to optimize the production of green hydrogen.

Pierre-Yves Paslier. Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Notpla

Pierre Paslier is a London-based Innovation Design Engineer who has spent his career exploring the intersection of design and technology. He started his career as a Packaging Engineer for L’Oréal, where he worked during the day and experimented with 3D-printing in his free time. This passion for innovation led him to study design at the Royal College of Art, where he co-designed one of the first consumer delta 3D-printers.

After completing his studies, Pierre co-founded two startups: Gravity Sketch, which creates 3D designs in virtual reality, and Notpla, which focuses on developing sustainable packaging. Currently, Pierre is co-CEO of Notpla, where he is dedicated to finding solutions to the global plastic crisis through his work on packaging made from seaweed. Notpla won Prince William’s £1,000,000 Earthshot Prize in 2022.

Pierre has a Masters degree from the RCA’s Innovation Design Engineering program and INSA de Lyon. He has written articles for Wired Magazine and given presentations at TEDx conferences in Athens and Warwick. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Hub and a member of the Industrial Advisory Board of Imperial College London Dyson School of Design Engineering.

Anton Soulier. Founder and CEO of Taster 

Anton Soulier is the Founder of Taster, and former Business Operations Manager, Regional Manager, and Deputy General Manager of France for Deliveroo. He created digitally native food brands that are scaled using tech and are centered around the customer, focusing on experience, quality, variety and speed of service.

Founded in 2017, Taster is already operating in more than 80 major cities in Europe including London, Paris, Madrid and Brussels, with plans to go further in the very near future. Taster is a pioneering ‘delivery-first’ restaurant group and uses a modern franchise model to partner with restaurateurs and kitchen owners, allowing them to tap into the booming takeaway market.

South Summit, held 7-9th June at La Nave in Madrid, is a global benchmark for attracting talent and generating business opportunities in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The presence of international startups at South Summit is growing every year, reaching 4,500 startups in this new edition of the competition, an increase of 1,000 from last year, 80% from abroad. 

For more information: https://www.southsummit.co/