Hana Součková is the Managing Director of SAP ČR and the Statutory of SAP Ariba and SAP Concur. She has been with SAP for over ten years, six of those as MD. In April 2023, she joined the Board of Directors of the German-Czech Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Before SAP, she held leadership roles in marketing and sales at Ness Czech, Ness Europe, APP, and Scala.
Hana actively supports women empowerment initiatives and social enterprises like Czechitas, Social Impact Awards, Holky z marketingu, and Femme Palette. She holds a master's degree from CVUT and an MSc in Professional Practice in Leading Sales Transformation from Middlesex University Business School.
In her free time, she enjoys sports, fun activities with her two children, and mountain trips regardless of the season.
 

Prof. Michal Pechouček is a computer scientist specializing in autonomous agents and multi-agent systems. He is the founding director of the AI Center at Czech Technical University in Prague, which he established in 2001. Over the years, he has held visiting professorships at UC Berkeley, USC, and Binghamton University. His early research was supported by U.S. defense agencies. Beyond academia, Prof. Pechouček is a serial entrepreneur and technology executive. He co-founded Cognitive Security (acquired by Cisco Systems) and Blindspot.AI (acquired by Adastra Group). He also served as CTO of Avast Software (LSE) and later Gen Digital (NASDAQ). In addition to his industry roles, he is an active angel investor and general partner at Evolution Equity Partners, a leading cybersecurity venture capital firm. He is also a co-founder of PRG.AI, an initiative fostering the AI ecosystem in Prague.

André Biener, Director of DACH at SAP SE, is responsible for the SAP University Alliances program in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. SAP University Alliances is a global program that has been working with educational institutions worldwide for 25+ years, cooperating with more than 2700 institutions in 100+ countries. The focus is on the use of SAP software in teaching and research, as well as close collaboration with the academic community, joint projects with SAP customers, and collaboration with partners such as the SAP user groups. He has worked at SAP for 20 years in various roles in industry marketing, corporate communication, business consulting, and government relations. He previously worked in the telecommunications sector in Germany and the United States.

In addition to his role at SAP he has been active for many years in the field of social entrepreneurship, as a coach, trainer, and systemic consultant and lecturer at various academic institutions. He studied economics and communications in Germany and the United States.

David Chaviano has been deeply involved in student enablement initiatives since 2016, contributing across a range of educational formats and platforms. With a passion for making enterprise learning accessible and engaging, David currently serves as the Program Manager for SAP Learning Hub, student edition, where he leads efforts to empower the next generation of SAP learners.
In addition to his program leadership, David is a familiar voice in the SAP learning community. He hosts the SAP Learning Insights Podcast, where he interviews thought leaders and shares practical strategies for navigating SAP’s learning ecosystem. He also runs the Beginner Corner on SAP Community, a dedicated space for newcomers to explore foundational concepts and connect with peers.

Jan Kavalírek worked in managerial positions in the private sector, primarily in the field of medical devices and artificial intelligence, before being appointed Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade. He has experience in research, development, manufacturing, and international trade, and contributed to building several successful companies. Jan Kavalírek also served as Deputy Director of a certification body.

As an expert in artificial intelligence, he participated in European research projects and is actively involved at the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at CTU in Prague. He regularly speak as a keynote speaker on topics related to AI. He is fluent in English and enjoys boxing, skiing, golf, and art in his free time.

At the Ministry of Industry and Trade, his focus is on artificial intelligence and new technologies, supporting the startup ecosystem, and developing the medtech and biotech sector. He actively represents the Czech Republic in the European Union Council for Telecommunications, advocating for the modernization of industry through AI, innovation, and digitalization.

In May 2025 he was appointed as a Government Envoy for Artificial Intelligence.

Milan Cidlinský has worked in Accenture Czech Republic for almost 25 years, right after finishing his studies at the Faculty of Informatics & Statistics at the University of Economics in Prague.  In his current role, he is responsible for leading the local SAP practice, focusing on sales and delivery of SAP projects, developing SAP skills of the local workforce, and attracting SAP talent in the market. Milan has played various leadership and consultant roles in SAP implementations and covers areas like SAP project management, SAP functional areas (Materials Management, Logistics Execution, Plant Maintenance and others) and technical SAP aspects (cutover, release management, transport management, etc.).

Sophie Heim is a Doctoral Candidate and Researcher at the Chair of Information Systems and Business Process Management at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany, since 2020. Sophie’s research interests comprise academic-industry ecosystems, ecosystem intermediaries, educational service provisioning, and enterprise software applications. In addition to her research, she works at the SAP University Competence Centre (UCC), where she is responsible for SAP solutions in enterprise resource planning and analytics, such as SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and SAP Signavio.

Florian Eckhard is a Doctoral Candidate and Researcher at the Chair of Information Systems and Business Process Management at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany, since 2024. Florian's research interests comprise process mining, serious games, machine learning and information security. In addition to his research, he works at the SAP University Competence Center (UCC), where he is responsible for SAP analytics solutions, such as SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Signavio as well as IBM WatsonX.

Petr Rešl is the head of SAP Group Competence Center at Škoda Auto. He is also responsible for the cooperation with universities at Škoda IT.

He has been with Škoda IT for 30 years and has extensive experience in many IT management positions. He has worked as the head of IT process and system Integration in product development or production and Logistics, head of IT services and the head of IT projects.

Vladimíra Dvořáková is a professor of political science and currently the director of the Masaryk Institute of Advanced Studies (MÚVS) at the Czech Technical University. Her long academic career –almost thirty years of teaching at the University of Economics in Prague (VŠE) and professional engagement in the evaluation of quality of higher education (she served for ten years as president of the Accreditation Commision of the Czech Republic) steered her towards deep interest in teaching methodology and in fostering cooperation between academia, business, and society. She is also well known for her media commentary and her involvement in social and civic activities. She received the Pelikán Award in 2009 (presented by the journal Listy, for promoting democratic political culture and dialogue in Czech society) and the František Kriegel Award 2012 (presented by the Charta 77 Foundation, for civic bravery).
 

Maryna Horna, Ph.D. in Economics, is an Associate Professor at the Department of Statistics, Information and Analytical Systems and Demography, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Teaching experience includes courses in statistics, statistical experiments, and data analysis. Research expertise focuses on statistical analysis, experimental design, and applications of RStudio for data processing and visualization. Recent research activities are directed toward process mining as a novel and promising area in economic studies and practice. This year joined the university team that implements SAP business software, including SAP S/4HANA and SAP Signavio Solutions, in teaching subjects at the Faculty of Economics.
 

Tomas Zavadil is a manager and engineering lead for localization of financials and supports the development of artificial intelligence capabilities in finance. He has been with SAP for nearly 30 years, during which he has held a number of roles: from developer of financial solutions, to measuring and improving performance of products in finance, to leading localization for Central and Eastern Europe. Throughout his career, he has continuously adapted and learned from major technological shifts, moving from the early Client/Server model, through the transition to the Cloud, and now into AI-driven development. He currently leads a team of developers in Brno and globally oversees the use of AI in financial localization. 
 

Petr Zavoral has held senior management positions at international software and consulting companies such as SAP, KPMG, Oracle, and SAS Institute. He has extensive experience with B2B enterprise solutions (architecture, processes, applications) from a wide range of European and North American projects, including people management and team leadership. Prior to the acquisition of Aricoma, he held the position of CEO at Sabris, a prominent SAP partner organization. He also has practical experience in developing and mentoring startups focused on new technologies.

 

Stefan Weidner, who graduated with Bachelor and Master degrees in Computer Science and Business Informatics from the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point (2001) and Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg (2000 and 2003), has been directing the SAP University Competence Center Magdeburg since 2004. The center has been a hub for SAP solutions, supporting teaching, research, and co-innovation for nearly 25 years. Under Stefan's leadership, the team now provides teaching and learning environments to over 850 universities across more than 80 countries, primarily in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Beside his various management positions, he has contributed his expertise in global curriculum design and his passion for modern teaching to numerous development projects in teaching, research, and industry. In addition, he is the author of several academic textbooks.
Stefan is a member of the SAP Academic Boards for German-speaking countries as well as for Sub-Sahara Africa and has recently received the SAP Community Award 2025.

Jiří Janovský is an SAP consultant specializing in SAP Signavio and the SAP PS (Project System) module. He has extensive experience in project and process management from his time at RETIA (defense industry). His focus is on analyzing and transforming business processes across various sectors, with practical experience in implementing SAP Signavio for clients.


 

Miloš Ulman is an assistant professor of systems engineering and informatics at the Masaryk Institute of Advanced Studies, Czech Technical University in Prague (MIAS CTU) with an extensive international experience in IT consulting and project management. Dr. Ulman conducts research and projects in data governance, information ethics, and digitalisation impacts. He has built, guaranteed and taught more than 20 courses in various academic programs focused on digital skills and governance, information systems, data analytics and information security. Dr. Ulman has over seven years of teaching experience with SAP S/4 HANA curriculum provided by SAP UCC Magdeburg.
 

Viorel Costin Banta is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Management Information Systems, at Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE). He holds two PhDs- Engineering (2015) and Accounting (Summa Cum Laude, 2022) and has over 20 years of professional experience in SAP/ERP projects across Oil & Gas, Retail, and Manufacturing industries.
He held roles such as: SAP Architect, Service Manager, Senior Consultant, team coordinator in cross-technology environments and is an author of 50+ academic publications and several books/case studies on ERP systems, digital accounting, RPA, and IT infrastructure. His research interests are Enterprise Systems, Digital Transformation, AI in ERP and Performance Analysis. Viorel contributes to ASE courses on Management Information Systems and SAP applications.