Major Marco Carnevale was born on 16 September 1984 in Calcinate (BG), Italy. He joined the Italian Army in 2003 and commissioned into the 1st Bersaglieri Regiment from the Military Academy. After earning a master’s degree in strategic sciences from the University of Turin in 2008, Regimental Duty included multiple operational tours to Afghanistan. As Company Commander, Major Carnevale deployed again twice to Afghanistan before attending the Intermediate Staff Course in 2017. He then returned to the Military Academy to serve as Officer Cadet Company Commander. On promotion to Major, he was posted to the Operational Land Forces Command in Rome as a Staff Officer in the Plans branch, where he was primarily responsible for force generation for both overseas operations and readiness initiatives. In 2021, he was selected to be the Italian Army student to the Advanced Command and Staff Course (ACSC) in the United Kingdom, from which he graduated among the top 10% of his class, also receiving the Joint Services Command and Staff College (JSCSC) Commandant’s Commendation. During this time, he completed a Master of Arts in Defence Studies with Distinction from King’s College London. Currently, he is the Italian Exchange Officer at the HQ 3rd (United Kingdom) Division in Bulford. Major Carnevale is married to Valeria, and they have two children. Passionate about military history, he enjoys travelling, hiking, running, and collecting Folio Society books.
Gabriele Carrer (born in 1991) is a professional Italian journalist contributing to Formiche, specializing in foreign policy and national security. He also hosts and authors 00Podcast, an espionage-themed podcast produced in collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo. Carrer’s articles, covering Italy in English, are featured on Decode39, a spin-off of Formiche. He is a regular contributor to HuffPost Italia. He previously worked as a visiting fellow at the Rome office of the European Council on Foreign Relations, conducting research on foreign disinformation and interference threats in Italy.
Ottavia Cesari holds a Bachelor of Law cum laude from the University of Bologna and a Master of Law with Distinction in Financial Law from King’s College London, earned through a double degree programme. Her academic focus encompassed securitisation, derivatives, and shadow banking regulation, with her final dissertation centred on Banking Law. Prior to joining Tancredi as a Junior Account Executive, where she advises blue-chip companies on public relations and reputation management, Ottavia worked in the Press Office of the Italian Embassy in the UK, handled legal claims at an aviation insurance company in Brussels, and was admitted to the Military Academy of Modena in Italy where she underwent training for future high-ranking Army officers. Additionally, Ottavia dedicated her time to pro bono work at King’s College Legal Clinic providing legal advice. She also collaborated with the European Law Students Association (ELSA). Ottavia is fluent in English, Italian, and has business proficiency in French.
Dr Daisy Dunn is an award-winning classicist and author of seven books. Her most recent, Not Far From Brideshead: Oxford between the Wars (2022), was selected for BBC Radio 4’s Open Book and longlisted for the Runciman Award. Her previous book, In the Shadow of Vesuvius: A Life of Pliny, was an Editor’s Choice in the New York Times and a Waterstones Best History Book of 2019. The publication of her debut books, Catullus’ Bedspread: The Life of Rome’s Most Erotic Poet and The Poems of Catullus: A New Translation, earned her a place in The Guardian’s list of leading female historians in 2016. Born in London, Daisy read Classics at the University of Oxford, before winning a scholarship to study for a Master’s in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, specialising in Titian, Venice and Renaissance Europe. In 2013 she was awarded her PhD in Classics at University College London, where she was recipient of the AHRC doctoral award, the Gay Clifford Award for Outstanding Women Scholars, and an Italian Cultural Society scholarship.
Nathan Clements-Gillespie is Director of Frieze Masters. Prior to joining Frieze in 2017 he was Director of Art16, London and External Affairs Director at MACRO – The Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome where he was part of the commissioning team for the Italian Pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennale. He serves on the Benefit Committee of Design Trust (Hong Kong) and the Jury of the Jeffrey Ahn Jr Fellowship (New York).
Giulia Grancini is associate professor at Chemistry Dept. of the University of Pavia since 2019, leading the PVsquared2 team of 15 scientists and a state-ofthe-art laboratory for the development of innovative solar cells. She has 15 years of experience in innovative solar energy nanotechnologies and advanced nanomaterials. She leads an internationally recognized solar facility for the development of newgeneration efficient, sustainable and low-cost solar energy, managing an international team of 15 researchers. She attracted 5.3M€ funding from EU, Italian Ministries (MIUR, MITE), Private Foundations (Fondazione Cariplo) and she manages several collaborations with academic (Oxford, KAUST, Cambridge, EPFL, MIT) and industrial partners (EDISON, ENI, SOLARONIX, ENEL) and technology transfer initiatives. She also works as consultant in sustainability strategies and technical energy-related initiative for the European EIC program and several Italian and European- based companies. Through her international career path – from PhD at Politecnico of Milano and Oxford University to team leader for 4 years at EPFL (Switzerland), she contributed to the raise of emerging solar technologies in Europe, with pioneering contributions in the field of perovskite solar cells, putting her in the internationally recognized scientists arena working in this field with H index=57; Total number of citations >25000; Number of scientific publications: 130, 5 patents, 60 invitation to international conferences. She is the Principal Investigator of projects from the European Research Council such as the ERC StGrant “HYNANO” and the ERC POC “SPIKE”, MUR Project FARE RICERCA 2021, GOPV from MITE, Funds from
Lombardy Region and Cariplo Foundation.In 2019 she received the USERN prize in Physical Science, the Swiss Physical Society Award in 2018 for Young Researcher and the IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Optics. She is currently USERN Ambassador for Italy. In 2020 she was listed in the “100 experts project against stereotypes” which identified top-italian women scientists, and she received the honor of “Cavaliere della Repubblica Italiana al Merito” from the Italian President Mattarella. In 2022 she has been appointed member of the prestigious Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze. In 2023 she received the special award “Rosa Camuna per la conoscenza e la ricerca” from the Lombardy President.
Samuel Pegg is a composer, arranger and music editor. As a composer he has written for advertising (Disneyland Paris, Currys/PC World, Lidl, Warburtons, World Gold Council), Samuel has scored music for spectacular live shows across Europe and has provided additional music on the feature films Vaincre ou Mourir and Absolutely Anything. He scored Ken Loach’s political broadcast #WeDemand and has written music for radio documentary and drama as well as creating custom title music and score for TV. As orchestrator and music editor Samuel has worked on numerous films, TV productions, and live shows. Credits include Sorry We Missed You I, Daniel Blake, Johnny English Strikes Again, Cold Pursuit, The Lady in the Van, Dream Horse, Heartstopper, Blue Planet/Planet Earth/Frozen Planet, & the 2023 TNT Sports rebrand. Alongside commercial releases, Samuel has arranged music for the prominent rapper STRESS with the 21st Century Orchestra, and Alfie Boe with the Boston Pops. Most recently Samuel has created new arrangements for an album titled Edith Piaf Symphonique. Cutting edge technology was used to isolate Edith’s original voice, to which new orchestral arrangements were recorded, at Air Lyndhurst Studios in London. He is currently working on a studio album.
Maria Pregnolato is an Associate Professor at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) and Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Bristol (UK). She is a Civil Engineer and hold a MSc in Building Engineering and Architecture from the University of Pavia (Italy) and the Tongji University of Shanghai (China), a PhD in Civil Engineering from Newcastle University (UK) and a MSc
in Strategy, Leadership and Change from the University of Bristol (UK). Her work focuses on infrastructure resilience and risk management from natural hazards, in particular the impact of flooding to road networks, bridges, and buildings. In recent years, she has been focusing on structural health monitoring and Digital Twins, exploring the role of sensing and digitalisation within infrastructural assets exposed to flooding and natural hazards. She has authored more than 40 papers for a total of >1300 citations. In 2018-23 she held a prestigious EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) Fellowship to investigate the impact of extreme flooding to bridges. She received the EGU (European Geoscience Union) Outstanding Early Career Award in 2021 for the scientific contribution in the field of natural hazards. Since 2019, she is a Fellow of the Women in Engineering Society (WES, UK) and pro-active in EDI (equality, diversity & inclusion) initiatives.
Uljian Sharka is the Italian/Albanian founder of iGenius: the company behind Crystal, the generative AI platform for business intelligence and data analytics, also known as ‘GPT for Numbers’ and
considered the future “Siri for numbers”. Following a brilliant career at Apple, today Uljan is leading an international team of +100 talents, with the mission to democratise data access by leveraging AI with a human approach. He is globally recognised as a cutting-edge expert in the generative AI space and after opening an office in London and NY iGenius is currently looking for institutional investors in the UK to make it their Global HQ. iGenius is most likely to become next the Italian Unicorn (a startup company with $1billion market value).
Paul Singh transitioned into the dynamic realm of UK property and construction, with a diverse background spanning retail, hospitality, and education across the UK and abroad. Beginning as a labourer on smallscale projects in London, he ascended to managing commercials for high-profile ventures like Heathrow Terminal 2 and Tottenham Hotspur’s Stadium. Venturing into entrepreneurship, he cofounded EEDN Ltd., a pioneering design and project management firm specialising in technical real estate. Notably, the collaboration with industry giants resulted in setting construction standards for life science real estate, showcased on www.constructingscience.com. His academic journey, culminating in degrees in Psychology, Quantity Surveying, and a master’s in Construction Law and Dispute Resolution from King’s College, London, has earned prestigious accolades, including the Society of Construction Law’s Hudson Prize. Driven by a dual passion for industry and business, he actively contributes to numerous boards, chair important discussions and champion philanthropic endeavours such as the Constructors’ Livery and YMCA while also shaping industry policies through roles in esteemed organizations such as the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) and BPIC Network. Elected as Councillor and Policy Lead for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) for the City of London Corporation in 2022, he continues to play a pivotal role in shaping policies and fostering innovation. Recently appointed as the Lord
Mayor’s Connect to Prosper lead on Life Sciences and the City and to the Advisory Committee of City of London Chamber of Commerce, he remains committed to driving positive change and advancement in both public and private sectors.