
THINK, INNOVATE AND CREATE
23-24 September 2017, Zagreb
Get ready to discover new ways of banking!
Join Novathon #withPBZ, a 24-hour innovative marathon to create cutting-edge applications for responsive, mobile and branch banking!
If you are a web designer, a developer, a marketing specialist or a university student in a related field, it’s your time to set free your creative spirit and help us kick-starting the development of new banking solutions!
Form teams, collaborate with recognized mentors and present your invention to acknowledges judges who will award the most promising ideas with great prizes.
Stay tuned and check back here often not to miss any new information about the event!

September 2017


75.000 HRK
+1 co-creation day at the Visa Innovation Center (London)
37.000 HRK
(offered by Generali osiguranje d.d.)
+ 2 tickets for Finnovate Europe 2018 (London)
15.000 HRK
(offered by Visa)
The above mentioned amounts are gross of any tax, fee, contribution, levy, cost, duty, burden of any nature imposed to the winner, as well as to the awarding party in accordance with the applicable legislation.

Winners
Congratulations to the three winning teams of Novathon #withPBZ!

Let's Pay
TEAM MEMBERS:
Boris Tomaš - Denis Pavlović - David Ante Macan - Božidar Labaš - Mario Novoselec
Details

Auradiate
TEAM MEMBERS:
Sasa Vuksic - Nikola Kumek - Jurica Martinčević Martinčević - Luka Mikolaj
Details

Bankrush
TEAM MEMBERS:
Fabio Bottan - Cesare de Cal - Matteo Bombasini - Lorenzo Avello
Details
Media
Check out our media library and relive the best moments of the event!
Challenges
Have a knack for solving challenges? Put yourself to the test in one of the topics below and help us creating a new killer application!
Smart Payments
- Build appealing features which make payments fast, engaging and fun.
- Meet the needs of today’s sharing economy, via social media usage, producing Person 2 Person and Person 2 Group solutions for payments.
- Enhance the shopping experience by identifying possible one-stop-shop solutions that offer the same instant and efficient practice to the customers, regardless of whether they are online or on-site.
Digital Wealth Management
- Develop financial advisory models that can be introduced and become a significant part of digital channels.
- Build interesting and interactive features that can transform the investment area from plain numbers and titles into a comprehensive and engaging platform in order to improve the finances of customers.
- Create a unique and personalized digital experience based on the needs of affluent customers.
Smart Branch
- Reinvent the branches with innovative digital features that offer the customers an easy and exciting experience, making the branch as fun and smart as the digital channels are.
- Help us creating and developing “signature” experiences and new sources of value for the customers that attend branches.
- Develop digital tools that can assist branch personnel in their everyday job.
Bridge solution
- Develop bridge solutions between the physical and the virtual world of finances.
- Explore the world of video banking that can help customers performing transactions or completing a sales process.
- Automate processes by maintaining the human touch. Define the best mix between natural language processing, semantic search or knowledge base and propose a right blend between channels through which banks can manage customer interactions.
Outside-in banking
- Explore new ways of relationship with consumers, not only by offering standard products but also by delivering value at each step of the daily customer journey outside banking.
- Inspire banks using all relevant data to impact customer behavior through habit pattern analysis and therefore to deliver a personalized digital experience with appropriate and relevant offers/products.
- Reveal patterns that are relevant to customers and give them possibility to respond immediately through engaging actions.
Big financial data
- Rely on a prepared big data set to implement innovative features
- Use machine learning algorithms to offer a better user experience and better understanding of users' needs
- Produce stunning data visualizations to engage people and to better support business decision makers
People
They will join us to inspire you and to help you exploiting your full potential.
![]() Special Guest Chris Skinner | ![]() Special Guest Matteo Rizzi |
![]() Special Guest Nenad Bakić | ![]() Speaker Maurice Lisi |
Special Guest
Chris Skinner
Chris Skinner is known as an independent commentator on the financial markets and fintech through his blog, the Finanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank and its new sequel ValueWeb. In his day job, he is Chair of the European networking forum: the Financial Services Club. He is on the Advisory Boards of many companies including Innovate Finance, Moven and Meniga, and has been voted one of the most influential people in banking and fintech.
Special Guest
Matteo Rizzi
Matteo Rizzi has been actively engaged in the FinTech space for over 20 years. He knows how to bridge traditional banking with new or disruptive technologies, because he understands both. He is the founder of swiftcommunity.net and the Innotribe Startup Challenge and the co-founder of Innotribe and www.FinTechStage.com. For three years in a row (2014-2016), Financial News nominated Matteo as one of the “40 most influential FinTech executives in Europe” and Bank Innovation named him one of the “30 Innovators to watch shaping the industry” in 2014.
Special Guest
Nenad Bakić
Nenad Bakić is a Croatian entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist, currently mostly focused on digital transformation in education – founder of IRIM, the leading organisation in introducing STEM education in the region. Mathematician, with careers in science, digital media, finance and human resources. Serial founder, with multiple successful exits. Companies he founded and still owns are the market leaders in their respective markets. As investor in public companies, he is the most prominent deep-value, long-term activist investor in Croatia.
Speaker
Maurice Lisi
Maurice works at the crossroads of Intesa Sanpaolo foreign banks where business strategy, technology, consumer marketing and service design get together and he deals with defining the entire Banking Digital strategy and coordinating the implementation of multichannel projects across the International Subsidiary network of 10 countries. He collaborates with different Banking Innovation communities within European area.
Speaker
Alessandro De Leonardis
Alessandro De Leonardis is Head of Production, Shareholder and Board Member of Armundia Group. Graduated in Computer Science at the University of Pisa, he started his work experience with a series of university collaborations at the National Research Center in Pisa; then he proceeded at Datamat Spa and Elsag-Datamat. Since 2008 in Armundia, he has devised and coordinated innovative Data Analysis Solutions, Early Warning Systems in Finance, Business Intelligence Platforms, Front-End Systems for Banks’ Data Warehouse, Systems of Profiling Customers and KnowYourCustomer for Private and Retail Banks.
Speaker
Biljana Radovic
Biljana has an extensive International Retail Banking experience. Following a digital transformation, she identifies actively business development opportunities to increase awareness, profitability and adoption of the multichannel program among Subsidiary Banks. Currently, she is on the mission to simplify and redesign existing banking customer experience and to help Subsidiary Banks to grow from good to great by building new customer journeys that will guide both customers and banks toward brighter financial future
Speaker
Davor Čengija
Davor is Agile Coach and Enterprise Architect with 20 years of experience in the software development industry. He went through every stage of the process, from software development to software and system architecture and even project management. Always close to end customers, he often took actions in business development, sales and presales.
Speaker
Gianni Cavallina
Kao voditelj odjela za ubrzanje inovacija u maloprodaji banke Intesa Sanpaolo, Gianni ima više od 10 godina iskustva u bankarskom sektoru. U Inovacijskom centru odgovoran je za prijenos tehnologije, analize i isporuku novih digitalnih rješenja. Pruža potporu poslovnim jedinicama u koordinaciji i ubrzanju inovacijskih inicijativa Grupe. Vodi Laboratorij za dizajn usluga u djelatnostima stvaranja usluga i dizajna usmjerenog na klijente. Prethodno iskustvo u Banci: organizacija, upravljanje projektima strateške inicijative, Jedinica za isporuku, Informacijska tehnologija. Prethodna iskustva: IBM, Fiat, AT&T
Speaker
Ivan Krnić
Ivan Krnić is Agile Coach and Software Development Technical Manager at CROZ. His specialities are banking and insurance systems, as well as portal and ECM solutions. Hopeless sucker for startup ideas. In love with agile approach, he is helping teams unleash their full potential. His secret superpowers include fixing remote controls and assembling IKEA wardrobes.
Speaker
Johannes Humbert
Johannes is a seasoned Startup and FinTech Executive who spent the last eight years building great teamsand facilitating growth. His interest and experience are in Sales, Business Development, Process Automationand Cultural Sponsoring through behavioral engineering.● Partnerships Manager at figo GmbH Mai● Interim Chief Sales Officer at Event Inc GmbH & Co. KG● Director of Sales at smava GmbH● Head of Credit Center at FFG Finanzcheck Finanzportale GmbH
Speaker
Jordi Gascon
Jordi Gascon is a Senior Presales Director for Security at CA Technologies EMEA. His responsibility covers working with CA sales and delivery groups across the EMEA region to analyze and design the technology solution that best meets customers’ and partners’ needs. In this role Jordi also leads a team of Subject Matter Experts who are responsible for the technical enablement of CA and partner teams across the region. Jordi, who joined CA Technologies from McDonnell Douglas Information Systems, has more than 25 years of experience in the IT market, and has held several management positions in the technical and sales organizations both in Spain and Portugal. Jordi Gascón studied Business Administration at the University of Barcelona (UB), and has a postgraduate degree in Information Systems Management from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). He also holds several industry certifications, such as CISM – Certified Information Security Manager from ISACA (Information Systems Audit and Control Association) or ITIL Service Management from OGC (UK Office of Government Commerce).
Speaker
Luca Miccoli
Luca is the co-founder of IrisCube, a system integrator specialized in solutions for the financial industry and value added services for telcos, a partner of Reply leading Reply companies from startup stage to maturity, specifically in digital solutions for wealth management and financial services, social networking and social media, responsible for the joint venture between Reply and Armando Testa, developing the creative agency model into a wide-scope digital partner for Brands and the Enterprise.
Speaker
Luisella Giani
Luisella Giani, Digital Director EMEA at Oracle, has over 15 years of international experience leading digital strategy, operations and product development. Following a degree in Artificial Intelligence, she started her career with iconic brands of the digital age, such as Skype, Netlog and Lycos. More recently she has been helping global businesses, such as Yellow Pages, Goodyear-Dunlop and DuPont Coating, with their digital transformations. Her role at Oracle is to help companies to continuously innovate defining, creating and realize new digital experiences through solutions that are typically transformational in nature and span a wide range of capabilities covering Sales & Marketing, Commerce, Social, Service while delivering real business value in an omni-channel mobile world.
Speaker
Nir Palombo
Software engineer with over than 9 years as a software engineer he has experience with various operation systems. Nir is an expert in both Android and IOS, with deep knowledge in handling kernel issues in those operating system and also have very strong experience in Linux and windows. He worked for Appcell, a pioneer company in mobile application development, and WatchDox which was acquired by BlackBerry. He holds B.Sc from HIT in electrical engineering.
Speaker
Petar Zečević
Petar Zečević has been working with Java products and technologies for the last 15 years. He is currently CTO at SV Group d.o.o. and is author of Spark in Action, a comprehensive guide to Apache Spark. He is also organizing meetups of Apache Spark Zagreb Meetup group.
Speaker
Robert Mihajlek
He holds the Group position of Solution Sales Manager at Asseco SEE. He is responsible for sales and after sales processes of digital banking and security solutions on international markets, cooperating with partner channels and support for digital transformation projects. He has extensive knowledge in digital transformation, mobile, authentication and PFM projects in different aspects of digital banking.
Speaker
Roi Ben Daniel
Roi is Ventures Lead at Visa, based in Tel Aviv. His responsibilities include assessing and leading investment and partnerships opportunities with technology companies. Prior to his position at Visa, Roi was a co-founder of Coca-Cola’s innovation lab founded in Tel Aviv, The Bridge. Roi is deeply embedded in the Israeli tech community and is helping to connect the Tel Aviv tech ecosystem to other global tech ecosystems. Roi serves as a Captain in the reserves of the IDF, and has received two badges of honor for his service. He holds a dual degree in Law and Accounting from Tel-Aviv University.
Speaker
Stjepan Pavlek
Stjepan has 13 years of experience in the banking industry: 4 years as a business analyst and a data integration / data management consultant, and 9 years as a managing director of Koios, an IT consultancy and implementation company. Koios has delivered over 15.000 man-days on projects for several leading regional banks, and Stjepan is responsible for overall business result, delivery, finance, HR, marketing, sales and R&D. He holds an M.Sc. from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing in Zagreb, and his specialties include data integration, data warehousing, BI systems and solutions, risk management, credit scoring, customer profitability.
Speaker
Zoltan Szalai
Zoltan within Gemalto is responsible for Digital Banking Solutions in the CEE region. He is based in Budapest, Hungary. In addition to his technical background he has gained his eBanking experience by working for several years in an international bank. There he was responsible for front-end solutions such as internet bank, mobile bank, branch servicing developments. His focus is on implementing user-friendly but at the same time strong authentication solutions for both eBanking and mobile Banking environments. Zoltan is married with 3 children and in his free time he likes cooking, kayaking, and biking.
![]() President Gianni Cavallina | ![]() Vice President Saša Lončarić |
![]() Vice President Davor Krsul | ![]() Jury Member Alessio Cioni |
![]() Jury Member Andrea Freddi | ![]() Jury Member Chris Skinner |
![]() Jury Member Darko Popović | ![]() Jury member Dinko Lucić |
![]() Jury member Draženko Kopljar | ![]() Jury Member Emir Fetahović |
![]() Jury Member Francesca Sciani | ![]() Jury Member Gianluca Berghella |
![]() Jury Member Giorgio Gavioli | ![]() Jury Member Igor Gržalja |
![]() Jury Member Luca Miccoli | ![]() Jury member Mario Jurišić |
President
Gianni Cavallina
Head of retail innovation accelerator department in Intesa Sanpaolo bank, Gianni has over 10 years of experience in banking. Within the Innovation Center he is responsible of technology transfer, analysis and delivery of new digital solutions. He supports the Business Units in overall coordination and acceleration of the innovation initiatives raised by the Group. He drives the Service Design Lab in services co-creation and customer centered design activities. Previous experiences within the Bank: organization, strategic initiatives project management, Delivery Unit, Information Technology. Previous experiences: IBM, Fiat, AT&T.
Vice President
Saša Lončarić
Head of IT department in Generali osiguranje, Saša has over 17 years of experience in IT and financial sector. He is responsible for managing all technology operations including digital transformation. Over the course of his business career he was also responsible for direct channels development and management as well as for the design and implementation of security related architectures. He was born in 1975 and graduated in 1999 at Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing in Zagreb where he also finished postgraduate studies. He also completed General Management Program and obtained Leadership Management Program Certificate from American Management Association. Previous experiences: Privredna banka Zagreb, Ministry of Defence, The World Bank.
Vice President
Davor Krsul
Visa Country Manager for Croatia, Davor has vast experience from three decades presence in card business and the finance industry. Responsible for managing relationships with clients in the market and as well for Visa market share and the overall business performance. One of his previous experiences was with Intesa Sanpaolo, working in International Subsidiary Card Division where he co-managed establishment of Intesa Sanpaolo Card, internal monoliner company for card business services. After setup of the company he took role of Commercial Executive Director with focus on global business model and card business strategy. Additional experiences in numerous IT projects and with hands-on several analytical and programming tools.
Jury Member
Alessio Cioni
Alessio Cioni took the position of Deputy President of PBZ Managing Board in August 2017, after serving for 3 years as a Deputy President of the Executive Board in Banca Intesa Beograd. He has been holding management positions at Intesa Sanpaolo group in Serbia, Hungary, Egypt and New York, in the course of last 15 years. Prior to Banca Intesa Beograd, he spent nearly five years at CIB Bank where he held a number of posts including that of Organizational Change and Efficiency Managing Director, while being appointed to the Management Committee of CIB Bank and Supervisory Committees of CIB Real Estate and CIB Factor. Alessio Cioni began his career with Intesa Sanpaolo in 2000 in New York, where he spent one year at the Project and Structured Finance Desk and then headed the Italian Desk for six years. Between 2007 and 2009 he served as Head of the International Desk and Structured Finance at Bank of Alexandria in Cairo. Alessio Cioni earned his BS in Economics from the University of Florence and MBA from New York University Stern School of Business.
Jury Member
Andrea Freddi
Andrea Freddi has 17 years banking experience in Marketing and Sales. He has dedicated the first years of his career to develop distribution models and direct channels strategies for Retail and Private Banking segments, with a focus on Wealth Management Services for the Italian Market. In 2007 he joined International Subsidiary Banks Division of Intesa Sanpaolo, where he contributed to several projects and initiatives addressed towards Retail and Corporate clients. Since 2014, he is head of Distribution Models and Channels Office within Corporate and SME Department of the International Subsidiary Banks Division of Intesa Sanpaolo. He was born in 1976 and graduated in 2000 at Bocconi University in Milan, where he also successfully completed an Executive MBA program at SDA Bocconi in 2007.
Jury Member
Chris Skinner
Chris Skinner is known as an independent commentator on the financial markets and fintech through his blog, the Finanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank and its new sequel ValueWeb. In his day job, he is Chair of the European networking forum: the Financial Services Club. He is on the Advisory Boards of many companies including Innovate Finance, Moven and Meniga, and has been voted one of the most influential people in banking and fintech.
Jury Member
Darko Popović
Darko Popović started his career at the National Bank of Serbia as a banking supervisor. He worked there during the restructuring of the Serbian financial system performing on site examination of 17 banks. After the experience on the regulator side, he joined Banca Intesa as a risk manager where he served for 5 years. Together with few colleagues he has established Serbian Risk Managers Committee at the Banking Association being the first president. He is today the member of the Executive Board for ten years serving his 4th mandate. First two he worked as the head of corporate business when the Bank reached the record loan and deposit market share. Last 3 years he is the Head of Retail during which the Bank has managed to rebalance its portfolio structure and become majority retail bank. The bank is today market leader and it has reached the highest ever market share in terms of both loans and deposits.
Jury member
Dinko Lucić
Dinko Lucić has been a member of the Management Board of Privredna banka Zagreb since 2009. He is the Head of the Retail Division and is responsible for coordinating the companies of the PBZ Group in the areas of retail banking and credit card business. Over the course of his business career, Mr. Lucić has held several functions at Privredna banka Zagreb and the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, and has also served on the Management Board of another Intesa Sanpaolo Group member, the Slovakian VUB Bank, from 2007 to 2009. He was born in 1971 and graduated from the Faculty of Economics and Business in Zagreb. He has completed the General Management Program and obtained the Certified International Retail Banker qualification from the Retail Banking Academy.
Jury member
Draženko Kopljar
Draženko Kopljar has been a member of the Management Board of Privredna banka Zagreb since 2006. Acting as a COO, he is responsible for coordinating the companies of the PBZ Group in the areas of IT an Banking operations. During his business career, Mr. Kopljar was involved in many businesses process transformation and technology based development projects. He as the inventor of mPay, USSD based payment system (patent No. PK20060395), and author of many other inovations. He was born in 1966 and graduated Electronic engineering from VTF, Zagreb and MBA from ZSEM. He has completed the Corporate Governance Program and obtained the Corporate Governance Certification from the University of Zagreb. Currently is focused on Digital Tranformation using Big Data and Machine Learning technology.
Jury Member
Emir Fetahović
Experienced IT Manager with 10+ years in web development services for labour market. Passionate about marketing repositioning digital services and team management.
Jury Member
Francesca Sciani
Francesca Sciani is Head of International Corporate Affairs Office for Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. In this role, she leads the team in charge of all legal aspects of international corporate transactions. She is also responsible for legal aspects on Digical Project, aiming at migrating transactions from traditional to digital channels among the foreign banks within Intesa Sanpaolo Group. A corporate lawyer with more than 15 years of experience in international, corporate, banking, commercial, real estate, competition and data protection law, as well as out-of-court settlements, Francesca has previously worked with national and international law firms.From 2003 to 2007 she was associate in MCAlex, a leading Italian law and tax firm. From 2001 to 2003 she was senior consultant in Professionisti Associati, a law and tax firm, member of the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu network. From 1998 to 2001 she worked in Brussels – Belgium in the EU and competition law department of Bogaert & Vandemeulebroeke, the Belgian law firm associated with PricewaterhouseCoopers, and in the European Commission, Directorate General for Competition (Antitrust Unit – IT, Internet and Consumer Electronics). Francesca holds a degree in law, major in international law, from the Catholic University of Milan. She was admitted to the bar of Milan in 2001.
Jury Member
Gianluca Berghella
Gianluca Berghella is President and CEO of Armundia Group. Graduated in Economics and Commerce, he started his career in 1993 within the division ""Banks, Finance and Insurance"" of Datamat Ingegneria dei Sistemi Spa, with managerial roles in organizational consulting projects, software selection and system start-ups at leading institutions of Asset Management and Private Banking. During his 24 years of activity, he has deeply studied the operational and organizational aspects of various banking and financial institutions at national and international level, so developing a strategic know-how on the processes of digital transformation. In 2007, he was one of the founders of Armundia, now controlled by Armundia Group, with the mission of developing cutting-edge software solutions and strategic consulting projects for Finance, Banking and Insurance market.
Jury Member
Giorgio Gavioli
A comprehensive career in ICT domain, from technical background to customer and business. Working experiences in industry, banking and services, mainly in worldwide company. Remarkable experience in outsourcing. Successful project management in wide and international projects (banking transformation in particular). Goal orientation, resources optimization, service quality, customer orientation and innovation are my strong points and my passions. Since November of 2012 Chief Operating Officer, Member of the Board of Directors and DCEO of CIB Bank ZRT, the Hungarian bank of IntesaSanpaolo Group. Enabling and supporting the full digitalization of the bank (best mobile APP in 2016) with a “dual speed bank” concept, upgraded the core banking system and designed an innovative frame for business intelligence.
Jury Member
Igor Gržalja
Igor Gržalja is the President of the Management Board of Asseco SEE Croatia. He is a manager with more than 15 years of experience gained in different positions across the IT sector, including design and software development, project management, team leadership and organisational development as well as business development and sales. He graduated from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, at the University of Zagreb. His career started in Logos, one of the Croatian companies acquired by the Asseco South Eastern Europe Group. He worked for a while in Hewlett-Packard and returned to Asseco as the Regional Sales and Business Development Director for Central and South Eastern Europe, the position he has held for the last five years. His most significant achievements include the development and set-up of an efficient sales organisation, which has won a number of major international projects, mostly in the finance industry and public administration domains.
Jury Member
Luca Miccoli
Luca is the co-founder of IrisCube, a system integrator specialized in solutions for the financial industry and value added services for telcos, a partner of Reply leading Reply companies from startup stage to maturity, specifically in digital solutions for wealth management and financial services, social networking and social media, responsible for the joint venture between Reply and Armando Testa, developing the creative agency model into a wide-scope digital partner for Brands and the Enterprise.
Jury member
Mario Jurišić
Mario Jurišić has been a member of the Management Board of PBZ Card since the beginning of 2008. He is responsible for card business development, issuing and acquiring domains, including new product development, sales and marketing. He began his career in 1998 in Privredna banka Zagreb and from the beginning he played active role in establishing and developing the card business with MasterCard and Visa card payment schemes. In the beginning of 2003 he became Deputy Director in Card Business Development, responsible for acquiring and product development. With the integration of PBZ Group card business into PBZ Card, on 1st January 2006 he became the Executive Director of Product Development, Marketing and Sales Division in PBZ Card. He was born in 1971 and graduated from the Faculty of Economics and Business in Zagreb and is currently finishing Presidential MBA Programme at IEDC Bled School of Management. He completed the Strategic Management Programme organised by Management Centre Europe and many others.
Jury Member
Matteo Rizzi
Matteo Rizzi has been actively engaged in the FinTech space for over 20 years. He knows how to bridge traditional banking with new or disruptive technologies, because he understands both. He is the founder of swiftcommunity.net and the Innotribe Startup Challenge and the co-founder of Innotribe and www.FinTechStage.com. For three years in a row (2014-2016), Financial News nominated Matteo as one of the “40 most influential FinTech executives in Europe” and Bank Innovation named him one of the “30 Innovators to watch shaping the industry” in 2014.
Jury Member
Mirco Carriglio
Mirco joined Intesasanpaolo in 2002, after more than 20 years experience in IT Service Providers companies Actually Mirco is in charge of Head of Architectures and Technologies International Subsidiary Banks at Intesa Sanpaolo from 2014, with the responsibility to support the deployment of Intesasanpaolo IT Strategy in International Subsidiary Banks of ISP Group. Mirco served as also Head of Global ICT in Direzione Sistemi Informativi , being responsible to manage IT solutions for International Branches, part of Corporate & Investment Banking Division until 2014. From August 2010 until 2014 he served also as Senior Vice President and Chief Operation Officer of Servitia SA, a fully owned ISP company based in Luxembourg. Mirco has over 30 years of outsourced services experience. He has worked to deliver large-scale applications, business process and infrastructure technology outsourcing services, consulting and support to clients around the world. Before joining Intesa Group, He was formerly Country Service Sales and Marketing Director for Digital Equipment, Compaq and HP.
Jury Member
Paolo Zandano
At Reply Group, Paolo Zandano since 2015 is the Partner in charge of business development and strategic accounting for the top-tier customer within Financial Services Industry. With over 15 years experience in Management Consulting, he led important transformation engagements (e.g. post-M&A organizational reshaping, operational and service model redesign) for major private, commercial and investment banks as well as insurance companies both in Western and Eastern Europe. Recently he supervised digital banking initiatives including end-to-end process streamlining, omni-channel service models implementation and big-data powered programs. Before starting his consulting career, Paolo graduated in Electronic Engineering at Politecnico di Torino and at University of Illinois, and holds a Master in General Management from ESCP Europe.
Jury Member
Ramy Taha
Ramy Taha is the current Head of Marketing, PR and Research of ALEXBANK (a subsidiary of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group) and an Executive Committee Member tasked with guiding the bank’s strategic commercial, digital and business development programs. He has been with ALEXBANK since 2010, starting as Head of Consumer Marketing before expanding his role to encapsulate all of the bank’s strategic marketing functions. Prior to joining ALEXBANK he was a Senior VP of Products and Marketing at Sakan Finance, Egypt’s leading Mortgage Finance entity. He has also worked as a VP of Product Development at AMLAK Finance, based in the UAE, one of the region’s leading mortgage originators, before a prior stint as a Product and Marketing associate at Barclays. Ramy Taha is the recipient of the 2014 Dubai Lynx (the regional arm the Cannes advertising awards), the region’s most prestigious advertising competition. Born and raised in Montreal, Canada he also holds an MBA in Finance from the Maastricht School of Management.
Jury Member
Stefania Vigna
Stefania has 15 years banking experience: 4 years in innovation and 11 years in IT Department working on open platforms. She is now the Head of The Innovation Observatory Office of Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center and manages many different activities starting from trend analysis in fintech and cross industrial sector to research on new technologies, products, services and business models supporting ISP Group’s CIO Area and Business Units to final the Prototyping phase with innovative technologies on a cross-industry level. She collaborates with incubators, accelerators, research centers to analyse startup deal flows to verify business opportunities and new technologies.
Jury Member
Stjepan Pavlek
Stjepan has 13 years of experience in the banking industry: 4 years as a business analyst and a data integration / data management consultant, and 9 years as a managing director of Koios, an IT consultancy and implementation company. Koios has delivered over 15.000 man-days on projects for several leading regional banks, and Stjepan is responsible for overall business result, delivery, finance, HR, marketing, sales and R&D. He holds an M.Sc. from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing in Zagreb, and his specialties include data integration, data warehousing, BI systems and solutions, risk management, credit scoring, customer profitability.
Jury Member
Tamás Ákos
Dr. Tamas Akos, has been serving as Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Retail Division and Member of the Board of CIB Bank Zrt, the Hungarian member of Intesa Sanpaolo Group from 2014. Prior to this, from 2012 until, 2014 he was the Retail Board Member of GE Capital, Budapest Bank Zrt. Dr Akos was responsible for 101 branches, third party channel, product development, sales support, CRM, Marketing, eBanking, and Autofinance. Previously, between 2006 and 2012, Dr. Tamas Akos was the Retail Executive Director of MKB Bank Zrt. Dr. Tamas Akos was responsible for retail business (personal and small business segments). Areas of control: Retail Network (87 branches), Retail Product development (full range – active, passive, card products), Retail Sales Support, eBanking, CRM, Call Center (24-7, both retail and corporate). Dr. Tamas Akos started his career with McKinsey & Company Inc, from 2001 until 2005 where he worked as an Engagement Manager in Budapest, New York and Sydney. He holds an M.Sc. from Budapest University of Economic Sciences and PhD from Pázmány Péter University as a lawyer.
Mentor
Andrej Rojc
During his 16-year professional career, Andrej gained extensive experience in the card business, working both for the bank and its card processing centre, serving also several other banks in the Slovenian market. Initially, he contributed significantly to the launch of some game changing products related to card payments. Most recently he is dedicated to the implementation of the bank’s digital agenda through its distribution channels, currently focusing on smart payments.
Mentor
Basim Hennawi
Born in Kuwait, raised in Egypt, living in Germany. Once a Petroleum Engineer turned Software Engineer by passion. Working as a Javascript developer for a FinTech company that provides Banking as a Service platform as a link between the classic financial world and modern financial solutions.
Mentor
Davor Čengija
Davor is Agile Coach and Enterprise Architect with 20 years of experience in the software development industry. He went through every stage of the process, from software development to software and system architecture and even project management. Always close to end customers, he often took actions in business development, sales and presales.
Mentor
Evgueny Vasiliyev
Evgueny has been with BIR from 2006 as the head of e-channels covering Retail, SME, Corporate, e-fraud management, e-commerce, etc. He is a PhD holder in Technical sciences and has a MBA with distinction from Warwick Business School (England).
Mentor
Francesca Pagani
Francesca is a manager and designer, mostly specialized on digital solutions. After the graduation in Communication Design at Politecnico of Milan and a master degree in International Business, she has worked for a web company as account and project manager. She joined the International Subsidiary Banks Division of Intesa Sanpaolo more than one year ago, and she is now coordinating and designing the user experience for different multichannel projects. Using an iterative and agile approach, she is focusing on creating a unique and seamless experience through several touchpoints, leveraging smart technologies and bringing together customers’ needs and banks requirements.
Mentor
Helena Hržić Pintar
The main task of Multichannel Office is to provide customers with functional and contemporary banking services through the internet and mobile channels. Being in charge, Helena is also responsible for the implementation of Intesa Sanpaolo Group's multichannel project in Privredna banka Zagreb. The opportunity to combine her respective experience in traditional retail banking with the recent achievements in digital technology, makes her current position one of the most interesting business challenges.
Mentor
Inga Cigoj
Inga is lead software engineer on reporting systems and administration applications for Intesa Sanpaolo multichannel internet banking project. Her main interest is in the area of business inteligence and machine learning.
Mentor
Ivan Belfinger
Ivan is a software developer with more than four years of enterprise software experience under his belt. He enjoys playing with mobile and web development, and learning about functional and reactive programming.
Mentor
Ivan Grce
Software Engineer at Microblink. Works on Android SDKs for image processing and text recognition with core technology written mostly in C++ and exposed to Java through JNI framework. Experienced in Java, C, C++, JNI and Android NDK development. His main goal is to produce great software that will help the end users in their everyday tasks. His main interests are algorithms and code optimizations. In spare time he plays table tennis and takes an interest in art.
Mentor
Ivan Krnić
Ivan Krnić is Agile Coach and Software Development Technical Manager at CROZ. His specialities are banking and insurance systems, as well as portal and ECM solutions. Hopeless sucker for startup ideas. In love with agile approach, he is helping teams unleash their full potential. His secret superpowers include fixing remote controls and assembling IKEA wardrobes.
Mentor
Jura Škrlec
Software Engineer at Microblink. Works on iOS SDKs for image processing and text recognition with core technology written mostly in C++ and exposed with Objective-C++. Experienced in Objective-C, C, C++ and Swift. In spare time he likes to run and cook.
Mentor
Mario Pandur
Graduated from the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, he works as a senior software developer in PBZ since 2011. He started working as Java developer, supporting and developing internet banking. Currently, he's developing in Java, the new generation of internet banking for the banks of Intesa Sanpaolo Group.
Mentor
Marko Stojicevic
Marko is a software architect at Banca Intesa Beograd. In 2016 he was a part of the team that released e-banking loans application. With a university background, he is also a teacher at a local IT school, and enrolled in a phd program at University of Belgrade.
Mentor
Martin Vataha
Before joining VUB bank he worked as a product manager for mobile devices as well as web developer. As a freelancer he has experienced all stages of the online product. From the design and development to product launch and support. Currently he works as an analyst. Enthusiast of modern technology. Interested in IOT, mobile devices, UX and UI as well. In his free time, he enjoys playing with mobile and web development.
Mentor
Matej Naglić
Matej is a software developer with nine years of experience in working on several large scale retail applications in PBZ. He enjoys reading about new languages, frameworks and technologies and spends way too much time on Hacker News.
Mentor
Max Tkachenko
Software developer with an experience working in small startups and big enterprises. Currently he is occupied by connecting figo with the banks all over EU.
Mentor
Mihályi Tamás
Tamas has more than 15 years experience in the banking industry from business relationship through project management till architecture design. Currently he is the leader of the architect team in ISP's Hungarian subsidiary, CIB Bank. His responsibibility is to introduce and allow solutions only that fits the Bank's technological purposes and architecture. He is very solution oriented. His healthy criticism and well pointed questions will help to keep you on the right track.
Mentor
Pavol Papp
Pavol Papp is devoted more than 16 years to alternative channels strategy, Process and Innovation management and E-commerce. During his professional experience he worked for and participated in projects for major national and multinational companies in areas such as banking, telecommunications, media and commerce. Currently he is working for the second largest bank in Slovakia where he leads Mobile Banking.
Mentor
Peter Molnar
Peter is a dreamer who wants to change the world around himself. He is responsible for the digital transformation of one of the major Hungarian banks, CIB Bank, a member of the Intesa Sanpaolo group. CIB Bank was the first to launch the new mobile app concept of Intesa Sanpaolo Group, winning the Best Mobile Banking App prize in MasterCard's Bank of the Year Awards. Peter is enthusiastic about helping the new generation implementing their ideas.
Mentor
Rialda Hadzibegic
Before joining Intesa Sanpaolo Bank Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2015, Rialda gained valuable experience in two major banks in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her first task at Intesa Sanpaolo Bank Bosnia and Herzegovina was related to the Affluent and Private client segments, and she also coordinated the implementation of the new organizational model for the card business of the subsidiary network of Intesa Sanpaolo Group.
Mentor
Silvia Riva
Silvia is a user interface designer, specialised in digital solutions. Graduated in Design at Politecnico di Milano, she began her career as Art Director in the Milanese agency Bitmama, developing skills in mass-market communication and in corporate and banking area. 5 years ago begun her collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo Group, focused almost exclusively on molding and designing the digital customer experience. Today, she’s coordinating a dedicated team of professionals that are supporting Intesa Sanpaolo International Subsidiaries Bank Division in the design and creation of new, innovative mobile, internet and branch services.
Mentor
Tomáš Brilla
Tomáš is a business analyst in VÚB Bank, one of the largest Slovak banks. He works at the eBusiness department. He and his colleagues are expanding the online world for all VUB Bank clients . As a young and innovation loving man, he is constantly working on new online customer service approaches and enabling them to stay connected with bank just online. Tomáš´s motto is be a better man every day and his dream is possibility to pay everywhere around the world without cash.
Mentor
Xhilda Shehu
Being responsible for the strategy definition, business development management and maintenance of the multichannel solutions used in Intesa Sanpaolo Bank Albania, she has managed a number of projects within the bank including the launch of mobile banking. She has been involved as a jury member and mentor in a number of events within Albania promoting young entrepreneurs such as Competition of Young Entrepreneurs, Regional Innovation Camp organized by Junior Achievement and Startup Live Tirana. Xhilda holds a Master Degree in Public Administration but strongly believes that the best results come from experience, will and the right attitude.
Mentor
Zorana Brankovic
Zorana has over 14 years of experience in digital banking and is one of the pioneers of e-banking in Serbia. She spent the first 12 years of his banking experience in IT, successfully leading numerous projects in the digital banking area. She introduced the first mobile banking app in Serbia in 2010 and the first digital wallet in 2016. With a strong IT background and wide business knowledge, she is also a member of e-government association, working actively with other professionals from banking and corporate world on the digitalization of Serbia.
Mentor
Zvonimir Križ
Zvoimir has 20+ years of experience in software development. Currently he is a team leader in the DigiCal project of PBZ. Zvone is an agile guy. Until now, he trained 200+ people to adopt agile and lean development. As a Novathon mentor, he will try to keep you on track and help you out to deliver your ideas.
Innovation Center of Intesa Sanpaolo
In 2014 Intesa Sanpaolo, one of the top banking groups in the euro zone and the leader in Italy in all business areas, established the Innovation Center as a hub of its initiatives related to the open innovation sector and appointed Maurizio Montagnese, the Group’s Chief Innovation Officer. The Innovation Center collaborates with several international Incubator and Accelerator programs, based in London, Singapore, Tel Aviv, New York and in other countries that are focused on fintech and innovation topics. Furthermore, Intesa Sanpaolo supports innovative startups through its Venture Capital Funds.
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Preliminary program
- 08:30 – 09:30 Registration
- 09:30 – 10:00 Welcome speech
Dinko Lucić (PBZ), Maurice Lisi (Intesa Sanpaolo) - 10:00 – 11:00 Briefing
- 11:00 – 11:30 Team setup
- 11:30 Start coding
- 13:00 – 14:00 Lunch
- 16:00 – 16:30 A sense of customer experience
Biljana Radovic (Intesa Sanpaolo) - 16:30 – 17:00 Building apps with addiction
Luisella Giani (Oracle) - 17:00 – 17:30 Digital Wealth Story
Alessandro De Leonardis (Armundia) - 17:30 – 18:00 A new payment story
Roi Ben Daniel (VISA) - 18:00 – 18:30 How to (hack) build a bank
Robert Mihajlek (Asseco) - 18:30 – 19:00 Open banking platform
Johannes Humbert (Figo) - 19:00 – 20:00 Dinner
- 20:00 – 20:30 The new frontier of the user interface
Luca Miccoli (Bitmama) - 20:30 – 21:00 PSD2 - Challenges & Opportunities
Jordi Gascon (CA Technologies) - 21:00 – 21:30 Croatian Makers – Creating the culture of success
Nenad Bakić - 21:30 -22:00 Deep learning with Apache Spark
Petar Zečević (SV Group)
- 00:30 – 01:30 Game competition
- 01:30 – 07:00 Night coding
- 07:00 – 07:30 Breakfast
- 08:00 – 08:30 Team>Project
Davor Čengija, Ivan Krnić (CROZ) - 08:30 – 09:00 Mobile Payments: Getting Ultrasonic
Nir Palombo (Dov-e) - 09:00 – 09:30 Grooming a digital company
Stjepan Pavlek (Koios) - 09:30 – 10:00 Digital Banking – Challenges and Opportunities
Zoltan Szalai (Gemalto) - 10:00-10:30 The new frontier of the user interface
Luca Miccoli (Bitmama) - 10:30 – 11:00 Innovation trends
Gianni Cavallina, Stefania Vigna (Innovation Center of Intesa Sanpaolo) - 11:00 – 11:30 Creative projects with Micro:bit: smart piggy bank
STEM Revolution -The Awards - 11:30 Stop coding
- 11:30 – 12:15 Motivational speech
Chris Skinner (The Finanser), Matteo Rizzi (Fintech Stage), Maurice Lisi (Intesa Sanpaolo) - 12:15 – 15:00 Pitch presentations
- 15:00 – 15:30 Awards ceremony & Goodbye lunch
*Speaker will be announced soon.

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