FOUNDER AND CEO

Dragana Vukasinovic, PhD

Dr Vukasinovic is an Entrepreneurial Scientist who stepped out from Academia to commercialise cutting-edge research findings to transform the oldest and the biggest industry in the world, Agriculture. Dragana is a passionate lecturer, inspirational speaker and in 2021 was part of the digital book “60 Leaders on Innovation” https://www.60leaders.com/innovation where selected innovative leaders across the globe shared their views on the innovation potential and visions of the future.

As an experienced Crop Protection Scientist (17+ years) with Agricultural Entomology as her field of expertise, Dragana has a broad knowledge in Crop Production Systems, but her focus lies in high-value crops within Horticulture: orchards and vineyards. Dragana did her Ph.D. in Agricultural Entomology on the effects of Climate Change on insect-pest species (University of Copenhagen (KU), Faculty of Science). Dragana also held positions of a Research Scientist and Board Member at KU. Prior to coming to Denmark, Dragana was working at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Agriculture, as Research Scientist and Lecturer and at the same time working on her self-financed Ph.D. thesis in Agricultural Entomology. Dragana always did her research in direct collaboration with farmers, working from the perspective of a Customer Oriented Scientist. Fauna Smart Technologies is partly based on Dragana’s research and unique know-how of agro-ecosystems that came out from a strong farmers need for precise, fast and cost affordable pest management. As the Visionary one, Dragana will maintain the long-term vision of Fauna Smart Technologies, and will be responsible for leading R&D, product innovations and ongoing industry commercialization efforts.

TECH TEAM LEADER

Samira Kolyaie, PhD

Samira is an experienced Remote Sensing Engineer and Data Scientist, with 15+ years of experience. Samira holds her Ph.D. from Aarhus University, Department of Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity. She is an experienced Lecturer, mentor and a natural leader whose focus is on the environment and image/data analysis. In Fauna, Samira leads the technical part of product development related to Remote Sensing & Data Science to create a Pest Risk Map for Early Prediction Platform for pests and diseases in apple orchards in Denmark.

BUSINESS STRATEGIST AND DIVERSITY & INCLUSION ADVISOR

Jenifer Clausell Tormos, PhD

Jenifer is and experienced business leader, former CEO and a founder, with a research background in the field of microfluidics, where she was developing cutting-edge technologies for accelerating drug discovery. Further in her carrier she has evolved to championing diversity in tech and leadership. She has been developing herself professionally across four countries, cultivating expertise in fostering diverse, collaborative environments. Her key strengths include diligence, solution-oriented thinking, perseverance, self-motivation, and effective leadership. Committed to creating positive change, she supports leaders and impactful companies on their journey towards success.

BUSINESS AND FUNDRAISING STRATEGY

Pelin Smines, EMBA

Pelin is a versatile leader with over 20 years in digital product development, mobility, banking, and media. As founder of Scaleuplab and Head of Product at Digital Public Goods Alliance, she excels in innovation and strategic growth. Holding an Executive MBA and boasting diverse global experience, Pelin has thrived as CMO and CEO in startups, propelling advancements in consumer banking and digital solutions. Her roles as a board member at Haawk.ai, mentor at Startup Norway, and advisor at DigitalWell Ventures underscore her influence in shaping future entrepreneurs and digital landscapes. Based in Oslo since 2019, she's now pioneering a board readiness program for women, showcasing her commitment to diversity and leadership excellence.

REMOTE SENSING ENGINEER

Rene Lee, MSc

Rene holds MSc in Geoinformatics at the University of Copenhagen, (GIS) and remote sensing software. Rene works on extraction and pre-processing of satellite data. He applies cloud masking and sensor correction and is researching on Sentinel-1 for cloud penetrating potential. He is a passionate engineer who is self-driven and highly motivated to be a part of the team that creates the Early Prediction Platform for pests and diseases in apple orchards in Denmark.

STRATEGIC R&D FOR SCALING UP TO ASIA PACIFIC

Holly Hou, PhD

Dr Holly Hou holds PhD and Master degrees from the University of Copenhagen, and a Bachelor degree from Beijing, China. Stepping out from the molecular biology and biochemistry laboratory, Holly contributed to diplomacy and business promotion for foreign government representations in China and supporting science and innovation for bilateral exchanges between the West and the East has become her responsibility. Her current research interest lies in using appropriate technology to reach the highest standard of health and wellbeing in people living in developing countries.

INSECT & PLANT IMMUNITY R&D

Savina Maistrou, PhD

Dr Maistrou brings her rich agricultural knowledge (14+ years) from the Agricultural University of Athens where she obtained BSc in Crop Protection Science, and MSc in Plant Pathology where she investigated crop immune responses to fungal attacks. She holds a PhD in Microbiology from the University of Copenhagen, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences where she investigated insect immuno responses to fungal attacks. Within Fauna Smart Technologies, Dr Maistrou contributes mostly to the Plant Immuno Track project, with her knowledge of plant-pathogen interactions and plant defence responses. Dr Maistrou contributes to the overall system of products we are building at Fauna Smart Technologies, from R&D perspective.

MICROFLUIDICS & LAB-ON-PAPER

Constantine Anagnostopoulos, PhD

Dr. Anagnostopoulos has 40+ years work experience and is currently Adjunct Full Professor in the Mechanical Industrial and Systems Engineering Department, at the University of Rhode Island (URI), US, and Co-founder and President of Labonachip, LLC, the first lab-on-a-chip startup, with the most precise patent protected lab-on-paper technology: parts per billion (ppb). In the current ecosystem of lab-on-paper technologies, others do precision in parts per million (ppm). At URI, Constantine’s research work has been on Lab-on-a-Chip and Lab-on-Paper devices for Point-of-Care diagnostics. Constantine is Inventor or Co-Inventor in over 75 issued US patents and first author or co-author in over 60 reviewed journal publications.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY AND INDUSTRY COLLABORATIONS

Luboš Grepl

Senior executive leader with 35+ years of experience in the Agricultural Ecosystem and proven ability to develop and operationalize strategies whilst raising the business profitability and market share on the board of sector-leading companies, innovators, and startups. In the last 4 years, Mr. Grepl was successfully operating his Consultancy business, advising professionals, market leaders, and startups with insights on business development and transformations with innovative market-based solutions. He is always passionate about identifying and embracing innovative technologies that bring improvements in the ecosystem, increase efficiency to allow agriculture to achieve significant sustainability gains in response to climatic and regulatory requirements.

NORDIC TALENT AMBASSADOR & STARTUP MENTOR

Tegan Spinner, BSc

An entrepreneur at heart who moved from Silicon Valley to Copenhagen in pursuit of happiness, Tegan has spent the last five years working with some of the best startups in Denmark. Most specifically, as CTO of Zentabox, the personalised vitamins and supplements company, and Opbeat, an open-source application performance monitoring tool for developers, before launching his own ventures Lokalist and Worthmore which centre around reducing the amount of e-waste generated by our used smartphones. Through his role as a Nordic Talent Ambassador and Startup Denmark Visa Consultant, he actively works on attracting and helping entrepreneurs from around the world find their way around the Danish startup ecosystem by sharing his knowledge and experience.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Lærke Johansen, PhD

Dr Johansen holds her doctoral degree from the University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences and MSc in Animal Health from the same University. She is employed at the Ministry of Environment and Food of Denmark, at the Danish Agricultural Agency. With her pragmatic and systematic approach in problem solving and her tremendous knowledge in applied agriculture in the Danish ecosystem she will support the implementation of IPM Decision Support System by Fauna Smart Technologies providing her advice and sharing her network within the field. Within Fauna Smart Technologies she is using her experience in the role of a Project Manager.