Celia Israel was elected to the Texas Legislature in January 2014 in a special election to represent House District 50. Currently Celia serves on the House Ways & Means and International Trade & Intergovernmental Affairs Committees. She is the owner of Mission Resources, a consulting firm focusing on public affairs and real estate. Raised in El Paso, Texas, Celia moved to the Austin area in 1982 to attend the University Texas at Austin. After graduating with a degree in Government, Celia served in Gov. Ann Richards’s administration, tasked with recruiting the best and brightest to public service. Celia serves on the boards of the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Alliance for Public Transportation, a local nonprofit promoting mass transit options and opportunities in Central Texas. She also is a member of both the Corridor Task Force and Mobility 35, both of which focus on Central Texas transportation solutions. She’s tackled issues from Central Texas growth to school safety, and led at the community level to empower young girls as a Board member of GEN Austin. She was a past board member of the Austin YWCA. Celia lives with her long-time partner, Celinda Garza, in North East Travis County.

Ambassador of the European Union to the United States of America

Ambassador João Vale de Almeida is the Head of the Delegation of the European Union to the United States. He presented his credentials to President Obama on August 10, 2010.

Prior to his appointment in Washington as the European Union’s Ambassador, he served as the Director General for External Relations at the European Commission, the European Union’s executive body. As the most senior official under the authority of the High Representative/Vice-President Baroness Ashton, he helped formulate and execute the EU’s foreign policy and played a key role in preparing for the new European External Action Service (EEAS) introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon.

From 2004 to 2009 Amb. Vale de Almeida was the Head of Cabinet (Chief of staff and main adviser) for European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. He accompanied President Barroso in all European Council (EU Summit) meetings and ensured coordination with the private offices of Heads of State and Governments in all 28 Member States of the EU. Amb. Vale de Almeida was also the President’s Personal Representative for the negotiations on the Treaty of Lisbon.

He also acted as the EU “Sherpa” for G8 and G20 Summits. In this capacity he attended annual G8 Summits inGleneagles, UK; St Petersburg, RU; Heiligendamm, DE; Toyako-Hokkaido, JP; L’Aquila, IT; and Muskoka, CA between 2005 and 2010. He accompanied President Barroso in the launching of G20 Summits in late 2008 in Washington and in subsequent meetings in London, Pittsburgh and Toronto in 2009 and 2010. He also attendedSummit meetings with EU’s strategic partners around the world.

Earlier in his career in the European institutions, Amb. Vale de Almeida held several senior positions in the European Commission and the Economic and Social Committee and worked closely in different capacities with and under the authority of former Commission Presidents Jacques Delors, Jacques Santer and Romano Prodi.

Immediately before joining President Barroso’s team in 2004, Amb. Vale de Almeida held a senior position in the Directorate General for Education and Culture after serving as Deputy Chief Spokesman of the European Commission.

Amb. Vale de Almeida joined the European Commission in 1982 at its Delegation in Lisbon, after spending seven years as a journalist. He holds a degree in History from the University of Lisbon and has studied and received training in journalism and management in the United States, France, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Amb. Vale de Almeida was decorated by the President of the Republic of Portugal with the ‘Grã-Cruz da Ordem do Infante D. Henrique’ (Grand Cross of the Order of the Infante D. Henrique) in 2011.

Amb. Vale de Almeida is Portuguese, born in Lisbon in 1957. He is married and has two children.

Gemma is a Director at Indeed, working with Indeed’s International Team in Austin, Texas. Indeed is the #1 job site in the world and allows job seekers to search millions of jobs on the web or mobile in over 50 countries. More than 140 million unique visitors come to Indeed each month to search more than 16 million jobs.

Gemma leads a team of Country Managers and International Operations Associates who drive Indeed’s growth in key international markets. Gemma also worked on establishing Indeed’s EMEA headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. Gemma earned a BA in Modern and Medieval Languages from the University of Cambridge, UK, and an MBA from the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin.

Vincent R. Volpe Jr. is President and Chief Executive Officer of Dresser-Rand and has served as a member of the Board of Directors since October 2004.

Mr. Volpe has been with Dresser-Rand Group, Inc., its affiliates and predecessor companies to the business since 1981.  He has held positions in Engineering, Marketing and Operations residing and working in various countries, including:  Applications Engineer in Caracas, Venezuela; Vice President Dresser-Rand Japan in Tokyo, Japan; Vice President Marketing and Engineering Steam and Turbo Products in Olean, New York; Executive Vice President European Operations in Le Havre, France; and President Dresser-Rand Europe in London, U.K.  In January 1997, Mr. Volpe became President of Dresser-Rand Company’s Turbo Product Division, a position he held until September 2000.  In April 1999, he assumed the additional role of Chief Operating Officer for Dresser-Rand Company, responsible for worldwide manufacturing, technology and supply chain management, serving in that position until September 2000.  Mr. Volpe became President and Chief Executive Officer of Dresser-Rand Company in September 2000.  He has served as an independent director of FMC Corporation since 2007.  Mr. Volpe earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a B.A. in German literature both from Lehigh University.

Mr. Volpe has substantial historical knowledge of the Company and its operations with 32 years of employment in various capacities with the Company, its affiliates and predecessor companies to the business, across the organizations’ international operations.  He brings leadership experience and extensive operations industry experience to the Company.

Mr. Michael van der Woude serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Emergo Group Inc. He is an international business development expert and has many years of experience in international markets advising companies in establishing or expanding their business in the USA and Europe. He was Founder of APT Plus LLC. Prior to joining Emergo Group, he spent six years as a director for the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA), offering support and expertise to US companies expanding into the European market. He has ten years of first hand experience operating his own company, and worked for a leading multinational financial services company. Mr. van der Woude holds Masters Degree in Business from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

US President, Cintra

Nicolas Rubio is US President at Cintra, the transportation infrastructure development arm of the infrastructure global leader Ferrovial. Cintra operates on three continents with managed assets in excess of $25 billion. In the US Cintra is a majority shareholder in toll roads with an investment over $13 billion, including SH 130 in Cental Texas; NTE, LBJ, and I-35W in the Dallas Fort Worth region; the Chicago Skyway; and the Indiana Toll Road. Cintra was recently selected preferred bidder for the I-77 managed lanes project in North Carolina.

Leading operations from Cintra’s US corporate headquarters in Austin, Texas, Mr. Rubio has more than two decades of international executive leadership experience within the transportation and construction sectors.

From 1998 through 2009, Mr. Rubio was Head of Business Development and Technical Department for Cintra. During his tenure, Mr. Rubio was involved in the development of more than 150 private infrastructure projects spanning more than 30 countries.

Mr. Rubio’s professional experience began in the construction industry, with several executive management positions in Europe and Africa. His professional qualifications include a Master’s degree in civil engineering from Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain.

In 2010 Mr. Rubio was presented the Entrepreneur of the Year Award by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association “for his continuing contributions that have promoted the art and practice of public private partnerships for transportation in the United States”.

Mr. Rubio and his family reside in Austin, Texas.

CEO Wake App

Jacobo Bergareche, is currently the CEO of Wake App. A company which started in 2011, an interactive contents studio, with which he has created and launched internationally awarded apps (2013 SXSW Interactive Award Finalist, Billboard Conference Panelist, Vodafone Foundation Mobile for Good awards).

Previously he worked as creator, writer and executive producer for several prime time shows in Spain’s major networks. Jacobo Bergareche is also a founding partner of atrappo.com, the first app discovery search engine in the Spanish speaking world, and board member of the Fundación Roque Bergareche Mendoza, a foundation in Spain that awards grants, mentors tech start-ups and reviews 300 projects per year.

Lynda House-McPeters currently serves as Director – Carrier Relations, Wholesale/Global Service Delivery – AT&T. In this position she serves as the point of escalation for Service Delivery and Service Assurance issues for all AT&T Wholesale services that require specialized intervention so that roadblocks that impede problem resolution are removed. Under her leadership her team acts as the Customer’s advocate for any concerns and escalations across Ordering, Provisioning and Maintenance. As the owner of the overall Customer Experience, Lynda is required to interact with the Sales teams as well as numerous other internal AT&T departments so that the customers’ interests have the appropriate attention within AT&T. In addition, she is responsible for hosting regular Executive Meetings with Customers where the delivery of Customer specific Stewardship reporting is done. Lynda is accountable for driving the development of Root Cause Analysis Reports, Service Action Plans and Process Improvements to resolve immediate and systemic service delivery and maintenance issues. Lynda leads a team of professional Service Executives and Managers who are strategically located throughout the United States and Bratislava, Slovakia.

Vice President, Manufacturing and World Wide Operation of National Instrument

As vice president of manufacturing for National Instruments, Rob Porterfield oversees the worldwide manufacturing organization including purchasing production, operations, and services. Porterfield and team focus on continuously improving customer satisfaction and production efficiency, lowering material costs, reducing quoted product lead times, managing inventory levels, and ensuring the timely release of new products into production. Since joining NI in 1993 as a warehousing supervisor, Porterfield has held positions including materials manager, planning manager, director of international operations and global planning, and director of international operations and global supply chain. Prior to joining NI, Porterfield worked as a design engineer at General Dynamics. Porterfield holds a master’s degree in business administration from The University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Auburn University.

VP Technology, IDA Ireland

Mícheál Smith leads IDA Ireland’s Technology Division across Texas, the Mid-West and the South-East. Mícheál works with US companies making the leap into Europe for the first time and is also responsible for maintaining the relationship between IDA and many of the leading technology brands at a corporate level across the region who already have a presence in Ireland.

IDA Ireland, the Irish Government’s inward investment agency, promotes Ireland as a cost efficient and effective bridge to Europe and EMEA for US and other international companies. IDA works with its existing client base of over 1000 of the world’s top companies in an effort to ensure the development of their internationally-focused activities in Ireland.

Mícheál has recently moved to the USA from Asia where he spend 7 years. The first 4 of those years were with Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs, based in The Embassy of Ireland in Singapore, with an Asian-wide Economic and Innovation remit. He then went on to open IDA Ireland’s first ASEAN office, which he ran for 3 years.

Previous to his time in Asia Mìcheál spent 4 years as an Economic Analyst with Ireland’s Department of Communications and Energy while also working weekends and holidays in his Family’s food business.

Mìcheál holds a BSC in Management (Business & Economics) from Queen’s University Belfast and a MSC in Economic Policy Studies from Trinity College Dublin.

(FYI Mícheál is Irish for Michael and pronounced Me-Haul)