Meet the speakers

Pascal Kaufmann is a neuroscientist-turned-entrepreneur, named by Inc. magazine alongside Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking as one of the leading voices in rethinking intelligence. After earning his Master’s degree in Neuroscience and Economics at ETH Zurich and Northwestern University, he worked at the University of Zurich’s Artificial Intelligence Lab on pioneering projects at the interface of brains and machines. In 2010, he co-founded Starmind to build self-learning knowledge networks, while in 2017 he launched the Mindfire Group, which today unites thousands of talents at its AI Lab42 in Davos to advance human-level AI. Most recently, he co-founded AlpineAI, providing sovereign, trustworthy AI to Europe’s most critical institutions, with SwissGPT already deployed across governments, universities, and healthcare providers. 

Greg Gage is the co-founder and CEO of Backyard Brains.  He is a neuroscientist, author and biomedical engineer who loves tinkering with all things electric.  Currently, Greg is developing new tools, curricula, and experiments that allow the general public to participate, hands-on, in neuroscience discovery.  He is a senior fellow at TED and has given 10 TED talks.  He’s an award-winning investigator at the National Institute of Health, and he was recognized in a White House ceremony for his commitment to citizen science.  He is currently working with MIT Press on a follow-up to his 2022 “How the Brain Works” about how the mind perceives consciousness and how we perceive ourselves... all explained with hands-on experiments. 

Dr. Nikolaos Dimitriadis has been applying neuroscience to business and education for the last two decades. He is the Head of the EY Applied Neuroscience Lab in Greece, offering cutting-edge Neuromarketing, NeuroHR, Neuroleadership and Neurosafety services. He has scanned more than 9,000 brains from 25 countries globally. He has co-authored the books "Neuroscience for Leaders" and "Advanced Marketing Management", both for Kogan Page, London. He has worked with international brands such as IKEA, IBM, JTI, Nestle, Johnson&Johnson, AstraZeneca, CISCO, SAP, Pierre Fabre, Coca Cola, Microsoft, VMware, DELL and others. Dr. Dimitriadis is a Professor of Practice at The University of York Europe Campus, Greece, where he leads the MSc in Neuromarketing. He is also a Visiting Professor at the School of Economics and Business of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and at the Fribourg School of Management, Switzerland. Dr. Dimitriadis received the Greek Excellence Award 2022 from the Hellenic Institute for Customer Service for the global impact of his work.

Dobrinka Vicentijevic is a marketing consultant with more than 15 years of experience helping global brands boost consumer engagement and drive sales growth. As Shopper Insights Director at EyeSee, she leads a cross-functional team that turns behavioural data and insights into actionable strategies to spark change and shape the strategy. Dobrinka is passionate about emerging technologies, shopper psychology, and building brands that inspire loyalty. She has spoken at some leading industry events, including IIEX and the Marketing Summit, and authored articles on consumer trends, behavioural research, and the impact of technology on retail.

Marie-Alice Boyé is a Franco-Irish expert in human-centric, future-proof strategies with over 20 years of experience working with organizations of all sizes across Europe and Africa. She is the author of the bestseller Digital Marketing for Dummies in 50 Keywords and also teaches executive education programs on value creation, foresight, and transformation. She is a founding member of Futurons, a collective of futurists, designers, and artists that creates immersive experiences based on speculative design and design fiction.

Milan Janić is a design-driven creative director working at the crossroads of healthcare, sustainability and future thinking. He has created campaigns and experiences with both global companies and small NGOs, always with the goal of making communication clearer, more human and more impactful. 

His work on the study NEUROcsr, published in Sustainability Journal and the Journal of Consumer Behaviour, explores how messages affect the brain and how this knowledge can inspire change. Passionate about using brain models to design communication, Milan is curious about how emerging tools can expand our understanding of human connection. 

As co-founder of Goodbra(i)nd and Futurons, he develops brain-friendly ideas and shares the practice of neuro-design and responsible communication to help people imagine and shape a future worth striving for.

Hal Taylor is a technology and engineering leader with over two decades of experience guiding organizations through large-scale transformation. Currently Head of Software Engineering at Tamedia (TX Group) in Switzerland, he specializes in aligning engineering with business strategy, driving modernization efforts such as cloud migration, microservices, and AI integration, while scaling high-performing teams of 70+ engineers. Known for his pragmatic approach, he bridges technology and business with a focus on sustainable growth, innovation, and cultivating the next generation of leaders.

Dr. Jelena Pavlović is an Associate Professor of Organizational Development and Change at the University of Belgrade and the Founder of Koučing Centar. As a psychologist, coach, and researcher, she has worked for two decades at the intersection of human development and innovation. She is the author of two international books (Coaching Psychology: Constructivist Approaches, Routledge 2020; Partnering with AI in Coaching and Human Skills Development, Routledge 2025), bridging academia, organizations and technology. Jelena leads projects in AI augmented learning and leadership development, collaborating with Microsoft and innovation funds. Her research and practice focus on how we can co-create new ways of learning with AI. At Cognitive Code 2025, she will speak about the evolution of perspective in human-AI collaboration: how subtle shifts in meaning-making can unlock major breakthroughs in innovation.