The IT Arena 2026 program is taking shape, bringing together founders, executives, product leaders, and engineers from around the world across the Business, Product, Dev, and Startup stages.

Read on to meet the latest speakers joining the lineup and explore the ideas, experience, and perspectives they will bring to this year’s program.

Business Stage: How Technology Reshapes Global Business Growth 

The Business Stage brings together founders of global companies, investors, government representatives, and policymakers for strategic conversations on market expansion, operational scale, and the trends reshaping global business.

For tech founders, CEOs, and entrepreneurs, the stage will feature proven growth strategies, the role of technology in the future of business, and the challenges and opportunities companies face today.

Joining the Business Stage is Barry M. Katz, IDEO Fellow, design historian, author, and Emeritus Professor at the California College of the Arts.

Drawing on more than two decades at IDEO and extensive experience advising companies, governments, and academic institutions worldwide, Barry will explore how design can become a strategic driver of innovation. His perspective will offer business leaders practical insight into how design thinking, technology, and organizational decision-making come together to shape products, industries, and long-term growth.

As AI gains greater decision-making power, business leaders need new oversight approaches. Eric Maroyan, Managing Director at RSM US LLP, has been advising Fortune 500 executives and boards in the US on enterprise AI oversight: accountability for autonomous systems, third-party and model dependencies, and who owns the outcome when a system, not a person, makes the call. 

He will bring practical insights to the Business Stage on governing autonomous systems, managing third-party and model risks, and defining clear ownership of AI-driven outcomes. 

Dev Stage: From AI to Quantum Computing

The Dev Stage is where technology gets specific — from systems and architecture to the engineering decisions that determine how products perform and scale. CTOs, senior engineers, and architects will share advanced practices, real-world case studies, and the trade-offs behind building reliable technology.

Expect deep dives into cloud infrastructure, developer ecosystems, tools, and complex system design, alongside practical workshops led by industry experts. It is a space to sharpen your technical expertise, learn from proven approaches, and stay ahead of the technologies shaping modern software development.

Przemyslaw Zielinski, a quantum computing researcher at the Technical University of Munich, is joining the Dev Stage to unpack the engineering challenges behind quantum technology. 

He has worked in experimental quantum computing and quantum communication environments as a data engineer at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) in Vienna, where he developed data-processing software for experimental platforms. At IT Arena, Przemyslaw Zielinski will take a closer look at high-performance computing, quantum communication, and the software tools bringing large-scale quantum systems closer to practical use. 

Joining the Dev Stage is Yonathan “Yoni” Levin, CTO and Co-Founder @ Stealth Startup and an early builder at monday.com. He helped scale the company’s technology from startup mode to global reach, leading AI initiatives, a public API handling billions of requests, and a mobile platform used by millions.

At IT Arena, he will unpack what it takes to turn ambitious AI ideas into reliable products and scalable systems. Expect practical lessons on technical ownership, infrastructure, and building for real-world adoption.

Product Stage: How to Turn Innovation into a Winning Go-to-Market Strategy

The Product Stage unites product leaders, experienced product managers, and entrepreneurs to explore how ideas become successful products — from research and validation to iteration, launch, and scale.

How do culture, identity, and geopolitics shape the products we build? Mikko-Pekka Hanski — a Finnish entrepreneur, investor, unofficial cultural attaché of Finland in Ukraine — will explore how cultural context influences product thinking and how companies build for global audiences.

The founder of Idean, the global design studio acquired by Capgemini, is now a proud member of the Cultural Forces of Ukraine, is developing Solovey Music, a Finnish-Ukrainian cultural platform, and Double Tap Investments, which supports Ukrainian defense tech founders. 

What does it take to build and scale partner networks for one of the world’s leading unicorns? At the Product Stage, Lana Malikova, Ex-Grammarly, Vendor Business Development Manager at Amazic, will share lessons from five years at Grammarly, where she helped expand partner networks across EMEA and APAC. Her career spans international audience growth, talent development at MGID, and more than a decade in language education and cross-cultural communication.

At IT Arena, Lana will explore why true global scale is not just about selling internationally — it is about building the agility to learn from every market.

Whether you are building a new tech product or refining an existing one, expect practical insights into roadmaps, user research, go-to-market strategy, and scaling across local and global markets.

Startup Stage: Insights for Startups Fueling Expansion

The Startup Stage is where bold ideas meet real-time pressure. Founders pitch, learn, adapt, and test their vision in front of investors, venture capitalists, media, and an expert jury.

For attendees, it is a chance to discover emerging solutions, hear honest stories of success and failure, and gain practical insights into pitching, growth, and fundraising. For startups, it is a platform to gain visibility, build connections, find partners, and unlock new opportunities.

In 2026, the Startup Stage will bring together prominent founders, investors, and industry leaders ready to challenge conventional thinking, inspire ambitious growth, and open new paths for scaling.

Dan Herman, Executive Advisor for Innovation Policy & Global Ecosystems at Northguide Inc., will bring a global perspective to the Startup Stage, exploring how capital, talent, and ideas move across markets — and what this means for the next generation of startups.

Based in Toronto, Dan is an innovation strategist, professor, and documentary producer. His work includes Magnetic Cities, an 18-episode series examining how emerging ecosystems across Africa, Asia, and Latin America are reshaping the global innovation economy, and A People’s War, a documentary about russia’s war against Ukraine that received Best Documentary at the Venice Film Festival and Best Short Documentary at the Los Angeles Film & Documentary Awards.

At IT Arena 2026, Dan will eplore global innovation ecosystems, from policy and investment flows to talent mobility, and explain how these shifts influence where startups emerge, grow, and scale.

Also joining the Startup Stage this September is Dan Tyre, Founder and CEO of Tyre Angel, an investment company focused on building strong leaders and high-growth companies.

Over a 46-year career, Dan has helped scale six startups, including two unicorns, and has founded and led two fast-growing scale-ups himself. His experience goes far beyond theory: he has firsthand knowledge of turning early-stage ventures into scalable businesses. 

Dan is also an investor, author, executive coach, board member, and adviser to companies worldwide. He lectures at leading universities and brings an unusually broad perspective shaped by business, leadership, exploration, and decades of hands-on execution.

At the IT Arena Startup Stage, he will explore scaling, leadership, and the critical decisions that turn early traction into sustainable growth. 

These are only some of the global founders, executives, researchers, and product leaders joining IT Arena 2026. The lineup continues to expand, bringing even more expertise, practical insights, and bold ideas across every stage.

Secure your spot now and be part of the conversations shaping the future of technology, business, products, and startups.