Carlos Brito is a distinguished academic leader with a four-decade career dedicated to marketing and innovation. He has held pivotal governance roles, including Pro-Rector for Innovation at University of Porto and Vice-Rector for Research at Portucalense University. Dr. Brito is widely recognized for his transformative leadership as former Director of UPTEC, the University of Porto’s award-winning Science and Technology Park, and as the 2018 “Personality of the Year” by the Portuguese Business Angels Association.
With a PhD from the University of Lancaster, his expertise spans international marketing and digital strategy, having authored eight influential books on marketing and business strategy. Beyond academia, Dr. Brito is a prominent voice in global networks, contributing at bridging European research standards with high-growth Asian and Iberian-American markets. He currently serves as President of the Portuguese Management Association and is a frequent media opinion maker on the future of global innovation.
Mladen Čudanov is a Full Professor at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences, Serbia, where he acquired MSc and PhD degrees. He was a visiting Assistant Professor at joint programs of iVWA (Germany) / ZHCPT (PR China) and iVWA (Germany) / JCIT (PR China). He has 20+ years of consultant experience in organizational design, entrepreneurship, event and change management. He has collaborated on and helped assess more than 100 startup projects. He has published more than 140 papers in research journals and conferences, has more than 1400 citations, with roughly a quarter of it from the Web of Science journals. He serves as an Editor-in-chief / Associate Editor and reviewer in several journals, like JCR indexed Amfiteatru Economic and Management: Journal of Sustainable Business and Management Solutions in Emerging Economies. He supported or organized several international academic events like the Danube Cup and REDINEST.