Agenda

Charles Odii is a renowned author, entrepreneurship development expert, and small business advocate. As the current Chief Executive Officer/Director General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), his role involves stimulating, monitoring, and coordinating the development of Nigeria's SME sector, which comprises approximately forty million SMEs. He also initiates and articulates policies for SME growth and development.

Since his assumption as the CEO of SMEDAN on October 13, 2023, Charles Odii has led impactful initiatives, resulting in the creation of over 120,000 direct and indirect jobs and the facilitation of over 12 billion naira in funding for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). These efforts have driven rural industrialization, poverty alleviation, and livelihood enhancement in Nigeria.

Charles is an alumnus of the US State Department, International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) on global business Development. He is a member of the Nigerian Institute of Management and the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria. Charles is a certified Business Development Service Provider, a mentor for the United States Young African Leaders’ Initiative and an entrepreneurial Coach.

Charles is also passionate about women entrepreneurship development and was listed in the 2024 Exquisite Magazine 50 Power People who embody resilience, leadership & advocacy for women empowerment and inclusion in Africa. He obtained a Master's degree from the Pan Atlantic University and a Bachelor’s degree in Management and Information systems from Covenant University.

In February 2024, he recieved The Sun Public Service Award for the year 2023, due to his outstanding contributions to SME development in Nigeria as the DG/CEO of SMEDAN. The Sun is one of Nigeria’s most prominent media organizations. He was also awarded the Public Sector CEO of the Year 2024 Award by The Independent Newspapers, Nigeria’s most read newspaper among the political and business elite.

For seven years, Sergey was a senior security researcher in the Kaspersky Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT), where he researched and published on financial threats, like Carbanak, Silence and Digital Doppelgangers. He also analyzed many nation-state advanced persistent threat (APT) samples. Based on this experience, Sergey created malware reverse engineering courses that teach the most effective methods for analyzing top malware threats. He’s trained beginner and experienced malware analysts, SOC analysts in various private and government organizations around the world as well as law enforcement officers. His cybersecurity research focuses on topics related to investigating and reverse engineering advanced persistent and financial threats.

Between 2019 and 2021, Sergey worked at JPMorgan Chase as a VP Cybersecurity Operations. In 2022, he returned to Kaspersky GReAT as a lead security researcher and later became the Head of Global Research & Analysis Team in META and APAC regions.

Sheila Birgen is Director of Innovation-Driven Markets at the Digital Cooperation Organization (DCO), where she leads initiatives to strengthen digital skills, entrepreneurship, startup ecosystems, and cross-border innovation across DCO Member States.

With more than 18 years of international experience, she is a digital economy strategist, tech diplomat, and ecosystem builder working at the intersection of technology, policy, entrepreneurship, and economic development. She collaborates with governments, international organizations, private sector leaders, and ecosystem stakeholders to advance inclusive digital transformation and digital economy growth.

Over the course of her career, Sheila has supported more than 2,000 entrepreneurs, partnered with over 30 international organizations and governments, and spoken at more than 500 international conferences and industry forums. She is passionate about building the partnerships, capabilities, and enabling environments that help people, businesses, and nations thrive in the digital age.

Ariq Bani Hardi is an Associate Expert Cryptographer at the Directorate of Cybersecurity and Cryptography for Finance, Trade, and Tourism, National Cyber and Crypto Agency of the Republic of Indonesia (BSSN). His work focuses on strengthening cybersecurity governance, cyber resilience, and coordination across strategic sectors, particularly in the financial, trade, and tourism sectors. He is actively involved in cybersecurity policy implementation, sectoral coordination, cyber resilience assessment, and capacity-building initiatives to support the protection of Indonesia’s digital ecosystem, including small and medium-sized enterprises.

As Vice President, Global Public Affairs, Yuliya Shlychkova leads Kaspersky’s relations with government agencies, international organizations, and other stakeholders as well as coordinating Kaspersky’s contribution to public policy initiatives worldwide. In particular, she represents the company at events under the aegis of the Ad Hoc Committee on cybercrime and the Open-Ended Working Group on ICT, and oversees the company’s participation in public consultations on national initiatives regarding the development and use of AI (inter alia, in Australia, Singapore and the USA).

Prior to her current role, Yuliya was responsible for the successful launch of the online cybersecurity expert training platform Kaspersky Xtraining. Online courses have been provided to Interpol and other organizations as part of the company’s contribution to capacity-building initiatives.

Before that, she held the position of Deputy PR Director. Under Yuliya’s leadership, a dedicated PR team was formed to support threat research – the bread and butter of the company’s expertise. She organized dozens of Kaspersky international summits and the company’s participation in industry events hosted by INTERPOL and the UN, RSA, MWC, etc. Yuliya contributed to the launch of the Global Transparency Initiative (aimed at highlighting the reliability of Kaspersky solutions and at promoting transparency standards in the cybersecurity industry as a whole) and her team is responsible for developing the program further.

Prior to joining Kaspersky in 2008, Yuliya worked for a number of PR agencies. She graduated from the Russian State University for the Humanities with Honors Degree in Public Relations.