Judges for embedded world 2026

James has over 24 years semiconductor and technology sector experience, most recently as Vice President, EMEA at eInfochips, Arrow Electronics’ global design services business. In this role he was responsible for leading commercial sales of semiconductor and hardware design services. Prior to this, James held several global commercial leadership positions at Arrow Electronics where he successfully drove revenue growth, market expansion, and strategic partnerships. He holds a degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of the West of England and an MBA from Santa Clara University. 

Fabio Violante is CEO of Arduino, the company behind the largest open-source hardware and software community in the world, since 2017.

From 2010 to 2015, Fabio served as Chief Technology Officer of BMC Software, following the acquisition by BMC of Neptuny, a startup he co-founded and led before the acquisition. Fabio Violante is also co-founder and Board Member of Moviri group (Akamas, Cleafy, Contentwise). He holds a MSc degree and a Ph.D. in computer engineering from Politecnico di Milano (Italy), and he was an adjunct professor at the same university.

Robert Owen created and directed three of the world’s leading industry to university programmes: for Texas Instruments, Imagination Technologies, and RS Components.

Across a generation he supervised the creation of packages of education materials which provide hands-on learning using industrially-proven technologies. These materials are enabling teachers of the next generation of engineers and programmers, to understand how to solve real-world problems with these technologies. To add strategic depth, in influential universities, he facilitated the development of productive links for joint research and recruitment.

Now in his 30th year in the field of industry-to-academia collaboration, working as a Consultant, Robert has unique insight into this market, and a formidable global network of relationships.

Stéphane Ratelet serves as director, sales and support/digital solutions – EMEA at DigiKey. He develops and executes regional strategies to expand DigiKey’s market presence and enhance customer engagement.

Stéphane is also responsible for managing relationships with third party software partners and supports the implementation of direct API connections to assist customers with their digital transformation, ensuring seamless integration and operational efficiency.

Stéphane joined DigiKey in 2014, and has held a variety of roles including international API champion and director, business development – EMEA. Prior to joining DigiKey, Stéphane had more than 10 years of electronic sales and engineering experience from EPIQ, ETRI and RS components.

Topics/expertise:

• Electronic engineering
• Digital solutions
• Business development
• Machine-to-machine connectivity
• APIs

Vibishna Balagopal is Head of Electronics at Optronics and Missile Electronics, Thales UK, where she leads a team of over 50 electronics engineers dedicated to developing state-of-the-art optronics systems for defence applications across land, sea, and air domains. Since joining Thales in July 2024, Vibishna has introduced innovative process and tool improvements, fostered cross-functional collaborations, championed inclusive leadership, and established structured development pathways for apprentices, interns, and graduates entering the electronics field.

In addition to her technical and leadership roles, Vibishna is a vocal advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM. Vibishna’s achievements have earned her wide recognition; she was recently shortlisted in four categories at the 2025 Women Leaders in Electronics Awards and was Highly Commended in the prestigious Woman of the Year category.