Global Blockchain Visionaries in Thessaloniki – Charles Hoskinson at AIZ | October 24, 2025

Charles Hoskinson is a co-founder of Ethereum and the CEO & Founder of Input Output (IO), the company behind the Cardano blockchain. He has testified in front of the US Congress, operates a 11,000 acre bison ranch, owns both a construction company and a state-of-the-art healthcare clinic focused on anti-aging in rural Wyoming, is part of the group that de-extincted the dire wolf, is a co-founder of a lab that is genetically engineering bioluminescent plants, and even funded and joined a maritime expedition near Papua New Guinea that recovered extrasolar fragments from the ocean floor.

In 2021, Charles founded the Hoskinson Center for Formal Mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University in order to promote the use of formal computational methods and new technologies for mathematical research and education. He is a blockchain pioneer with a large following on YouTube and X, where he shares his genuine thoughts on a huge range of subjects and interests.

Carlos Vargas-Montero is VP of AI & Integra. A veteran engineering leader who joined IO, the R&D firm behind Cardano, in 2018, Carlos translates frontier technologies such as AI and blockchain into commercially viable solutions, aligning executives and cross-functional teams around clear strategies.

Previously, he led software-engineering teams at Amazon and Hewlett-Packard, shipping large-scale cloud and enterprise platforms. Carlos couples deep technical fluency (MSc Computer Science, BSc Computer Engineering) with business acumen (MBA), providing CEOs and boards with a unique lens on technology governance, strategic positioning, and innovation risk management.

Dr. Konstantinos Diamantaras holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens and a PhD from the Department of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University, USA, in 1992. He then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Siemens Corporate Research in Princeton, USA, and at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Since 1998, he has been a member of the teaching staff at the Department of Informatics at the Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, where he has held the position of full professor since 2006. Since 1998, he has been a member of the teaching staff of the Department of Informatics at the Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, where he has held the position of full professor since 2006. His research interests include machine learning, signal processing, parallel processing, and image and video processing.

Dr. Diamantaras is a Senior Member of the IEEE. He served as Chair of the IEEE SPS Machine Learning for Signal Processing Technical Committee (MLSP-TC) in 2009-2010 and has been a member of the committee since 2005. He was also a member of the IEEE Signal Processing Theory and Methods (SPTM) TC from 2005 to 2008. He is co-author of the book “Principal Component Neural Networks: Theory and Applications,” published by John Wiley in 1996, and has also published two other books in Greek on Neural Networks and Parallel Processing. He currently serves as Associate Editor for the international scientific journals IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, IEEE Signal Processing Letters, and Journal of Signal Processing Systems (Springer). In the past, he has also served as Associate Editor for the journal IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks. In 1997, he received the IEEE Best Paper Award in the field of Neural Networks and Signal Processing. He has been a member of the technical committee and chair of various conferences in the fields of Signal and Image Processing, Machine Learning, and Neural Networks.

Nikolaos Tsoniotis is a telecommunications engineer with experience in research and development who has become a serial entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in mobile applications, SaaS, social impact businesses, and hardware startups.

This journey has shaped a strong product mindset, focused on turning ideas into tangible solutions and iterating to adapt the product to the market. In essence, he combines fundamental engineering knowledge with entrepreneurial spirit.

He currently works as Product Director at KINVENT, where he leads product innovation and aligns customer insights with strategic value creation, championing a new era of connected physical therapy solutions. At the same time, with Ideas Forward, he empowers start-ups, spin-offs, and research teams as a trainer, coach, and mentor, helping them leverage their potential and bring innovation to global markets.

Konstantinos Votis is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies (IICT) of the National Center for Research and Technological Development (CERTH).

He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering and Informatics (2002) and a Master’s Degree in Computer Science and Technology (2004) from the University of Patras, as well as an MBA – New Principles of Business Administration (2007) from the same institution. In 2011, he was awarded a PhD from the Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics at the University of Patras.

His research activity focuses on the use of Semantic Web techniques and ontologies for the development of intelligent systems in the fields of health, e-learning, the digitization of cultural heritage, and the accessibility of systems for people with disabilities.

He has extensive experience in application development, as well as in the management and implementation of European and national research and development projects.