Swedish SAAB group supported “EBAN Winter University 2016” with a gold sponsorship!

A cooperation agreement between the Croatian Business Angels Network (CRANE) and SAAB group was signed on Wednesday, November 16th, at the residence of the Swedish Ambassador Lars Schmidt. Thus, SAAB group became the gold sponsor of the EBAN Winter University 2016 conference and Sweden became the official partner country. The official signing of the agreement was attended by Davorin Štetner, the President of CRANE, Sanja Hrvojević Beganović and Pierre Gauffin, representatives of the SAAB group supported by Lars Schmidt, the Ambassador of Sweden to the Republic of Croatia.

sih_0625“I am very pleased that the multinational company, as great and reputable as the SAAB group recognized the importance of our conference and decided to support it with a gold sponsorship. Their support is a clear indicator of our work’s quality and a great motivation to continue with an even stronger pace. The SAAB Group is well-known for its global presence and the continuous investments in technology and innovation development, which actually makes it a symbolic representation of the values ​​that we want to promote through our conference.”- said Davorin Štetner, the president of CRANE and the main organizer of the conference.

SAAB was founded in Sweden in 1937 in order to ensure the national supply of military aircraft. Due to the continuous development, nowadays the SAAB company has spread on every continent, offering world-leading products, services and solutions for military defense and civil security to the global market. With nearly 15,000 employees, their annual revenue totals in 27 billion Swedish kronors, 25% of which is reinvested in research and development.

“Contributing to the development of innovations represents the foundation of our business. SAAB believes that innovations are the main drivers of economic growth and competitiveness. We invest about 25% of revenue in research and development annually and by following our global strategy we launched the creation of Croatian – Swedish innovation initiative in Croatia. It is our great pleasure that as a Gold sponsor we can support the EBAN University conference that is held in Zagreb for the first time, especially because of the eminent experts’ attendance along with the exchange of new ideas and trends. We believe that this will create a breeding ground for innovation and facilitate creating a society based on knowledge and excellence.” said Sanja Hrvojević Beganović, SAAB’s representative for Croatia and the sales and marketing director for Central and Southeastern Europe.

EBAN Winter University 2016 is the largest European conference of business angels co-organized by the Croatian Business Angel Network (CRANE) and the City of Zagreb at the Lisinski concert hall on 29th and 30th of November. The conference will deliver a series of lectures, discussions and workshops from leading investment experts, who will inform the conference participants and give insights into the latest trends in the startup industry.

At the conference, the lectures will be held by Bruce Dickinson, the lead singer of Iron Maiden, Dov Moran,  the commercial pilot and entrepreneur, Tom Tyler, the inventor of the USB stick from Bloomberg, Tom Yoritaka,  the global managing director of Cisco and many others.  Some of the world’s most renowned business angels such as Johann Hansmann, the Europe’s  best early stage investor, Peter Cowley, UK’s business angel of the year and Riku Asikainen, the founder of Slush and a startup sauna, have already confirmed their attendance at the conference.