Speaker Bio
Tarek R. Besold is a leading R&D and innovation executive with prior experience in Digital Health, AI Testing, Inspection, and Certification (TIC), and AI for Scientific Discovery. He has a successful track record both in corporate and start-up environments, leading frontier R&D, product development, and service-delivery units.
Tarek currently is a Senior Staff Research Scientist, Flagship Project Lead “AI for Scientific Discovery”, and Head of the Barcelona office at Sony AI (). His previous roles include Head of Strategic AI at DEKRA Digital GmbH and VP at DEKRA SE (), interim CTO with acting managerial responsibility for technology, standardization, and operations at Neurocat GmbH (deep-tech startup developing AI quality tooling and services), Chief Science Officer at Telefonica Innovacion Alpha Health, the health tech moonshot of Telefonica (now Koa Health, ), and Assistant Professor in Data Science at City, University of London.
Tarek’s further activities include work as a startup advisor and consulting AI policy expert. Also, he was the founding chairman (2018-2023) of the DIN/DKE Standards Working Committee on AI NA 043-01-42 GA ().