(leader of the Women with Passion in IT segment )

- was born in 1966, in a little village in a Southern region of Italy called Puglia.

She received a master degree in Computer Science at the University of Salerno, in Italy, a master degree in Electrical Engineering at Columbia University, New York, and her Ph.D. in Information Engineering at the University of Brescia, Italy.

From 1992 till 1997, Caterina was a professor at the University of Brescia, lecturing courses in Analogue and Digital Signal Processes at the Dept. of Electrical Engineering. In 1998, to follow her heart, she moved to Vienna where she worked as research scientist at the Institute for Automation of the TU Wien. After one year in Austria, Caterina decided to move further north, and went to Belgium where she became manager of the Media Dept. of Starlab (a scientific research park / Europe’s answer to the MIT Media lab) and a year later the CEO and Chairman of Descriptomatic, a software company for Multimedia-on-demand and interactive TV solutions. After more than two years in Belgium, with her husband in Vienna and a newborn to take care of, Caterina decided it was time to reunify the family and went back to Vienna. Since January 2001, she works for Hutchison 3G, first in Product Implementation as Head of Application Enabled Services, then in Marketing responsible for the content portfolio and B2B Market. In October 2003, regardless a child on the way, she was appointed Director of the New Media Department.