Dr. Mark Pleško, MBA, was born in 1961 in and is a world-renowned expert on nuclear accelerators and particle cancer therapy and a sought-after speaker on business and entrepreneurships. He is the co-founder and CEO of Cosylab, a spin-off of the “J.Stefan” Institute, the nation’s largest research organisation, which he has grown to 250+ employees, present on three continents. In parallel, he is an angel investor in 15+ IT and deep-tech startups.

Dr. Pleško is President of the Management Board of the J. Stefan Institute, member (and Working Party Leader) of the EU-Japan Business Round Table, advisory board member of the university network EUTOPIA, member of Programme Councils at Faculties of Mathematics and Physics and Computer Science at the University of Ljubljana, and past and present member of several supervisory and management boards in international industry and non-profit organisations. He was the President of the Engineering Academy of Slovenia for two terms, Vice-president of the Science and Technology Council of the Government of Slovenia, and working group leader at the Council for Digitalisation of the Government of Slovenia.

In 2012, he was elected to the Slovenian Academy of Engineering for his contributions to Science, Engineering and Business. He has received the Award of the European Physics Society 2001, the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce Award for exceptional business and entrepreneurial achievements 2018, the Alumni of the Year 2018 Award of IEDC and the title Slovenian Entrepreneur of the Year 2025. He obtained a BSc, MSc, and PhD in elementary particle physics from the University of Ljubljana in 1983, 1985, and 1987, respectively. He received an MBA with honours at IEDC Bled in 1996.

Awards:

• 2001: European Physical Society Award
• 2012: elected to Slovenian Academy of Engineering
• 2018: Award of the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce for exceptional business and entrepreneurial achievements
• 2018: Alumni Achievement Award – IEDC
• 2025: Slovenian Entrepreneur of the Year