Meet our team
Isabella Tomás
CONSUL | CO-DIRECTOR
Isabella joined the Open Austria team as Austrian Consul and Co-Director in August 2022. Before coming to San Francisco, she was counselor and Head of Unit of Transportation, Telecommunications, and Innovation Diplomacy in the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs of the Republic of Austria. Her postings abroad during her diplomatic career were in Madrid and Brasília. Before joining the Foreign Service in 2008, she worked as a foreign language assistant in two lycées in Versailles, France.
She received her M.A. in Romance languages and literature, political science, and communication science from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany and did a postgraduate diploma in international relations, international law, and economics at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, Austria. In her free time, Isabella likes traveling, reading, and trying exotic food. As a former competition dancer, she also enjoys (Latin American) music.
TRADE COMMISSIONER | CO-DIRECTOR
After receiving his Master’s degree in Business Administration in Austria, Daniel worked in various locations in Europe before joining ADVANTAGE AUSTRIA in 2015. His first posting brought him to Thailand as Deputy Trade Commissioner at ADVANTAGE AUSTRIA Bangkok (2016 – 2019). In August 2019 he switched twelve time zones and got posted in New York where he stayed until August 2021. Currently, he is director of ADVANTAGE AUSTRIA and Co-Director of Open Austria in San Francisco. He is interested in the disruptive effects of new technologies, sustainable smart city solutions, and building up strong and recognizable brands. As a passionate photographer and traveler, he spends his free time exploring new places and discovering San Francisco and the Bay Area.
PROGRAM MANAGER | STARTUPS & INNOVATION
Armed with a deep network, Natasha has been a Silicon Valley insider since 2007 in a variety of roles, from software engineer at Microsoft to Innovation Advisor for European companies, investors and governments. She has organized and/or co-founded several bootcamps, hackathons, roundtables and workshops, and mentored hundreds of tech startups from all over the world. Natasha founded BrainCoral Labs to leverage her network and connect the Caribbean directly to Silicon Valley in order to raise the innovation and entrepreneurship quotient of the region. Born and raised in Curaçao, she has been in the US for 20+ years, of which 15+ in the Valley.
MANAGER | TECH DIPLOMACY & COMMUNICATIONS
Evgenia has joined Open Austria as the Tech Diplomacy and Communications Manager in 2023. Prior to joining Open Austria, she worked at the German Chamber of Commerce in Moscow and San Francisco, a German foreign institution and network that offers advice and representation to companies looking to establish or expand their business abroad. Evgenia holds a M.Sc. in International Economics and Management from the University of Paderborn, with a focus on development economics. In addition, she has studied at the Tongji University in Shanghai and the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, further expanding her knowledge of international business and cross-cultural communication. As the Tech Diplomacy and Communications Manager at Open Austria, Evgenia is building and maintaining relationships between the Austrian tech industry, government, and international partners.
INTERN | STARTUPS & INNOVATION
Julian Felix Kerle completed his bachelor's degree in business law at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. With the knowledge he gained from his studies, he is happy to support Open Austria for three months in his work as an anchor for Austrian start-ups and companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to his studies, Julian has already gained numerous work experiences in the form of internships and minor employment at banks, law firms and the Austrian Parliament. Football, tennis and travelling are Julian's favorite hobbies, which he actively pursues in his free time.