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.
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TRADE COMMISSIONER | CO-DIRECTOR
After completing his Master's degree in Business Consultancy and Business Leadership in Austria, Michael worked for four years as a Senior Associate in consulting and auditing at BDO in Vienna. He joined ADVANTAGE AUSTRIA in 2015 and his assignments as Deputy Trade Commissioner took him to Jakarta (2016-2019), Belgrade (2019-2022) and London (2022-2024). He is currently Co-Director of Open Austria and Austrian Trade Commissioner in San Francisco. His aim is to build bridges between Austria and Silicon Valley, to learn about new technologies and their impact on the economy and to help Austrian companies understand how these new technologies can be used in practice. Michael is a former football referee in the fourth Austrian league and a passionate snowboarder. If you are looking for an opponent in racquetball, contact him!
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.
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MANAGER | TECH DIPLOMACY & COMMUNICATIONS
Silke joined the Open Austria team as the Tech Diplomacy and Communication Manager in July 2024. Before this role, she co-founded and ran several startups in Silicon Valley and has been supporting Austrian companies to gain traction in the US market, particularly in the Bay Area. In 2020, Silke founded her own consultancy firm Paistetta focusing on Corporate Development and Strategic Partnerships.
Born and raised in Villach, Austria, Silke still has strong ties to her Austrian heritage but also has cultivated a robust network with major corporations in North America, providing her with unique insights and opportunities to drive innovation and growth.
As the Tech Diplomacy and Communications Manager at Open Austria, she builds and maintains relationships between the Austrian tech industry, government, and international partners.