Meet our amazing leaders
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Get to know the people behind OPEN AUSTRIA East Coast. Our team brings together expertise in economic policy, digital affairs, innovation, and tech diplomacy, working to connect Austria and the U.S. in meaningful ways.
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!
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Michael Dobersberger
CO-DIRECTOR
Isabella Tomás
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
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.
Natasha Chatlein
PROGRAM MANAGER | STARTUPS & INNOVATION
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Lukas Reiff
ASSOCIATE | ECONOMIC & TECH DIPLOMACY
Lukas supports the Open Austria Team until April 2025. Since he had the chance to spend three months abroad during the job rotation program, the 29-year-old chose to inhale the entrepreneurial spirit of the Bay Area. The lawyer normally works for the Austrian Ministry of Economy at the department responsible for SMEs, where he creates, monitors and processes funding programs.
Lukas received his law degree (University of Vienna) in 2021. He loves to travel and since he has already seen 25 European States, it was time to return to the USA to discover the West Coast after visiting New York City, Boston and Washington D.C. in 2017. His hobbies are football (the one Americans call "soccer"), reading and writing books. Lukas’ first crime novel will be published this summer, so be excited for “Der Schwalbenfänger”.
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Silke English
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.