Todd Allmendinger

Ruth Poliakine Baruchi

Ruth Poliakine-Baruchi is the founder and CEO of MyndYou, the first Artificial Intelligence-based platform helping clinicians to personalize action and treatment plans for more than 150M Seniors living with cognitive decline worldwide. Ruth has devoted a major portion of her career to helping develop innovative medical technology and patient-centric solutions.

As General Manager of Wellsense, a medical device company working to preventing pressure sores among hospital patients and nursing home residents, Ruth oversaw product development, manufacturing and customer support.  Wellsense technology is currently in use in major hospitals and nursing home facilities around the country.

Ruth founded MyndYou as an outgrowth of her belief that technology is key to promoting better patient outcomes and bettering people’s lives in fundamental ways.

Ruth lives in Israel with her husband and two children.

Caroline Bastiaens

Caroline Bastiaens studied Political and Social Sciences at the University of Antwerp. She started working as a political employee at CD&V, where she fulfilled several positions. She was Chief of Cabinet for Vice Mayor of the Port of Antwerp, Marc van Peel. She has served in the Flemish Parliament since 2012 and was a city councillor in Antwerp. In November 2016 she succeeded fellow party member Philip Heylen as the Vice mayor for culture, economy, city maintenance, property management.

Caroline focuses on realising a number of large projects in Antwerp. The Smart City project, more specifically the creation of a living lab in the smart zone, the development of an ecosystem for starters, with the StartupVillage and the planned IoT House, the development of Blue Gate, a European top location for innovative and sustainable companies in the circular economy and sustainable and smart waste management.

She serves on the board of Blue Gate Antwerp PH, BlueChem, BlueHealth, ZNA, KDG, VZW Antwerpen Kunstenstad, Werminval VZW and Antwerp Headquarters.

Jules Besnainou

Jules Besnainou is the Executive Director of Cleantech for Europe, the initiative helping the EU lead the race to net zero by bridging the gap between cleantech leaders and policymakers. He was previously a director at Cleantech Group, where he advised the world’s foremost cleantech investors, corporates and governments, helping them assess and invest in new innovations. After starting his career in San Francisco and London, he moved back to France to head the group’s EU presence and clients. Jules graduated summa cum laude from Sciences Po Paris.

Thomas Bibette

Fabrice Bienfait

Klaas de Boer

Klaas has over 20 years of venture capital experience, mainly in Europe, but also in North America and Israel. He is currently Managing Partner of Entrepreneurs Fund, which he joined in 2006. At Entrepreneurs Fund, Klaas’s responsibilities included inge GmbH (sold to BASF), Technolas Perfect Vision (sold to Bausch & Lomb), Prosonix Ltd (sold to Circassia), Lifeline Scientific Inc (sold to Genext), New Motion (sold to Shell) and Optinose (Nasdaq listing). In addition to General Fusion, he currently looks after SmartKem and vasopharm.

Next to Entrepreneurs Fund, Klaas is also a non-executive member of the investment committee of NESTA’s social impact fund.

Matthieu Bonamy

Matthieu has almost 20 years of experience in energy and information technologies sectors, including 12 years in Venture Capital and Infrastructure Investments. Prior to joining Idinvest Matthieu has occupied diverse managerial responsibilities in investments, M&A transactions and has served as an operations and investment senior executive in a “unicorn” startup of the renewable energy sector.

Art de Boo

Art de Boo, MBA, started his carrier as Corporate Finance Consultant with NIBC, the Dutch Investment Bank. Consequently he worked in several industries as interim manager. In 2015 he joined TNO. His work within the Dutch National Research and Technology Organization opened his eyes for the fascinating world of innovation. He got excited with the world of R&D, with competition through applied science. A world in which front runners in industries are driven by technical and social challenges, driven to capture market opportunities in a shorter time to market than their peers. An atmosphere in which only bringing togehter the right skills enables you to be successfull: from top science, to negotation skills, from IPR to finance, from planning to execution

In 2015 he started Dutch DNA Biotech. He raised money to acquire the fungal biotech portfolio, from his former employer, TNO. The portfolio consisted of a team with a world leading track record on fungal gentech and advanced fermentation, 6 associated patents, lab facilities and clients. As CEO of the company he is happy to introduce you to the work Dutch DNA Biotech and its role in industry.

Paul Bowden

Paul is a partner in the disputes practice and leads the firm’s global business and human rights team.

A leading defence litigator, Paul specialises in environment and product litigation. He advises clients on major group actions and judicial reviews, particularly in the energy and consumer products sectors. He is also well known for his work in nuclear law.

Paul established the firm’s environment and regulatory group and has developed a reputation as the lawyer clients turn to for advice on complex and high-profile matters.

Paul assisted with the research which led to the development of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Henk Jan Braggaar

Simon Bransfield-Garth

PhD in Engineering, St John’s College, Cambridge. Former Fellow, Cambridge University; former Industrial Fellow, Royal Society. Over 25 years’ experience building rapid growth, technology-based businesses in sectors including semiconductors, automotive equipment and mobile phones. Formerly, seven years with Symbian, the phone OS maker, as Member, Leadership Team and Vice-President, Global Marketing. Currently, Chief Executive Officer, Azuri Technologies, a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, delivering pay-as-you-go solar power on a commercial basis to rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa.

Paul De Bruycker

Paul De Bruycker joined lndaver at its start in 1986 as Sales and Marketing Director and held different management positions before he became CEO of Indaver in 2011. With a career of over 30 years in the waste industry, Paul is a respected senior expert in waste management and waste legislation and a published author. Paul obtained a master’s degree in bio-engineering at the UGent and a degree in Business engineering.

Today Paul De Bruycker holds different positions as Board member or as President of the Board in companies in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland. He is member of the Board of Vlaanderen Circulair, the Flemish transition platform for sustainable resource management and president of CEWEP, the European association of Waste to energy plants.

As a CEO of Indaver, a leading European waste management company specialized in the treatment and management of industrial and municipal waste, he focuses on innovation and entrepreneurship to put the circular economy into practice. With 1700 employees Indaver generates a turnover of 550 million € and manages more than 5 million tonnes of waste.

Henrik Busch-Larsen

Henrik Busch-Larsen, has been the CEO of Unibio Group since 2012. He has served as an Army Officer, holds a master degree in International Business, and is currently enrolled in an MBA program.

Henrik Busch-Larsen has more than 10 years of experience working with Unibio both as a board member, sales and marketing director and now CEO. Earlier in his carrier he founded a technology start-up working within applied artificial intelligence, where he made an exit before joining the Unibio team.

His ambition is to build a strong reputable business around the U-Loop technology and bring Uniprotein®, a bacterial protein to the world market. The main vision for Unibio is to take part in resolving the World’s protein scarcity challenge. In 2015 Unibio won the EY Entrepreneur of the Year in the Life Sciences Category.

Chris Case

Dr. Chris Case joined Oxford PV in April 2014, bringing a strong track record of senior technology management to the business. Since 2009, he has been running his own consultancy providing high level strategic technology commercialisation advice to global companies and small companies alike, including Voltaix Llc; recently acquired by Air Liquide, and Surrey NanoSystems.

Prior to this, he spent ten years with BOC Edwards and The BOC Group, latterly part of the Linde Group where he was Chief Technology/Scientific Officer, responsible for driving global technology strategy and R&D for the €8 billion business.

Chris has a strong scientific background in patents and IP management, and is passionate about realising their commercial value. His experience spans markets across the world including the US and he has worked for a number of companies – from large corporates to small start-ups – to help manage their IP portfolios, broaden their scope of influence and build successful and profitable businesses.

As well as being extensively published in international press and periodicals, Chris is also a regular speaker and lecturer on integrated circuits and photovoltaics, and chaired the interconnect team of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) for more than 10 years.

He began his career as Assistant Professor of Engineering at Brown University followed by 10 years at AT&T Bell Laboratories. He was a Fulbright-Hays scholar at the Université de Bordeaux, and holds a ScM in engineering and a PhD in materials science from Brown University.

Pinakin Chaubal

Dr. Chaubal is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology and obtained his M.S. from theMissouri University of Science and Technology and PhD from the University of Utah in USA, all in in Metallurgical Engineering.  He joined the steel industry in 1988 and has been involved in various aspects of process technology developments from raw materials to finishing processes in the steel production chain. He is currently General Manager of ArcelorMittal Global R&D responsible for worldwide programs in Process technology development.  Within this scope reside ArcelorMittal’s R&D  initiatives in Smart Manufacturing. ArcelorMittal has traditionally place a strong emphasis on leveraging developments in measurements, modeling, information technology to automate processes, and today is focused on further leveraging the various concepts under the umbrella of digitalization on an enterprise-wide basis.

Dorothée Coucharrière

Dorothée Coucharrière has over ten year’s professional experience in Climate change mitigation within Energy and Transports sectors. Before she joined Blue Solutions, the subsidiary of Bolloré group, who has developed Lithium Metal Polymer (LMP) battery, and related applications, she was policy officer principally responsible for electro-mobility, at the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport of the European Commission. Prior to joining the Commission, she started her career at the French legislative assembly. Then she moved to the energy sector to take charge of the institutional relations of the alternative energy company POWEO. Then, as Director of Public Affairs, she supported the Swedish state-owned energy company VATTENFALL in its industrial development projects, particularly in France.

Maria McKavanagh

As a prominent figure in the industry, Maria was recently nominated for the Computer Weekly top 50 Most Influential Women in Tech. She has a background in Field Sales Engineering at National Instruments where she was responsible for a multi-million pound sales territory across a wide range of industries from Aerospace and Defence to Consumer Electronics. Maria holds an MEng degree in Electronic Systems Engineering from The University of Manchester.

Sebastien Deprez

Sebastien Deprez is CEO and co-founder of Qweriu [pronounced: Query You]. Qweriu focuses on environmental data products and IoT-devices which use AI to enhance low-cost sensor data and is a spin-out of dotOcean. Sebastien holds a masters degree in IT and started his career as an IT-consultant. For over 9 years, Sebastien was the operational director of dotOcean in which he gained experience in managing and inspiring a (start-up) team, marketing & sales, operations and finance.  He’s still actively involved as member of the board in dotOcean. Sebastien has a passion for entrepreneurship, new technologies and IoT.

As CEO of Qweriu, Sebastien Deprez focuses on sales, partnerships and funding.

Philippe Dujardin

Johan Van Dyck

Johan Van Dyck CEO and founder of Exypnos, graduated as mechanical engineer and was active as consultant since.
After operating in different industries, he joined the Recticel group in 1999, where he was involved in the development of WST (Window Spray Technology), resulting in operational projects for Opel and Volvo.

In 2009, BASF acquired the WST patent from Recticel and matured the WST technology with Johan as technical consultant, into an operational technology. Simultaneously, new methods and applications emerged and Johan developed and patented WSTplus technology and founded Exypnos with a team of polyurethane specialists in May 2013.

Webasto, market leader in automotive roofing systems, implemented the WSTplus technology in China in 2014. This lead to a successful FTM (fixed transparent module) pilot project and worldwide technology release. With the support of Exypnos, several China based serial WSTplus projects were implemented in 2016-17.

Since 2016, Exypnos consists of Exypnos Systems, production department and Exypnos Engineering, development & think tank. Exypnos nowadays is expanding its activities by offering AVO (Added Value Operations) at our new production facility.

Exypnos facilitates bonding, framing and encapsulation involving polyurethane systems. Our robust and automated Production Systems, focuses on manufacturing of high quality products according clearly defined specifications with an energy- and cost-effective approach.

Giovanni Fili

Mr. Giovanni Fili, Founder & CEO, is an experienced entrepreneur and private investor. Mr. Fili holds a M.Sc. in Business and Administration with a double major in finance and information management from the Stockholm School of Economics. He has more than 15 years of experience from business and entrepreneurship and has worked as a private investor within the real estate sector and the commercialization of high tech innovations over the last 10 years. In recent years, Mr. Fili has been advising the Swedish government in entrepreneurial matters. Giovanni Fili is one of 13 entrepreneurs to lead a committee commissioned by the Swedish government, by direct appointment from Prime Minister Stefan Löfvén, to review the infrastructure for founding and running a company, and developing innovation.

Nicholas Flanders

Nicholas Flanders is the co-founder and CEO of Opus 12. Nicholas holds an M.S. in engineering and MBA from Stanford University. Opus 12 is his second venture-backed startup. Previously, Nicholas was an analyst in McKinsey’s Cleantech practice, where he served multiple clients in the energy and materials sector and co-authored groundbreaking studies of the global energy system. Nicholas was featured among Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Energy in 2016.

Opus 12 has developed a device that converts CO2 emissions into cost-competitive chemicals and fuels.

Founded at Stanford in 2015, Opus 12 scaled up its technology in the Cyclotron Road program at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL). Opus 12 has received funding from Shell, SoCalGas, NASA, DOE, NSF, ARPA-e, and top-tier investors. Opus 12 is the 2015 winner of the DOE’s Transformational Idea Award, and the three co-founders have been featured among Rolling Stone’s 25 People Shaping the Next 50 Years and MIT Technology Review’s TR35 Innovators.

Helga Dogg Flosadottir

She led the experimental part of the research project that led to the foundation of Atmonia in late 2016, around a novel, patented, electrochemical method for nitrogen reduction, with the goal to commercialize distributed nitrogen fertilizer production. She has also held the position of Head of R&D of the Chemical Analysis Department at the Innovation Center Iceland since 2016, as well as project manager in chemical analysis for environmental monitoring of industrial sites in Iceland since 2012.

Helga completed her PhD in Physical Chemistry at the University of Iceland in conjunction with research work at die Freie Universität Berlin, and continued to work as a Post Doc at the University of Iceland until 2012.

François Gerard

François GERARD is a Belgian social entrepreneur and founder of Helpper.  He holds a Master in Economics (KULeuven) and a Master in International Business (EAE Business School). He has worked as a business transformation expert for 10 years, and was a strategist in a digital agency for 2 years. The idea for Helpper came up when his father was diagnosed with ALS (an incurable neuromuscular disease) and he noticed that existing home assistance services could not provide the appropriate support.

Helpper is an online meeting place connecting people who need help at home with somebody in their own neighbourhood.
It allows the elderly and people with a disability or a chronic illness to find a dedicated person to support them in daily tasks, like grocery shopping, cooking and transport to the doctor.

Thanks to the recent evolutions in peer-to-peer income, the helpful neighbours (or helppers) receive a net hourly fee of €7 for their services. Helpper screens every helpper, guides the matchmaking process and supports the collaboration by taking care of insurances, payments, conflict handling and administration.

In december 2017, François won the award for Care Entrepreneur of the Year with Helpper.

Josh Gilbert

Josh Gilbert is Chief Executive Officer and founder at Sust Global.

Sust Global is the leading provider of climate data and APIs, providing the climate data foundations for global financial institutions, data providers, investors and corporates.

Sust Global’s product delivers satellite-validated insights and integrations, by transforming climate science with satellite and geospatial datasources and cutting-edge deep-learning techniques.

Josh is a global expert and leader in climate tech and sustainable finance, having worked across climate tech, cleantech and geospatial analytics.

Josh is a thought leader and regular speaker on climate tech sustainable finance, quoted in publications such as TechCrunch, Reuters, FT/Sifted and UKTN. Josh holds a BA & MSc in Economics & International Development, and wishes he had more time to play music and Dungeons & Dragons.

Yvette Go

Laurin Hahn

Laurin Hahn Co-Founder and CEO of Sono Motors GmbH. He studied electrical engineering / electric mobility at the University of Applied Science Munich. Laurin gained extensive experience in entrepreneurship by founding several other companies, which still run today.

Rhea Hamilton

As Managing Director Ventures of OGCI Climate Investments, Rhea Hamilton is responsible for economically viable investments in innovative companies and technologies. Previously, Rhea was a Managing Director for a European family office heading direct investments in clean technology and renewable energy. Prior to this, she was an Investment Director at RobecoSAM Private Equity. Rhea started her career with Royal Dutch Shell, where she held various positions including CFO of Shell Hydrogen. Rhea holds a Geological Engineering degree from the University of British Columbia, and an MBA from IESE in Barcelona, Spain.

Mich Hein

As an inventor, entrepreneur and corporate executive, Mich has 35 years experience in technol­ogy development and commercialization. In addition to his role at Electrochaea, Mich is a Partner at Focus First and a Manag­ing Partner of the Nidus Partners (St Louis, MO). Prior to starting Fo­cus First, Mich served as Executive in Residence at the University of Chica­go’s Office of Tech­nology and Intellectual Property, and as Chief of Staff at the Illinois Medical District where he managed the Chicago Technology Park. He started his career as a research chemist with Mon­santo and then PPG Industries before joining the faculty at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA. Mich’s investigations into mucosal immunology and plant-based proteins led him to found Epicyte Pharmaceutical, Inc which was acquired by Biolex, Inc in 2004. His entrepreneurial career also included positions as CEO at Chromatin, Inc and as founder of Heliose. Mich holds a BS degree from the Honors Tutorial College of Ohio University and both an MSc and PhD in Plant Physiology from the University of Minnesota.

Jeroen Hugenholtz

Jeroen Hugenholtz was born on August 27th 1957 in The Netherlands. He obtained his academic training at the University of Groningen, under the supervision of Wil Konings and Hans Veldkamp. After completion of his PhD Thesis in 1986, he moved to The University of Georgia, Athens GA, USA, where he worked as a Post Doctoral fellow on the bioenergetics of homoacetogenic clostridia. In 1989 he returned to the Netherlands and joined NIZO food research as Project leader in the Microbiology Department and later as Principal Scientist Food Fermentation until his departure in 2010. In 1998 he also became projectleader and principal scientist at WCFS and later TIFN and from 2004 onwards till 2010 he lead the Kluyver Centre for Genomics of Industrial Fermentation as one of the directors. In 2006, Jeroen Hugenholtz was awarded a part-time professor chair (Industrial Molecular Microbiology) at the University of Amsterdam, a position he still holds today. In 2010, JH moved from NIZO food research (and TIFN and Kluyver Centre) to Coca-Cola R&D Europe where he became responsible for global fermentation research.  In 2013, Jeroen Hugenholtz joined Corbion-Purac as Corporate Scientist Food Applications, where he was responsible for development of new ingredients for various food applications. In 2015 moved to Wageningen Food & Biobased Research (WFBR) as Business Development Manager within the business unit of Biobased Products. Currently, he is leader of the Expertise Group Microbial Cell Factories within WFBR. In this group, the main focus is on development of affordable fermentation processes for production of bulk chemicals, specialty chemicals, food ingredients and (bio)fuels as sustainable alternative for the current fossil fuel-based processes.

JH’s major scientific interests are; (food) fermentation in general, physiology and metabolic engineering of fermentative bacteria and industrial microbiology/biotechnology. JH is author of over 180 scientific publications and 20 patents.

Clive Jackson

Clive Jackson is Founder-CEO of Alyssum Group – newly-formed owner of leading private jet charter marketplace Victor, the business he launched in 2011, and dynamic aviation services company RocketRoute. A highly experienced tech entrepreneur, Clive has successfully innovated digital opportunities across the automotive, tech, media, luxury and leisure sectors for over 20 years.

Mateusz Józefowicz

Co-founder and current vice-president of ABM Space sp. z o.o., one of Poland’s first companies focusing exclusively on space technologies. The company bases on winning robotic teams of the University Rover Challenge competition, and currently runs ESA and NCBiR projects devoted to Mars rover solutions and orbital mechanisms for small satellites. As ABM’s CEO between 2011-2016 he also led several field simulated missions with robotic hardware in harsh environments (Sahara, Alpine glaciers). President of Mars Society Polska between 2007-2016, vice-president of European Space Foundation (organizer of European Rover Challenge). Initiator of EX-PL initiative, focusing on long-term plan of activities enabling Polish participation in exploitation of space resources.

Ismo Kauppinen

Dr. Ismo Kauppinen is the founder and CEO of Gasera Ltd that provides gas analysis solutions based on patented photoacoustic technology. His doctoral thesis focused on audio signal restoration techniques exploiting methods developed in the field of spectroscopy. He sold his first technology license in 2002 to a Danish global player, TC Electronic A/S, in the field of pro-audio. This was a patented technology for audio restoration, which resulted from his PhD work. Afterwards Ismo made several other patents in the pro-audio field. Ismo’s personal interests lie in the commercialisation of research results and technologies more than in the research itself. Ismo believes that his strengths are in being able to deeply understand the “product” (i.e. technology) and the “sales” (i.e. business strategy, culture etc) at the same time. This makes him valuable asset in helping to build global businesses around niche tech innovations.

Bill Kemp

Bill leads Enovation Partners’ strategy implementation services, helping clients to develop strategies that leverage competitive advantages and then to focus and align their organizations around achieving results. He has vast experience in the areas of strategic planning, M&A, technology and market economics, industry restructuring, marketing and trading, finance, operational improvement, competitive positioning, re-engineering/cost management, and litigation support.

Bill has advised on power industry policies and restructuring efforts in the North America, Asia and the Pacific, and Europe. He also has played important roles on many energy industry technology initiatives, restructurings, mergers, acquisitions, and greenfield investments, in the United States and overseas. Also, he has testified as an expert witness before numerous courts and agencies.

Koen Kennis

Koen Kennis is a Flemish politician with over 20 years’ political experience and a member of the N-VA (New Flemish Alliance), a young political party whose ancestry is rooted in democratic Flemish nationalism.  Koen Kennis is currently vice-mayor at the city of Antwerp in Belgium as well as alderman for finance, mobility, SME’s, tourism and intra municipal decentralisation and this since 2013.

Initially, Koen started his career in the private sector as manager for Belgavia from 1994 till 1997, and later on as managing consultant for Stork Asset management Solutions from 1997 till 2009. From 2009 till 2012 he was the senior advisor to Geert Bourgeois, the then Vice-Minister-President of the Flemish Government.

Koen Kennis is born and raised in Antwerp. Koen is respected by both friends and opponents as a passionate politician and a hard worker who possesses first-class knowledge of his dossiers.

Ibraheem Khan

Dr. Ibraheem Khan is the president and chief executive officer of Smarter Alloys, a Waterloo-based company he co-founded to commercialize his doctoral thesis and co-invention of the Multiple Memory Material (MMM). His patented technology enables shape memory alloys (SMAs) to become smarter, lighter, more reliable and capable in a range of commercial and industrial applications.

Dr. Khan completed his master’s and doctoral degrees at the Centre for Advanced Materials Joining in the Department of Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He has an extensive publication record – over 30 refereed journal publications, two book chapters and more than 10 conference proceedings. Dr. Khan also has a proven success rate when it comes to financing for research and development – he has been involved with successfully securing over $5 million from a range of industrial and government programs. He has won a number of awards for his research and teaching efforts, including the University of Waterloo’s Paul Niessen-Cominco Award for excellence in research leadership and the Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship.

Dr. Khan received his Bachelor of Applied Science (BASc) in Materials Engineering from the University of Toronto in 2005. In 2012, he returned to U of T MSE for two years as a post-doctoral fellow in Professor Keryn Lian’s Flexible Energy & Electronics Laboratory.

Akira Kirton

Akira leads the Europe and Asia team for BP Ventures. Core areas of focus for the team include Downstream (Aviation, Lubes, Petrochemicals), Alternative Energy & Low-Carbon Power. Akira sits on the boards of Alyssum Ltd (lead group brand, private jet charter marketplace Victor), Tricoya Technologies, Fulcrum Bioenergy, Solidia Technologies, and the OGCI Climate Investments.

Previous board seats include CarbonFree Chemicals, Liquid Light, Rocket Route and Silicon Microgravity. Akira has a Masters in chemical engineering and Bachelors in law & management.

Cees-Willem Koorneef

Cees-Willem has over 30 years’ experience in Ports, shipping and law enforcement. His roles with Dutch Customs and Port of Rotterdam Authorities has gathered him a large international network and insight in both private and public maritime parties.

Connecting and coaching companies and governmental agencies is his focus. Examples of his projects involve optimizing inland shipping and introducing new fuels in shipping.

As director PORTXL Antwerp he is excited to help speeding up the ‘Harbour of Things’ in Antwerp. PORTXL is known as the world port accelerator. Scouting relevant maritime start-ups and matching them with corporates in the Ports, increasing value and finally truly accelerating together, is what Ports need nowadays.

Starting in 2018, a tailor-made program for Antwerp is set up and corporates and start-ups are selected to join.

PORTXL Global covers also Rotterdam and Singapore.

Michaël De Koster

Michaël De Koster obtained a Master’s degree in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. From 1996, he is successively pursuing the functions of Product manager in power quality and Marketing segment manager for industry for Electrabel, and from 2007, the functions of director of Electricity, Grids and End-Use and Director New Energy within Laborelec. From 09/2017, he is developing the electric mobility offer for ENGIE Benelux – Business Development and Innovation, as Head of Innovation e-Mobility.

Martin Kröner

Dr. Martin Kröner is Managing Partner at Munich Venture Partners, the cleantech venture capital specialist based in Munich. He was co-founder and CEO of agnion Energy Inc., a supplier of distributed energy plants to convert woody biomass into electrical power and natural gas. Prior to agnion, Martin worked at Linde Engineering, world¹s leading supplier of technical gases and one of the most profitable engineering companies. Prior to Linde, Martin built up Thermotec Engineering Services, a spin off from the Technical University of Munich. He holds a M.Sc. in mechanical engineering and a Ph.D. in combustion engineering from the Technical University in Munich. Martin is or was responsible for the MVP investments in COBI, Kebony, Luxexcel, GreenCom Networks, Sonnen and Electrochaea.

Marcin Kulik

Jérome Joaug

Jérome joined Aster as Principal in March 2018.

Jerome is a serial entrepreneur who founded Cambridge Nanosystems, a leading graphene nanomaterial supplier, at the age of 24. He worked previously in the energy industry on the implementation of smart grids and renewable energy integration in France and the UK. After this first exit, he advised and invested in startups primarily in the areas of Cleantech and Education. In early 2017, he founded Nymbly, a company aiming at deploying low power Internet of Things solutions for Smart Cities and Smart Environment applications. The company was acquired at the end of 2017 by a major IoT competitor.

Jerome completed his training at the Ecole Polytechnique (Paris) and the University of Cambridge Judge Business School.

Jerome is a native French and Chinese Mandarin speaker and is fluent in English and Spanish.

Marc Lankveld

Marc Lankveld is VP Innovation Platforms within Corbion. He leads two major projects within Corbion, one on introduction of the new biopolymer PEF, based on Corbion’s biobased route to the monomer FDCA. The other one is developing PLA based on alternative renewable feedstocks. Next to that, Marc is member of the supervisory board of the BioProcess Pilot Facility (BPF), a JV with DSM, Corbion and TU Delft (NL). Marc was CEO and owner of BIRD Engineering (Delft, NL) and BIRD Recruitment (Rotterdam, NL)  from 2009-2014. Corbion acquired BIRD Engineering in 2013. From 2000-2008 Marc held various project management and sales roles at DSM, Accenture, CapGemini. During mid 90’s Marc was leading projects on developing new technical applications for renewable resources based on vegetable oils at Cebeco Handelsraad. Marc received his MSc degree in Chemical Technology (specialized in Biotechnology) at Delft University.

Nadège Leclercq

Nadège Leclercq is Director, Market Development, Europe, Middle East and Africa at Westport. She is focused on leading the development of the market for natural gas in transportation in the region, in advance of emerging natural gas technology and product offerings. She has been gaining expertise in the natural gas vehicle market over the last six years.

Prior to joining Westport, Nadège spent ten years at Ducker Worldwide, an international BtoB marketing consulting company, where she had a strong focus on the European transportation and automotive industries.

Felix Leuschner

Felix is a serial entrepreneur and the founder & CEO of Drover, the car subscription company, that he started in Oct 2015. He has previously founded online gaming marketplace GameGoods in 2006, which went on to raise €7.7m in funding from European Founders Fund, Wellington Partners and Tiger Global. Felix also started online fashion company Stylistpick in 2010, which raised £12m from Index Ventures, Accel Partners and Fidelity Growth Partners before being acquired by Hallett Retail in 2013. Felix graduated from WHU in Germany in 2006.

Matt Lipscomb

Dr. Lipscomb is CEO and Founder of DMC Limited. His career has included a range of development stages from early R&D to commercial deployment in a variety of sectors, including both industrial and pharmaceutical biotechnology. Previously, he was a founding employee of OPX Biotechnologies and served in various roles during his tenure there. His technical leadership supported multiple successful fund raising rounds totaling more than $60M. He provided project leadership on the execution of a successful Department of Energy (DOE) ARPA-E Electrofuels program ($6M) for the production of biodiesel from H2 and CO2. His technical expertise includes microbial fermentation, process development, process modeling, analytical chemistry, and technoeconomic analysis (TEA) of bio-based processes.

Martijn Lopes Cardozo

Matthew Lumsden

Matthew has been working in the renewable energy and clean tech sector since 2000 when he joined energy consultancy TNEI and led its growth until exiting on a trade sale in 2010.

In 2009 Matthew formed Future Transport Systems to deliver electric vehicle related consultancy and R&D, ultimately delivering several major EV trials, charging infrastructure roll outs, V2G trials and strategies for major industry players.

Matthew spun out Connected Energy to commercialise R&D into stationary energy storage systems that utilise 2^nd life electric vehicle batteries.  Since then, he has focussed on developing a business that joins the worlds of energy storage, electric vehicles and recycling, leading a team working on unique and world leading technologies and business models.

In recognition of the potential Connected Energy has to capitalise on new markets, in 2017 Matthew secured strategic investors, Macquarie and Engie Ventures to help scale up the business.  Several of Connected Energy’s E-STOR systems are now in operation in the UK and Europe.

Hans Maenhout

Hans Maenhout holds a masters degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Ghent, complemented with an executive education in International Management from the Vlerick Management School (Ghent), Corporate Finance from EHSAL (Brussels) and M&A and Corporate Development from INSEAD (Fontainbleau).

Hans started his career with Texaco in R&D. Following a number of different assignments at Texaco, including 3.5 years in the USA, an M&A project initiated a move into the financial services industry (KBC Group) and led to a longer term transition management role in one of the portfolio investment companies of the KBC group.

He joined a JV of the ArcelorMittal group and the Flemish Region in 2007 to head up a greenfield startup company active in structural lightweight sandwich panels. After the sale of the company, he was mainly involved in M&A projects within the petroleum and energy industry.

Hans joined Finindus in October 2013 as Investment Director.

Christiane Malcorps

Christiane Malcorps ir. PhD, is currently Country Manager for Belgium and Global Head of Facility Excellence for SOLVAY SA.

After receiving a Master in Chemical Engineering at KU Leuven and a PhD at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, she occupied applied and fundamental research positions at different universities in USA and Belgium and entered SOLVAY S.A. in 1984. She was assigned within SOLVAY several Research, Development and Technology functions first with local and later on with international responsibilities in the fields of biopesticides, enzymes and vaccines. In 1997 she was based in the SOLVAY plants in Antwerp and became in 2005 Site Director of the Antwerp complex for SOLVAY producing polyolefines and chlorine. Always striving for excellence she became country manager for Belgium in 2009. During her career she was trained as executive in the business schools of INSEAD & IMD.

Christiane Malcorps is member of the Board of several professional and other organizations in Belgium (essenscia, UWE, BECI, The Shift, Degraeve Antwerpia).

Humera Malik

Humera Malik is the founder and CEO of Canvass Analytics, where she drives the vision and strategy for changing the way industrial companies think about and use operational data. Humera has worked with some of the largest businesses around the world to transform their business strategies, enter new markets and create new revenue streams. Specifically, Humera has worked with Microsoft, AT&T and Bell Enterprise where she was responsible for defining innovative enterprise business solutions targeting several key industries – Transport, Manufacturing, Retail and Energy. Humera has received various recognitions with most recent being a recipient of the Women of M2M/IoT award and is a sought-after entrepreneur and expert to speak about the impact of industrial artificial intelligence on the global economy.

Bart Markus

Apart from being a veteran VC, Bart is a seasoned and passionate entrepreneur and is renowned for his relentless drive to internationalise companies and help them become successful beyond Europe by conquering the US or Asia. A Dutch native, he has been a General Partner at Wellington from 2000 to 2015 and played a significant role in building Wellington from a €50M fund in 1999 to a well established player in the European VC market with some €800M of assets under management.

Over the past 2 decades, Bart has invested in an impressive collection of deep IP Technology companies located in Europe and the US.  Many have already made the successful leap to the US or are successfully opening up new foreign markets.  Investments include Navteq (NASDAQ IPO in 2004: NVT; sold to Nokia in 2007), Meiosys (sold to IBM in 2005), Nawotec (sold to Carl Zeiss in 2005), Q-Layer (sold to Sun Microsystems in 2009), Cavendish Kinetics and GLO.

Bart spent the past 18 years  as an investor in High Tech companies, and additionally as a serial entrepreneur himself co-founded by now 6 companies including Hexagem, a defect-free GaN substrate technology company and the MRI Centre, a highly successful chain of private medical diagnostic clinics. He also set up and acted as CEO for ePearle, a pan-European B2B eCommerce start-up.

Bart started his career as a process control system and project engineer with Shell in Norway and then worked at McKinsey, both in the Netherlands and South Africa.

Bart holds an MSc in Applied Physics from Twente University of Technology in the Netherlands and an MBA (with distinction) from INSEAD in France.

Victor Matia

Rob van der Meij

Rob is a chemical engineer from Delft University in the Netherlands and has worked both in the corporate, strategy consulting and start-up world in chemicals, process and water technology. Rob has held business management positions with Akzo Nobel and Shell Chemicals, was a founder and CEO of KiOR in the US and worked as CEO for several other start-ups in chemicals and water technology. He is also an investor and has board roles in several start-ups. Rob has also done the New Board Programme from Neyenrode Business University, developing board members ‘new style’.

Koen Meuleman

Peter Molengraaf

Peter Molengraaf (52) has been Chairman of the Executive Board of Alliander (largest Dutch Electricity and Natural Gas Grid Operating Company) for the last eight years.

At the moment, he advises large and smaller companies in the field of strategy, energy and digitalization. His specific focus is on companies in the field of sustainable energy storage and EV infrastructure. His current assignment is to develop H2 Fuel Technology (www.h2-fuel.nl).

Peter is affiliated with the Delft Energy Initiative of the Delft University of Technology, member of the Dutch Topsector Energy Advisory Team and member of the strategic advisory board of TNO Energy.

He is a member of the Supervisory Board of Vopak The Netherlands.

In recent years, Peter also was chairman of Netbeheer Nederland, the Dutch Industry Association for Electricity and Natural Gas Grid Operator companies.

Peter Molengraaf previously worked in various management positions at Nuon (2005-2009) and Shell (1990-2014). He studied Informatics at the Delft University of Technology and holds an MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management at the Erasmus University. Afterwards he participated in Executive Programs of INSEAD in Fontainebleau and Singularity University in the US, California.

Erik Moerman

Erik Moerman joined Indaver in 1997 and held various positions from project manager to sales manager and his current position as business development manager.  Erik obtained a master’s degree in chemical engineering at the VUB (Brussels) and completed his academic education with a Master of science in  Environmental engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (USA).

Today Erik focuses on screening and prioritizing growth opportunities within the Indaver (Industrial Waste Services) strategy, selects and turns high potential business cases into concrete business plans. He is involved in main investment and acquisition projects related to material and energy recovery. Doing so he delivers a substantial contribution within the Indaver company to put the circular economy into practice.

Sven Mollet

Graduaded as a chemical engineer in ’91, I started my career in the environmental business. More precise in the pioneering years of the implementation of the selective collection and treatment of small hazardous waste from households in Belgium.

Over the years a shift has taken place from simple collection and incineration towards innovative processes to increase the recycling or re-use rate.

In 2001 I became the managing director of a recycling and remedation company where we developped and implemented  in 2008  a sorting line for 150.000 tons/year non- hazardous industrial waste to reduce the amount of waste to landfill by 85% by increasing the recycling or re-use rate with the same amount. This to be compliant with the EU imposed landfill ban.

This experiences helped me with the current changes in the field of remediation where today authorities, clients, neighbors and other stakeholders demand much more than just clean up the contamination. The remediation has to be with a minimum of impact and a maximum of re-use after on site treatment or selective excavation and this on an evidence based implemented control system.

I’m a strong believer that the key to success is knowing your weaknesses, focus on your core competences and built long term partnerships for the non-core competences based on trust. The last can only be achieved if the parties involved are willing to take their responsibility when needed.

Kristel Moulaert

Cédric Mutz

Based in our Zurich office, Cedric is an Investment Director at Emerald Technology Ventures and acts as Corporate Finance and M&A Specialist, focusing on the investment process from due diligence to valuation to transaction structuring to exit. Before joining Emerald, Cedric Mutz was Head of M&A at Omya, a leading global producer of industrial minerals based in Switzerland. Prior to Omya, Cedric was M&A project manager at BaSF, the world’s largest chemicals company, where he led international M&A transactions for different business units such as agrochemicals and advanced polymers. Cedric also worked for the oil & gas producer Wintershall (BASF Group), where he was Head of Treasury at the Argentina subsidiary and Corporate Finance Manager at the headquarters in Germany. In his various roles, Cedric has gathered over 12 years of experience in M&A and corporate finance. Cedric holds a bachelors degree in management from the London School of Economics and a Masters degree in management from the London School of Economics and Duke University and is a CFA charterholder. Cedric is fluent in English, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

Patrick Nathen

Patrick was born in 1986 in Düsseldorf. He moved to Munich to study aerodynamics at the Technical University of Munich. He is still enrolled as a PhD candidate in aerodynamics.

He is an expert in numerical simulation and serves as Head of Calculation and design at Lilium. Apart from aerodynamics and design, he is interested in social media management, which he also actively pursues at work.

In 2010 Patrick was awarded the VDI Prize for outstanding academic records and academic engagement. In 2016, he won the highly endowed Grand Prize as well as the jury’s choice of the Hello Tomorrow Challenge for Lilium in Paris. Furthermore, he is an alumnus of the German National Academic Foundation.

Peter Ollikainen

Peter is an entrepreneur and seasoned business development executive with experience in both B2C and B2B businesses across multiple industries.

His core competence is helping growth companies develop their overall business operations and especially on expanding businesses to new markets.

Rien Otto

Rien Otto has a long track record in the fashion industry and is a leading expert in the circular economy in the field of textiles. His target is to improve the world through sustainable initiatives following circular economy principles. He has designed the first fully closed chain in the textile sector. This circular chain is currently piloted within innovation project EcoProFabrics, a pilot project within the Eco Innovation Programme of the European Commission in which Dutch aWEARness is exploiting the fully recyclable fabric Returnity® in the work wear market. He is gifted in accelerating innovations, broadening business opportunities and developing new business models. As creative director of Dutch aWEARness, Rien Otto is responsible for design, circular innovations and chain management.

Dirk Packet

Dirk Packet graduated as Master in Bioengineering in 1981 at the Catholic University of Leuven, and obtained a PhD in Bioengineering in 1987 at the same University. Both the engineering and the doctoral thesis were dealing with the physical-chemical characterization of catalysts. Parallel with his doctorate, he started to work in 1984 on various research projects for Oleofina (the former company name of Oleon). Oleon is one of the major global producers of oleochemicals. After his doctorate, he started working as a development engineer in the oleochemistry division of Fina Research, and later in various technical positions in Oleon. He is currently Innovation Director of Oleon, and in this position responsible for the various R&D departments of the company, located in Europe, Asia, and the USA. He also leads the departments ‘Product Safety and Regulatory Affairs’ and ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ of Oleon. He is listed as inventor on a dozen international patent applications, and several scientific publications. Dirk Packet has 34 years of experience in oleochemicals, and was involved in the development of new products and process technologies that are worldwide exploited by Oleon.

Marc Van Peel

Marc Van Peel has been president of the Antwerp Port Authority since 2007. His involvement however goes way back as co-founder of the Port as a municipal authority. He was one of those who pleaded in favour of extensive financial and management independence for the ports.
After a short period as a history teacher, Marc Van Peel became the general secretary of the Flemish Boy Scouts and worked as staff member at the educational department of ACV, the largest Belgian trade union. His social and political involvement took him to Parliament. For more than 20 years he represented the Christian Democratic Party as MP. He was floor leader in the Lower House and chairman of the party between 1996 and 1999.
After the local elections in 2001, he became Vice-Mayor for public management, decentralisation and personnel management of the City of Antwerp, and accepted a new term in 2007 as Vice-Mayor for the Port of Antwerp. He is also chairman of PAI (Port of Antwerp International) and APEC (the Antwerp Port Training Centre).

Marc Van Peel was born in Wilrijk, Antwerp, in 1949. He is married and has four children and eight grandchildren.

Laura Piovesan

Laura PIOVESAN works at the European Investment Bank (EIB), the EU’s long-term financing institution headquartered in Luxembourg. Since joining the Bank in 2000, her prime role has been to carry out techno-economic assessments of projects requesting EIB funding. She is currently heading the team within the EIB that is responsible for the due diligences of investments in R&D-intensive manufacturing and services sectors, including industrial equipment, automotive and high-tech industries. Laura is a graduate in Chemical Engineering from the University of Padova, Italy. Prior to joining the EIB she worked for eight years for an Italian engineering company, first as Research Scientist and then as Industrial Economist.

Philip Pouillie

Philip Pouillie is currently Chief Operating Officer of the Cluster Gas North at ENGIE Generation Europe. Generation activities includes operation and maintenance of the Group’s power plants in Benelux. Total Capacity of 8000 MW mostly modern gas units, some biomass units and COO Hydro storage. In this role, Philip is responsible for the P&L for the fleet and Generation & Industrial Energy Services in partnership with major industrial companies. He is also a member of the board of directors of Zandvliet Power & Lillo Energie. Philip has been working in the Electricity & Gas industry for more than 30 years. After all these years, he became a real expert in power generation and renewable energy. Philip graduated in Physics from the Catholic University of Leuven and holds a complementary University degree in Computer Science at the Catholic University of Leuven.

Jonathan Pulitzer

Jonathan acts as GE Ventures’ regional presence in Israel and Europe. He relocated from the US in 2011 to focus on the Israeli and European technology markets. He has been involved with more than a dozen investments during his eight years of investing across GE Ventures and GE Capital, having served as a board observer with a number of companies, including four active Israeli companies. Jonathan joined GE in 2005 with the Financial Management Program where he served various business functions across GE Capital, including Commercial Aviation Services, Capital Markets and Equity, while completing GE’s finance executive training program. Pulitzer earned his bachelor’s degree in economics and business from New York University. He lives in Israel with his wife and three young children.

Jan-Willem Rombouts

Jan-Willem Rombouts co-founded REstore and serves as its co-CEO after a career at Goldman Sachs where he last served as Executive Director of Credit Trading Strategy. He brings expertise in quantitative modeling and software development. At REstore Jan-Willem leads the product innovation, technology development and trading activities. He holds a Ph.D. in Physics from NYU and a graduate certificate in Data Mining and Applications from Stanford University.

Pierre-Yves Rollet

Pierre-Yves ROLLET is a Senior Executive in the HVACR (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration) industry.  In 1995, he joins United Technologies Corporation, in the M&A team of Carrier EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa).  He is then involved as CFO into post acquisition integrations of two Carrier subsidiaries in Egypt and in the United Kingdom, before being raised to the position of Vice-President Commercial Systems, Carrier EMEA.

In 2006, he flies over to Tokyo as Senior Executive Vice President of the global alliance between Carrier Corporation and Toshiba in the air conditioning industry.  The alliance is extended to the Chinese group Midea, of which he becomes board member of the subsidiaries dedicated to air conditioning and compression, the core business of Midea.

Back to Europe, he is appointed as President Carrier EMEA, position which he leaves with the conviction that the cooling industry needs a paradigm shift to answer the double challenge of climate change and demographic development, in a world where most humans do not have access to an efficient cold chain, to the detriment of their health.

He manages Cooltech Applications, a pioneer in magnetic cooling. The company is taking on the global issue of refrigerant from a different angle, proposing a magnetic cooling solution that avoids these powerful planet warming gases entirely, therefore offering a complete mitigation of increasingly stringent regulations.  Added benefit: a 25% reduction in operating costs

Pierre-Yves is graduated from École Polytechnique in Paris.

Sam Salisbury

Sam leads the Centrica Innovation Labs. The Labs provides start-ups and in-house ventures with business support, investment and access to Centrica’s customers, people and networks to help them grow their businesses. Sam started his career at Arthur D. Little advising clients on business strategy, innovation and operations. In 2011, he joined Centrica in the corporate strategy team, and recently led the Centrica backed Ignite impact investment fund. Over the past four years, ignite invested £10m in 16 UK based enterprises.

Tine Schaerlaekens

Tine Schaerlaekens is a Bio-engineer from KULeuven with a PhD in Applied Biological Sciences. After working several years as a researcher at the same university and at VIB in the field of Industrial Biotechnology, she joined the Belgian sector federation of the Chemical and Life Sciences industry, essenscia, as an expert in Biobased Economy.

Currently, she combines a job as Sr. Advisor Innovation Policy at essenscia with a job as Catalyst at Catalisti. Catalisti is the Flemish innovation cluster of the chemical and plastics industry.

Antoine Sire

He was Assistant to the Director for Communications and Regional Action of the French Association of Banks – now FBF – from 1992 to 1995, then Communications Director of the Confédération Nationale du Crédit Mutuel (1995-1997). For 16 years, he was Head of Group Communications for BNP Paribas, where he created the company’s new brand following the merger of BNP and Paribas, and developed its strong reputation.  He also played a key role in developing the brand’s international recognition and broadened its social commitments. For 13 years, he co-hosted BFM Business’s radio programme dedicated to new technologies called Atelier Numérique. In 2013, he left BNP Paribas to focus on a long-term personal project, writing a historical book on Hollywood’s Golden Age actresses, published in 2016. In parallel, and since 2015, he has been Partner at Havas’s Paris agency.

Education

Antoine Sire graduated from IEP (Institut d’Etudes politiques) Paris and holds a degree in Public Law.

Koen Sneiders

Koen Sneiders, recycling & waste manager @ Derbigum since 2009, before this, plantmanager @ Sita (Suez Environnement) during more than 15 years , and before this +15 years in automotive sector, helped to industrialise the recycling programme @ Derbigum by sharing his experience in waste management.

Koen Sonck

Koen Sonck obtained a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Leuven. From 1993, he has built a successful Sales & Marketing track record in well-known multinationals active in the production of chemicals around the globe. Currently, he is the Business Development Manager at De Neef Chemical Processing, a Belgium company specialized in the distillation of used solvents from chemical and pharmaceutical companies. The company has played a pioneering role in the Circular Economy since 2003.

Irena Spazzapan

Irena joined SYSTEMIQ in 2018 to lead the energy platform and focus on the energy transition away from fossil fuels. Irena is passionate about driving change in the energy sector by applying new disrupting technologies enabled by increasingly cheap renewable energy and digitalisation. At SYSTEMIQ, Irena focuses on both advisory and investing activities with the aim of pushing energy demand on a firm decarbonisation path in a cost-competitive market approach.

Prior to joining SYSTEMIQ, Irena was at Goldman Sachs for 12 years where she worked in gas&power origination covering European utilities, and before that she worked briefly at the United Nations.

Irena is an outdoors and sport enthusiast and likes to spend her free time exploring off the beaten track places with her family.

Dietrich Sümmermann

Dietrich is the CEO and Co-Founder of MotionWerk. The team is passionate about seamless and sustainable mobility solutions. With Share&Charge they are working on an open source and decentralized platform for electric vehicle charging. The first product – an Airbnb for charging poles – was the first blockchain based product for end customers in the mobility and energy sector.

Hari Suthan

Hari Suthan Subramaniam is the Chief of Strategic Growth for Opus One Solutions, with over 20 years of experience in R&D, marketing and management consulting. Prior to joining Opus One, he was the CEO of eCamion Inc., a community energy storage company and Vice Chair of Energy Storage Ontario. Hari was also a Vice President with GE Canada’s National Executive team where he drove growth in Canada by seeking out market opportunities across GE platforms and larger infrastructure projects. Additionally, he served in senior roles within Canada’s Provincial and Federal governments, including Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Policy with the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, and member of the Government Transition Team for the Premier of Ontario as well as Federal Ministers of Canada. Hari is also a veteran of the Canadian Navy. Hari currently sits on the board of Centre for Urban Energy at Ryerson University and has previously served on the Boards of the Distributed Energy Association of Canada, McGill University, and Rouge Valley Health System.

Chris Sworder

Adam Targowski

Adam Targowski has been appointed Sustainable Development Manager at Skanska Commercial Development Europe – a company that has been developing investments in Central and Eastern Europe for over four decades. Skanska’s team, managed by Adam, is responsible for establishing project goals in the area of sustainable development as well as certification of office buildings developed by the Skanska Group in CEE along with its residential developments in Poland. His responsibilities include supporting the Project Team in areas related to Health & Well-Being based on arranging healthy and comfortable office space as well as developing public space in accordance with the idea of placemaking – public spaces that become people-friendly and open towards local communities. Adam’s team co-operates with tenants in activities aimed at increasing awareness in the areas of effective use of office space and new technologies.

Tero Terunen

Matias Torrellas

Matias is the Portfolio Manager of InnoEnergy, responsible for managing the portfolio of equity stakes in startups. He has been with InnoEnergy since February 2015. Prior to that, he was Investment Director at CX Capital, managing a portfolio of over 200M€ of private equity positions. Before that he had an extensive career in banking, holding positions at Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers in London and New York. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, the CFA certification and an Engineering degree from UPC (Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya).

Ana Trbovich

Dr. Ana Trbovich is Grid Singularity Co-Founder and COO, and Energy Web Foundation Council Member. She continues to be engaged as Professor of Entrepreneurship at FEFA, Belgrade, and as activist for good governance, innovation and diversity, including through her role as Governing Board Member of the European Institute for Innovation and Technology –EIT. Prior to this position, she consulted on public administration reform, competitiveness and innovation policy and led economic development projects for international organizations such as the EU, the USAID and the World Bank. She has been deeply involved in Serbia’s economic reforms and the EU accession process both as high government official and senior advisor. She holds a PhD and MALD from the Fletcher School (including a semester at ScPo Paris) and MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Sandra Trittin

Sandra began her career at a management consultancy working in the areas of process optimization/ restructuring and supply chain management for different companies in the automotive, food processing and telecommunications industry. She joined Swisscom in 2002 reorganizing process and organizational structures to increase process efficiency for the service delivery and network construction. Afterwards she was leading teams in software design/development for the construction of IP based communication services. She joined the strategy team of Swisscom and is now co-founder and Head of Business Dev.& Marketing of tiko Energy Solutions. Sandra has studied business administration and holds an MBA of the Business Schools of Mannheim, Copenhagen and Warwick.

Mieke Van Genabet-Harteel

Mieke Van Genabet-Harteel is the commercial responsible for Harsonic in Belgium. She assists her husband, Staf Harteel, who is the inventor of an innovative and sustainable solution which is used as an alternative for standard disinfection products. Harsonic has managed to develop an electronic device based on soft cavitation with ultrasound, to avoid attachment of micro-organisms and biofilm-related bacteria. This means that chalk, manganese and iron can no longer block water pipes, cooling systems, storage tanks, etc … The number of applications of the Harsonic technology is impressive , such as drinking water lines in livestock to avoid the growth of unwanted bacteria that form a slimy coating. This means a big reduction of anti-biotics. Harsonic can also be used on the hull of ships to avoid bio-fouling , which means a reduction up to 30% on fuel consumption and on maintenance. It is a proven technology on many cooling systems, cooling towers and heat exchangers.

Carine Van Hove

As Applied Economics Scientist, and following a career at Euronext and at British Petroleum for 14 years in functions varying from ICT to financial and business analyst in consumer & industry and pan-European business & financials harmonisation projects, I got attracted to concentrate on scouting, screening and developping business start-up potential within the non-core activities of global organisations: so called industrial spin-offs. By doing so, I became passionate about SMEs, and the way they can enforce an ecosystem around large enterprises. At VITO (Flemish Institute for Technological Research), I started working with a team of business developpers and researchers to promote and demonstrate sustainable technologies to SMEs, and to guide them when implementing these technologies in their industrial processes, buildings or new concepts. Themes were sustainable industry/chemistry, energy, materials and upcycling, sustainable landuse and preventive health issues related to environmental factors. This experience provided the necessary basis for an extra position: to build further on the work already done for the Flanders Cleantech Association (FCA), an initiative of VITO. FCA gathers industry and stakeholders around clean technologies in Flanders in order to gain exposure to influential networks, new markets, potential investors, innovative technologies and best practices.

Gerard van Rooij

Isabel Vercauteren

Isabel Vercauteren is the CEO and co-founder of Aphea.Bio, a VIB start-up company focused on the research and development of novel and superior biological agricultural products for better crop performance, located in Ghent, Belgium.

Between 2008 and 2016 Isabel was employed at Bayer CropScience where she held different positions within the R&D organization with a strong focus on alliance management, technology licensing and new venture management.

Before joining Bayer, Isabel worked for four years at DevGen (acquired by Syngenta in 2012) as manager responsible for the plant nematology group and as a project leader for the development of Bt rice for the Indian market.

Isabel has strong expertise in plant biotechnology research, technology valuation and licensing, business development, deal making & negotiation and project management.

Isabel holds a Ph.D. in plant molecular biology and a postgraduate in Biosafety and Regulatory in Plant Biotechnology from the University of Ghent, Belgium.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabelvercauteren/

Lionel Cormier

Lionel Cormier is a managing partner of Demeter Partners.

Lionel joined Demeter Partners in January 2008.

He started his career at the Société Générale and in 1991 continued as Investment Manager for BTP Capital, investment fund dedicated to BTP (buildings and public works sectors) and the environment.

Lionel then joined the private equity branch of the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, from 1995 to 1999 as Investment Director for CDC Participation’s Funds dedicated to eco-industries and to renewable energy, from 2000 to 2005, as partner then CEO for CDC Entreprises Services Industrie, and from 2006 to 2007, as Deputy Managing Director of CDC Capital Investissement, (today Qualium) in charge of the growth and LBO for mid-caps’ team with € 220m under management.

Lionel holds a master’s degree from HEC (1989) and has more than 25 years’ experience in private equity.

Jamie Vollbracht

Jamie is a Partner at IP Group, a ~£1bn market cap entity, where he invests in technologies for the transition to net zero, something he has devoted his career to.

Jamie is a Director on a number of IP Group portfolio company boards, including Bramble Energy (cost-effective fuel cells) and Oxbotica (viable autonomous vehicles), both of which are represented at this Cleantech Forum. He has been involved in a number of successful exits including two Scottish businesses: Dukosi (battery monitoring) and GSS (transistor optimisation).

Prior to joining IP Group, Jamie devised and led corporate venturing and government funding programmes at The Carbon Trust, after various business development roles in the early years of the solar industry. He has a first-class engineering degree from Cambridge University. And when not working, he likes to get out adventuring in the hills.

Elke Van de Walle

Elke is head of the legal department and member of the group management comité of ParticipatieMaatschappij Vlaanderen (PMV), the Flemish Investment Company.

She is a board member of several companies (Vito, Blue Gate Antwerp Public Holding, Blue Gate Antwerp Development).

Elke started her career as a lawyer at the Brussels Bar (Stibbe) and specialised in public law and real estate (environmental law, urban planning). In that capacity she was involved in great national and international transactions with environmental issues (soil and air pollution).

As from 2006 on she became in-house legal counsel at PMV, from 2014 on heading the legal department. In that capacity she was actively involved in the greatest Belgian PPP projects, running the public procurement procedures on behalf of the Flemish government. She also has a broad experience in corporate and finance transactions.

Guillaume Wegria

Guillaume Wegria, 35 years old, originally from Luxembourg is the Co-founder and CEO of FYTEKO. Bioengineer (University of Brussels), he worked for 10 years for the Biotechnology unit of Materia Nova in Belgium, first, as a researcher then as the project leader. Within Materia Nova, Mr Wegria was the author of 2 patents in fermentation process, oligomerisation and worked on bioprocesses scale-up. He also coordinated various European and regional projects, as well as managing the biotech unit’s budget, resources, commercial contacts and project strategy. Aside to his work he decided to complete his education with a master’s in management at Solvay Business School before entering the entrepreneurial world. Since the creation of FYTEKO in 2014 Mr Wegria has been overseeing the general growth and management of the start-up (including financial planning, R&D grants and negotiation with investors). Personally, Mr Wegria was rewarded as one of most promising entrepreneurs of Belgium under 35 by the MIT technological review in 2016.

Willemijn Witteveen

Willemijn Witteveen is part of the Business Development team of Renewable Chemistries at Avantium, tasked with commercializing Avantium’s portfolio of groundbreaking chemical technologies for a green and biobased future.

Prior to joining Avantium, Willemijn worked as a Strategy Consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. Here she has worked with executive committees of multinationals and medium-sized businesses in performing market analysis, defining new strategic directions, optimizing business groups and implementing strategic initiatives.

Willemijn holds an MBA from INSEAD (Dean’s list, top 10%), and an MSc in Chemical Engineering from the Delft University of Technology, specializing in Nuclear Science.

About Avantium

Avantium (Euronext: AVTX) is a leading chemical technology company and a forerunner in renewable chemistry. Together with its partners around the world, Avantium develops efficient processes and sustainable products made from biobased materials. Avantium offers a breeding ground for revolutionary renewable chemistry solutions from invention to commercially viable production processes.

Kate Wolfenden

Project X is a corporate systems accelerator that enables en4re industries to make difficult transitions in their sustainability agenda together. The programme was incubated in WWF for 2 years and has now become an independent organization, retaining WWF as strategic partners, together with UNEP, Thomson Reuters, Cambridge University and others. For the period of 2018-­‐2020, the Project X will be delivering two global value chain pilot programmes and preparing for the 10 Industries in 10 year programme kicking off in Beijing in 2020.

Prior to Project X, Kate started out a serial creative entrepreneur running several small businesses before moving into the NGO sector, developing and supporting corporate partnership and events programmes over 6 years for award winning chari4es such as Oxfam, Carbon Disclosure Project and Childreach International. After completing an MBA Kate moved into an innovation role at WWF in order to develop high impact alternative business models for the sector. Project X emerged out of this role and
the meeting of minds of Kate and Marcela Navarro, Co-­founder of Project X and Founder of Business Cubed.

Pete Worden

Simon Peter “Pete” Worden, (Brig. Gen., USAF, Ret., PhD) is the Chairman of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation and Executive Director of the foundation’s ‘Breakthrough Initiatives’. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Michigan and a PhD in Astronomy for the University of Arizona. Prior to joining the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, Dr. Worden was Director of NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California, USA until his retirement on March 31, 2015. He has held several positions in the United States Air Force and was research professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona, Tucson, USA. He is a recognized expert on space and science issues – both civil and military, and has been a leader in building partnerships between governments and the private sector internationally.

Dr. Worden has authored or co-authored more than 150 scientific papers in astrophysics space sciences, and strategic studies. He served as a scientific co-investigator for three NASA space science missions – most recently the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph launched in 2013 to study the Sun. He received the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal for the 1994 Clementine Mission to the moon. Dr. Worden was named the 2009 Federal Laboratory Consortium Laboratory Director of the Year and is the recipient of the 2010 Arthur C. Clarke Innovator’s Award.

On July 20, 2015 at the Royal Society in London, UK, Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking launched the Breakthrough Initiatives. At the press conference Pete Worden was introduced as the Chairman for the Breakthrough Prize Foundation. In this capacity he leads the Breakthrough Initiatives.

Rob Wylie

Rob is Chairman of Five Seasons, which manages a new VC fund that that invests across the food value chain in European innovative companies and has recently achieved a first closing at more than €60m. Rob has been an active investment manager for 20 years and was the founder and Chairman of WHEB, a sustainability-focused investment firm and one of the pioneering IMPACT investment firms in Europe. He is the founder and Chairman of Cambridge Agritech, a syndicate of private investors focused on innovation in agriculture and Chairman of Project X, a WWF founded corporate accelerator which helps organisations adopt sustainable innovations in their supply chains at scale. He is also Board director of four Agritech companies in the UK and USA.

Rob has a PhD Chemistry from Cambridge and started his career with 10 years in Shell’s Agrochemical Business.

Richard Youngman

Since January 2016, Richard Youngman has been CEO of San-Francisco based Cleantech Group (CTG). This followed 7 years of driving the growth of CTG’s activities outside North America, especially in Europe and Israel, and Asia, based in CTG’s office in London.

Richard has more than ten years’ experience researching cleantech innovation, venture capital markets, and start-ups across Europe and globally. He is a regular keynote speaker at major cleantech events and is the driving force behind the annual Global Cleantech 100, a list of the world’s most promising private cleantech companies.