EBS Report

SUMMIT REPORT 2015

YEARS

202000000000

202202015

15

EBS SU

MM

IT REP

OR

T 2015

SAVE THE DATE

JUNE 2016

DO YOU WANT TO PARTNER WITH EBS 2016?DO YOU WANT TO PARTNER WITH EBS 2016?For partnership opportunities contact: For partnership opportunities contact: Ellen Runngren - [email protected] - +32 (0)2 645 34 86 Ellen Runngren - [email protected] - +32 (0)2 645 34 86 Rue du Belvédère 28, B-1050 Brussels - T +32(0)2 645 34 84 - F +32(0)2 645 34 89Rue du Belvédère 28, B-1050 Brussels - T +32(0)2 645 34 84 - F +32(0)2 645 34 89

WHO’S WHO? EBS TEAM

Arnaud Thysen, General ManagerT +32(0)2 645 34 83 - [email protected]

Ellen Runngren, Partnerships & Commercial Aff airs Manager - T +32(0)2 645 34 86 - [email protected] - T +32(0)2 645 34 86 - [email protected]

Alba Pérez Grandi, Account ManagerT +32(0)2 645 34 84 - [email protected]

Raluca Barzu, Speakers & Communication ManagerT +32(0)2 645 34 85 - [email protected]

Julia Ridsdale, Media & CommunicationsT +32(0)2 645 34 87 - [email protected]

Chris Burns, Press AdvisorT +32 (0)472 05 73 15 - [email protected]

Marco Lucaccioni, Finance and Administration T +32 (2) 349 35 55 - [email protected]

Svetlana Slavcheva, Event CoordinatorT +32(0)2 645 34 88 - [email protected]

Laura Vanderheyden, Project AssistantT +32(0)2 645 34 81 - [email protected]

Camille Kievits, Project AssistantT +32(0)2 645 35 59 - [email protected]

Natalia Kuznetsova, International Business DevelopmentT +32 477 34 41 75 - [email protected]

Thomas Natalis, Project AssistantT +32(0)2 645 34 82 - [email protected]

Mohammed Cherif, Mohammed Cherif, Mohammed Cherif DeveloperT +32(0)2 349 35 63 - [email protected]

Séverine Moutquin, Graphic DesignerT +32(0)2 349 35 69 - [email protected]

Jean de Gheldere, Managing DirectorT +32(0)2 349 35 56 - [email protected]

Jean-Claude JunckerPresident of the European Commission

An EU more focused, credible and relevantPresident Juncker Foreword for European Business Summit, April 2015

Today, Europe is increasingly being called into question. My aim - and my duty - is to act in the European interest, to address the issues that matter for citizens, building a Europe that is stronger and more prosperous—but also more social and caring.

Let me give just a few examples.

First, we must strengthen the economy and create jobs, based on the «virtuous triangle» of structural reforms, fi scal responsibility and investment. We are committed to delivering €315 billion in extra investment for Europe. On economic reform, we have strengthened the EU’s tools; but the reform process cannot «come from Brussels». I want the people aff ected to be involved and convinced about the benefi ts.

Second, I want to see a reasonable and balanced trade deal with the US. This is not about lowering standards or sacrifi cing protections from mere dogma: it is about opening up mar-kets and bringing down barriers. EU leaders have committed to make every eff ort to conclude an ambitious, comprehensive and mutually benefi cial deal by the end of this year.

Third, I also want to do more on the single market—a pre-eminent achievement of European integration. Sometimes is too easily taken for granted. But I would like to reinvent and streng-then it for the 21st century, in areas like digital and energy. These are increasingly becoming the foundation of our economy, and are areas where Europe can make a real diff erence.

The EU cannot hope to do everything; not every problem is for the EU to fi x. So we will be «big on the big things, small on the small things». Whether you call this «better regulation», «subsidiarity», or something else: it means an EU more focused, credible and relevant.

Europe should not be distant and directive. Our job is not to tell citizens how to be, or business how to operate—but to work with and for Europeans, for a better future. So I want to see dialogue and debate. This change is urgent: I hope businesses, too, will be out there making the case.

FOREWORD

SAVE THE DATE18-19 MAY 2016

Welcome to EBS, the largest networking platform in Europe

EBS IN BRIEF2 DAYS IN BRUSSELS2,300 PARTICIPANTS150 SPEAKERS IN 45 SESSIONS10 EU COMMISSIONERS250 REPORTERS

4

WELCOME TO EBS Fifteen years after its creation, EBS has become a highly respected platform of debate in Brussels, where pro-minent policy-makers and business leaders debate the fu-ture of Europe. Together with academics, representatives of think tanks, civil society and social partners, all the par-ticipants engage in order to shape a better Europe: more competitive, more inclusive and more sustainable.

“Europe 4.0 – Delivering a vision for the future of Europe” will be the general theme of the 2 day-Summit: over 150 speakers will focus on how industry and society are facing the digital revolution, within the exciting context of the new mandate of the EU institutions.

Further to the breakout sessions, an extended networking village will host 30 “experts” from diff erent backgrounds who will exchange views directly with the participants to bring to light new perspectives on European issues. Many other networking opportunities such as one-to-one mee-tings, board meetings and dinner/lunches sessions will make this summit a fruitful experience.

I would like to thank all the speakers, the partners and the teams for their support throughout the preparation of the Summit.

Arnaud Thysen, General Manager EBS

Arnaud Thysen, General Manager EBS

250 Journalists Covered EBS 2015The summit attracts 52% of its participants from the business world, 17% are policy makers and 10% from academia and NGOs. These three groups explore the problems, produce ideas and solutions and debate the issues that aff ect business today. These exchanges are covered by the 250 plus journalists who come to EBS every year and followed by public aff airs professionals across Europe.

46%

6%8%

9%

8%

2%

9%

12%

Business 46%

Public Aff airs 9%

Journalists 12%

Interest Group/NGO 2%

University/Academia/Think Tank 8%

EU Institutions 9%

Permanent Representations/Embassies/National Governments 8%

Business Associations 6%

SAVE THE DATE

JUNE 2016

SUMMIT REPORT 2015

Table of Contents

Honorary Committee ......................................................................................................... 10

Facts & Figures ......................................................................................................................... 28

Sessions ......................................................................................................................................... 39

Partners ...................................................................................................................................... 135

Speaker Profi les ................................................................................................................... 159

Participants List ................................................................................................................... 223

Accenture Survey ................................................................................................................ 329

BUSINESSEUROPE Survey ......................................................................................... 370

RECORD LEVEL OF MEDIA ATTENDANCE AND COVERAGE• 250 REPORTERS COVERING

THE SUMMIT

• LIVE STREAMING FROM 49 COUNTIES

• 1,000 ONLINE REFERENCES AND ARTICLES WITHIN 24HRS AFTER THE SUMMIT

11

“ If the regulations in Europe would fi t the purpose of the SME’s the big companies would do just fi ne…. Simplicity is what creates vision, talent, freedom and capabilities…Jeff ImmeltCEO - General ElectricJoin EBS – For more information contact

Ellen Runngren – [email protected] - +32(0)2 645 34 86

A Special Thanks to the EBS Honorary Committee

The EBS team would like to express their gratitude for the help and support of the EBS Honorary Committee in the organisation of this year’s summit.

HONORARY COMMITTEE

Chairman: José Manuel Barroso, Former President of the European Commission

Director: Philippe de Buck, Former Director General, BUSINESSEUROPE

Secretary: Arnaud Thysen, General Manager EBS, European Business Summit

Reinhard Bütikofer, Member of the European Parliament

N. Chandrasekaran, CEO and Managing Director, Tata Consultancy Services

Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, Chairman of the Executive Committee, Solvay Group

Jean de Gheldere, Managing Director of EBS, European Business Summit

Karel De Gucht, Former EU Trade Commissioner, State Minister of Belgium

Malcolm Harbour, Member of the European Parliament

Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen, Vice President, European University Association & Special Advisor, Aarhus University

Baron Daniel Janssen, Former Chairman of the Board, Solvay

Craig Kennedy, Former President, German Marshall Fund, Partner Creative Engagement

Philippe Lamberts, Member of the European Parliament

Yves Leterme, Deputy Secretary-General, OECD

Thomas Leysen, Chairman, Umicore & Chairman, KBC Group

Didier Malherbe, CEO, UCB Belgium and Founder of EBS

Emma Marcegaglia, President, BUSINESSEUROPE

Mario Monti, Former Prime Minister, Italy, Senator for Life

Leo Peeters, Ambassador-at-Large, Foreign Affairs Belgium

Baudouin Regout, Member of the Analysis Team, BEPA, European Commission

André Sapir, Senior Fellow, Bruegel

Michèle Sioen, President, Federation of Enterprises in Belgium, CEO, Sioen Industries

Pieter Timmermans, CEO, Federation of Enterprises in Belgium

Baron Frans van Daele, Honorary Ambassador, Head of Cabinet to His Majesty the King of Belgians

Where policy makers meet the business community

Pierre Moscovici, Commissioner Economic and Financial Aff airs, Taxation and Customs, European Commission Jo Deblaere, COO Accenture and Jonas Kjellberg, Co-Founder of Skype

An Exclusive Environment to meet with policy makers

Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President, European Commission; Arnaud Thysen, General Manager EBS and Jeff Immelt, CEO General ElectricMarkus Beyrer, Director General BUSINESSEUROPE; Jo Deblaere, COO Accenture

Influence the Policy Makers Debating the future of Europe

Jean de Gheldere, Managing Partner EBS welcoming Yanis Varoufakis, Greek Finance Minister

Networking at top level

Discussing the European Digital Agenda

Günther H. Oettinger, Commissioner Digital Economy & Society, European Commission

Convey Your Message to the European Policy Makers and Business Leaders

“ Europe should step up its eff orts to make equipment smart and consolidate its leading position in manufacturingGuo PingDeputy Chairman of the BoardRotating CEO HUAWEI

Position Your Organisation in Europe

“ Europe needs to push innovation and be more open for collaboration with the developing world Manjeev Singh Puri, Ambassador of India to the European Union

Arnaud Thysen, General Manager EBS and Guo Ping, Deputy Chairman of the Board and Rotating CEO, HUAWEI

DEBATINGWITH EXPERTS

DELIVERINGRESULTS

NETWORKINGVENUE

MEET

THE EXPERTS

MAKING NEWS

45 sessions of interaction between panelists, discussants and audience on key issues for European business and economy. Be part of the debate to shape the future of Europe.

Welcome to the European Business Summit, the largest independent forum for business leaders, policymakers, civil society and academics. This year EBS marks its 15th anniversary with a focus on the digital revolution and how to shape Europe’s future. With 45 sessions in Egmont Palace the summit draws more than 1,500 participants and 200 reporters. CEOs and other high-level executives from leading European and global fi rms connect and debate with top EU offi cials including the Presidents of the European Council and Parliament. A unique networking venue for business, politics and media.

Join Europe’s largest networking venue for top business leaders, civil society, academics and policy-makers, gathering over 1,500 participants.

The European Business Summit is proud to acknowledge the support of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Brainstorming and rapid exchange in small dynamic groups, on topics that drive success and innovation, moderated by CEOs, NGOs and think tanks.

EBS opinion and interviews are broadcast and published in print and online by over 200 journalists from major international titles, TV channels and the European public affairs press.

At the end of each session, the moderator concludes with recommendations and action points, which are subsequently delivered in the Summit Report to European policy-makers.

Under the High Patronage of His Majesty the King of the Belgians

BE PART OF THE DEBATE

A UNIQUE

Unique branding opportunities

HM King Philippe of the Belgians

Jo DeblaereAccenture

Kristalina GeorgievaEU Commissioner

Guy VerhofstadtEuropean Parliament

Jorgo Riss Greenpeace

André SapirBruegel

Antonio TajaniEuropean Commission

Andrus AnsipEuropean Commission

Pierre MoscoviciEuropean Commission

Stephen FidlerWall Street Journal

Rupert KeeleyPaypal

Tom McKillopAstraZeneca

Anthony Luzzato GardnerU.S. Ambassador to the EU

Jean-Pierre ClamadieuCEFIC/SOLVAY

Elzbieta BienkowskaEuropean Commission

James KanterInternational New York Times

Romano ProdiEuropean Commission

Vicomte Etienne DavignonMinister of State

Vagit AlekperovLukoil

Lakshmi Mittal, ArcelorMittal

D.P. NambiarTata Consultancy

Gesche JoostBerlin University of Arts

Emma MarcegagliaBUSINESSEUROPE

Leif JohanssonEricsson - AstraZeneca

Hande Özsan BozatliAssembly of European Regions

Johannes HahnEU Commissioner

Martin SchulzEuropean Parliament

Erika MannFacebook

Ann MettlerEuropean Commission

Anders DahlvigIKEA

Markus BeyrerBUSINESSEUROPE

Connie HedegaardEuropean Commission

William ColtonExxon Mobil Corporation

Karel De GuchtEuropean Commission

Michèle SioenSioen Industries

Marianne ThyssenEuropean Commission

Bruno BerthonAccenture Strategy

Gerhard SchröderFormer Chancellor

Michel BarnierEuropean Commission

Jim Cowles Citi

Neelie KroesEuropean Commission

Helge LundStatoil

Guo PingHuawei

Peter PraetEuropean Central Bank

Leung Chun-ying Hong-Kong

Didier ReyndersForeign Aff airs, Belgium

N. ChandrasekaranTata Consultancy Services

Sean KleinSean Klein Media

Pascal Lamy World Trade Organisation

José Manuel Barroso European Commission

Nani Beccalli-FalcoGE

Pieter TimmermansFEB/VBO

Herman Van RompuyEuropean Council

William KennardU.S. Ambassador

Philippe LambertsEuropean Parliament

Dominique Reiniche Coca-Cola Europe

Maroš ŠefčovičEuropean Commission

Lord Jonathan HillEuropean Commission

Christian MoralesIntel

Saskia BruystenYunus Social Business

Niklas ZennstromSkype

Mario Monti, Former Prime Minister of Italy

Carlos BritoCEO AB InBev

Valdis DombrovskisEuropean Commission

Sandro BonomiOrgalime, Enolgas Bonomi S.p.a.

Cor Boonstra Philips

Jorma OllilaNokia

Steve BallmerMicrosoft

Leung Chun-ying Hong-Kong

Didier ReyndersForeign Aff airs, Belgium

YEARS

202000000000

202202015

15EBS MARKS ITS 15TH ANNIVERSARYThis year EBS marks its 15th anniversary. Over the years EBS has attracted prominent speakers from all sectors including policy makers, academics, business leaders, civil society and think tanks. It has grown into a must-attend venue for those whose ambition is to contribute to shaping European economic growth.

SHAPING EUROPEAN ECONOMIC GROWTHThe European Business Summit is the largest independent forum for business leaders, policy-makers, civil society and academics. Its ambition is to stimulate debate on the key issues that accelerate European growth. EBS has been initiated by FEB and is supported by BUSINESSEUROPE. Over two days EBS hosts more than 45 sessions gathering experts, panelists, discussants and the audience.

Each session is followed by recommendations drawn together by the moderator and editorial team. These action points are subsequently delivered to European policy-makers in the summit report.

Under the High Patronage of His Majesty the King of the Belgians

Manjeev Singh PuriAmbassador to the EU

Jeremy RifkinWriter & Economist

Facts and Figures

1,8702,300

Total number of participants

58% 62%

Participants attending EBS for this fi rst time

81%90%

Participants overall satisfaction

20152014

EBS 2014 31EBS 2014 30

A Unique Networking Opportunity EBS is the place to network effi ciently on a European level – bringing together decision makers, policy experts, business leaders and industry representatives. It is a must-attend event to meet the people who shape and influence business across Europe and to make sure your voice will be heard in the European debate.

“ EBS brings together senior policy makers with business from all corners of Europe Richard Pelly, Former Chief Executive, European Investment Fund

One - to - one meeting opportunities

Join EBS to

Explore Solutions to the Challenges Facing Business Today

Lord Jonathan Hill, Commissioner Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, European Commission

HEINEKEN,BREWING A BETTER WORLD

23%

reduction in water consumption since 2008

Dance More Drink SlowGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGN

activatedin

44MARKETS

Working in stakeholderpartnerships to addressalcohol-related harm

across all our EU marketsGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGNGLOBAL ENJOY HEINEKEN RESPONSIBLY CAMPAIGN

activated

44MARKETS

100%of our EU malt

and barley needsare sourced

locally

-45%

Average energy saving with our fridges since 2010

ON TRACK TO MEET OUR 2015 SUSTAINABLE SOURCING TARGET FOR BARLEY, HOPS AND APPLES

REDUCTION IN CARBON

EMISSIONS SINCE 2008

25.1€mlninvested in our

communities in 2014

Reducing CO2emissions

Sourcingsustainably

Advocatingresponsible

consumption

Promotinghealth and

safety

Growing withcommunities

Protectingwater resources

75%of our EU

hops needsare sourced

locally

Our focus areas:

To honour them, a new campaign has been created: Legendary 7 To bring the unique stories of seven ‘green pioneers’ to life, the campaign uses augmented reality via the Blippar App. One blipp of a Heineken® bottle or coaster and it leaps to life on your smartphone. You can also view our sustainability report on there too!

AT THE HEART OF OUR SUSTAINABLE SOURCING EFFORTS ARE OUR FARMERS

ou can also view our sustainability report on there too!ou can also view our sustainability report on there too!

DOWNLOAD

BLIPPAR APPDBLI

FILL SCREEN

WITH BOTTLE

OR COASTER

2

BLIPP BOTTLEINTO LIFE!

3

1

www.theheinekencompany.com/sustainability

@HEINEKENCorp

Ad Heineken nr1.pdf 1 16-04-15 18:55

HEINEKEN, THE WORLD’S MOST INTERNATIONAL BREWER,

AND NUMBER 1 BREWER IN EUROPE

A European company trading to the world trading to the world trading to the world16.8mln hectolitres

of beer exported

worldwide

+70 beerand cider brandsbrewed in the EUand exported to

+130countries

HEINEKEN® IS THENUMBER 1 BEER BRAND IN EUROPE

TOTAL INVESTMENTS

SINCE 2009

1.5€bn

€€€€€€€€€€82.9mln

HECTOLITRESOF BEERPRODUCED

IN 2014

26,939DIRECTJOBSin 2014

We sell beer & cider brands in the EU

Extensivegeographicfootprintin Europe

18 EU markets

48 breweries

IS THEIN EUROPE

in the EU

Our role in driving growth in the EU

www.theheinekencompany.com

@HEINEKENCorp

Ad Heineken nr2.pdf 2 16-04-15 18:54

EBS 2013 SESSIONS 39

39EBS 2015

SESSIONS

Expand your business horizons – CETA: p.40 Forging new opportunities in Canada, Europe... and beyond! (By invitation only)

Barriers to growth for mid-sized p.42 biopharmaceutical companies in Europe: a case for public intervention? (By invitation only)

Accenture Strategy Digital Forum p.44

Cancer Survivorship & Employment Session: p.48How can businesses tackle new societal issues?

Regions Roundtable Conference p.50

R&D&I Strategy in the Wallonia Region within the framework of HORIZON 2020 (By invitation only) p.54

OPENING PLENARY: Europe 4.0: p.56 Delivering a vision for the future of Europe

Digital Economy - Remaking business p.60 for a digital Europe

Is TTIP compatible with p.64 the European project?

Financing the Future p.70

Circular Economy – The full picture p.74

Industry 4.0 - Accelerating the journey p.76

to productivity and growth

Eurozone - How to secure enough p.80 investment for European growth?

Trade – Europe in the global economy p.84

Energy Union – When will it happen? p.90

Food Safety Reconciling p.94 competitiveness and citizens’ trust

Innovation – How do we do research p.96 to innovate in the digital era?

The Climate Challenge p.102 How to reconcile climate objectives with industrial competitiveness

Skills & Employment p.106 The future of work for a competitive Europe

Structural Reforms p.110Why are structural reforms important for digitisation too?

CLOSING PLENARY: p.114 How will things be different this time?

MEET THE EXPERTS 6 May p.120

MEET THE EXPERTS 7 May p.124

40 EBS 2015 - SESSIONS

6 MAYExpand your business horizons – CETA: Forging new opportunities in Canada, Europe… and beyond!

(by invitation only)

On September 26th, 2014, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, and European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, formal-ly announced the conclusion of negotiations toward a Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, also known as CETA. Participants in this session heard directly from the Chief Negotiators of CETA and learned how the agreement’s ambitious and comprehensive outcome will create vast new opportunities across Canada and the EU, opening new markets for exporters, generating high-quality jobs for workers and forging closer links between the two economies. Before embarking on the negotiations for this historic agreement, Canada and the EU completed a joint study to assess its potential benefi ts. The study revealed that CETA could deliver a 20-per-cent boost in bilateral trade and an €11.6 billion annual increase to the EU economy. The Chief Negotiators also underscored how CETA marks a watershed moment in the develop-ment of a 21st-century framework for trade. Never before have two highly developed economies reached an agreement encompassing the full range of factors that now shape trade in the global economy. As a result, CETA sets the new, gold standard for the trade agreements of the 21st century. CETA positions us to expand on our already signifi cant trade and economic ties through delivering substantial, market-opening commitments across a range of key areas: trade in goods, technical barriers and regulatory cooperation, intellectual property, government procurement, investment, and services. The representatives of the Canadian and EU business communities on the panel explained in more detail the many benefi ts that will accrue upon entry into force of the agreement. They urged busi-nesses on both sides to review the content of CETA, learn how it will benefi t their international ac-tivities and begin planning how best to take advantage of those benefi ts. Participants also learned about how Canadian and European companies can fi nd partners and explore opportunities through the Enterprise Canada Network – the Canadian partner of the Enterprise Europe Network.

SpeakersSteve VerheulChief Trade Negotiator, Canada-European Union, Foreign Aff airs, Trade and Development Canada

Mauro PetriccioneDeputy Director-General, DG Trade, European Commission

Markus BeyrerDirector General, BUSINESSEUROPE

Jayson MyersPresident and CEO, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters


Barriers to growth for mid-sized biopharmaceutical companies in Europe: a case for public intervention?(by invitation only)

Europe is currently lagging behind the U.S. when it comes to growth of the biotech and biophar-maceutical sectors, particularly when it comes to companies in the mid-sized range. Many factors could contribute to this situation, one of the more important being a less developed private ven-ture capital market in Europe. EU innovation policy has traditionally given particular attention to facilitating the growth of SME’s and start-ups, but there are strong indications that also mid-sized companies face many of the same problems in research-intense industries such as the biophar-maceutical sector. The situation for this group of companies has also been highlighted in recent policy developments, e.g. the proposal for a European Fund for Strategic Investments.

A new report by Charles River Associates in cooperation with EFPIA sheds new light on the growth problems for European companies in the sector compared to the U.S. and will be presented during the event.

This session was a good opportunity to discuss the challenges currently facing the sector and pos-sible policy responses with key policy makers and stakeholders. Speakers include Marc de Garidel, CEO of Ipsen, MEP Philippe De Backer, John Davis, head of division for Life Sciences and Health at the EIB, Jack Scannell, Associate Fellow at Oxford University and Patrick Van Beneden of Gimv.

6 MAY

ModeratorMarc De GaridelCEO of Ipsen and Vice-President of EFPIA

SpeakersDidier MalherbeUCB

Jim AttridgeCharles River Associates

Patrick Van BenedenPartner at Gimv

Jack ScannellResearcher and former equity analyst at Stanford C. Bernstein

John DavisHead of Division for Life Sciences and Health, European Investment Bank

Philippe De BackerMEP European Parliament

44 45EBS 2015 - SESSIONS EBS 2015 - SESSIONS

The inaugural Accenture Strategy Digital Forum took place on 6 May 2015 at the Palais d’Egmont, Brussels. With contributions from business leaders and industry experts along-side real-world examples of how digital is creating fundamental change, the event of-fered an opportunity to discuss ways in which organisations can embrace digital disruption to improve competitive edge and generate new growth.

HOW DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY HAS RESET THE FUNDAMENTALS OF COMPETITION

Speaker: Larry Downes, Author

The digital revolution continues apace, and is now entering an even more exciting second phase. The fi rst wave occurred in technology- and information-intensive industries; the new phase is impacting industries largely unaff ect-ed the fi rst time around, such as manufactur-ing, retailing, and government.

Key takeaway: It is the combination of new rules and diff erent skill sets that is determin-ing competitive advantage in the digital world.

MAJOR TRENDS AND THE NEW RULES FOR DIGITAL

Moderator: Robert Wollan, Global Managing Director, Accenture Strategy, Sales & Customer Service

Panellists: Jan Vorstermans, General Partner, VentureWise; Daniel Benton, Global Managing Di-rector—Accenture Strategy, Technology Strategy; Marc Carrel-Billiard, Managing Director, Accentu-re Technology, Emerging TechnologyTechnology trends that will reshape business include the rapid emergence of the Internet of Things and the emergence of “digital ecosys-tems,” the “glue” of the platform revolution. Digital technology enables the selling of out-comes, rather than products and services—leading to the intelligent enterprise. Key takeaway: Organisations will gain a bet-ter understanding of what customers want through data.

SEVEN “NO-REGRET” CAPABILITIES TO WIN IN THE DIGITAL ECONOMY

Moderator: Narry Singh, Managing Director, Accenture Strategy, Digital Strategy, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, Africa

Panellists: Joachim Goyvaerts, Head of Belgium and Luxembourg, PayPal; Lorenzo Franzi, Glob-al Venture Managing Director, Rocket Internet; Mark Pearson, Managing Director, Accenture Strategy, Operations; Céline Laurenceau, Man-aging Director, Accenture Strategy, Talent & Organization

This is a great time to be an “incumbent business.” These established companies have many capabilities and strengths that can be leveraged—but business leaders are ques-tioning what new capabilities to invest in to be digital today.

Jan VorstermansGeneral PartnerVentureWise

Robert WollanGlobal Managing DirectorAccenture Strategy Sales & Customer Service

Joachim GoyvaertsHead of Belgium and LuxembourgPayPal

Daniel BentonGlobal Managing DirectorAccenture Strategy, Technology Strategy

Lorenzo FranziGlobal Venture Managing DirectorRocket Internet

Céline LaurenceauManaging Director, Accenture Strategy, Talent & Organization

Dominique LeroyCEO, Proximus;

Michał BoniMember of the European Parliament

Jyrki KatainenEuropean Commission Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness

Mark PearsonManaging DirectorAccenture Strategy, Operations

Bruno BerthonGlobal Managing Director, Accenture StrategyDigital Strategy

Peter JungenFounder, Peter Jungen Holding GmbH

Larry DownesAuthor

Narry SinghManaging DirectorAccenture Strategy,Digital Strategy,Europe, Latin America, Middle East, Africa

6 MAYAccenture Strategy Digital Forum


Accenture Strategy Digital Forum

Seven capabilities have been identifi ed as key to digital success: sense and interpret disrup-tion; organize for speed; design a delightful customer experience; fully understand and leverage data; experiment to develop and launch new ideas, faster; build and maintain a high digital quotient team; and partner and invest for all non-core activities.

Key takeaway: Once an organization un-derstands how it measures up against its required capabilities and the competition, it can make the right strategic choices to real-ize its digital goals.

MANAGING BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION FOR THE DIGITAL ECONOMY

Moderator: Bruno Berthon, Global Managing Director, Accenture Strategy, Digital Strategy

Panellists: Dominique Leroy, CEO, Proximus; Gi-anpiero Lotito, CEO, FacilityLive; Peter Jungen, Founder, Peter Jungen Holding GmbH; Michał Boni, Member of the European Parliament; Mauro Macchi, Senior Managing Director, Eu-rope, Africa, Latin America, Accenture Strategy

Creating new growth options for the future of organisations by executing strategies at mul-tiple speeds, across multiple layers, requires meeting the dual challenges of operating and evolving a large business. Organisations need to consider the issues of scaling an enterprise to become a “global player.”

Key takeaway: Governments and policy makers need to create the right environment for dig-ital business through focused investment and nurturing entrepreneurship and innovation.

INVESTING FOR EUROPEAN COMPETITIVENESS AND GROWTH

Speaker: Jyrki Katainen, European Commission Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness

Going forward, a key priority is to strength-en Europe’s competitiveness and stimulate investment as a means to encourage job creation. Smarter investment, more focus, less regulation and more flexibility is required when it comes to public funds at a European Union level.

Key takeaway: The investment plan is not a one-off measure, but an investment off ensive that will unfold over the next three years. It is a plan that will fundamentally change public policy and the fi nancing tools underpinning in-vestment in Europe, to achieve the highest eco-nomic and societal return for every euro spent.

Dominique Leroy, Chief Exective Offi cer - Proximus


Cancer Survivorship & Employment Session: How can businesses tackle new societal issues?

6 MAY

Cancer clinical research has achieved consid-erable success over the past 40 years, but this success has also created unique challenges. Many cancer patients now become cancer sur-vivors and are confronted with unanticipated societal problems related to quality of life or obtaining mortgages, appropriate insurance, or gainful employment.

In the presence of H.R.H Princess Astrid of Belgium, participants of this Cancer and Em-ployment session discussed the specifi c needs of cancer patients and survivors. Dr. Françoise Meunier, EORTC Director Special Projects, opened the session by pointing out the neces-sity of convincing business to do something to help patients live a dignifi ed life during, and after, their fi ght against cancer. Marianne Thyssen, EU Commissioner Employment, Social aff airs, Skills and Labor Mobility emphasized this point into during her keynote saying, “A job is much more than just work. Let’s not let cancer get the better of us”.

Isabelle Lebrocquy, Cancer Survivor, Patient Advocate, and Social Entrepreneur, asked, “How comfortable are we with the un-comfort-able?” Being a cancer patient or survivor is con-sidered a risk by employers, but politicians and business leaders could make diff erence in this respect. Picking up on this lead, Richard Ellis, Director of Corporate Social Responsibilities, Walgreens Boots Alliance, outlined measures taken, worldwide, by his organization to help cancer patients and survivors remain active employee. Michel Vermaerke, CEO of FEBEL-FIN, discussed cancer survivorship issues and outlined measures now being taken by Belgian banks in dealing with cancer survivorship is-

sues. For their part, Ingrid Klingmann, Chair of the European Forum for Good Clinical Practice, and Ingrid Kössler of the European Economic and Social Committee, shared social problems with which they were confronted during and after their cancer treatments.

Andrew Jacks of the Financial Times and Peter O’Donnell of POLITICOEurope moderated a panel discussion concerning return to work issues for cancer patients. Francesco Florindi of the European Cancer Patient Coalition questioned whether cancer survivorship is-sues were on the list of big things concerning European health and social issues, and Satu Lipponen, Special Adviser at the Cancer So-ciety of Finland Association, asked the panel what an employer could do when an employee gets cancer. Off ering a way forward, Anastas-sia Negrouk, Head of the EORTC International Policy Offi ce, said, “We need to catalog best case experiences; 75% of women with breast cancer will be diagnosed while they are still of working age. We need to ensure patients, that they will be able to continue working ”.

EORTC President Roger Stupp wrapped up the Cancer and Employment session by stressing the importance of the EORTC’s continuing focus on cancer survivorship issues, and he announced that a second EORTC Cancer Survi-vorship Summit will be held in Brussels on 31 March through 01 April 2016.

John Bean, PhD

EORTC, Medical Science Writer

M. VermaekeCEOFEBELFIN

Chair

Peter O’DonnellJournalistEuropean Voice

Moderator

Marianne ThyssenCommissioner for Skills & EmploymentEuropean Commission

Keynote lecture

Richard EllisDirector of Corporate Social ResponsabilitiesWalgreens Booth Alliance

Ingrid KlingmannChairmanEuropean Forum for Good Clinical Practise

Isabelle LebrocquyCancer Survivor, Patient Advocate and Social EntrepreneuroPuce

Ingrid KösslerEuropean Economic and Social Committee

Françoise MeunierDirector Special ProjectsEORTC

Chair

Andrew Jack Journalist Financial Times

Moderator


Regions Roundtable Conference

6 MAY

INTRODUCTION: THE TOPIC

European Regions play a crucial role in the achievement of the Europe 2020 objectives. Most of R&D expenditures and funding are pro-vided by local public authorities. They also are the right level to implement projects for smarter and greener cities. Indeed, inclusive growth will only be achieved in Europe once regional dispar-ities in skilled force resource and unemployment will be bridged. Over 21% of Europe’s youth is unemployed and around 80 million people in Europe are lacking basic skills required for em-ployment, notably in IT.Regions are the implementing branch of the Eu-ropean Union fi nancing programmes, but are also the main benefi ciaries. The European Structural & Investment Funds (ESIF) represent one third of the European budget, i.e. 366,9 bn EUR for the period 2014-2020. Since the 2013 reform of the EU’s Cohesion Policy, they are covered by a sin-gle set of rules set out in the so-called Common Provisions Regulation (Regulation 1303/2013). This Regulation entails rules for the key funds, i.e. the European Regional Development fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural De-velopment and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (there are further, fund-specifi c rules in separate regulations). These funds may be used to support fi nancial instruments such as debt, equity fi nance and grants to help fi nancial sound investments. The aim is also to leverage additional private resources from public and pri-vate sectors in order to enhance the economic benefi ts of EU investments. Other, additional funds are available to provide further funding to for example digitalisation of regions, such as

the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (Horizon 2020) and the Connecting Europe Facility. The new Juncker Fund might also off er funding opportunities.One of the big new trend for European regions is the concept of “smart specialisation”. Pro-posed in 2009 by an expert advisory group to the EU, this concept, aiming at enabling regional comparative advantages supported by local technological specialisation, has spread quickly. It stimulates regions to position themselves in a specifi c market or niche. “Smart specialisation” is part of the EU 2020 Agenda. Having a smart specialisation strategy in place has become one of the preconditions for access to EU structural fund programmes. The aim of smart special-isation is to lead regions out of the crisis by supporting local innovation. The concept goes further than a traditional industrial policy as it is based on “entrepreneurial discovery”. This is an interactive and bottom-up process enabling pub-lic and private actors to discover market forces at the local levels and capitalise of their poten-tialities. A special smart specialisation platform was created by the European Commission to provide guidance to local authorities as to how to develop and deploy such strategies.

THE CHALLENGES AHEAD

Delivering on the new EU Cohesion policy will be a key objective and challenge for the EU in the coming 5 years. As its largest investment vehicle (depending, of course, on the success of the Juncker Fund), this policy will be key to spur growth in poorer regions, key for investment in R&D and ICT projects and, therefore, key for the

Pascal GoergenSecretary GeneralFederation of Regional Actors in Europe (FEDRA)

Karl-Heinz LambertzFirst Vice-President of the Committee of Regions

Daniel Calleja Crespo Director General of DG Grow, European Commission

Mikel LandabasoHead of Cabinet of Commissioner Corina Cretu, European Commission

Henriette van Eijl Policy Coordinator, Innovative and Sustainable Mobility

Ian McCarthyDirector of Programmes, Liverpool Vision

Philippe VanrieDirector European Business Network

Moderator

David Thomas MBE Chairman of Council of British Chambers of Commerce in Europe


further digitalisation of the EU’s industry and economy. It will be a challenge to ensure that the funds are channelled to areas and projects in the most effi cient manner. It will be challenging to test funding requests on the basis of, for exam-ple, a smart specialisation strategy. Indeed, as far as smart specialisation is con-cerned in the context of regional development, the main challenge is to develop a more compre-hensive analysis of the concept and its economic impact. The concept is still not fully developed. It has not yet fully demonstrated its economic benefi ts and the methodology that should be followed to implement it. Many arguments in favour of smart specialisation have not yet been empirically verifi ed. Economists are raising more and more concerns about potentially adverse ef-fects of strong specialisation of local territories. Indeed, the fact that a local government favours one technology might lead to the development of ineffi cient activities and might encourage rent-seeking. It could also lead to the spending of public funds on activities that would have in any case been developed by private market-driven investment. Furthermore, smart specialisation of

regions could lead to a decrease in competition between European territories, which would par-adoxically decrease the actual competitiveness and innovation of the specialized regions. This would also have a potentially negative knock-on eff ect on industrial/social inclusion – one of the key objectives of the reformed Cohesion policy.

QUESTIONS DISCUSSED DURING THE SESSION

• Should more ESIF money be directed to support smart specialisation? Why (not)?

• To what extent do the ESIF programmes fi t the needs of public and private actors? What are the limits to the combination of the diff erent funds?

• Has the reform of the EU’s Cohesion already delivered tangible results/improvements – in particular in the ICT/digital sector?

• Should further restructuring/consolidation of the number of available EU funds/programmes take place?

Regions Roundtable Conference


R&D&I Strategy in the Wallonia Region within the framework of HORIZON 2020 (by invitation only)

6 MAY

In April 2015, Wallonia has revised its strate-gy of R&D&I, in a coherent way with Horizon 2020, the programme following the FP7. One of the most important changes is an improve-ment of the support of the participation of innovating SMEs in European platforms and programmes. Alan Cross, Deputy Head of

unit Horizon 2020 and Berndt Reichert, head of unit of the European Agency for SMEs, presented the evaluation of the first calls Horizon 2020. On 490 proposals submitted, 71 of them were retained for funding for a total amount of 23 million Euros.

ModeratorMr. Philippe VANRIE, European Business Network

SpeakersJean-Claude MarcourtMinister of Economy and Industry, Research and Innovation and High Education of Wallonia and Fédération Wallonie – Bruxelles

Berndt ReichertHead of Unit, Horizon 2020 – SMEs

Bertrand HerrisDirector, National Contact Point – Wallonia

Hubert Goffi netResearch and Innovation Platform WBI

Thibault HelleputteCEO - DNAlytics


Europe 4.0: Delivering a vision for the future of Europe

6 MAY

Recognising that the EU has still to reach its economic return to pre-crisis levels, the open-ing plenary of the European Business Summit 2015 addresses the digital opportunity as a major lever for growth. Yet this €340 billion opportunity of the Digital Single Market faces challenges which need to be tackled by both EU politicians as well as businesses across Eu-rope to turn it into reality.

As an introduction, Mr. Alexander de Croo, Belgium’s current Deputy Prime Minister, highlights the importance of this digital mar-ket: In the future, nine out of ten jobs will require digital skills. He calls on the EU to take up a “start-up spirit” for its digital agenda in order to stimulate and encourage the eff orts undertaken by businesses of all sizes to seize the digital opportunity. Rather than regulate and restrict, the EU has to create the condi-tions to encourage an agile environment for the digital market.

Mr. Markus Beyrer, Director General at BUSI-NESSEUROPE subsequently opens the debate by determining that the EU experiences a gradual improvement of its economic recovery, with an expected growth of close to 2% this year. However, this is facilitated by current external conditions such as a low level of the oil price or the quantitative easing by the European Central Bank. While these might be short-term eff ects, the confi dence of custom-ers and businesses is a clear sign for optimism. This confi dence will stimulate both demand and investment. Yet the way to full recovery is still long: While China has achieved 64% growth since the starting of the crisis, India

showed 48%, and the US 8% growth. Yet the EU is lagging behind, having almost achieved its pre-crisis level.

The reasons for this ordinary, but not satisfying growth so far, is seen as being two-folded by Mr. Frank Timmermans, the current Vice-Pres-ident of the European Commission. First, a lack of trust between each other exists, both with-in European societies as well as between Euro-pean countries. Second, a lack of confi dence exists. He consequently takes a less optimistic stance than Markus Beyrer, and has not seen the resurgence of confi dence so far. Frank Timmermans also points out that Europe has to leverage its potential of the women labour force, as this talent group is still at a disadvan-tage. He encourages national policy-makers and European citizens to be more optimistic and to believe in the strengths of Europe. As an example, he cites that TTIP is not led by the US, but in fact the EU is having a strong say in the negotiations given that it is the strongest economic region and power in the world. By having more confi dence, Europe can embrace change and the needed reforms more openly. He also recognises that small and me-dium-sized enterprises form the background of the European economy as 80% of the Eu-ropean workforce are employed by them. Yet they are sceptical of the European integration process, and the EU should integrate them into the European journey by improving regulation which facilitates more effi cient business-mak-ing. In a nutshell, Timmermanns sees more trust and more self-confi dence as the two key components for Europe’s revival.

GUO PING

DEPUTY CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD - ROTATING CEO

HUAWEI

Michèle SioenPresident of FEB

Frans TimmermansFirst Vice-PresidentEuropean Commission

Guo PingDeputy Chairman of the Board - Rotating CEOHUAWEI

Jeff rey ImmeltCEOGeneral Electric

Markus BeyrerDirector GeneralBUSINESSEUROPE

Jo DeblaereCOO and Chief Executive-EuropeAccenture

Stephen FidlerBrussels Bureau ChiefWall Street Journal

Moderator

OPENING PLENARY


Europe 4.0: Delivering a vision for the future of Europe

However, Markus Beyrer consequently points to the fact that no single digital market exists yet. An investment in the backbone infra-structure is much needed, yet Europe is the only region in the world which saw a dropping investment per capita in terms of broadband infrastructure. Only with skills, investment, and the right regulation can Europe recover a position among the world-leaders in the dig-ital area.

Mr. Jo Deblaere, COO Accenture, picks up on the priority of the digital area by emphasising the pervasiveness of the digital change in the next decade: The digital economy will become reality in industries ranging from health (trans-forms into e-health) to the car industry (where it is not just about the connected car, but smarter mobility in general). In consequence, it is expected that by 2030 the digital market can contribute 450€ billion to the GDP of Ger-many. Deblaere sees three key components in order to harness this potential: First, technol-ogy and especially digital need not only to be seen as drivers for effi ciency, but as a driver for growth by creating new business models. Yet today, nine out of ten business leaders see only effi ciency gains. Second, a digital density index can help us assess the readiness of the economy in terms of embracing the digital opportunity. While the Nordic countries as well as Denmark and to some extent Germany are doing well, Spain is lagging behind, and a

North-South gap is observable, which needs to be corrected urgently. Third and last, Deblaere points to a study of the European Commis-sion which determined 900,000 vacancies in Europe by 2020, which marks a gap on the supply side of labour force. Businesses have consequentially to develop strategies on how to attract and integrate digital talents into their business, as currently only one third of them has such a strategy in place.

One of Europe’s central businesses is General Electric, and its CEO Mr. Jeff rey Immelt notes that it employs 94,000 people in Europe. While recognizing that Europe’s talent and capabili-ties are high, he points out that Europe has to create clusters in the digital area to further attract talent and development. Only when the whole industry exists Europe will be able to clearly leverage the digital opportunity. This becomes also clear when acknowledging that for every job at General Electric represents eight jobs in the supply chain at smaller and medium-sized enterprises exist. In the future, he expects that “every industrial company is also a software company.”

Taking up on this task of creating clusters, Timmermans argued that Europe needs to reinvent itself by opening up to competition, which will enrich innovation for the European continent. Markus Beyrer highlighted that for this reinvention we can learn several aspects

from the US: First, we have not yet enough venture capital in Europe to truly achieve this digital reinvention. Further lessons can be drawn in the ability to attract the best talent and diff erent approaches to risk which exist in the US, and which can potentially move Eu-rope ahead in terms of its digital agenda. Last but not least, he returned to the importance of confi dence, which is essential to achieve in order to embrace the digital opportunity. Deblaere agreed that Europe has to learn from other parts of the world. This concerns also the challenge of scaling up small businesses, which is still hampered by the fact that we have 28 diff erent markets, and not one single European market. As concluding remarks, Timmermans agreed to the fact that “no internal digital market in Europe exists, but we need to create

it very, very quickly.” He emphasised again the need to tackle the psychological challenge to have more confi dence in Europe. Only when social society, business, national and European politicians work together and come up with a good plan, people will think that they are able to deliver.

As a follow-up, Mr. Guo Ping, the present Deputy Chairman of Huawei, shared some of his thoughts on a broader industry ecosystem for a Europe 4.0. This ecosystem is built on three layers: Equipment, infrastructure, and applications. Mr. Guo highlighted that Europe has the capacity in these domains, yet the development is occurring at a fast pace, with connections increasingly between things to things rather than just people to things.


7 MAY Europe 4.0. – Setting the scene for a digital single market Digital Economy - Remaking business for a digital Europe

The digital technologies are omnipresent in people’s lives today and it is important that the European Union accounts for the oppor-tunities this business provides on its market. Commission Vice-President Mr. Andrus Ansip opens the panel by revealing the Commissions plans for creating a Digital Single Market (DSM) in the European Union, which will be key in making Europe the world leader in information and communication technology, thereby boosting Europe’s competitiveness and fostering economic growth. The creation of a DSM is one of the top priorities of the Juncker Commission and it will take time and eff ort to achieve. Mr. Ansip compares the crea-tion of the DSM to the construction of a house. More specifi cally, he argues that Europe needs a stable DSM in order to provide for a safe and sustainable digital economy in Europe.

Today there are several barriers that hinder the citizens of the EU to access all the potential the digital economy has to off er. Overcoming barri-ers like cross-border rules, the lack of trust and geo-blocking, demands a transformation of the economy and the European industry plays an essential role. Despite the huge potential of the Internet of Things (e.g. 4G, cloud computing, cy-ber security), the industry has been rather slow in adapting to the digitalization of business and exploitation of economies of scale. In particular, start-ups deserve special attention and one has to give them more access to venture capital, as they are seen as the future of the business and providers of specialized knowledge. VP Ansip signals out that one should give these start-ups more freedom to innovate by reducing their administrative burden and applying the “once only” principle.

An additional element on the way to create the DSM is the internet. VP Ansip stresses the importance of fi nalizing the reform on data protection and cyber security. Further, he demands a more active approach with respect to the management of data flows and the use and re-use of data. The challenge is combin-ing the free flow of data within a secure and trusting area. The DSM strategy is there to help business in Europe. Europe needs to build and defend its Digital Single Market now and will need the participation of all actors on the market to achieve the ambitious goals set out.

PANEL DISCUSSION

The panel discussion deepened the under-standing of the need of the DSM and outlined current challenges as well as short-term and long-term goals of the DSM in order to increase Europe’s competitiveness towards global mar-ket players. The moderator Mr. Bruno Berthon suggests moving away from the wait-and-see position of the European digital economy and states that Europe should not be afraid of the future. There are three main topics the ses-sion should address in order to evaluate the initiative of the DSM. Firstly, the role of the governments and businesses is important. Are both ready to take on the new challenges or do they seem to struggle? Secondly, innovation and regulation are crucial indicators for the successful creation of the DSM. And fi nally, the conjuncture between the private sector and the government and their responsibility to accelerate the digital transformation.

The fi rst speaker, Mr. Jean-Pierre Lartigue, claims that the EU is clearly behind the Unit-ed States in leadership and innovation on the digital market. However, the EU is in a position to change this situation and to ex-plore a new scale of digital use to cover the needs of the consumer. The market today is moving from consumer internet to industry internet and this provides new opportunities for the European industry. This global sector transformation demands three elements. The fi rst element is the continued investment in

infrastructure, which serves as the backbone of the digital economy. The second element is to act both on a global and local scale. On a local level, Europe needs to foster centers of excellency and to combine them on a global scale in order to create a European network of excellency (i.e., connected hubs). The third ele-ment is the need for one digital market. In the context of the digital realities we live in, time is of the essence and Europe needs to move forward pro-actively in order to stand a chance.

Andrus AnsipVice-President for Digital Single Market, European Commission

Larry DownesInternet industry analyst and author

Christian MoralesVice-President and General Manager EMEA, Intel

Marco ComastriPresident EMEACA Technologies

Jean-Pierre LartigueVice President Corporate Strategy, Alcatel-Lucent

Ulf PehrssonVice-President Government and Industry RelationsEricsson

Bruno Berthon Global Managing Director, Digital Strategy, Accenture Strategy

Moderator


Europe 4.0. – Setting the scene for a digital single market Digital Economy - Remaking business for a digital Europe

Driven by the proposals of Mr. Lartigue, Mr. Christian Morales is optimistic in terms of the European growth potential. Europe has a lot of promising sectors, such as the manufactur-ing, the automotive and the pharmaceutical industry. The main question is how fast each and every one of these sectors will perform its digital transformation and if they will be suc-cessful. Mr. Morales attaches importance to innovation and skills in Europe. More precisely, the EU has to focus on data driven innovation and has to use data to its competitive advan-tage. It is therefore necessary to invest in busi-nesses and networks.

Mr. Larry Downer, author of the book “Big Bang Disruption: Strategy in the Age of Dev-astating Innovation”, agrees with Mr. Morales on the importance of innovation and makes the case that the intersection between reg-ulation and innovation can have unintended consequences for the market. The challenge for today’s regulators is on how to keep up with ongoing innovation all the while setting up the standards in this sector. The question is how to handle trade protection and com-petition in the digital market. However, the DSM initiative shows positive signs, especially in the telecoms sector. At the same time, Mr. Downer raises privacy and security issues as main hurdles that need to be overcome as soon as possible.

Mr. Marco Comastri also believes in the po-tential of the telecom sector, in particular the mobile industry as there are currently more mobiles than people on the planet. We are living in an application economy, where increasingly we are substituting human servic-es by electronic services (eg. Online banking, travel booking). He points out two important elements that need to coexist in this economy: trust and security. In order to provide for more trust and security, we need to invest into the new sectors and account for skills in Europe.

Mr. Ulf Pehrsson addresses the global reach of the information and communication technol-ogy sector (ICT) and the creation of a network society. According to him, we are in the middle of the ICT revolution, having almost overcome the fi rst phase of installation and now heading towards the inflection point where the tech-nology become the new platform of exchange. In order to profi t from the revolution, EU au-thorities need to get the regulation right. The Single Market is full of untouched potential. And the focus needs to be on setting standards and rules. This will clearly contribute to a suc-cessful DSM and make the EU a front-runner in the industry.

Summarizing and analyzing the viewpoints of the speakers, Vice-President Ansip is satisfi ed to see that the panel seems unifi ed on how

to proceed in order to create the DSM. The EU has good business leaders in the digital market. However, there is a need to increas-ingly focus on securing competitiveness and keeping industries in Europe. The EU needs to create an environment where the digital market can prosper. This means to continue to invest in infrastructure and spectrum of digital technologies. VP Ansip stresses the impor-tance of start-ups and value added in digital in traditional sectors. The telecom package lacks to address the investment issue. In fact, there is still need for spectrum coordination as the previous packages have clearly missed to tackle that issue. He points out, that there is no reason for Member States to fear loosing control over spectrum, as it will continue to be handled as a natural resource –however that resource needs to be coordinated.

Vice-President Ansip concludes with an outlook on transformation, which takes place already and need to involve sectors beyond the ICT.

Following the analysis of Vice-President Ansip, the moderator Berthon opens the floor for the panel members to provide additional input and reaction on the issues outlined. Mr. Lar-tigue repeats that innovation is essential and that, more importantly, Europe has the talents to innovate in key technologies. He adds, that many traditional sectors are already intercon-nected with ICT and demands more cross-in-

dustry activities. Mr. Pehrsson comes back to the spectrum allocation and claims that the EU is, compared to the US, too slow in terms of licensing. He concludes in outlining the impor-tance of closing the fragmented market.

Responding to the input of the panel members, VP Ansip highlights the importance of data pro-tection, and argues that trust is a must. Howev-er, it is necessary to clearly divide between data protection and trade protectionism.

The discussion with the audience raises issues concerning the role of languages in the DSM, the importance of standardization and the role of pan-European networks as a key role for the DSM. The discussion also raises the lack of skilled labor forces. There is a need to invest in teachers, better connected universities and businesses, and encourage risk taking for entre-preneurs.

The concluding round reverts back to the constant need for innovation, interoperability, standardization, holistic view, minimal regula-tion, and need for scale. VP Ansip closes the session in stating that the EU already has a leading position and that the DSM will allow us to take the leading position in many areas. The DSM strategies need to be seen as strong, and legislative as well as non-legislative initiatives are expected to be launched within the next two years. The EU needs to act now.


6 MAYIs TTIP compatible with the European project?

Referred to as being the biggest bilateral trade agreement that has ever been undertaken, the acronym of TTIP is now the most contested one across Europe according to the European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström. The idea has of such a pervasive trade agreement of the two transatlantic partners has been around since the early 90s, however, it is only now that we are experiencing the critical phase of negotiations which will decide upon TTIP’s fi nal success or failure. While the ninth round of negotiations has just taken place in the end of April, TTIP faces a high saliency among civil society and ignite an unparal-leled debate across Europe. The underlying question, namely if TTIP is compatible with the European project, was discussed among leading practitioners and academics at this year’s European Business Summit. Policy-mak-ers involved in the negotiations, such as the Director General of the DG Trade Jean-Luc De-marty, and leading academics in the fi eld, such as Pierre Defraigne, Executive Director of the Madariaga – College of Europe Foundation, participated in the lively debate.

As a start of the debate, the moderator Dan-iela Vincienti, editor-in-chief of EurActiv, stresses the extreme importance of the trade policy not only as a tool to promote jobs and growth, but also to spread European values in the world. She points out that the negotations have indeed reached a critical point, with the ISDS negotations currently being blocked due to criticism across the EU. A fi nal paper which addresses this issue is currently undertaken.

The other speakers agreed with her statement that the current trade policy is not only a tool to promote jobs and growth, but also an instrument to spread European values around the world. Consequently, we can assert more than just an economic rationale behind TTIP, and its strategic role led in the following to some diff erent viewpoints. Jean-Luc Demarty emphasises that from his perspective, TTIP is compatible with the European project and will promote the EU’s interests in the world. He draws a line to the developments of the Sin-gle European Market, which is now taken for granted by both businesses and citizens. Not many disputes have made it a cornerstone in the European integration process, and one of its main successes. While TTIP is not as exten-sive as the Single Market, it has nonetheless an import and long-lasting eff ecting, and will mainly strengthen the economic ties between the EU and the US. In addition, it will simplify the regulatory system of the two transatlantic partners and provide a boost to the European economy through this simplifi cation and mu-tual recognition of standards. TTIP will not solve all economic problems of Europe, which illustrates its limitations. Yet, it will create opportunities in terms of a new market and reduced economic barriers, which will not only be benefi cial for big multinationals, but also for small and medium-sized enterprises.

To truly being able to embrace these opportu-nities, the regulatory aspect in TTIP is crucial and needs to be tackled thoroughly and seri-ously to achieve the promised economic ben-efi ts. Luisa Santos, Director for International

Relations at Business Europe, makes clear that currently the regulatory diff erences are currently major obstacles for European busi-nesses to operate in the US market. By setting high standards in this regulatory framework within TTIP, the EU can make sure that its values and norms are not only respected, but also exported and at least realised on a bilat-eral level. This might later on lead to chances in the multilateral arena. Nowadays, 90% of the world’s growth is created outside the EU, making clear that if the EU is not acting now and securing its standards, these will soon be set by others. This is commonly referred to as the ‘window of opportunity’ and stresses the fact that emerging powers gain in economic power and influence.

Yet for the EU it is important to stick to its val-ues and norms, all the more when facing such a lively debate and criticism across the civil society. This point is made clear by Philippe de Buck, Member of the European Economic and Social Committee, who states that “the EU will never import hormone beef.” The two transatlantic partners thus have to recognise their diff erent standards in some areas –and respect them. Other areas, such as the safety of vehicles, might see larger overlaps and thus possible harmonisation. These common stand-ards are important for empowering the mul-tilateral system, which both partners want to ultimately strengthen. It is also important to point out that by having the TTIP negotiations, as well as the ‘living agreement’ character of

Pierre Defraigne

Executive Director of the Madariaga – College of Europe Foundation

Luisa Santos

Director for International Relations at BUSINESSEUROPE

Philippe de Buck

Member of the European Economic and Social Committee

Daniela Vincienti

Editor-in-chief of EurActiv

Moderator

Jean-Luc Demarty

Director General of the DG Trade


ongoing talks after a possible conclusion, the EU and the US can discuss other issues which are on the table. This would consequently strengthen the transatlantic cooperation as a whole and in the future.

However, these positive views are not shared all across Europe – nor among the debating panel. In fact, Pierre Defraigne, the Executive Director of the Madariaga – College of Europe Foundation, and Michel Cermak, representa-tive of the Roosevelt Movement, take a more critical stance towards TTIP. First, we need to recognise that the growth which TTIP will bring is modest both in terms of its GDP con-tribution, and also when looking over the time span over which this growth takes place. Yet even more important is the underlying prob-lem that “TTIP does not fi t with the social pro-ject of Europe.” It threatens the high standards the EU has established, as well as it off ers the potential of being dominated by the US in the future. Concerning the multi-lateral ambitions which especially the EU hopes to achieve with concluding TTIP, it must be asked on what ef-fects this will have on other countries, includ-ing China. A terminology of TTIP such as being an ‘economic NATO’ is critical, and may lead to the assumption that TTIP tries to counter the growing power of China. This would disturb the ‘peaceful rise of China’, a country which is also able to resist this initiative, thereby endangering the global governance system on the multi-lateral level. China is part of the WTO since 2001, but TTIP could be an obstacle, rather than an impetus, for future multi-lateral achievements. The created transatlantic mar-ket may indeed fragment the global economy.

A possible domination of the US in the current negotiations is seen by Defraigne from the un-equal power since the EU represents the view of 28 diff erent member states.

A possible solution to this obstacle which TTIP might pose on the multi-lateral level is pro-posed by Richard Elsner, founder of the MORE project which supports European SMEs and their voice for a TTIP which supports also their interests. AS a fi rst suggestion, TTIP can be turned into a plurilateral treaty to accommo-date more players and not be purely focused on the two transatlantic partners. Secondly, an emphasis must also be taken on the redistri-bution issue within Europe to identify poten-tial winners and losers and to balance these impacts. As a fi nal point, the EU must taken its continental responsibility into account: It should not only focus on its Atlantic perspec-tive, but also its view on the East and what can be done in this region. A certain balance between these two poles is advisable.

As a conclusion, Jean-Luc Demarty encourages European citizens to be confi dent with the negotiators and the case of TTIP. Europe is currently the biggest economic power in the world, and knows how to leverage its commer-cial policy. TTIP is a powerful tool to do so, not only in terms of its economic relations, but also in a wider, normative context. It poses a potential multilateral opportunity and is con-sequentially compatible with the European project as it will strengthen it and ensure that the EU continues having a strong say in the world of the 21st century.

Is TTIP compatible with the European project?


7 MAY

Financing the Future

Today, with the new Juncker Commission in place, a number of priorities have been set to regain growth and prosperity for Europe. Amongst these priorities, restoring high invest-ment levels is probably the pivotal challenge taken up by the European Commission. The flagship initiative is indeed the Juncker Invest-ment Plan which is meant to unlock as much as € 315 billion of public and private investment over the next three years (2015-2017). Given the relevance of this plan for the real economy and European enterprises, it is worth having a close look at how the EU intends to fund its fu-ture and at the challenges that may determine the success or the failure of this measure. At EBS2015, the high-level panel that addressed the issue of fi nancing and investing in Europe was composed of Lord Jonathan Hill, Dörte Höp-per, James Bardrick, Philippe Lamberts, Wim Mijs and Richard Raeburn.

It is beyond doubt that Europe is currently going through turbulent waters as several EU member states are aff ected by sluggish eco-nomic growth and high unemployment rates. To facilitate economic recovery, boost employ-ment and the competitiveness of European companies, several policies are discussed at the European level; the key objective is that of going back to sustained economic growth. The European Commission identifi ed in the short-age of investment one of causes which hinder economic recovery and has consequently put forward an investment plan where collective eff orts – Commission, EIB, member states and the private sector - should sum up to reverse the downward trend.

To improve the fi nancing of EU economy, the European Commission has also launched the Capital Market Union initiative (CMU), which should reduce the fragmentation in fi nancial markets that creates signifi cantly diff erent conditions for business across member states. Moreover, as European fi nancial markets are heavily based on banks, the CMU aims at diver-sifying fi nancing resources with the objective of lowering the cost of raising capital.

Besides debt markets, capital markets are the principal source through which potential investors can meet those looking for funding. Over the past decades, the size of capital mar-kets have expanded in the EU but it remains much smaller than that of other major econ-omies. For the year 2013, in terms of stock market capitalization as a % of GDP the EU was around 65% against 94% of Japan, 138% for the US and 228% of Switzerland. Public equity markets in the US are almost double the size of those in the EU. As outlined in the Green Paper for Building a Capital Market Union, there are big margins to improve on the relevance, eff ec-tiveness and coordination of European capital markets.

Through the implementation of the CMU and a reduced costs of fi nancing, the European Commission not only intends to provide better access to fi nance for European businesses and encourage intra-EU trade and investment but it clearly aims at making the fi nancial system more resistant toward external shocks. The contagion from the banking sector to the real economy shall be avoided in the future.

Jonathan HillCommissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services & Capital Markets UnionEuropean Commission

James BardrickUK Country Offi cerCitigroup

Dörte HöppnerCEO European Private Equity & Venture Capital Association

Wim MijsCEOEuropean Business Forum

Philippe LambertsMember of the European Parliament

Richard RaeburnChairmanEuropean Association of Corporate Treasurers

James KanterJournalist, The New York Times

Moderator

In this context, Lord Jonathan Hill, European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services & Capital Markets Union defended the new Commission’s plan and initial work during these fi rst months. He particularly emphasized the importance of the Commission’s decision to achieve a stronger single market for capital movement, to enhance more capital flows in the European economy and thus, enable sav-ers and investors from all 28 Member States

to get in touch with growth opportunities. The rational behind this is certainly not that to overall reduce bank lending but to create al-ternatives for a safer and more diverse funding environment. Ideally, every time a fi rm needs fi nancing, it would be able to receive the funds, if not from the same source, through a combination of sources, namely banks, crowd funding, securitization, etc. All of them should be properly regulated.


With this in mind, Lord Hill also explained that while some Members States were initially quite skeptical, they are currently beginning to com-prehend the importance of a stronger Capital Union and look more favourably at the Com-mission initiative. Countries such as Germany, Austria and Spain have shown their support to the initiative in ECOFIN meetings, as they understand that there is a crucial need for a di-versifi ed fi nancial system where bank fi nancing is complemented by developed capital markets. Commissioner Hill stressed that it is necessary to taking advantage of the momentum, as there is a genuine desire to go forward. In order to do so he specifi ed that, besides a compre-hensive regulation, there is also the need to change current practices and mentality.

In turn, Ms Dörte Höppner, Chief Executive of the European Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (EVCA), also vouched for the Capital Markets Union (CMU) to bring about alternative sources of funding. In her opinion, this would enable better access for companies to large pools of capital available as well as, in return, a larger choice for investors. Some SMEs will always need banks to fi nance themselves, but others will need to resort to capital markets if their ambition is to grow into midcaps or even further. Crowd funding can be an alternative too, but it does not come with the access to knowledge and council, which makes it less interesting. In this sense, there is a clear need to develop the CMU, but being careful with overregulating and trying to attract non-European investment capital such as Asian and American.

Additionally, Ms Höppner expressed her disa-greement with the negative connotation that Shadow Banking has been attributed, as she con-siders it to be a market based type of fi nancing, important for small and medium size companies, which cannot rely anymore on banks to get fund-ing. In her opinion a better denomination could be ‘alternative market fi nance’.

When Mr James Bardrick, UK Country Offi cer of Citi, took the floor he talked about securiti-zation. In his view, the EU has too much debt and is very behind on equity investment, which is less than in the US. What the EU needs is to have more equity fi nance than debt fi nance and to have its large companies delinking themselves as much as possible from banks’ balance sheets and to resort to capital markets instead. The common reason behind the bank/large company relationship is that the former provide advice and flexibility to the latter, which means that, in order for this relation-ship to be diminished, capital markets need to increase their flexibility. He believes that securitization has a bad name because the securities in question represented bad assets from, so what has to be done additionally is to defi ne safe securities to develop them.

An increase in capital market capacity does not necessarily mean a decrease of bank lend-ing, as both sources of fi nance can be compati-ble and should work together. Venture Capitals has to be increased and they need to cooper-ate with banks as banks are critical to develop the size of a company, and banks will feel more inclined to lend to companies if they consider that they have a reliable amount of equity.

Philippe Lamberts’ intervention, due to his experience as a member of the European Parliament, was mainly focused on the institu-tion’s work and prospects. First of all, a general confi rmation of some of the previous points presented by the other panelists was made. The idea is not to limit bank fi nancing but to diversify funding sources by working on bank resilience, through the insulation of their retail and investment activities, and increasing capi-tal markets. Having a more varied environment will enable companies of all sizes to fi nd the amount of funding they need.

Furthermore he drew attention to a number of additional changes that should be considered for a better and sounder economy such as the need for people willing to take risks or the importance consumer protection, as not every investment is adapted for everyone and some high risk investments should thus be restricted.

Wim Mijs, as Chief Executive Offi cer of the European Banking Federation, was able to give his and the banking sector’s view on the CMU. As a general remark he explained that banks were not very fond of the idea but, contrary to what could have been believed, Austrian and German banks were more favourable as they are more retail oriented and they have consequently agreed to help convince their governments. Mr Mijs from his side promoted the CMU as an opportunity and not a threat of disintermediation as some banks believe. This would mean freeing sources of capital and enabling partnerships with crowd funding platforms and others.

The debate has also highlighted a certain crit-icism. It has been pointed out that one of the immediate eff ect of the Commission proposal is that that banks are increasingly concern about the cost of credit and about the new su-pervision regulation; as a consequence, formal lending gets more diffi cult and there is less fi nancing available for the real economy.

Furthermore, there are concerns regarding the real weight of the CMU. According to Mr Richard Raeburn, for instance, Chairman of the Europe-an Association of Corporate Treasurers, the CMU is not much more than a political state-ment, which may lack far-reaching impact on the economy. In his view, the approach and de-sign of the CMU focuses on short-term changes and does not look at long-term solutions.

Financing the Future


Circular Economy – The full picture

7 MAY


With increased resource scarcity and rising attention to environment protection, the debate on how to adapt the resource con-sumption and production patterns is an im-portant concern for citizens, companies and policy makers. At the current rate of growth and levels of resource intensity we will need three planets’ worth of resources by 2050. Europe alone is already using resources that equal twice its actual land area. It is estimated that resource effi ciency improvements could reduce the amount of raw materials needed in Europe by 17%-24% by 2030; and a better use of resources could save €630 billion per year for European industry, while reducing total annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2-4%.

The European Commission is set to re-launch the circular economy during its present term. However, moving away from a linear economy, which uses a “take-make-consume and dis-pose” (cradle-to-grave) approach to resources, to a circular economy approach which con-serves scarce resources by giving an economic value to waste – turning waste into a resource (a ‘cradle-to-cradle’ approach) raises many challenges.

How can we optimize waste and resource man-agement, whilst ensuring it does not hamper global competitiveness of EU industry? This is what is at stake if Europe wants to turn circular economy into a real competitive advantage, inspiring economic growth and job creation.

THE CHALLENGES AHEAD

Short-term, the launch of a new European cir-cular economy package that seeks to change business practices and to reduce waste in Europe, but is not seen as a brake on the competitiveness of European industries, is required. How to make the best out of existing legislation? How to overcome existing obsta-cles to circular economy? Should European lawmakers aim at market-based measures? Are compulsory targets able to give business much needed legal certainty?

Should one ensure that the waste produced in Europe, stays in Europe to allow secondary raw materials to be reintroduced as sources of value in the European economy? How can one ensure that third countries are not deprived from the opportunities linked to reprocessing and at the same time prevent illegal shipment to third countries? What is the role of interna-tional trade agreements in this respect?

How can one encourage and facilitate busi-nesses to change their business models? What can be the incentives for consumers to change their consumption patterns? Is the current evolution of the economy where product as a service are increasingly inter-related part of the answer – i.e. Car sharing rather than car ownership? What are the obstacles to the development of a market in secondary raw ma-terials and to consumer demand for products created with these materials? How can one im-prove the reputation of secondary materials?

Karmenu VellaCommissioner for Environment, Maritime Aff airs and Fisheries, European Commission

Alexandre Aff reDirector for Industrial Aff airs, BUSINESSEUROPE

Thierry MalletEVP for Innovation and Business Performance, SUEZ Environment

Lisbeth Kirk, Founder and current Editor-in-Chief EUObserver

Moderator


• What are the diff erent dimensions of a multi-facets concept such as circular economy? What industry is already managing resources more effi ciently?

• What are the opportunities that arise from realizing a full circular economy? How could European policymakers and businesses support this?

• Are the threats to the competitiveness of European business vis-à-vis third countries too great to implement the circular economy? How can we overcome these challenges?

• How can consumers and businesses be brought on board with new, non-linear, product use? Is a change in consumption patterns possible through market actions or is legislation needed?


7 MAYIndustry 4.0 - Accelerating the journey to productivity and growth

PANEL DISCUSSION

In order to remain competitive in a global economy, Europe has to develop its industrial sector alongside its strong service sector and reap the synergies that this potentially holds. This session discussed the opportunities for Europe in developing and exploiting the industrial Internet. The questions raised are twofold; are European business prepared to adapt to the fast-moving developments and is the regulatory framework capable of providing the optimal conditions for business? The mod-erator Mark Pearson initiated the discussion by highlighting the tremendous opportunities for growth and competitiveness. The focus has shifted from the consumers to the industry and the Internet has created possibilities for new business models and revenue streams. The question remains how business can capitalize on all of these new ideas and possibilities.

The possibilities for growth were also high-lighted by Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkows-ka who is committed to promoting a strong industrial base in the EU and to mainstream the industrial competitiveness. ICT and digi-talisation are pivotal in these eff orts and the Commissioner wants to ensure that EU compa-nies hold a major position in the IT industry’s global value chains. Elzbieta Bienkowska sees digitalization of industry as a possibility as well as a challenge. A possibility in the sense that digitalization can optimize procedures, but a challenge in the sense that the EU needs to catch up. Hubert Weber added to this, that the EU needs not only to catch up, but also to become a market leader. In this regard, time is

not our ally. There is a need to do away with national obstacles and get together around European issues in order to achieve growth through smart products.

The need for better regulation of the digital single market was touched upon by several speakers. Georg Kopetz pointed out that we need a regulatory framework for e.g. the data that autonomous cars will produce and issues of privacy and big data in general. We should not be afraid of big data, but rather see it as an opportunity. It is good to have the discussion on the European level, but we should also look across the Atlantic. Wilhelm Molterer also supported the need to focus on regulation and said that tackling the uncertain regulatory environment is at the core of making the most of the DSM. There is a need to remove obsta-cles to investments and business and do rid of uncertainty for regulation and the unfriendly business environment. Hubert Weber said that regulation should be enabling rather than con-straining for business. Elzbieta Bienkowska underlined that the eff orts for the DSM is still at a strategy level and the major eff orts are only just getting started. Industry thoughts and input are really important, especially Eu-ropean insights are very important. Now the most important focus is on the infrastructure, big data, and standards. We do not want too much legislation, and there might also be a need for reviewing old legislation. There is a need for clear, reasonable, simple and good regulation for businesses.

Elżbieta BieńkowskaCommissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship & SMEs, European Commission

Sandro BonomiCEO/President Enolgas/Orgalime

Georg Kopetz Cofounder and Member of the Executive Board at TTTech Computertechnik AG

Mark PearsonSenior Managing Director OperationsAccenture Strategy

Hubert WeberEVP and President of the European region, Mondelez International

Daniel BentonManaging Director, Global IT Strategy LeadAccenture Strategy

Moderator

Wilhelm MoltererVice-President European Investment Bank


Industry 4.0 - Accelerating the journey to productivity and growth

Another important issue discussed during the debate was the need for fi nance. Wilhelm Molterer argued that there is a serious defi cit in investments into the DSM. This is related to the pillar of access to fi nance in the DSM strategy, and shows us that there is a need to fi ll the gap. In this regard the EIB and banks will play a key role in delivering fi nance. In the framework of the Juncker initiative, the EIB and the Commission will serve three needs, 1) ease access to fi nance for SMEs by off ering risk carrying, 2) off ering additional investments for infrastructure (social, research, skills, broadband), 3) support innovation (also pro-cess innovation). The EIB is willing to increase its advisory capacities, due to the need to help manage and run the projects of the DSM. Sandro Bonomi also underlined the need for fi nance and criticised the fact that the EU has slowed down the investment into broadband while the rest of the world is investing heavily. Wilhelm Molterer added that when it comes to Infrastructure the EIB can give an incentive to promote private investment. When it comes to R&D the commercial banks cannot do this neither in the long nor in the short run. This is the job of the EIB. However, the discussions are sometimes too focused on the infrastructure - broadband is indeed important, however there is a need to also create software. Otherwise we will create roads and others will drive on them.

We have to move beyond infrastructure. Georg Kopetz argued that Europe cannot simply copy the American model. The way for Europe is to gather private capital via the guarantees from the EIB and banks or the Commission. On a question from the audience related to the possibilities of using crowdfunding as a tool for developing the capital market for DSM Wilhelm Molterer replied that the EIB is ready to support this type of initiatives and market development. They have already incorporated business angels in their funding schemes. There is a need for regulatory framework, especially because of diff erences across member states. Crowd funding is a tricky thing and there could be diff erent expectations, but start-ups and SME can benefi t from crowd sourcing.

The last issue that was discussed was related to labour and talents. Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska highlighted the issue of talents and the paradox between the high unemploy-ment rates and the high demand for talents that have resolved in millions of job vacancies in the ICT sector. The discussants all agreed on the need for skilled labour and more focus on entrepreneurship and digitalisation in educa-tion. On a question from the audience related to labour regulations making it diffi cult to use tech Georg Kopetz stated that his business would love to ask their employees to use more

ICT, but they are faced with resistance from labour unions and stiff regulation. We need to be careful not to overregulate our market – we need to get the unions as partners. We are not alone on this planet, the world is a global economy, and we need to be optimistic. Capital income will be more important than labour income with the digital-ization. We should support participation of em-ployees in the companies. We are going towards a future where we move from employer/employee relation towards ownership of employees. Elzbi-eta Bienkowska stated that we need to tackle

labour issues in the diff erent MS especially for the digital era and the Commission is already looking at these issues. Wilhelm Molterer said that he believes that we need to have a real discussion on the impact of digitalization on our way of life. Of course there is an impact on labour. The impact is everywhere; our tool kits and political tool kits are limited. These developments will impact the future in a signifi cant way.


Eurozone - How to secure enough investment for European growth?

7 MAY

On its way to consolidate economic growth, the Eurozone is still facing several challeng-es. The economic turmoil resulting from the fi nancial crisis has led to diff erent measures sought to enhance recovery. The aim of this panel session was to debate the remaining obstacles for the Euro area to achieve fi nancial stability and ensure investment in the region. The speakers focused on the measures taken at both EU and national level as a response to the crisis, underlining the main achievements as well as the remaining problems.

After welcoming the speakers and the au-dience, the moderator, Mr. Emmott, corre-spondent from Reuters in Brussels, signalled out the importance of sustainable invest-ments for the Eurozone and raised the ques-tion: What can the Eurozone do to attract more long-term investment?

The fi rst speaker, Mr Lahti, Head of Cabinet of Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, referred to the latest European Commission’s spring fore-cast, which predicts positive economic devel-opments for the present and the forthcoming year. A combination of both internal and ex-ternal factors is contributing to it. On the one hand, the low commodities prices, the favour-able exchange rate, the ECB’s accommodative monetary policy and the fi scal stance are sourc-es of economic stimulus. On the other hand, the structural reforms have started to deliver tangible results. This was said to increase con-fi dence in the European recovery, which plays a key role to attract investment. Therefore, there was a call for deeper EU-level reforms in order to create a regulatory framework that enhances confi dence in the European economy, which can ultimately boost investment.

The EU remains the second largest economy in the world; however, international investors did not focus on Europe that much over recent years. It is necessary to restore confi dence in the future prospects of the Eurozone to make sure that investors can look at the EU as a fa-vourable area for their business.

Following Mr Lahti’s intervention, Mr. Wolff , Director of Bruegel, took the floor to express a more critical point of view. While recognising an increase in the confi dence in the Eurozone, the economic recovery is still shallow. This is evidenced by the remaining volatility in fi nan-cial markets and the problems associated to low overall inflation, in spite of the interven-tion of the ECB. According to Mr Wolff , it will take a decade to consolidate economic growth and job creation. Two remarks on this point are to be pointed out. First, there have been suc-cessful reforms but they are still not enough; some countries in the periphery are still suf-fering from very low productivity growth rates in the long term and they still face structural problems that need to be addressed. Second, there is a need to achieve a symmetric re-covery. Southern countries are still lagging behind northern countries; there should be convergence on economic adjustment, public demand, wages etc. to name only a few.

In this regard, Mr. Gavrilovs, President of Em-ployers’ Confederation of Latvia, expressed the importance of coordination at EU level in order to generate synergies among countries. There is a need for a global strategy, he argued. Furthermore, he urged Member States to show discipline to commit to the EU objectives. The key role of politicians and social dialogue arose at this point. Political initiative was claimed

Taneli LahtiHead of Cabinet of Vice-President Valdis DombrovskisEuropean Commission

Vitālijs GavrilovsPresident of the Employers Confederation of Latvia

Guntram Wolff Director of Bruegel

James WatsonDirector EconomicsBUSINESSEUROPE

Robin EmmottSenior Journalist Reuters

Moderator

in order to achieve the necessary stability to attract foreign investments.

After Mr. Gavrilovs’ intervention, Mr. Watson, Director of Economics at BUSINESSEUROPE, took the opportunity to express a favourable opinion on the new Juncker Commission. Even if we are in the early days, he said, the Invest-ment Plan, the Capital Markets Union or the Energy Union constitute examples revealing that the EU is walking towards the right di-rection. Furthermore, it was stressed that the Commission is moving to better regulation

and, yet more important, towards more cer-tainty about future regulation. This is crucial if the Eurozone is to achieve higher levels of confi dence leading to higher investment.

While the US is a market based economy in which more than two thirds of businesses get fi nanced in the markets, the EU remains on the opposite side, where banks play a key role. This remains as a particular characteristic of our economy that shapes the economic scenario and serves as an explanation to the diff erent approach compared to the US.


Eurozone - How to secure enough investment for European growth?

Due to the importance attributed to structural reforms by the members of the panel, Mr. Em-mott raised the issue of the diffi culties to im-plement reforms able to deliver durable results.

As Mr. Lahti claimed, any important structural reform will imply a political cost. This is the result of the normal lags, meaning that results are usually perceived under the government following the one that implemented the re-form. However, there is a general agreement on the need for structural reforms in order to reinforce economic recovery. The European Semester provides guidelines to the Member States on the path to be followed, and enables to establish comparisons between countries. Therefore, governments know what is needed to be done. The question that arose at this point was the role of other stakeholders who are not interested in these reforms to happen.

In this vein, Mr. Gavrilovs highlighted the im-portance of concrete action, so that the imple-mented measures tackle specifi c objectives. A more pragmatic reaction would entail policies addressing precise indicators which would al-low comparisons between Member States.

Another key aspect of interest is the monetary policy in the Euro area. The unconventional measures taken by the ECB in order to ease lending, reduce the cost of funding and achieve price stability were regarded as positive by the discussants. However, as Mr. Draghi expressed, monetary policy alone will not resolve all the economic problems. In the Eurozone, several fi elds of action, such as tax policy, still remain at national level, making it more diffi cult to provide an EU wide coherent response.


Trade – Europe in the global economy

7 MAY

The EU´s success is inextricably linked with the success of its trade policy. The EU world influ-ence is mainly due to its strong commercial potential, what some scholars have referred as “Market Power Europe”. Indeed, accounting for 15% of global trade in goods and 22.5% of global trade in services in 2013, the EU is the world´s largest exporter of goods, the world´s second biggest importer of goods and the world´s largest market in terms of trade in ser-vices. Moreover, more than 10% of the EU jobs are linked to external trade. Therefore, aimed at promoting growth and the development of commercial relations, the EU is engaged in an ambitious trade agenda trying to combine multilateralism and bilateralism.

“Our vision is a world governed by rules created and monitored by multilateral insti-tutions” stressed Benita Ferrero-Waldner, former European Commissioner for Trade and European Neighbourhood Policy. Indeed, the EU has been very committed to the pro-motion of eff ective multilateralism and the strengthening of global institutions. How-ever, as the multilateral trade negotiations seem to be blocked and there are no good prospects for consensus in the Doha Round, the EU is becoming more active at the bilater-al level. Since 2008, 10 Free trade agreements (FTAs) has been completed, but have not yet entered into force, and 14 FTAs are currently under negotiation as well as several Economic Partnership Agreements. Out of the current agreements under negotiation, the clear priority is the Transatlantic Trade and Invest-ment Partnership (TTIP) with the US.

Consequently, the debate between multilat-eralism and bilateralism has gone beyond ac-ademic and professional talks and is capturing the attention of the media and the public lead-ing to a great deal of controversy, particularly regarding the ongoing TTIP negotiations.

In this context, the Trade Session of the Euro-pean Business Summit 2015 was the perfect occasion to discuss the role of the European trading policy in our changing world and how to use it as a tool to address the challenges the EU is currently facing. Ms. Daniela Vincenti, Editor-in-chief of EurActiv.com, moderator of the session, highlighted that the importance of the trade for growth is signifi cant as one European job out of ten is linked to exports.

In the light of the EU Trade Strategy Review that is currently under consideration in the European Commission and to be proposed this autumn, high-level speakers during the European Business Summit 2015 discussed the future provisions of the Strategy Review, EUs place in the global trade system, the effi ciency of multilateral system of trade negotiations and the role of bilateral system and the TTIP in particular. The discussion also covered the issues of transparency of the EU trade negoti-ations and implementation of the trade agree-ments together with the upcoming entry into force of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) between the EU and Ukraine, in the time when the latter is cur-rently fi ghting for its territorial integrity and at the same time striving to become a reliable European partner.

Viviane Reding Member of the European Parliament

André SapirSenior Scholar Bruegel

Luisa SantosDirector for International Aff airs, BUSINESSEUROPE

Jacek Krawczyk President of the Employer’Group of the European Economic and Social Committee

Anatoliy KinakhPresident of ULIE, former Prime Minister of Ukraine

Mauro PetriccioneDeputy Director GeneralDG TRADE, European Commission

Daniela VincentiEditor in Chief, EurActiv

Moderator

Ms. Viviane Reding, member of the European Parliament and former Vice-President of the European Commission, supports the ongoing TTIP negotiations because, since the EU and the USA are the biggest economies in the world, an alliance between both powers will set the world standards. Hence, the EU has either to act now and to become the world standard

maker or, if it forfeits this opportunity, to be-come a standard taker accepting the rules of others. Moreover, being involved with the ne-gotiations of the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), she emphasized that engaging 23 coun-tries and the EU and accounting for the 70% of the world trade in services TiSA is currently the biggest trade negotiation.


Ms. Luisa Santos, Director of International Relations at BUSINESSEUROPE reminds us that the EU is considering the revision of its trade strategy, and stresses that trade policies have a crucial impact on small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Indeed, underlining the importance of services and their interconnection with indus-tries, she points out the relevance of the role of the SMEs in the European trade. Good example could be the existence of a specifi c SMEs chap-ter within the TTIP, as trade policy should be better known by European SMEs.

Moving to the topic of multilateralism versus bilateralism, the participants of the session agree on the idea that multilateral agree-ments are preferable but that under the cur-rent conditions bilateralism is the only viable option left on the table. Mr. Petriccione, Di-rector General of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Trade, agrees with the vision of the speakers stressing that due to the lack of consensus among all the WTO members we currently do not have the means to foster our trade policy through the multilateral agenda. Therefore, only bilateral negotiations can help the EU to surpass the deadlock at the Doha Development Agenda.

Consequently, supporting both the TTIP and TiSA, Ms. Reding acknowledges that since agreements within the WTO are not feasible, we need to fi nd ways to push trade talks forward as we are doing right now with the EEUU in the TTIP and the 24 members of TiSA negotiations. We have to be realistic and fi nd ways to trans-form big ideas into realities. However, whether these moves are compatible with eff ective mul-tilateralism or, otherwise, undermine the global system remains a controversial issue.

Mr. André Sapir, Senior Fellow at Bruegel, successively expresses his doubt on the path undertaken by the European Commission towards bilateralism, with special mention to TTIP. Nowadays, people are marching on the street not to counter multilateralism but bilat-eralism. He disagrees with Mr. Petriccione who argues that despite supporting the WTO the EU had to conclude TTIP due to the fact that all the Member States agreed on this point. In the 21 century the EU will face new challeng-es such as globalisation, digital economy and emerging countries. China has become the fi rst exporter of goods last years and as such in Washington is deemed to be the largest econ-omy in the world, albeit on this point Reding disagrees. We do not need to write rules and set standards through bilateralism but we need to readapt multilateralism, which has had an overall positive impact on the development of the emerging economies to the upcoming challenges. In light of the phenomena of bi-lateral negotiation becoming more popular, it is necessary to come back to the multilateral level again.

Mr. Mauro Petriccione replies to Mr. Sapir ar-guing that people have marched on the street not only because of TTIP but even before. We need to conclude TTIP because Europe is a ma-ture society and we need to secure growth and jobs to our people. Asians now see their future in an optimistic way due to the fact that their economies will keep rising. China is the big-gest provider of goods but taking into account trade and investment flows Europe is still more important. China is not yet a 21st cen-tury economy, albeit Chinese are now trying to catch up with the technological-gap between them and the Western countries. However,

Europeans now fear to lose the well-being acquired after the WWII. In doing so, the Euro-pean Commission is being totally transparent without losing its accountability. The role of trade policy is to deliver growth and jobs with-out preventing other policies, and that is what the Commission is trying to achieve with TTIP.

Mr. Jacek Krawczyk, President of the Employer´ Group of the European Economic and Social committee, points out that regardless of the diff erent moves undertaken by the EU the TTIP negotiations have been characterized by public fear and strong criticism since the start of the negotiations. Therefore, the increase of confi -dence and trust within the civil society is a must and although the European Commission has already done a lot to make negotiation trans-parent, it is essential to go further in engaging the civil society. As an example, referring to the Association Agreement (AA) between the Euro-pean Union and Ukraine, he stresses the need to ensure that all interested representatives are included as part of the Civil Society Platform within the AA because only if all stakeholders are engaged in a debate about the negotia-tions, public support will be possible.

Mr. Anatoliy Kinakh, former Prime Minister of Ukraine from 2001 to 2002 and current Presi-dent of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, stresses the importance of the EU-Ukraine trade relations highlighting that 36% of external trade of Ukraine and 78% of foreign direct investment to Ukraine comes from the EU. The Association Agreement signed last year represents a unique chance to set EU-level standards in Ukraine such as rule of law, competition, freedom of speech and basic human rights, even though, the fi nal

result will depend on the ability of Ukraine to foster the reforms. Mr. Kinakh encourages the European Commission and the Parliament to strengthen their eff orts to uphold this process. Ukrainians believe that the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement which is an essential part of the Association Agree-ment will not be postponed any further and its enforcement date of January 1st, 2016 will coincide with ratifi cation of this Association Agreement by all EU Member States. Once enforced, this agreement will help the country to modernise and apply technical and quality standards to Ukrainian goods, which otherwise will be left out of the European market.

Civil society engagement is highly important and the European Commission as well as the European Parliament should strengthen connection with the civil society of Ukraine. As a good example, the opening of the fi rst permanent representation of Ukrainian busi-ness by the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Brussels has been the fi rst step towards a more integrated form of economic cooperation. Finally, Mr. Kinakh, expresses his gratitude to the Commission, represented by the Director General of DG Trade Mauro Petriccione, and the Parliament, represented by the MEP Viviane Reding, to the external support given to this path of reforms undertaken by its country. Ukrainians expect the EU to be more demanding in the reform process in Ukraine because Ukraine needs not fi sh but rod. The country currently has to fi ght Russian aggression in the Eastern Ukraine and at the same time Ukrainian right now under-stand that main opportunity for winning is not through fi ghts but through reforms. Therefore, Ukraine is now fi ghting for its European choice



and territorial integrity and key weapon is the results of reforms.

Commenting on the question about Russian pressure on EU-Ukraine trade talks, Mr. Petrc-cione adds that it is a sovereign right of the EU and Ukraine to identify their trade policies. The EU as the biggest trading block is trying to promote a positive agenda, however, it seems that Russia is not pursuing a trade agenda. Nevertheless, the EU will be further engaged and continue its support to Ukraine.

By highlighting that more involvement of civil society, of the member states and stake-holders is needed during the negotiations, implementation and monitoring phases of the trade agreements, he shared some of the ideas expressed by Mr. Krawczyk. The need to rein-force transparency and clarity regarding trade issues is crucial to take into account in the EU Trade Strategy Review that is to be published this autumn. The trade policies should not be underrated since external trade was a key component of growth during the crisis and the darkest years of crisis could have been even worse without liberal global markets. Indeed, without external trade, the eff ect of the cri-sis would have been much more severe and dramatic. The EU institutions should explain better the relevance of external trade for our economy, accounting for 30 million of jobs

within the EU. And the European Commission’s Communication on the EU Trade Strategy for the next 5 years will strive to achieve these objectives. According to Mr. Petriccione, it will not be a revolution, but rather an evolution of the EU trade policy towards more jobs and bet-ter economic growth. It is important to note though, that the EU institutions should not be alone in their eff orts to increase transparency and clarity regarding the trade issues: there is also a need for new partnerships with Member States in this regard. Member States should in-tensify their work with public society and SMEs.

Ms. Viviane Reding, confi rms that the Europe-an Commission has increased its transparency policy. The Parliament have received all the papers required and the public opinion is un-truthful when it thinks that the negotiation on TTIP are classifi ed.

Answering the question about the European Institutions cooperation with the national governments and parliaments of the Member States in promoting the trade issues among the civil society, Mr. Petriccione underlines that it is common responsibility of the EU in-stitutions and the Member States to explain EU policies and in the Communication that will be available in autumn 2015, there will be proposed practical tools on how to better transmit information to citizens. Commenting

on the topic of transparency, Mr. André Sapir complements the European Commission and the European Parliament on their eff orts in this process and agreed that the EU institu-tions could not act alone and more involve-ment of Members States is needed.

Another important topic, also raised by Ms. Santos, is the process of implementation of the trade agreements. It is commonly recog-nized that the EU has been successful in trade negotiations so far, yet more attention should be given to the implementation process. A good example here is the trade agreement with South Korea – there has been a number of improvements in communicating how busi-ness could understand and use the agreement. Again, the EU institutions should not be alone in this process and better engagement of Member States is needed.

Though with diff erent opinion on whether multilateral or bilateral negotiations is the most appropriate tool in order to further push trade liberalisation, participants of the session agreed that it is important to work further on transparency and increase trust. Overall, the importance of external trade for economic growth and job creation is doubtless and its opportunities should be better communicated to business and civil society around Europe.



On 19-20 March 2015 the European Council meeting fully endorsed the Commission’s ap-proach in terms of delivering an Energy Union – a strategy that aims to combine sustaina-bility and competitiveness while securing the security of supply. To reach these objectives, the Energy Union focuses on fi ve mutually supportive dimensions:

• Energy security, solidarity and trust• Fully integrated European Energy Market• Energy effi ciency contributing to

moderation of demand• Decarbonising the economy• Research, Innovation and Competitiveness The main issue, however, remains the com-pletion of an internal energy market and thus ending up with a fragmentation issue as the electricity market case dictates, ensuring the flow of energy supplies at an aff ordable, cost-eff ective and non-detrimental to indus-trial competitiveness cost. Today, wholesale electricity prices in the EU are 30% higher than in the US, 20% higher than in China and fi nally twice as high as on the Russian market. The gas market replicates shortcomings with 6 EU member states depending on a single external gas supplier and EU industries forced to pay 2 to 3 times higher gas prices than US, Indian or Russian companies.

Hence, one of the Union’s short-term goals is to secure an aff ordable energy price while exploring the possibility of a common gas purchasing power. Another option in reaching the objective is through energy effi ciency in particular by means of cost-eff ective tech-nologies, many of which are already available or being developed. Whether it is by means

of smart grids, cities, buildings or transport, research and innovation and digital companies will play an increasingly important role to help developing innovative solutions to reduce en-ergy consumption and related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The long-term objective is overcoming the national focus issue by fi nally integrating EU market into a one single energy entity wherein important decisions are taken together. In this light, the panel tried to answer several ques-tions: How will the Energy Union address the issue of energy pricing? Is the EU striking the right balance in seeking to meet its energy and climate goals? What are the key obstacles to achieve an internal energy market? How can the Energy Union contribute to the decarboni-sation track of the European economy?

The opening of the panel discussions were marked by Vice President for the Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič outlining main focus areas for the newly emerged Energy Union project, in particular: diversifi cation of energy supplies, removal of administrative barriers and fi nan-cial obstacles in attaining the Internal Energy Market goal, building of more interconnectors, reaching a minding global agreement in Paris on climate change negotiations in order to create a global playing fi eld and fi nally techno-logical advancement as part of the research and development scheme aimed to better integrate renewables in the Union’s energy systems.

Vice President for Corporate Strategic Plan-ning from ExxonMobil, Bill Colton, stressed that the world’s energy needs will increase by 45% up to 2040 as the latest ExxonMobil out-look suggests. Despite this fact, OECD energy

Maroš ŠefčovičVice-President for Energy Union, European Commission

William ColtonVice President, Corporate Strategic Planning for Exxon Mobil Corporation

Ivan PinedaDirector of Public Aff airs, EWEA

Olivier Imbault Vice President on Energy, Airliquide

Jean-Pierre Clamadieu CEFIC/Solvay

Julian NebredaPresident, EMEA and CIS, AES

Edward LucasEnergy Editor, The Economist

Moderator

consumption remains flat due to the principle of energy effi ciency. It was equally noted that all the developed countries have a balance problem addressing the cost of emissions re-ductions and resulting consequences. Greater importance was attached to striking the same sense of balance with the neighboring states.

Chairman of the Solvay Group, Jean Pierre Clamadieu introduced the importance of chemical industry by pointing to relevant numbers: 500 million of sales and 3-4 million of jobs generated by the company he repre-

sents. He also voiced disappointment by the fact that competitive access to energy is not listed among the fi ve founding pillars of the Union. The suggestion is explained by the fact that chemical industry has lost ground in competitiveness as a result of two challenges: shale gas revolution and diverse perspective on energy issues within the EU. Hence, a more homogeneous platform would be more benefi -cial for the industry.

Olivier Imbault, Chair of the Energy and Climate Working Group in BUSINESSEUROPE

Energy Union - When will it happen?

7 MAY


Energy Union - When will it happen?

highlighted that his organization has immedi-ately supported the idea of an Energy Union. He mentioned that in 2013 the group came up with the green paper proposal that highlight-ed competitiveness and action coordination on climate change issue. He stressed that the industry fi nds it particularly important due to protectionist reasons just as inconsistency in regulation hinders proper functioning of the market. He made it clear that the Energy Union will not be the only answer to the competitive-ness of the EU energy market – the outcome of CAP21 discussion in Paris will have its im-pact as well. The other areas of focus should be Market Stability Reserve (MSR), Emissions Trading System (ETS) and carbon leakage. He concluded that visibility and predictability are highly relevant for business operation.

Ivan Pineda, the Director of Public Aff airs in the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) stated that his organization supports the am-bition to move away from the fossil fuel-based economy and believes that the fi ve dimen-sions of the Energy Union are building blocks for competitiveness. He claimed that there is no fundamental contradiction between com-petitiveness and promoting carbon reduction emissions, unless competitiveness is under-stood as passing the pollution bill to someone else. It was stated that EWEA displays sound willingness for the Commission to take the lead over Member States in implementing binding targets.

Julian Nebreda, President for Europe in the AES Corporation presented the view of an American company operating on the EU market. He stated that European consumers expect simultaneous delivery on 3 aspects: lower emissions, lower prices and reliability of supply. The task of the company is to align the business model to address these expectations as so far it is able to satisfy two out of three points. The biggest challenge is thus fi nding reasonable ways to resolve frequency and blackout issues. According to Mr. Nebreda, in-novation and acceleration of the Energy Union project should be the right solution.The session ended with some fi nal remarks made by the Vice President for the Energy Union and concluding points outlined by the moderator, Mr. Edward Lucas. Mr. Šefčovič pointed to the need for a push for the Energy Union and yet expressed readiness to fi nalize the project by the end of Junker’s commission mandate. He also urged for consistency and coherence in this regard as imminent sides of the Union. Apart from business interest for which the Vice President gave continuous ap-preciations, further political support was the focus of his wrapping up message. Mr. Lucas in turn concluded that the Energy Union as it is today shall prioritize completion of market in-terconnection coupled with effi cient usage of funds for innovation purposes and a reformed ETS market.

Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President for Energy Union, European Commission


7 MAYFood Safety - Reconciling competitiveness and citizens’ trust


The EU food safety system guarantees a high level of consumer protection thanks to, among others, the precautionary principle in its food risk assessment and the ‘farm-to-fork’ ap-proach, which includes regulation of the whole production process. Ensuring that food safety regulations adequately protect consumer health, while at the same time safeguarding companies’ competitiveness and the eff ective functioning of the internal market, is a contin-uous challenge. The rise of new technologies and discussions with third countries to ensure compatibility of regulations and standards in the light of international trade agreements while maintaining high standards is part of the challenges to be met by policy-makers. Citizens trust in the food supply chain in Eu-rope has suff ered over the past years as a con-sequence of food scares such as BSE, dioxin in feed and the horsemeat scandal and had a sig-nifi cant economic and socio-political impact.The main challenge for Europe is to continue to ensure high levels of food safety to re-estab-lish citizens trust in the food system, while at the same looking for ways to increase competitive-ness and improving access of European products to third country markets through international trade agreements. Furthermore, this challenge has to be viewed against the backdrop of the continuously increasing use of new technologies in the food production process.

CHALLENGE AHEAD

The fi rst challenge to be met by the EU is to fi nd the right balance when setting Single Market rules applying to food products sold in

the European Union. Maintaining a high level of consumer protection and seizing new tech-nological and trade opportunities in constant-ly evolving global food markets is essential for the security of food supply in Europe and across the world.A second challenge is to ensure that internation-al trade agreements with key markets around the world remove unnecessary barriers to trade, dis-guised as food safety regulations, and fi nd ways to organise mutual recognition of standards in agreements when third country standards off er adequate levels of consumer protection despite diff erences in regulatory approaches.A third challenge relates to population growth and the increased pressure on land use and the need to protect biodiversity. The answer could be a better use of natural resources – especial-ly water and land – through innovation and con-servation. The need to produce more food will place increasing demands on the environment. Moreover, export restrictions and trading bans isolate local markets and give farmers little in-centive to expand production, limiting the po-tential supply response to soaring prices. Trade plays a crucial role in ensuring food security by allowing agricultural commodities to move from places of surplus to places of defi cit. A fourth challenge relates to new technolo-gies that will arise in the coming years and will bring new food products to the market (e.g. in vitro meat). These new technologies can bring substantial growth in food produc-tion and might bring solutions to the food security challenge. At the same time, these technologies will stretch the limits of current regulations. Solutions will need to be found to guarantee EU citizens can benefi t from new technological processes without undermining consumer protection.

Arunas VinciunasHead of Cabinet of Commissioner Andriukaitis, European Commission

Sophie EisenmannCo-founder Yunus Social Business

Giovanni ColomboPublic Aff airs and Corporate Communications Hill & Knowlton

Jorgo RissDirector Greenpeace Europe

Jean-Charles BocquetDirector GeneralEuropean Crop Protection Association

Frédéric SimonEditor and PublisherEurActiv

Moderator

While tackling these challenges, specifi c attention must be given to reversing public distrust in the capacity of the food industry and of public authorities to ensure that food is safe. The paradox is that increasing anxiety is partly generated by precautionary food recalls to avoid food-borne illnesses, aimed at increasing consumer protection.


• How can food safety be reconciled with competitiveness and growth requirements of the EU economy?

• How can an effi cient authorisation procedure for food originating from new techniques be implemented to support growth and competitiveness, without making sacrifi ces on consumer protection?

• How can the EU obtain the removal of barriers faced by European products in third countries, make progress in mutual recognition of consumer protection standards when possible and maintain high consumer protection in Europe?


Innovation – How do we do research to innovate in the digital era?

7 MAY

In 2010, the European Commission published the EU 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, with the goal to increase pub-lic and private spending in R&D to at least 3% of the EU’s GDP. However, the implementation of the target has so far been moderate across European member states and still remains well below the US and Japanese spending levels. In this session, the participants discussed possible reasons for Europe’s underachievement in inno-vation and examine how the introduction of the Digital Single Market can enhance investment in innovation and stimulate research as well as scientifi c entrepreneurship.

Moderator James Crisp, Deputy News Editor at EurActiv invited each of the participants to start with a short impact statement, mention-ing which in their view are the most relevant issues concerning innovation in the digital era.

Commissioner Carlos Moedas explained that the digital era is characterised by a digital economy. Hence, the essential problem to as-sess is how our physical world can be merged with the digital world. Europe possesses the necessary values, the knowledge and the traditional industries to be able to merge the two worlds, but is falling short on reaching the target. The Commissioner quotes Walter Isaacson, who mentions in his book “The Inno-vators” that all innovations in the digital world have certain characteristics. Firstly, all innova-tions are part of a collaboration. Secondly, the users are the drivers of innovation. Regarding the former, the EU 2020 Strategy follows up on this multidisciplinary view by promoting collaboration in research in all fi elds and sectors. On the latter, Commissioner Moedas

elaborated that this is a paradigm that has to be assessed more carefully. Do the producers impose new inventions on the market or is it the user that requests new products?

Bruno Moor, Chairman of Eureka, outlined that non-European countries such as Canada, South Africa or South Korea have very diff er-ent models of developing R&D. Moreover, it is important to correctly assess the needs of the industry. Currently, the main focus of the EU should be on further extending the enormous potential of creativity and effi ciency. Besides, the industry is already aware of the relevance of digitalisation and the unavoidability of fol-lowing this trend. Finally, it is important for the industry to make the most of digital influence in R&D on all levels from business to public sector.

Ann Cairns, President of International Markets at MasterCard, sees the need of people as the most important driver for innovative change. 70% of the world’s population lives in cities, which makes smart infrastructure develop-ments an essential driver for innovation. This can be achieved by creating partnerships between the government, the public and the private sector.

Amit Kapur, Director Benelux at TCS, shared his underlying belief that ‘default is digital’. Further on, the era of change of the digital economy is driven by itself. Mostly through innovation and disruption, or as he calls it “dig-ital re-imagination”: disruption with its own connotation will be caused by re-imagining what and how to innovate. The digital world impacts people’s daily life greatly, through au-

Carlos MoedasCommissioner for Research, Science & Innovation, European Commission

Bruno H. MoorChairman EUREKA

Gianpiero LotitoCEO FacilityLive

Walter WeigelVice PresidentHuawei European Research Institute

Ann CairnsPresident International Markets, MasterCard

Amit KapurRegional Director and Head BeneluxTata Consultancy Services

James CrispDeputy News Editor, EurActiv

Moderator

tomation, digital transformation or disruption in the social world with the emergence of new mobile applications. The downside is that they only have an impact on a limited circle of peo-ple. It also has a fi nancial impact and hence, banks have changed their strategy of how to reach the consumer on multiple channels.

Gianpiero Lotito, CEO of FacilityLive, focussed on the opportunities the digital era off ers for innovation. 25 years ago, disruptive revolu-

tion was mainly driven by companies from Silicon Valley. Back then, it was diffi cult to be a developer in Europe because the state of the art needed 2-3 years to arrive from the US. But Mr. Lotito emphasized that now the time has come for European countries to develop disruption in the digital era. The environment has completely changed in the fi nancial sector, for private investors, the EU institutions, large corporations and start up technologies, which was still unbelievable fi ve years ago.


Lastly, Walter Weigel, Vice-President of the HUAWEI European Research Institute, shared his observations about the European research landscape. According to him, Europe’s strength lies in telecommunications, ICT technologies industries, smart cities, energy and mobiles. However, companies and research organi-zations discuss on very diff erent issues and performance is therefore not effi cient. In addition, funding is fragmented and rules are very diff erent across member states, even within EU2020, and synergies of national or EU programmes is still unclear. Moreover, Europe needs to be fast in order to not lose out to the US or China. Hence, a good legal framework and a facilitation in the use of IPRs is needed.

In the subsequent debate, Commissioner Moe-das shortly explained the Innovation Union Scoreboard, a basket of indicators that looks at the percentage of innovative products that an SME sells. The Commissioner stated that in the long-run Europe will be able to slowly close the gap towards the US and Japan, even though development stalled last year. One of the reasons for the recent downturn is that venture capital in the US is fi ve times bigger than in the EU. Therefore, the creation of favourable conditions for venture capital in the EU is of outmost importance. The private sector in Europe is not funding as much as in other countries, the motives being the highly fragmented market of the EU, which poses too many barriers for investment as well as the rationality of investors. Mr. Weigel added that fundamental research in Europe is excellent

but that there is a gap in taking the results into businesses to create products and services.

Mr. Lotito further elaborated on the conditions for investment, stating that IPRs are the main asset for a digital economy. He also empha-sized the underlying diff erences between the US and the EU: while the US has one market, one language and one culture, the European market is characterised by fragmented mar-kets, many languages and cultures, which caus-es diff erent behaviour but can also be a success for our technology. Therefore, the venture cap-ital model of the US cannot be directly applied to Europe. Nevertheless, funding is essential for European companies, because a great idea can only be developed when access to fi nancing is quick. He suggested, that diff erent fundraising models could be a possibility to avoid the un-derdeveloped venture capital model.

Commissioner Moedas on the other hand ar-gued that diff erences between the US and the EU are not as important as widely believed. Be-haviour is the same when incentives are similar and many Europeans circumvent existing bar-riers by going to the US. For this reason the EU has to provide the right incentives, especially by diversifying its fi nancial tools.

Ms. Cairns added that large corporations can help SMEs to build on their infrastructure. They can invite them into their development community, incubate start ups and nurture them by facilitating access to their laborato-ries. In this way, start ups need less capital to fi nance their fi rst steps in the market.

Mr. Weigel stated that the success rate of en-trepreneurs is not very high, not even in Silicon Valley. However, the culture of failure is very diff erent in the US, where a failed start up is not equal to an expected failure in all future business endeavours. Mr. Weigel further added that research clus-ters in Europe are essential for innovation. Collaboration between large corporations, universities, research organizations and start ups facilitates knowledge transfer from basic research to producers. However, the future of research clusters will be the virtual campus. Today, telephone conferences and simulations are already widely used before physically meeting for the fi nal production. Moreover, research clusters have to be linked altogether, and not only be concentrated on a few.

Commissioner Moedas specifi ed the role of the Commission in the debate on IPRs. The key is open innovation and open data for everybody to use. The economic impact of wide data availability would be huge by creating jobs and facilitating innovation. Ms. Cairns agreed and added that the results in the past of making data publicly available speak for themselves. According to her experience, open data is an engine to drive commerce and the economy as a whole. However, Mr. Lotito argued that IPRs are important to be able to develop a new mar-ket and without protection diffi culties can eas-ily arise. Particular fi elds need diff erent levels of protection: start ups and little companies for instance fi nd protection of their product, mostly software, essential to be able to create a global class of companies. Mr. Bruno con-

tributed that collaboration is more important than competition and mentioned that instead of companies blocking themselves they should rather bring each other forward. Mr. Weigel on the other hand appealed for reconsideration, since the return on investment on the market is limited and innovation should not consist of merely copying products of other companies.

A discussant from the audience raised the question whether Europe can also develop market dominating companies such as the American champions Google, Apple or Amazon from Silicon Valley. Mr. Lotito agreed and vo-calized the need for European companies, and much more European platforms, in response to their success on the US market. Europe has successful start ups on the so called “transfor-mation layer”, which comprises ecommerce, apps and public services. On the other hand, SAP is the only European company on the “platform layer”. Without a well functioning platform, Europe cannot compete with the US platforms. Europe’s strength is the Internal Market, which should be further developed.

Moderator Crisp asked Commissioner Moedas to elaborate on the proposal for the Digital Single Market. The Commissioner considered this issue to be of extreme importance. Companies like Facebook and Twitter emerged in the US not long ago, with speed and scale at the same time. Europe poses many visible and invisible barriers and he further elaborated on the culture of fail-ure as already mentioned by Mr. Weigel before. With an insolvency law, Europe can create an environment that saves companies in case of failure and enables them to create another com-



pany in the future without being hampered by their past unsuccessfulness. The Capital Markets Union tries to solve the fi rst problem of funding, the Digital Single Market would further lure down barriers in between European countries and facilitate scale and speed on the market. But there has been a lot of resistance from incum-bents, which often resist to change and hinder the catching up process. A question from the audience intended to stimulate the debate on the development in research models, comparing the consumer driven models to the ones in the digital era. The Commissioner mentioned ‘patient inno-vation’: innovations that are driven by the need of people, such as looking for a cure to a disease. But, he added, that innovation does not have to be purely technological. The par-adigm that innovation equals invention is not necessarily true.

Moderator Crisp mentioned the proposed cut in the Horizon 2020 funding as outlined in the Juncker Plan. Commissioner Moedas argued that it is not a cut but a reallocation of funds and that the Juncker Plan is about increasingly attracting private and public credit invest-ment, which is missing in the EU. In Europe, the generation of knowledge is thought to be extremely good, while the transformation of it

is lacking effi ciency. Crisp continued by stating that the European Parliament repeatedly characterised the reallo-cation to be a cut and if there was any measure to safeguard this funding. Commissioner Moe-das refused to further fuel speculation on the topic and clarifi ed that the objective is the same.

In conclusion, the participants agreed on the reasons for the underachievement in inno-vation in Europe. Firstly, the lack of venture capital and funding methods for start ups. Secondly, the still fragmented market of the EU compared to the US. Thirdly, the prevailing culture of failure in Europe, which does not provide the right incentives for entrepreneur-ship and the high risk aversion of participants in the market.

The digital era provides several possibilities for European developers. Firstly, European devel-opers now face an increasingly encouraging environment to create disruptive innovation. Secondly, the availability of open data would have a huge impact on the economy as a whole and could facilitate market entry for start ups and small companies with limited funding. Thirdly, research clusters of all sizes across the EU could be linked through virtual campuses and thereby increase the innovative output.



The Climate Challenge – How to reconcile climate objectives with industrial competitiveness

7 MAY

As exposed in the title of this session, the goal was to assess how climate targets and Europe-an companies’ competitiveness could go hand in hand and not undermine each other.Five experts from diff erent fi elds were tasked to bring some elements of answer. The debate was moderated by David Keating (journalist).

In line with the panel title, David Keating opened the debate by asking the following question: How do we create a policy frame-work, which tackle environment issues while protecting EU competitiveness?The main issues discussed included the ETS, the possible ways to reform it, the Market Stability Reserve (MSR) as well as the Paris Climate Summit and the expectation on the possible agreements.

First of all, the European Commission is par-ticularly committed to develop an integrated European climate policy. It has been underlined by Jos Delbeke that on the 5 pillars for the Ener-gy Union, thre have a direct impact on climate (modulation of demand, decarbonisation of the energy mix and research and innovation).

For that purpose, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) remains central and Jos Delbeke pointed out that it could only function with decent market conditions. However, the ETS’ eff ectiveness has been dropping for several years. As a matter of fact, since 2008-2009, the demand for “rights to pollute” has been con-sistently lower than demand, especially be-cause of the economic crisis and the induced economic slowdown. There has been a surplus

of around 2 billion allowances and the Commis-sion expects that this structural surplus will persist for most of ETS phase 3 (2013-2020). It has depressed the price of carbon, currently below 10 euros a ton. Thus, the ETS cannot con-tribute to a reduction in emissions. To remedy this issue on the short term, the Commission has been postponing the auctioning of allow-ances (“backloading”). This momentary supply reduction with an equivalent demand shall increase the carbon price. But backloading will not resolve concerns on the long term as allow-ances will still have to be distributed before 2020. That is why the Trilogue, i.e. the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, has recently agreed on new measures to im-prove ETS market functioning on the long term. The Market Stability Reserve (MSR) tool may be the most promising. It will be operational at the end of the fourth trading period in 2021. Without entering into too much detail, its main contribution is that it will adapt the supply of allowances to demand, even taking into consid-eration economic shocks. Trilogue’ adoption of the MSR is under way.

Furthermore, Jos Delbeke indicated that a comprehensive review of the ETS would be conducted in the year to come. It will in par-ticular target problems associated by carbon leakage, i.e. when businesses move their opera-tions from Europe to another continent where constraints on greenhouse gas emissions are lower. A global solution has to be found as Eu-rope cannot solve this problem alone.

Jos DelbekeDirector General, DG Climate Action,European Commission

Christoph Wolff CF Managing Director, European Climate Foundation

Nathalie BrunelleSenior Vice-President Strategy, Development, Research Refi ning & Chemicals TOTAL

Reinhard BütikoferMember of the European Parliament

Dave KeatingEnergy Journalist

Moderator

Later in the debate, David Keating emphasized a possible misunderstanding of the EU, which thought that ETS would be implemented globally. It has not been the case; the EU for example is not going to have a national carbon market anytime soon. So what about the le-gitimacy of the ETS for EU long-term action? Delbeke insisted that the ETS remains the best instrument to fi ght climate change in Europe. He then explained that free allocations by EU member states are too important and that the cross-sectorial correction factor mechanism - limit for the total number of free allocations granted by each member state – shall be strengthened. The Commission thus plans to tighten the benchmarks for free allocation

in order to reward industries putting in place new technologies. From 2021, there will be a limitation to the benchmarks and the number of allowances for free.

Reinhard Bütikofer (European Parliament) also agreed that the ETS is the best solution. Not only because it is a market based solution but also because it has an advantage over car-bon taxation: apart from unanimity required for carbon tax at the Council level, the ETS caps the overall amount of emissions and this cap can be adjusted to meet the 2 degrees tar-get. On the contrary, taxation only has an eff ect on the price of carbon.


Mike Lewis concluded that the ETS is a bench-mark for the rest of the world. It is not working the way it could but the architecture is remark-able. Finally, concerning the debate on the cost-eff ectiveness of policy support schemes, he stressed as an example that the German Energiewende has had side-eff ects but it has driven down renewables costs so that it can be deployed in other parts of the world.

On the Conference of the Parties (COP) 2015 that will take place in Paris end of 2015, there are still grey areas but the entire world is pre-paring its commitment. Indeed, the Chinese are about to fi nalize their contributions and the rest of the world will have to come forward with targets. Prof. Delbeke emphasized that countries generating half of emissions have al-ready released unilateral pledges to cut them. The next challenge for the EU in Paris will be to bring the US on board. As a whole, the panel recognized that despite a process already es-tablished, there is still a lot of work to do.

As a matter of fact, the European Union may be losing its leadership. Reinhard Bütifloker explained that Europe has been the leader on renewables by default, since neither the US nor China wanted to lead the shift. But the situation is changing. The US has recognized the risks caused by climate and is supporting innovation. China is as well leapfrogging. That

would be ironic that Europe would lose its leadership role when the market is fi nally de-veloping and that profi ts can be made. That is why, in his view, the MSR is not suffi cient and the carbon price should be well above 35 euros a ton. According to him, competitiveness can only be built in the framework of sustainabil-ity and sustainability and competitiveness are not antagonists. Christoph Wolff (European Climate Foundation) shared his opinion on this subject and explained that the low-carbon transition is about new markets and that tra-ditional industries have to become partners of the shift to create new businesses.

Then, Mike Lewis (E.ON) asked for pan-Eu-ropean answers. Building on Butifloker’ and Delbeke’s argument, he stressed that a high and stable carbon price is the only solution for investments. High and stable carbon prices are indeed essential. The MSR being established, Europe should push its colleague to decarboni-sation through the G20, Paris Summit etc.

The debate continued on the burden that climate policy represents for businesses. In 2014, the top eleven European utilities faced a cumulated 42 billion euros of impairement charges, due notably to the shift to renewables. It means that they cannot aff ord to invest in renewable units. Conventional utilities relying on coal and gas are nonetheless needed to cover

demand when windmills and solar panels are not generating enough electricity. Thus, utilities companies are in favour of capacity markets that would remunerate their back-up services.

Nathalie Brunelle (Total) highlighted other problems created by renewables. They concern the chemical industry that faces competition globally. Electricity prices in Europe are 30% higher than in the US and it leads to delocal-ization, so EU policy should focus on research and development more and renewables sup-port schemes less. Then, Prof. Delbeke recalled the three criteria for free allowances to ener-gy-intensive industries: openness to trade, the ability to pass-through the costs and precise benchmarks. Christoph Wolff took on his argu-ment and explained that the most important is to help companies diversify their operations so that they invest where it is needed the most and where distortions caused by renewables can create business opportunities.

According to Christoph Wolff , the American Tesla is a good example of the success of radi-cal business models. Its batteries are entering the market and halving the prices. It makes a huge impact to e-mobility. The new global competitiveness frontier, he underlined, is about individual solar panels on the roof, elec-tric vehicles on the road, batteries in the base-ments and communications with smart grids.

We have to see how much of that is going to be produced in Europe. To make sure that Europe keeps its position as a leader, Wolff preconized implementing industrial policy. As an example, on e-mobility manufacturers have developed electric cars but there is no demand on the home markets yet.

Today Chinese investments in smart grid are dwarfi ng. They have identifi ed sectors where they want to become leader and this include electric cars, energy effi ciency etc. Europe has been the leader to introduce renewables ener-gy to the market but we should avoid this mar-ket to be taken by others. We should ensure that solar panels, electric cars and batteries for example will be produced in Europe.

The Climate Challenge – How to reconcile climate objectives with industrial competitiveness


7 MAYSkills & Employment – The future of work for a competitive Europe

Moderator - Céline Laurenceau, Managing Director, Accenture Strategy

Céline Laurenceau, Managing Director, Ac-centure Strategy introduced the issues of a growing unemployment rate and challenges related to skills, which continue to be among the main factors having negative impact on the competitiveness of the European econ-omy. She stressed that even though the un-employment rate is very high, there is still an important number of jobs that are not fulfi lled, which raises the question of the adequacy of the off ered skills to the market demand. Cor-respondingly, the question of skills mismatch has been raised to the panel.

Marianne Thyssen, Commissioner for Employ-ment, Social Aff airs, Skills & Mobility stated that the gap between the skills needed on the labor market and those off ered is a crucial problem and it has to be addressed at the Eu-ropean level, as it is unacceptable that with 24 million job seekers throughout Europe there are as much as 2 million unfi lled vacancies.

The Commissioner stressed the importance of having a workforce equipped with new, up-graded skills in order to fulfi ll the needs of the current post crisis economy. The demographic factor plays a big role and has to be taken into consideration; as a consequence of the aging European population, older people have to stay longer on the labor market and job creation becomes more arduous. Another priority of EU policy-making in the fi eld of employment is

that of promoting the inclusion of women and people with disabilities in the job market. As stressed by Commissioner Thyssen, the prob-lem does not only concern the new entrants to the labor market, but especially those who are already on the market and have the imperative need to update their skills and adapt to the fast changing world. To quote Mrs. Thyssen: ”It is only by being at work that you do not lose your skills”. Migration was also discussed in terms of its potential to trigger benefi ts to the society. The Commissioner concluded by stressing that they do not possess a mag-ic wand to solve these problems overnight. However, a possible envisaged solution is partnership between all the stakeholders such as the EU, the Member States, Trade unions, Associations, Public authorities, Educational institutions and the Private Sector, as none of them alone can overcome the issue.

Luca Visentini, Designate Secretary General, ETUC shared the ideas raised by the Commis-sioner. He pointed to 2 main phenomena that influences the current position of the job mar-ket: fi rstly, job distraction created as a result of the crisis and secondly, the issue of distri-bution and fi tness of skills which persisted even before the crisis. Due to the growing im-portance of the digital economy and the need to upscale the workers, it is crucial to update workers’ skills, whilst they are on the job too. It is also relevant to point out that the need to concentrate actions for skill update and crea-tion should not only regard high skills but on low skills as well.

Marianne ThyssenCommissioner for Employment, Social Aff airs, Skills & Mobility, European Commission

Luca Visentini Designate Secretary General, ETUC

Professor Peter ZemskyINSEAD, Dean for Strategic Initiatives and Innovation

Aongus HegartyPresident EMEADell

Renate Hornung-DrausChairman of the Social Aff airs Committee, BUSINESSEUROPE

Céline LaurenceauManaging DirectorAccenture Strategy

MODERATOR

According to the Secretary General most of the eff orts should be addressed to tackle the issues of forecasting the skills needed and to ensure the quality of jobs. He thinks that the recent developments are a result of failure of an adequate forecast. There is a shared opin-ion that a closer partnership with concerned stakeholders would be useful to fulfi ll the gap and to do a better labor market forecast.

As reported by Renate Hornung-Draus, Chairman of the Social Aff airs Committee, BUSINESSEUROPE, 80% of unemployment in Europe is being structural and only 20% cycli-cal, which means that cyclical measures alone

are not a suitable solution for the current labor market problems. When speaking of the im-portance of digital skills, Mrs. Hornung-Draus brought up the issue of IT specialists being viewed by the society as detached and living in their own world. With the current perception of the IT specialist’s job and life, it seems to be a nice model only for a young person and not sustainable as a lifelong occupation. This, as Mrs. Hornung-Draus mentioned, could be a possible explanation to why less women pursue careers in the ICT sector. Also, there is a need for the ICT sector to be scaled up to a more mature level in terms of dealing with issues such as data protection.


Aongus Hegarty from Dell underlined the importance of seeing opportunities in the fast pace of technology change. He mentioned the transformation Dell had to go through which required a major update of the employees skills. This transformation happened as Dell made an opportunity out of the changes it had to go through. One of the examples of this transformation is the employees work-ing from home. One crucial point made my Mr. Hegarty was that some still think that technology is not relevant for their industry, whilst instead digitalization and ITC are key to all industries. “Technology is embedded in everything we have”, Mr Hegarty said. Remote work and e-commerce are just two simple examples of how technology can make the diff erence for every business and make it more flexible, competitive and resilient. Three main interconnected structures are needed for an organization to be able to adapt to the fast-changing environment. Professor Peter Zemsky explained that fi rstly, the base of the structure should be grounded on highly qual-ifi ed people, secondly, the adaptability of an organization as such and fi nally the presence of systems to give the people the skills that they need.

An additional problem that Europe is facing is that of the brain drain, which came as a result of the increasing global mobility of workers. Especially for ITC and the digital sectors, the U.S. remains a much more attractive destina-tion for European innovators and creators. In general, much still needs to be done to keep highly qualifi ed workers in Europe because their role in value creation is incomparable.

This phenomenon can also be explained by the partial lack of dynamism of certain European companies, where it takes longer for promo-tions to take place and for employees to climb the career ladder, in comparison with the U.S.

Unemployment, brain drain, skills mismatch and updating, employment of women and the resilience of organisations are certainly not issues which can be solved overnight but there are some concrete steps which can be taken in the short-run.

Commissioner Thyssen launched the idea to create a vast partnership, a platform that “brings everybody together to understand what we have and what we need”. High-level graduate programmes which would at the same time bring freshness in the management and increase the creativity in the company could be introduced also in sectors where they are not yet present and in SMEs. Such pro-grammes could play a crucial role in bridging promising professionals from the university to the labour market. Moreover, it was mentioned that investments should swiftly increase to lifelong learning projects for companies to improve the existing skills of their workers.

Skills & Employment – The future of work for a competitive Europe

Marianne Thyssen, Commissioner for Employment, Social Aff airs, Skills & Mobility, European Commission


7 MAYStructural Reforms – Why are structural reforms important for digitisation too?

One of the fi nal sessions of the European Busi-ness Summit 2015 was devoted to the question on how a broader structural reforms agenda can facilitate digitalisation. Structural reforms aiming to tackle unemployment, to increase competition, unlock business potential, but that should also take into account the influ-ence of digitalization on growth, employment and the structural reforms agenda in Europe. The European Commission’s new Digital Single Market will cover three main areas: improving access to digital goods and services, ensuring the right conditions for digital networks to grow and creating a European digital economy and society.

To discuss these issues the European Business Summit gathered distinguished experts such as Mr. Pierre Moscovici, European Commis-sioner for Economic and Financial Aff airs, Taxation and Customs; Mr. Yanis Varoufakis, Finance Minister of Greece; Mr. Markus J. Beyrer, Director General of BUSINESSEUROPE; Ms. Montserrat Mir, International and De-velopment Secretary of CC.OO Trade Union; Mr. Daniel Gros, Director of the Center for European Policy Studies and Mr. Pierre Dejoux, President of the United Technologies Corpo-ration. The discussion was moderated by Mr. Matthew Dalton from Wall Street Journal.

Digitalisation is a valuable instrument to re-duce government expenditures, which helps to deliver smart spending cuts to make gov-ernment more effi cient and productive. Such experience has been positive in Scandinavian countries, with Denmark as one of the best

examples. Mr. Pierre Moscovici shared his experience in working on modernisation of ad-ministrative procedures being the Minister for Finance and Economy of France in 2012-2014. During this period there has been considerable cuts in government expenditure thanks to dig-italisation of the processes.

According to Mr. Moscovici, Europe needs to in-vent a new structural reforms approach taking into account modern digitalisation processes. Reallocation to more productive services like digital services will increase EU’s GDP by 4% by 2020. Therefore, digitalisation could be a catalyst to restore growth. We need to reduce fragmentation of markets and create a leveled playing fi eld for all. Mobility of workers, grad-uates, intra-sectorial and capital mobility is essential. But we are lacking skilled workers in the sphere; in order to be competitive Member States should invest in digital education.

Maximising growth potential of the digital market and the completion of a single digital market, will transform both business processes and public expenditures. The European Com-mission is totally committed to this plan.

Mr. Yanis, Varoufakis, noted that a century and a half after Pascal invented calculus, we decided that there should be no child leaving school without knowing math. According to his opinion, right now there should be no child leaving school without knowing how to code. The following issues were issues were addressed by Mr. Varoufakis: implementation, taxation and overall eff ect of digitalisation,

Pierre MoscoviciCommissioner for Economic and Financial Aff airs, Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission

Daniel GrosDirector, Centre for European Policy Studies

Pierre DejouxPresident Intelligent Building Technologies & Operations Europe, United Technologies Corporation

Markus BeyrerDirector General BUSINESSEUROPE

Yanis VaroufakisFinance MinisterGreece

Montserrat MirInternational and Cooperation Secretary, CC.OO Trade Union of Spain

Matthew DaltonBrussels Correspondent for The Wall Street Journal

Moderator

the way industrial society is structured. In re-gards to implementation, we should take into account that we often have to deal with oppo-sition. Inertia and bureaucratic opposition is always high. However, we need to understand that in the modern world we cannot do with-out digitalisation.

In terms of taxation, there are more and more businesses working on a internet platform and that are exempted from taxation. It creates shifts in economic activity and diminishes taxa-tion returns. There is currently no answer to this problem and therefore it is necessary to work in this direction and to fi nd a balanced approach.


Mr. Markus J. Beyrer noted that a digital econ-omy can create value both for consumers and the society. Companies need a favourable envi-ronment, which does not hamper digital trans-formation and the new Digital Single Market strategy must live up to these expectations. However, there are implementation problems in Member States and growth expectations diff er from Member State to Member State.

One of the problems is that in the EU we are lock-ing start-ups in sub-markets. We cannot blame oversees successful companies of being success-ful. We need to educate skilful professionals, analyse the market potential and build success.

Ms. Montserrat Mir underlined that struc-tural reforms should be broader. According to Ms. Mir the EU economy is very weak at the moment and is close to deflation. Taking the example of Spain – the economy is growing, but citizens cannot feel this growth. Spain is often brought up as an example of being suc-cessful in overcoming the crisis, but today in Spain there is a 25% unemployment rate with a even bigger fi gure for youth unemployment.

Indeed, there are new job opportunities in Spain right now, but if we look at them closely we will understand that these jobs are tempo-rary. We are repeating the same mistakes that we had before the crisis. Ms. Mir stressed that the basis of the EU is cohesion and therefore we should fi ght fragmentation and create real Union for creation of better jobs.

Mr. Daniel Gros underlined that we should be careful with digitalisation because it can cre-ate division in the European Union as it has a diff erent impact on companies. As for business entities, businesses lacking a digital agenda have challenges in accessing the markets in comparison with those that are ahead.

Mr. Pierre Dejoux stressed that regardless of obstacles; we should continue to push the digital agenda and to set standards – European standards that could become the standards of the world.

Structural Reforms – Why are structural reforms important for digitisation too?

Yanis Varoufakis, Finance Minister, Greece and Pierre Moscovici, Commissioner for Economic and Financial Aff airs, Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission


RoomTitre

7 MAY00H00 – 00H00

Closing Plenary How will things be diff erent this time?

7 MAY

The closing plenary of the European Business Summit (EBS) was opened by a debate on its per-spectives for the future and its teachings from the past. While the EU is losing competitiveness in the global economy, there are still many levers on which to play in order to better refocus the debate on growth and jobs in the EU.

The EBS is defi nitely one of these levers, as it stimulates debate and fruitful discussions throughout the European business commu-nity. It has constantly improved throughout the years, said the Chief Executive Offi cer of the Federation of Enterprises in Belgium Pieter Timmermans. Recalling the launch of the strategy for Digital Single Market by Com-missioner Andrus Ansip on the same day of the plenary, Timmermans has recognized the need to address the digitalization of the economy, being committed to strengthen the digital ca-pabilities of the European Union in the world.

In a changing global context characterized by an EU output 0.2% lower than its pre-crisis level, the need to boost the economy through all possible means has been recognized by Tim-mermans as the most challenging task but also as a fascinating opportunity.

By handling the floor to President of the Euro-pean Parliament Martin Schulz, Timmermans underlined once again the achievements of the 2015 EBS, from the highest number of participants ever to the high-level panels and speakers interventions during the days.

After a brief introduction, President Schulz focused on the main challenges Europe is fac-ing today. He outlined four main priorities to be tackled in the foreseeable future to foster growth and attract investments.

First of all, recalling the result of the recent UK elections, he started by expressing his views on the potential of a Brexit, namely the eventual loss of a big share of European GDP and fi nancial sector. He obviously referred to the need for the EU to remain strong, because only a strong policy can tackle the challenges of these modern times.

Secondly, he had a clear view on the role and relevance of the common currency, especially in times of crisis. The euro “is there to stay as a strong and reliable currency”. Highlighting the hard feasibility of any other option, he affi rmed that “when problems are transnational but solutions are national, there can be no happy ending”. As it has been claimed by many others and also by fi erce European ideal advocates, no nation state can tackle climate change on its own, for example. In a complex society, with a high degree of interdependence and shared re-sponsibilities, there can be no national solution only to transnational problems, which have to be tackled under a comprehensive approach. Another example is trade policy, which needs to be sustained by a strong internal market and by common initiatives in the world: as the ultimate tool the EU has to make its voice heard loud in the world. Trade policy should defi nitely be regarded as a priority. And this is what the

EBS did this year, by organizing specifi c panels on ongoing trade agreements.

Thirdly, if we want a coherent and strong trade policy we cannot neglect the relevance of a likewise coherent business-driven policy agenda. Schulz stressed the low risk-friendly attitude that permeates the European Union and its Member States: this aversion to risk, which diff erentiates the EU from the US but also many other economic giants and com-petitors in the world, is a problem and needs to be taken into account by policy-makers. “In an eff ort to ensure that our fi rms remain com-petitive without watering down fundamental rights and data protection”, said Schulz, we need to make sure for example that “high data protection standards will prove a competitive advantage”. In a quest for competitiveness, the EU risks being left behind because of many constraints it still imposes to businesses and

entrepreneurs. These categories are the driv-ers of economic growth, because jobs creation depends on the degree of “operability” that businesses have.

Finally, the issue of energy “is key not to make us vulnerable”. Europe needs to ensure that energy supplies are safe and without any risk of being stopped or temporarily suspended by our suppliers. A strong business sector needs constant energy supplies, especially if we deal with small and medium-sized enterprises in the manufacturing sector.

As a closing remark, Schulz expressed his best wishes to the EBS and Sean Klein thanked him for his keynote speech: bringing into the dis-cussion many topics related to the European growth agenda and political issues has been as undoubtedly fruitful advancement.

GUO PING

DEPUTY CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD - ROTATING CEO

HUAWEI

Pieter TimmermansCEOFederation of Entreprise in Belgium

Martin SchulzPresidentEuropean Parliament

Markus BeyrerDirector GeneralBUSINESSEUROPE

Sean KleinJournalistSeanKlein Media Ltd

Moderator


Closing Plenary How will things be diff erent this time?

Markus Beyrer, BUSINESSEUROPE Director, agreed on the need for more risk-friendly policies. The link with entrepreneurship and success is clear: if people are more apt to un-dertake risky initiatives, then it means that the environment in which they operate is also more apt to boost their activity if they are suc-cessful or to give them a second opportunity in case they fail. In Europe, the problem is that “we only see the risk and never the opportu-nities”. The DSM can be a major achievement in this regard, but only if we will be able to create an integrated and functioning market, without dominant positions and with fair competition. “We have excellent startups, but we locked them in”: the technological revolution that has occurred in the 2000s has given Europe the tools to grow, but in the end innovation has been lagging behind and only a few isolated cases have been successful while competing in the global market of technologic

advancements. As Beyrer fi nally stated, “We have to provide them a large market where they can become prosperous”: this is the main challenge recognized also by the other par-ticipants in the closing plenary. The need for Europe to do what it was meant to do since the beginning of the crisis: creating the conditions for European businesses to become competi-tive on a global scale while allowing them to rely on a giant single market at home.

As a fi nal remark, all participants stated their commitment to elaborate a long-term perspective in the European business sector. Without a “vision” for the future, Europe is likely to lose competitiveness in a global race, which can only plausibly be won by united ac-tors aiming to fi nd the best solutions.

Martin Schulz, President, European Parliament

120

MEET THE EXPERTS

EBS 2015 - MEET THE EXPERTS

6 MAY

EUROPEAN CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL MEETING 1POLITICAL ECONOMY (ECIPE)

Embracing disruptive innovation in Europe: Will 3D printing change everything?Martina Francesca Ferracane, Policy AnalystEuropean Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE)

Until recently, 3D printing applications have been confi ned to niche items mainly in the medical and aerospace sectors. However, this technology is rapidly spreading to diff erent sectors with applications going now from rapid prototyping to food printing and bio-printing. Its disrupting potential seems boundless, responding to consumer demands for customized products and the industry’s quest for smarter processes and products. A forward-looking attitude by the policy-makers is paramount to capitalize on the opportunities off ered by the 3D printing revolution, while anticipating for the inevitable side-eff ects stemming from it.

RENEWABLE GRID INITIATIVE MEETING 2

“The future of the power sector in Europe - perspectives for society, politics and industry”?Antonella Battaglini, Chief Executive Ofi cerRenewable Grid Initiative

The power sector is in a phase of great transformation, driven by the need to combat climate change. This change comes with technological innovation and economic impact, but also has massive implications on society. We can only manage the process by cross-sector collaboration. The Renewables Grid Initiative has built a forum for such collaboration between grid operators and environmental NGOs working on the build-up of electricity infrastructure, urgently needed for the energy transition.

ITIM INTERNATIONAL MEETING 3

More European team spirit? YES, we can!Jean-Pierre Coene, Free ConsultantItim International

There are two ways to pull people together and work towards a common end. Either: “Let’s forget about our diff erences, and let’s concentrate on what we have in common”. The other is to accommodate dissimilari-ties: “Get to know each other better, understand each other’s mindset. The HOFSTEDE METHOD acknowl-edges that ignoring diff erences will not make them go away. Without trust there will be no long-term deal. Synergy is based upon well-founded relationships and trust.

EU MONITORING

For more information and to contact us go to dodsmonitoring.eu

Save time and effort monitoring developments at European Union level by using our experts on the ground in Brussels.

We deliver up-to-the-minute news and information tailored to you ensuring you have everything you need at your fingertips.

Our service includes:•Alerts: tailored real time alerts delivered to your inbox •Briefings: our unique coverage of European Parliament

committees and plenary sessions, Council deliberations, Commission conferences and other key events

•Looking forward agendas: comprehensive calendars of institutions and stakeholders events

•Newsletters: bespoke daily, weekly and monthly newsletters•Hotline: research and analysis service to answeryour specific

questions about the EU

UP-TO-THE-MINUTE NEWS AND INFORMATION PERSONALISED TO YOUR SPECIFIC DEMANDS

As Bell Helicopter has expanded our presence and sales in the European helicopter market, we realized we also needed to focus more on the policy environment.

The custom reporting and analysis provided by Dods EU Monitoring Service has been an important part of Bell Helicopter’s efforts to engage with European Union institutions and stay abreast of developments across the EU member states.

Brian ChaseDirector, Global Public AffairsBell Helicopter

122 123

MEET THE EXPERTS MEET THE EXPERTS

EBS 2015 - MEET THE EXPERTS EBS 2015 - MEET THE EXPERTS

6 MAY

VOTEWATCH EUROPE MEETING 1

Impact assessment of the European Parliament on TTIP and EU legislation aff ecting businessDoru Petrisor Frantescu, DirectorVoteWatch Europe

Many businesses are taken by surprise by the legislation emanating from the EP.However, an analysis of the political composition of the EP can provide highly valuable insights into how the EP may shape key shape pieces of legislation expected from the new Commission. Looking ahead, this session will discuss the influence that MEPs are predicted to exert on EU policies in the areas of economy, employment, environment, energy or trade (TTIP).

JADE MEETING 2

Entrepreneurial Skills: What, when and how should you develop them?Ioana David, President - Jade

Mario Tarouca, Director of Public Aff airs - JADE

We have been exploring the skills mismatch between what Universities teach and what Businesses look for. How can we, as young people and agents of change, contribute to reducing this gap? This workshop is the result of a report based on a European event that brought together senior representatives from Microsoft, EY, Solvay Brussels School, the European Commission and leaders of 13 organisations, representing 37 mil-lion European youth. What good practices can we bring to bridge the gap?

EUROPEAN SOCIAL OBSERVATORY MEETING 1

Economic Governance in Europe 2020: Socializing the European Semester against the Odds?Bart Vanhercke, DirectorEuropean Social Observatory

The European Semester of policy coordination, which is the core of the EU’s new institutional architecture for economic and social governance, introduced since the beginning of the Euro crisis, has prompted ques-tions about the nature and dynamics of the EU’s emerging socio-economic governance architecture. In this session, Bart Vanhercke argues that since 2011, there has been a partial but progressive ‘socialization’ of the European Semester. This can be understood not only as the response from the European Commission to the growing social and political discontent with austerity policies, but also as a product of reflexive learning and creative adaptation on the part of social and employment actors.

CEPANI MEETING 2

Alternative Dispute Resolution Brussels as a Hub for ArbitrationMarc Dal, Member of the board of Director - CEPANI

Dirk De Meulemeester, President - CEPANI

Arbitration is proven to be a very effi cient method for resolving disputes between commercial entities, es-pecially when these entities are established in diff erent jurisdictions. Based on their experience, the speak-ers will discuss the advantages of opting for arbitration, and touch upon topics such as: institutional v ad hoc arbitration, the quality of the arbitrator, the main features of arbitration (party autonomy, confi dentiality, etc), how to tailor the proceedings, the importance of the arbitration seat. They will also address the issue of when arbitration may or may not be the appropriate resolution method. Finally, they will explain why Belgium is an arbitration friendly environment and Brussels is an appropriate arbitration hub.

PETER JUNGEN HOLDING GMBH MEETING 3

Angel Investing for Financing InnovationPeter Jungen, Chairman Peter Jungen Holding Gmbh

The way to get Europe out of the crisis is innovation; in fact, governments should invest in R&D and in the edu-cation of children and youth. Due to the complex economic environment and the recent fi nancial crisis, angel investors have played an important role in bridging the funding gap left by banks and risk capital companies, by promoting investments, innovations and changes in policy measures.

6 MAY

124 125



7 MAY7 MAY

UNITEE MEETING 1

The importance of Diversity and CSR to High-Technology GrowthAdem Kumcu, PresidentUNITEE

Overall diversity is a strong indicator of a metropolitan area’s high-technology success. Innovation means to use new and diff erent ideas from diff erent sources and confront them so as to generate something that has not been done previously. This process is therefore more likely to happen in a culturally diverse community. Implementing appropriate CSR practices to promote diversity management around the EU is key for increas-ing Europe’s competiveness.

COLLEGE OF EUROPE MEETING 2

Business Cases and Corporate Strategy facing EU policymakingAime Heene, Guest Professor - College of Europe

Philippe de Buck, Visiting Professor - College of Europe

On the occasion of EBS 2015, the College of Europe will launch the “Bruges European Business Case Series”, a new and unique collection of business-oriented case studies which analyze the two-way interaction be-tween the European Union and the corporate world. Professors Aime Heene and Philippe de Buck will ex-plain the rationale for these business case studies and the added value of analyzing and evaluating business strategy in response to changes in EU policy. During the session, the fi rst two published business cases will be presented. They concern E.ON and Voda-fone responses to the EU climate and energy package and the EU roaming regulation.

EUROPEAN YOUTH FORUM MEETING 3

Quality internships: what business can doJohanna Nyman, PresidentEuropean Youth Forum

Internships have become a standard part of the labour market and of a young person’s transition into the world of work. For the Youth Forum, this topic is essential due to the benefi ts that internships can off er and to the widespread phenomenon of poor quality internships in Europe. Businesses play a role in giving young people opportunities to enter the labour market. By providing quality internships they can make a key diff erence – helping young people become active and engaged citizens.

EUROFUND MEETING 1Workplace practices: patterns, performance and wellbeing. Overview report of the third European Company SurveyGijs van Houten, Research Offi cerEurofund

The overview report of the 2013 edition of the European Company Survey provides comprehensive informa-tion on workplace practices in terms of work organisation, human resource management, direct employee participation and social dialogue. The report not only presents the incidence of these practices, but also shows how they relate to each other and to outcomes for workers and companies; showing that certain combinations of practices benefi t both company performance and workplace well-being.

THE SWEDISH NATIONAL BOARD OF TRADE MEETING 2

Online trade, o line rules - A review of barriers to e-commerce in the EUOlivier Linden, Senior Legal Adviser - The Swedish National Board of Trade; Ola Landström, Legal Adviser - The Swedish National Board of Trade; Philip Levin, Legal Adviser - The Swedish National Board of Trade

The Digital Single Market has not yet been achieved and the EU is still fragmented into 28 online markets. Part of the problem is the wide range of legal barriers facing traders and consumers wishing to trade across borders. In the report “Online Trade – Off line Rules”, The Swedish National Board of Trade, which is a government body working with trade related issues, has mapped out several of the legal barriers, both national and EU-wide, that restrict on-line trade. Numerous legal barriers aff ecting various online activities, ranging from traditional forms of e-commerce to recent technological and business developments, will be presented and discussed during the session.

THINK YOUNG MEETING 3The ThinkYoung Shower: on NEET, Startups, STEM, and MakersAndrea Gerosa, FounderThink Young

Who are the NEET and how come so many of them are in the UK, Italy and Australia?Who are the successful European Startups and why is Stockholm second only to San Francisco? Why do we have more than one million jobs in STEM and still young Europeans don’t study those subjects? What is the Makers Movement, and why can it be the solution to the European crisis? Started in 2007, with a fame for challenging the status quo and being noisy, ThinkYoung is the fi rst think-tank focused on young people. With offi ces in Brussels, Geneva and Hong Kong, it produces research and documentary movies to portray the life of young Europeans and Asians.

126

MEET THE EXPERTS

EBS 2015 - MEET THE EXPERTS

7 MAY

BRUEGEL MEETING 1

Competition policy in Europe: principles and trendsMario Mariniello, Research FellowBruegel

In this talk, Bruegel scholar Mario Mariniello will give a general introduction about the economics of com-petition policy with a specifi c focus on Europe. Mariniello will also discuss the risks of political interference in the enforcement of competition law and its consequences for the economy. Reference will be made to recent trends in the treatment of foreign takeovers and the implementation of lax merger control in Europe and other jurisdictions.

EASME MEETING 2

Helping ambitious SMEs innovate and grow internationallyCarolina Fernandes, Senior Innovation, Funding Manager, EU R&D AdvisorEnterprise Europe Network

In this session, London-based advisor Carolina Fernandes will introduce the audience to the support provided by Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) to SMEs in more than 50 countries. EEN is the largest business support in the world, helping SMEs with competitiveness and innovation and in establishing transnational cooperation, both at business-to-business and business-to-academia levels. Carolina will explain the services available to SMEs at regional level and show how SMEs can receive practical advice on market opportunities and get help to fi nd suitable business partners, build technology partnerships and access national and EU funding.

ENAR MEETING 3

From equal@work to “equality economy” as a key element of the “smart, sustainable growth paradigm”Michael Privot, DirectorENAR

For the last 15 years, ENAR has been building expertise in the fi eld of employment of ethno-cultural minorities and migrants (legislation, monitoring, diversity management). Yet racial and cultural origins remain a taboo for many employers. Today, Europe is confronted by an unprecedented economic and social crisis generating violence and destabilizing eff ects. Prosperity is at stake. A change of gear is needed: it is high time to move towards an “equality economy”.

128 129



7 MAY7 MAY

BRUEGEL MEETING 1

Energy Union – hope for an EU energy policy?Georg Zachmann, Research FellowBruegel

The EU aspires to create an Energy Union. However, the member states have fairly diff erent visions on which areas should be addressed, and how. Perpetuating the lowest common denominator approach, that allows the members state to conduct contradicting energy policies, risks making energy in Europe less sustainable, less secure and more expensive. To enable true collaboration and a consistent policy, each side will have to bring something substantial to the table.

EBR MEETING 2

“Innovation as a stimulus for Regional Growth” organized by the “Region of North Aegean” in cooperation with the “European Business Review”Hans Hack, Head of Financial Services - FTI ConsultingEleni Marianou, Secretary General - CPMRN. Peter Kramer, Editor-in-chief - European Business ReviewChristiana Kalogirou, Governor of the North Aegean RegionMr. Luiz de Mello, Deputy Director of the Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate OECD

Cohesion policy for 2014-2020 adopts a new approach to addressing the needs that emerged during the economic crisis emerged. The new agenda aims at bridging the gap between public infrastructures and private investments, stimulating employment and supporting implementation of best practices. Our event aims to present the opportu-nities laying for both the private and public sector, and launch a real debate on concrete next steps.

CANADA MEETING 3

Building Technology Partnerships with CanadaJayson Myers, President and CEOCanadian Manufacturers & Exporters

The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada will provide European busi-nesses with a unique opportunity to build partnerships with Canada’s dynamic advanced manufacturing and technology sectors. This session will focus on how to identify technology opportunities in Canada and how to navigate Canada’s technology networks. It will highlight the Enterprise Canada Network in particular – the gateway that Canadian businesses are using to connect to prospective partners in Europe.

ECONATION MEETING 1

A Belgian circular vision in view of a sustainable future for EuropesLeo Goovaert, Co-founder & ChairmanEcoNation

The infi nite cyclical circulation of materials, known as the industrial circular economy, is increasingly be-coming a necessity. In ecological terms, it is the main regenerative way of moving from socially intolerable waste to optimisation and sustainability. A new business model for reducing waste streams is the result. The method consists of integrating linear economic parameters, whereby the system creates value on the grounds of using instead of consuming, with durability as the main purpose. Not only does the method provide a competitive advantage to businesses through process to product innovation, it is also thought the EU could make an annual saving of 350.000 and 500.000 billion euro by adopting the circular economy.

CEPS MEETING 2

The future of better EU regulation: can better rules put Europe on the right track to economic recovery?Andrea Renda, Senior Research Fellow and Head of Regulatory PolicyCEPS

In many Member States of the European Union, policy-makers and political parties often campaign against the European Union, claiming that its legislation creates unnecessary burdens on businesses and citizens. Bet-ter regulation has now become a top priority of the Juncker Commission, and a better regulation package is expected by the end of May this year. Will the new initiatives be suffi cient to improve the quality of European rules? And what could the EU and Member States do to improve the situation in the future?

GLOBAL RESOURCE SECURITY & RESILIENCE INITIATIVE MEETING 3

Paradigm Shift for an Exponential EraHans van der Loo, PartnerGlobal Resource Security & Resilience Initiative

Scientists have proposed a name for the new Era in which we are living. But most business leaders and poli-cy-makers are only beginning to realise the exponential nature of the changes, and struggle with the implica-tions for strategy and policy. What are the structural drivers that shape this new era? Is every region equally aff ected? Are there smart, no-regret options to make Europe more resilient and futureproof? Participants will leave with a better systemic understanding of the evolving new word.

131

MEET THE EXPERTS


7 MAY

JA YE MEETING 1

Driving educational impact through skills-based volunteeringCaroline Jenner, CEOJA YE Europe

By 2015, 60% of new jobs will require skills that only 20% of the population possess. Young people often graduate into unemployment. The ‘skills mismatch’ can be reversed with more engagement between the world of education and the world of employment. A lot more work needs to be done to bring employers into the classroom, in compulsory education, so there is a clearer understanding of the skills needed in the mar-ket. Skills-based volunteering is a powerful way to get the message across. Join us to learn how corporates utilize the skills, experience, talents and education of their volunteers for the benefi t of the community.

UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW MEETING 2

Don’t blame the euro: historical reflections on the roots of the Eurozone crisisEmmanuel Mourlon-DruolUniversity of Glasgow

This paper argues that many of the issues that are causing trouble in the eurozone today had long been debated, but not solved, prior to the beginning of the so-called euro crisis. Three thematic examples are used to show this: the decade-long discussion surrounding economic convergence and the question of a transfer union; the dispute over the alleged use of fi nancial mechanisms as a substitute for addressing structural economic weaknesses; and the development of European banking regulation and supervision before the creation of the single currency. Finally, this paper explains that even though some of the features of today’s crises – in particular the debt and defi cit issues – were outlined at the time of the euro’s introduction, some important recent developments such as the various new operations undertaken by the European Central Bank were not. This recommends modesty and cautiousness in the analysis of the evolution of the euro crisis.

132

MEET THE EXPERTS


7 MAY

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS & DIPLOMATIC EXCHANGE15:30-16:00 MEETING 3

Commercial Diplomacy and the Future of the UK/EU RelationshipRudi Guraziu, Executive ChairmanInternational Business and Diplomatic Exchange IBDE

The EU needs to have a clear vision on how it intends to reform itself to ensure it remains a signifi cant player in the new global economic order. Negotiating the right UK/EU relationship going forward following the UK election (whatever the outcome) is diplomacy at the highest level and commercial future depends on it.

YUNUS SOCIAL BUSINESS16:00-16:30 MEETING 3

Solving social challenges in a business way Learnings from Yunus Social Business accelerating and fi nancing social businesses around the WorldSaskia Bruysten, Co-founderYunus Social Business

Can social problems also be solved by organisations applying business principles rather than traditional charity or governments? Yunus Social Business, co-founded by Noble Peace Prize Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus, has proven this innovative framework by successfully growing 26 social businesses worldwide. During her presentation, Saskia Bruysten, CEO and co-founder of YSB, will share key learnings from running social business accelerators and funds around the globe, tackling a wide range of social problems such as sustain-able agriculture, health and sanitation or unemployment.


135EBS 2015

PARTNERS

136 137EBS 2015 - PARTNERS EBS 2015 - PARTNERS

AN INITIATIVE OF

STRATEGIC PARTNER

MAIN PARTNER

SUMMIT PARTNERS

KNOWLEDGE PARTNERS

MEDIA PARTNERS

SUPPORTING PARTNERS

The future of cancer therapy


AN INITIATIVE OF

BUSINESSEUROPE

BUSINESSEUROPE is the leading advocate for growth and competitive-ness at European level, standing up for companies across the continent and campaigning on the issues that most influence their performance. A recognised social partner, they speak for all-sized enterprises in 33 European countries whose national business federations are their direct members.

THE FEDERATION OF ENTERPRISES IN BELGIUM, FEB

The Federation of Enterprises in Belgium (FEB) is the only multisector employer organisation representing companies in Belgium’s three regions. FEB represents more than 50,000 companies, accounting for 75% of employment in the private sector. FEB promotes and defends the inte-rests of these companies in nearly 150 federal, European and internatio-nal bodies, with a view to creating an optimum business and investment environment. FEB’s activities are underpinned by its thorough knowledge of the sector – thanks to the expertise of its member federations – and on key values such as the social market economy, sustainable development, business ethics, good governance, dialogue and self-regulation.

STRATEGIC PARTNER

ACCENTURE STRATEGY

Accenture Strategy operates at the intersection of business and techno-logy. They bring together their capabilities in business, technology, ope-rations and function strategy to help their clients envision and execute industry-specific strategies that support enterprise-wide transforma-tion. Their focus on issues related to digital disruption, competitiveness, global operating models, talent and leadership help drive both efficien-cies and growth.

MAIN PARTNER

HEINEKEN

HEINEKEN is Europe’s biggest brewer and the second largest in the world by consolidated volume, employing over 81,000 people and operating more than 165 breweries in 70 countries. The Heineken® brand is the undisputed leader in the international premium segment, available in almost every country around the globe. A consumer-inspired, customer oriented and brand-led organisation, HEINEKEN is the global leader in premium brand de-velopment and creative marketing with a powerful portfolio of more than 250 international, regional, local and specialty beers and ciders. HEINEKEN’s commitment to long-term brand investment, strong presence in emerging markets, leadership positions in developed markets and disciplined sales execution is driving growth and long-term business success. Heineken N.V. and Heineken Holding N.V. shares trade on the NYSE Euronext in Amsterdam.

HUAWEI

Huawei is a leading global information and communications techno-logy (ICT) solutions provider. Their aim is to build a better connected world, acting as a responsible corporate citizen, innovative enabler for the information society, and collaborative contributor to the industry. Huawei’s 170,000 employees worldwide are committed to creating maximum value for telecom operators, enterprises and consumers. Their innovative ICT solutions, products and services are used in more than 170 countries and regions, serving over one-third of the world’s population. Huawei currently has over 9,900 staff based in Europe, of whom 1,200 are working in R&D. They run 18 R&D sites located in eight European countries (Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden and the UK) and operate numerous joint innovation centres in partnership with telecom and ICT partners.

SUMMIT PARTNERS

ADECCO

With 800 employees and 130 offices, Adecco Belgium offers temporary staffing solutions, recruitment & selection and HR services. Professional Staffing provides a range of solutions through specialist recruitment agencies as XPE Pharma & Science, XPE Customer Care, Badenoch & Clark and euro engineering. Modis focuses on ICT professionals. Roun-ding out Adecco’s services in Belgium is 3W, who provides interim mana-gement and Lee Hecht Harrison/DBM, specialist in career transition & outplacement. Adecco Belgium is part of the Adecco Group, the world leader in HR solutions. Every day, the Adecco Group places more than 700,000 people with more than 100,000 customers and has a network of over 31,000 own employees and 5,200 offices in over 60 countries.

KINGDOM OF BELGIUM, FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE, FOREIGN AFFAIRS, FOREIGN TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION

The Belgian Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation promotes and defends the interests of Bel-gium and of Belgian citizens and companies abroad, it fosters the cohe-rence of Belgium as a federal State and strives for a safer, fairer and more prosperous world.

AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE EU

AmCham EU speaks for American companies committed to Europe on trade, investment and competitiveness issues. It aims to ensure a growth-orientated business and investment climate in Europe. AmCham EU facilitates the resolution of transatlantic issues that impact business, and plays a role in creating better understanding of EU and US positions on business matters. Aggregate US investment in Europe totalled €2 tril-lion in 2014 and directly supports more than 4.3 million jobs in Europe.


BRUSSELS CAPITAL REGION

Brussels is an international city like no other. As the decision-making heart of Europe, it has become an international capital, where global opinion leaders meet to influence and do business, yet it remains small enough to allow its inhabitants to enjoy all the advantages of a human-size city. The Brussels-Capital Region accounts for approximately 20 % of Belgium’s GDP. At least 85 % of the Region’s economy consists of ser-vice activities. Due to its central geographical location and unique status as the capital of Europe, Brussels is one of the world’s largest centers for international organisations, NGOs, industry associations, interest groups and diplomatic missions. For investors, Brussels is the place to be to run a business with a European focus at a reasonable cost.

BRUSSELS INVEST & EXPORT

Brussels Invest & Export is the foreign trade and investment agency of the Brussels-Capital Region. It aims to promote the internationalization of the Brussels economy. Brussels is not only the Belgian and Euro-pean capital, home of NATO and EU headquarters, but it is also a large business centre at the heart of the European market. Brussels Invest & Export assists Brussels’ companies operating in foreign markets. Almost 90 economic and trade commissioners across all continents provide free guidance to SMEs, target potential local prospects and partners and or-ganize matchmaking events. Concrete initiatives in Brussels and abroad include trade missions, contact days, invitations of decision makers and collective stands at international trade fairs. Another mission of Brus-sels Invest & Export is to attract foreign companies to Brussels and to provide them with support, should they decide to locate their business in the Region. To enable investors to assess the benefits of establishing in the capi-tal, Brussels Invest & Export offers them a « Welcome Package » which includes equipped office space at no cost for a three-month period.

EUROPEAN CHEMICAL INDUSTRY, CEFIC

As the voice of the European chemical industry, Cefic is a committed par-tner to EU policymakers, facilitating dialogue with industry and sharing their broad-based expertise. Cefic represents 29,000 large, medium and small chemical companies in Europe, which directly provide 1.2 million jobs and account for a fifth of world chemical production. Based in Brus-sels since their founding in 1972, they interact every day on behalf of their members with international and EU institutions, non-governmen-tal organisations, the international media, and other stakeholders.

CITI

Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer ac-counts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consu-mer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.

DG GROW

The Directorate-General (DG) for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepre-neurship and SMEs is the European Commission service responsible for: completing the internal market for goods and services; helping turn the EU into a smart, sustainable, and inclusive economy by implementing the industrial and sectorial policies of the flagship Europe 2020 initiative; fostering entrepreneurship and growth by reducing the administrative burden on small businesses; facilitating access to funding for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); and supporting access to global mar-kets for EU companies. All of these actions are encapsulated in the Small Business Act, generating policy on the protection and enforcement of industrial property rights, coordinating the EU position and negotia-tions in the international intellectual property rights (IPR) system, and assisting innovators on how to effectively use IP rights; delivering the EU’s space policy via the two large-scale programmes Copernicus (Euro-pean Earth observation satellite system) and Galileo (European global navigation satellite system), as well as research actions to spur techno-logical innovation and economic growth.

ENTERPRISE EUROPE NETWORK, EASME

The Enterprise Europe Network is a key instrument in the EU’s strategy to boost growth and jobs. Bringing together around 500 business sup-port organisations from more than 50 countries, they help SMEs seize the huge business opportunities in the EU Single Market and beyond. They are a true one-stop shop with expert staff members ready to help companies grow, innovate and succeed. Their trusted members include chambers of commerce and industry, innovation centres, research institutes and development agencies, all strongly rooted in their local business ecosystems. They are linked up through powerful databases, sharing their knowledge and helping to source technologies and busi-ness partners for growth-oriented SMEs ready to move into internatio-nal markets.


EUROPEAN INVESTMENT BANK

The EIB is the European Union’s bank. As the largest multilateral bor-rower and lender, the EIB provides fi nance and expertise for sound and sustainable investment projects. Owned by the 28 EU Member States, the Bank has been supporting the implementation of EU policy objec-tives through the projects it fi nances since its establishment in 1958. Supporting growth and jobs: In the EU, the EIB supports smart, sustai-nable and inclusive growth, contributing to economic, social and regio-nal cohesion, and to a greener economy. As of 2015 the EIB will jointly manage the new European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), which will provide catalytic, risk-bearing capacity to unlock additional fi nan-cing of at least EUR 315 billion for investment in strategic infrastructure, innovation, and small and medium enterprises. Lending Beyond Europe: The EIB is uniquely placed to transfer knowledge and experience from its European operations to developing countries. Outside the EU, the EIB supports the EU external priorities. It is mainly active in pre-accession countries and in the neighbouring countries to the South and East. The Bank also operates in African, Caribbean and Pacifi c countries, Asia and Latin America. It provides fi nance and technical assistance for local private sector development, social and economic infrastructure and climate action projects.

EU AFRICA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

The EU-Africa Chamber of Commerce (EUACC) is headquartered in Brus-sels since 2012. The EUACC’s mission is to promote the development of the African private sector and to encourage win-win and sustainable business partnerships between European and African private sectors.

EUREKA

EUREKA is an intergovernmental network of over 40 European countries also including Israel, South Korea, Canada and South Africa. Founded in 1985, it promotes the coordination of national funding for research and innovation and aims to raise the productivity and competitiveness of European businesses through its promotion and support of transnatio-nal R&D cooperation. Public and private sector partners submit collabo-rative R&D projects in technologies and in partnerships of their choice, to develop products, processes or services to be commercialised.Since 2008, EUREKA has managed the Eurostars joint programme with the EU, which funds high-tech SMEs in their innovative endeavours. For 30 years, EUREKA has been the driving force of innovation in Europe.

EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION SUMMIT (EAS) – VISIT BRUSSELS

The European Association Summit 2015 is the third summit organised by Visitbrussels (Brussels’ offi cial convention bureau) in Europe’s capital city. Visitbrussels has organised the EAS in collaboration with leading partners in the sector, including as partner of the European Business Summit (EBS), and as content partners of ESAE (European Society of Association Executives), FAIB (Federation of European & International Associations established in Belgium), and UIA (Union of International Associations). Under the banner “Pioneers of Change – New Associa-tions Models for the Future” the EAS is a unique peer-to-peer learning platform for international association executives.The programme confronts the real challenges facing international trade federations, professional associations and NGOs today - including attracting members, satisfying diverse clients, adding value to services, and understanding the latest tools and techniques. For the third year, the EAS will provide a platform for discussion and a stimulating meeting point for colleagues, enabling operatives to add value to their organi-sations through a more complete understanding of the association environment today. Enriching the agenda will be the views of leading EU politicians, captains of industry, and inspiring professionals and acade-mics on hot topics aff ecting international associations.

EUROPEAN CLIMATE FOUNDATION

The European Climate Foundation (ECF) was established in early 2008 as a major philanthropic initiative to promote climate and energy poli-cies that greatly reduce Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions and to help Europe play an even stronger international leadership role in mitigating climate change. ECF supports the transformation to a low-carbon econo-my through a multifaceted strategy and a carefully selected portfolio of initiatives. Bringing a ‘systems thinking’ approach to the climate debate, rising above partisan positions and illuminating the best data and best practices from around the world, the organization designs and funds strategies based on a thorough understanding of decision-makers, deci-sion-making processes and political context. It highlights roadblocks and, where necessary, addresses governance gaps by facilitating the process and helping to align relevant stakeholders.

EUROPEAN CROP PROTECTION ASSOCIATION

ECPA acts as the ambassador of the crop protection industry in Europe and represents the industry’s European regional network. They pro-mote modern agricultural technology in the context of sustainable development, one which protects the health of humans and the envi-ronment. In doing so, they seek to build understanding of their role on why pesticides are needed, recognition of their contribution towards an aff ordable healthy diet, competitive agriculture and high quality of life, and uphold informed dialogue about their views, values and beliefs. ECPA advocates EU policies and legislation that uphold a science and risk-based approach, foster innovation, operate in a predictable and proportionate way, enable the industry to perform effi ciently, protect


intellectual property and reward the introduction of new technologies and practices, as well as safeguard the production of crops from pests in a way that meets the needs of all people, today and tomorrow.

EFPIA

EFPIA represents the pharmaceutical industry operating in Europe. Through its direct membership of 33 national associations and 42 leading pharmaceutical companies, EFPIA provides the voice of 1,900 companies committed to researching, developing and bringing new medicines to improve health and quality of life around the world. The pharmaceutical industry invests €30.6 billion on research and develop-ment per year in Europe and directly employs 690,000 people including 115,000 in R&D units in Europe. EFPIA members are committed to delivering innovative medicines to address unmet needs of patients and reducing the burden of chronic diseases for Europe’s ageing population. EFPIA believes in close cooperation with its stakeholders to help create sustainable healthcare systems and to develop prompt responses to health threats in Europe.

EUROPEAN ORGANISATION FOR RESEARCH AND TREATMENT OF CANCER

The EORTC is a research organization created in 1962 as a non-profi t organization under Belgian law. The EORTC links a network of more than 2,500 oncologists in more than 300 hospitals in over 30 countries and a Staff of 170 members at the Headquarters in Brussels. The ultimate goal of the EORTC is to improve the future of cancer therapy by developing new agents and innovative approaches leading to more eff ective treat-ment strategies. Major progress has been achieved in the last 50 years and this success created new challenges as cancer patients become survivors and are confronted with societal problems related to quality of life or obtaining mortgages, insurance, or employment. Consequently, the EORTC is also focusing attention on survivorship issues.

EUROPEAN PRIVATE EQUITY AND VENTURE CAPITAL ASSOCIATION (EVCA)

The European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association provides a voice to private equity investors, and to the businesses and infrastruc-ture they are building. They aim to be a constructive partner for the European Institutions, helping policymakers to understand the positive contribution that private equity can make to Europe’s economy, and how EU policy might aff ect its ability to do so. With a track record of constructive engagement at EU level for more than 30 years, they are keen to play their part in helping Europe to deliver jobs and growth, now and in the future. They represent 650 member fi rms and 500 affi liate members. The EVCA has 25 dedicated staff working in Brussels to make sure that their industry is heard and understood.

The future of cancer therapy

EUROPEAN WIND ENERGY ASSOCIATION

EWEA is the voice of the wind industry, actively promoting wind power in Europe and worldwide. It has over 600 members, which are active in over 50 countries, making EWEA the world’s largest and most powerful wind energy network.

EXXONMOBIL

ExxonMobil is the world’s largest publicly traded international oil and gas company. They hold an industry-leading inventory of global oil and gas resources. They are the world’s largest refi ner and marketer of pe-troleum products, and their chemical company ranks among the world’s largest. They apply science and innovation to fi nd better, safer and clea-ner ways to deliver the energy the world needs. In Europe ExxonMobil markets products through a network of more than 6.000 service stations and directly to commercial segments. Operations at 9 refi neries repre-sent about 30% of ExxonMobil´s global refi ning capacity. They are one of Europe’s leading petrochemical companies and one of Europe’s largest producers of oil and gas.

FACILITY LIFE

FacilityLive is the Italian software company that is launching interna-tionally a next generation search engine that obtained patents in 43 countries worldwide (including Europe, USA, Japan, Korea, Russia, Israel, South Africa and Australia). Gartner, the world’s leading information tech-nology research and advisory company, included FacilityLive in four Global Software Vendor lists: Enterprise Search; Knowledge Management; Point Based Solutions; Cool Vendor 2014. Since the end of 2014, FacilityLive has been participating in the London Stock Exchange ELITE Programme, as the fi rst and only non UK company to be admitted to the programme, in preparation of a future listing. Founded in 2010 by Gianpiero Lotito and Mariuccia Teroni, FacilityLive boasts young talents, highly skilled managers and well-known international professionals in its structure. Its technology is highly valued and appreciated by leading multinational companies and recognized by world-class system integrators.

FEDERATION OF REGIONAL ACTORS IN EUROPE

FEDRA is an independent non-profi t association based in Brussels that gathers diff erent types of regional actors (SMEs, enterprises, public bodies, regional agencies, research centres, academic institutes, etc.). With a pool of regional and thematic experts, the mission of FEDRA is to inform, educate and assist its members and partners to create or take part in concrete European regional and interregional projects. Its main objective is not only to “fi ll in the gap” between the EU bubble and outstanding regional actors but also to engage and communicate with 20.000 key regional influencers in more than 300 regions. The six sectors covered by FEDRA are E-commerce/Digital, Transport/Mobility, Green-Tech/Energy, Food/Agriculture, Tourism/Leisure and Help/Wellness.


GOVERNMENT OF CANADA

With the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) recently concluded, now is the time to take a strategic look at doing business in Canada as well as in the larger North American mar-ketplace. Canada provides a top performing economy for businesses to invest, innovate, grow and succeed. Both Forbes and Bloomberg rank Canada as the best in the G-20 to do business. Canada has a network of professionals that off ers support to decision makers to ensure they have the information and assistance needed to make successful invest-ments. Working closely with partners across Canada, the team provides confi dential, free-of-charge information and services, including: sec-tor-specifi c market intelligence, introductions and site selection visit arrangements. JTI – JAPAN TOBACCO INTERNATIONAL

JTI is a leading international tobacco company, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. They make and sell some of the world’s best-known brands. The company operates in 120 countries and has over 27,000 employees. This diverse employee-base is made up of over 100 nationalities, building careers that span JTI’s worldwide operations. In Europe, they are an integral part of the business landscape, with 25 offi ces spread throughout almost all EU Member States, 7 factories, 4 R&D Centers and nearly 10,000 employees.

MASTERCARD

MasterCard (NYSE: MA), www.mastercard.com, is a technology company in the global payments industry. They operate the world’s fastest pay-ments processing network, connecting consumers, fi nancial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. MasterCard’s products and solutions make everyday acti-vities – such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing fi nances – easier, more secure and more effi cient for everyone. Follow them on Twitter @MasterCardNews, join the discussion on the Cashless Conversations Blog and subscribe for the latest news.

MONDELĒZ INTERNATIONAL

Mondelēz International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MDLZ) is a global snacking powe-rhouse, with 2014 revenue of $34 billion. Creating delicious moments of joy in 165 countries, Mondelēz International is a world leader in biscuits, chocolate, gum, candy, coff ee and powdered beverages, with billion-dol-lar brands such as Oreo, LU and Nabisco biscuits; Cadbury, Cadbury Dairy Milk and Milka chocolate; Trident gum; Jacobs coff ee and Tang powdered beverages. Mondelēz International is a proud member of the Standard and Poor’s 500, NASDAQ 100 and Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

ORGALIME

The manufacturing heart of Europe in the global economy. With some 10 million people working directly for their industry in Europe and 20 million more indirectly,Orgalime represent Europe’s manufacturing heart: their companies have grown up in Europe, developed here in every town, region and country. They believe in their future in Europe. They are the leading industrial employers and creators of wealth in Europe, manufacturing products used by consumers, industry, infrastructures and all sectors of the economy here in Europe and worldwide. Their strength? The technologies developed by their companies, applied in the equipment and systems they manufacture throughout Europe and then export worldwide. With a turnover of €1700 billion per year, a third of which they export, they are the engineering industry, Europe’s manu-facturing heart.

SOLUTION WIND

SolutionWind is a campaign led by EWEA to profi le wind power as a mains-tream industry that is not only clean but can also meet the world’s energy needs in a cost-eff ective way. In view of the COP21 climate negotiations in Paris, SolutionWind will utilise the increased focus to mobilise political and corporate decision makers by showcasing the economic benefi ts of the wind industry. The campaign started at the UN climate talks in Decem-ber 2014 and peaks in December 2015 at the climate talks in Paris.

TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES

Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solu-tions organization that delivers real results to global business, ensuring a level of certainty no other fi rm can match. TCS off ers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT, BPO, infrastructure, engineering and assurance services. This is delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery Model™, recognized as the benchmark of excellence in software develop-ment. A part of the Tata group, India’s largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has over 315,000 of the world’s best-trained consultants in 44 countries. TCS also crossed the milestone of employing over 100,000 women in FY15 with gender diversity of 33% as well as 122 nationalities represented in its global workforce. The company generated consolidated revenues of US $15.5 billion for year ended March 31, 2015 and is listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in India.

UKRAINIAN LEAGUE OF INDUSTRIALISTS AND ENTREPRENEURS

Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE) is the largest union of business associations and enterprises in Ukraine with members ranging from vertically integrated to small/medium enterprises. For more than 20 years the League’s key mission has been to promote and protect businesses’ interests in Ukraine and abroad. With a central offi ce in Kyiv, ULIE manages 28 regional subsidiaries, 73 branches, 22 representative offi ces and 34 commissions in Ukraine along with 22 representative offi ces in other countries, including the one in Brussels. The League was founded in 1992 to facilitate transition of formerly soviet Ukrainian enterprises into a market economy of the young independent state. Today, ULIE’s new mission is to support Ukraine’s integration into the economic realm of the EU.


VISITBRUSSELSVisitbrussels is the communications agency for tourism in the Brussels-Capital Region; its aim is to promote and strengthen the image of the capital of 500 million Europeans. Their specific missions: Sales promo-tion, motivating professionals: Tour Operators, Journalists, Conference organisers. Communication: to design and produce websites, brochures and products that make people want to be in Brussels. Culture and tourism: to make people aware of the rich heritage of the city and the pleasure of living in Brussels. Major events: to organise or support the major festive, cultural or sports events. Brussels cinema: to facilitate production of films in which Brussels is the decor and the star.

WALLONIA

The strategy of economic development of Wallonia has been initiated in 2005 with the Marshall Plan. This Plan is aiming at promoting entre-preneurship, supporting the competitiveness of the companies and the SMEs and strengthening the attractiveness of Wallonia for the investors. It is based on the collaboration between the business, the universities and the research centres through the Poles of competiveness. In April 2015, the Walloon government adopted a new decree on research and innovation. This decree is matching the policy of Wallonia on R&I and the European strategy of smart specialisation. The decree simplifies the access to supports and aids for the actors of R&I and promotes the invol-vement of the SMEs, research centres and the universities in European and international.

WALLONIA EXPORT-INVESTMENT AGENCY (AWEX)

The Wallonia Export-Investment Agency (AWEX) is the Wallonia Region of Belgium’s government agency in charge of foreign trade promotion and foreign investment attraction. The agency has a worldwide network of 108 Economic and Trade Attachés. AWEX has been certified ISO 9001 since April 2002. As a foreign trade agency, AWEX carries out a mission of promotion and information for the benefit of both Wallonia and the foreign business community.

KNOWLEDGE PARTNERS

COLLEGE OF EUROPE

The College of Europe was the world’s first university institute for pos-tgraduate studies and training in European affairs. It offers specialised degrees in law, economics, political science and international relations with a marked focus on European affairs. The students of the Masters programme in “European Economic Studies” learn the theory and prac-tice of economic integration and receive an extensive education on EU policies, as well as in quantitative analysis. They expand their knowledge of diverse topics such as innovation, trade, energy, and the banking union. The specialisation in “European Economic Integration and Busi-ness” concentrates on the manifold interactions between business and the EU. It examines how EU policies affect business conditions and deepens understanding of corporate strategies to cope with regulatory uncertainty and policy change. It enables students to gain insights how business reacts to decisions taken at EU level and to predict and effecti-vely influence or challenge EU policies, thereby preparing for a career at both policy and business level.

EURACTIV

EurActiv, the European Media Network present in 12 EU capitals, publishes free EU news and facilitates EU policy debates for policy pro-fessionals in 12 languages. With 2.8+ million page views and 660,524 ‘unique visitors’ per month, EurActiv is the leading online media on EU affairs. They address 80% of their readers in their own language. EurAc-tiv targets EU policy and business stakeholders, journalists, NGOs and other multipliers across Europe. EurActiv provides a ‘one-stop shop’ where users can compare major stakeholder positions, original source documents, videos and informed opinion from guru bloggers.

HILL & KNOWLTON STRATEGIES

Hill+Knowton Strategies is an integrated public affairs and communi-cations consultancy and is active in Brussels since 1967. Their multi-specialist team understands how to seamlessly align traditional public affairs and communications and emerging digital platforms. They ensure that you communicate your messages to the people and organisations that matter most and more importantly ensure they understand your messages in the context of what it means to them. They are advising clients on some of their most challenging issues and they have the ability to react quickly to the changes taking place within your sector. Their teams and their perspective are both local and global, as are their clients. Their mission is to empower their clients to bridge the gap between their business interests and those of their stakeholders, through clear messages, compelling narratives, creative execution, and active engagement. The diversity of their multi-lingual, multinational and multi-skilled team – which includes communicators versed in corporate and consumer engagement, policy and media strategists, digital experts, lawyers, economists and content creators – is what makes them unique.


MEDIA PARTNERS

BRUSSELS LEGAL

BrusselsLegal.com is the community site for the Brussels-based inter-national legal community. European and International lawyers in Brus-sels can find resources on career paths, interviews with international lawyers, legal conferences and seminars, practical tips on professional life in Brussels, and get the latest results from the football tournament between the international law firms in Brussels. Advertising with Brus-sels Legal is an efficient, cost-effective way to reach the international legal community in Brussels.

DIPLOMATIC WORLD

Diplomatic World is the only diplomatic magazine in Brussels, world capital of diplomacy, the E.U. and the NATO. Their magazine stands out as the bridge between the different worlds of economics, finance, poli-tics and diplomacy. Diplomatic World is the exclusive interface between decision makers in economic, political, diplomatic and consular circles. Diplomatic World is your Window to Europe. Their readers are Heads of State, high ranking individuals, CEO’s, NATO and European institutions officials, decision makers, businessmen, deputies and diplomats. They reach more than 120 nationalities. Diplomatic World touches a multilin-gual audience (Dutch-, French- and English-speaking).

EUOBSERVER

EUobserver is an independent online newspaper which values free thinking and plain speech. It is a non-profit organisation financially and editorially independent of the EU institutions. It was launched in August 2000 to support European democracy by giving people the informa-tion they need to engage. EUobserver is the only media which follows daily EU events, but which also offers: investigative stories; analysis; and regular contributions from correspondents in EU member states. Our model has seen EUobserver grow into an indispensible website for over 60,000 people every day.

EUROBRUSSELS

EuroBrussels has been the number one European Affairs jobsite since 2001. Industry associations, NGOs, think tanks, law firms, consultancies, MEPs, EU institutions, EU agencies and other international organisations recruit their experts and advisers through EuroBrussels, not just for Brussels, but also for London, Berlin, Paris, and other European political centres. Over 100’000 international lawyers, economists, policy and com-munication experts subscribe to the weekly newsletter and the job alerts. With an audience of over 120,000, your organisation can find even the most specialised policy experts with the right experience, education and

İstanbul

Αθήνα

Madrid

Paris

Roma

BrusselsBerlin

Warszawa

PrahaBratislava

București

София

London

Beograd

EU NEWS & POLICY DEBATES ACROSS LANGUAGES

THE EUROPEAN MEDIA NETWORK

Knowledge Partner of the European Business

Summit since 2000

W W W . E U R A C T I V . C O MEurActiv publishes free news and facilitates debates for policy professionals in 12 EU languages. With over 2 million* page views and 667,494* ‘unique visitors’ per month, EurActiv is the leading online media on EU affairs.

* Average Google Analytics January-December 2014

Core network members Network members


language skills at short notice, through a job ad or a CV search.EURONEWS

Euronews, the most watched news channel in Europe, is an independent and multi-platform media hub. Euronews covers news worldwide, off e-ring a unique perspective on events through factual analysis. Six hun-dred journalists, from more than 30 countries, report round-the-clock in 13 editions (Arabic, English, Persian, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian). Established in 1993 in Lyon, France, the channel is received by 422 million homes in 156 countries, and off ers a complete range of products: websites, smart TV, radio, on-board technology (for cars), and portable technology (mobile apps, smartwatch). In 2015 Euronews will launch Africanews, the fi rst pan-African multilingual news channel.

EUROPEAN BUSINESS REVIEW

Being established as one of the most popular and influential brands in the fi eld of political – economic – business print and online publications, “European Business Review” is the essential destination for leaders, deci-sion makers and key-influencers who look for in-depth analyses, reliable insight and up-to-date intelligence on People, Places and Issues that matter. In every issue, distinguished contributors such as high-ranking offi cials, policy makers, industry leaders, representatives of organiza-tions and associations, academics, and expert columnists, express their views and opinions making “European Business Review” a valuable point of reference. The magazine is regularly distributed to major events and conferences, CEOs and C-level Executives, members of governments and institutions, think tanks, airline lounges, hotel lobbies, subscribers, etc.

EUROPEAN STING

The European Sting is the new online, Brussels based, European media that was born to bring a diff erent critical and truly independent angle to European News and Aff airs. The Sting is giving every day the fi erce fi ght for a better and stronger European Union through constructive criticism and unique insights. They are treating daily in a unique way European Politics, Economics, Foreign Aff airs, Business and ICT Agenda. They are committing to bridge the gap between Brussels and the EU member states by freely voicing the views of every European citizen.

EUROPOLITICS

Europolitics is the leading independent source of European news, founded in Brussels in 1972. It is a subscriber-only web service, a daily PDF publica-tion and a quarterly magazine. It also off ers Premium services, comprising in-depth investigative reporting and analysis limited to specifi c policy sectors. Europolitics’ readership is made up exclusively of professionals: EU stakeholders and the decision-makers, for whom the EU’s common decisions have a direct impact on their economic or political activities. Europolitics’ staff of more than 50 is based in Brussels, Athens, Berlin,

Berne, Paris, Riga, Shanghai, Strasbourg, Warsaw and Washington.FUNDING AID STRATEGIES INVESTMENTS

www.FASI.biz is the primary source of information in Italy on funding opportunities for citizens, business, NGOs and public administration with news, dossiers and a grants database. FASI.biz delivers timely, targeted and schematic information depending on the profi le and the goals of the user, in order to avoid information overload. Advantages: (a) daily monitoring of local, regional, national and European calls; (b) calls classifi cation by type of benefi ciary, location, sector and goals; (c) user-friendly, detailed data sheets for every call; (d) customised newsletters. Among its partners and clients FASI.biz counts IlSole24Ore, Ancitel, Poste Italiane, Monte Paschi Siena and the CPA National Association.

FINANCIAL TIMES

The Financial Times, one of the world’s leading business news organi-sations, is recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. Providing essential news, comment, data and analysis for the global business community, the FT has a combined paid print and digital circulation of nearly 720,000. Mobile is an increasingly important chan-nel for the FT, driving almost half of total traffi c. FT education products now serve two thirds of the world’s top 50 business schools.

SCIENCE BUSINESS

Science|Business is dedicated to helping Europe innovate. We provide decision makers in the worlds of research, industry and policy with new strategies, ideas and contacts to succeed. We provide solutions to clients seeking better ways to access the European research and innovation marketplace and policy world. We link our 40 university and corporate members in a high-level network to facilitate deals, develop strategy, raise their public profi les, and help communicate the importance of innovation to Europe’s future. We provide a top-level sounding board for EU leaders to test their new policy ideas in research and innovation. We deliver original research and analysis of key issues in EU research and innovation policy.

THE BRUSSELS TIMES

The Brussels Times is Belgium’s premier English language media. Its online newspaper covers both local and international news as well as bu-siness and EU Aff airs. The Brussels Times also publishes a bi-monthly ma-gazine for the expat, diplomat and international community in Brussels. It is distributed in the EU Commission, European Parliament (directly to each of the 751 MEPs), over 100 Embassies and Representations to the EU as well as inside over 7,000 Brussels hotel rooms (which represents over 40% of the hotel rooms in the city). Finally, The Brussels Times also helps organizations and companies organize seminars, debates, events and press conferences at the European Parliament and the international Press Clubs in Brussels.


SUPPORTING PARTNERS

ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL DES ÉTUDIANTS EN SCIENCES ÉCONOMIQUES ET COMMERCIALES, AIESEC

AIESEC is a global platform for young people to explore and develop their leadership potential. They are a non-political, independent, not-for-profi t organisation run by students and recent graduates of institu-tions of higher education. Its members are interested in world issues, leadership and management. AIESEC does not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion or national / social ori-gin. They are a global network of young leaders under the age of 30 who strive to better themselves and the communities around them. They are passionate about world issues, leadership development, cultural unders-tanding and experiential learning. Present in 126 countries and territo-ries, every aspect of AIESEC’s operations are managed by the youth.

AUDI

Audi Import, a division of S.A. D’Ieteren N.V., imports and distributes the Audi brand in Belgium, the Premium brand of the Volkswagen Group. In 2014, some 29.939 cars were sold in Belgium, which represents a market share of 6,2%. This is a raise compared to the 6,04% of the previous year, and reinforces the brand with the four rings amongst the top selling Premium makes in Belgium. The range extends from the small Audi A1, built in Belgium at the Audi Brussels plant, to the high-end luxury Audi A8 limousine or the hyper dynamic GT car of the brand, the Audi R8. In 2014, the Audi brand delivered more than 1.741.100 cars worldwide, an increase of 10,5% over the previous year. Between 2015 and 2019, Audi plans to invest 24 billion euros into the development of new models, new and sustainable technologies, and the expansion of worldwide pro-duction capacity.

BRITISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN BELGIUM

The British Chamber gives its members the business, policy and personal connections to boost their competitiveness in Europe. It is your inter-national network, a unique platform for bilateral and EU relations, and a neutral forum for business leaders (from SMEs to multinationals) to acquire timely policy insights, network and connect with their peers and key decision-makers. The chamber is a flexible and effi cient business and networking facilitator able to connect business leaders with the policy and business contacts they need. It is a gateway for companies seeking to do business in Belgian and EU markets. The British Chamber supports member companies in Belgium by connecting them to the right people and providing a range of essential business services.

COUNCIL OF BRITISH CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE IN EUROPE

COBCOE is the dynamic business organisation that links over 90 British chambers of commerce and business groups through a global network. COBCOE’s core membership of 41 British bilateral chambers of commerce represents more than 8,000 businesses across Europe. They work closely with their chambers and partners to advance international trade and business with the UK. COBCOE is an eff ective voice for British business with access to political and business decision makers in London, Brussels and other cities. Through the founding of British Business Worldwide and the Affi liate membership scheme, they link COBCOE members and their business members to a further 50 chambers of commerce and simi-lar business organisations around the world.

DODS

Dods EU provides customers, partners and the public with the skills, in-telligence and contacts needed to engage eff ectively across the spheres of politics and public aff airs. It provides a range of unrivalled personal and innovative and tailored services: Dods Monitoring EU – Keep your fi nger on the pulse of what’s happening in European politics with your own personalised information service. Dods People EU - Gain access to the most accurate and comprehensive political contact service available for both the UK and the EU. Dods Training – Develop your understanding of the EU and get advice on how to engage with the key institutions and members. The Parliament Magazine - Build your company’s profi le by highlighting your work, showcasing your projects and promoting your contribution to the EU policy debate.

EUROPEAN INTERNET FORUM

The European Internet Forum (EIF) is a parliamentary forum founded by Members of the European Parliament in the year 2000 as a non-profi t association. EIF’s mission is to help provide European political leader-ship for the development of European and multilateral public policies responsive to the political, economic and social challenges of the world-wide digital transformation. Its purpose is to help ensure that Europe remains at the forefront of this transformation and benefi ts fully from it through enhanced global competitiveness and social progress. EIF’s mission is to support MEPs from all political groups in their eff orts to shape policy and regulation responsive to the growing potential of the internet and new technologies. EIF does not take positions nor repre-sent specifi c interests.

EUROPEAN YOUTH FORUM

The European Youth Forum is the platform of youth organisations in Europe. Representing 99 youth organisations, both National Youth Councils and International Non-Governmental Youth Organisations, they believe youth organisations are the tool through which we can empower, encourage, involve, represent, reach out and support young people. The Youth Forum brings together tens of millions of young people from all over Europe and represents their common interests. It works to


empower young people to participate actively in society to improve their own lives. In the current uncertain political and social context that affects young people, they can be powerful catalysts for positive change and contributors of innovative solutions to Europe’s problems.

FOREIGN TRADE ASSOCIATION

The Foreign Trade Association (FTA) is Europe’s premier association for trade policy and global supply chains. FTA brings together over 1,500 retailers, importers, brand companies, and national associations to improve the political and legal framework for trade. Their members reflect the diversity of the retail sector in terms of consumer goods, turnover and country of origin. By working together and taking a com-mon approach, their members can have a greater impact than acting alone. The FTA vision is “Free trade. Sustainable trade“. To achieve this vision, their members give us the mandate to strive in their name for a liberal international framework for trade that includes the necessity of corporate responsibility. FTA was created in 1977 to represent the foreign trade interests of European retailers and importers towards European and International institutions. Over time, the scope of FTA has developed. In 2003, the FTA created the Business Social Compliance Ini-tiative (BSCI) to provide companies with a practical and efficient system to improve social compliance in global supply chains. In 2011, in light of the success of the BSCI, the FTA has adopted a new governance struc-ture and integrates sustainability into its core business. In 2014, the FTA developed the Business Environmental Performance Initiative (BEPI) to support companies committed to improving environmental production conditions in their supply chain.

JA-YE EUROPE

JA Europe is Europe’s largest provider of entrepreneurship education programmes, reaching 3.2 million students in 39 countries in 2014. Fun-ded by businesses, institutions, foundations and individuals, JA brings the public and private sectors together to provide young people in pri-mary and secondary schools and early university with experiences that promote the skills, understanding and perspective that they will need to succeed in a global economy. The JA Company Programme is reco-gnised by the European Commission Enterprise Directorate General as a ‘Best Practice in Entrepreneurship Education’. JA Europe is the European Regional Operating Center for JA Worldwide®

JADE

JADE’s mission is to encourage entrepreneurship in Europe by fostering a unique concept: the Junior Enterprise, a student non-profit business that invests its earnings into its own development. Students work with real clients and get paid for products or services which they entirely deve-lop and manage. By integrating a network of 280 Junior Enterprises and supporting the growth of its members, JADE is one of the most powerful European youth organisations that fights skills mismatch and create great potential for a more entrepreneurial society and active citizenship.

KOMMERSKOLLEGIUM, THE SWEDISH NATIONAL BOARD OF TRADE

The National Board of Trade is the Swedish governmental agency res-ponsible for issues relating to foreign trade, the Internal Market and trade policy. Their mission is to promote an open and free trade with transparent rules.

THINK YOUNG

Think Young is the first think tank that focuses on young people. It was founded in 2007 and has offices in Brussels, Geneva and Hong Kong. It is a not for profit organisaiton, with the aim of making the world a better place for young people by involving them in decision making processes and by providing decision makers with high quality researches on youth’s conditions. ThinkYoung carries out researches, surveys, documentary films and policy proposal focusing on five fields of action: entrepreneur-ship, education, EU-Asia relations, EU enlargement, and environment.

UNITEE NEW EUROPEAN BUSINESS CONFEDERATION

Through its 7 national federations and 78 associations across 26 Euro-pean countries, UNITEE represents more than 15,000 entrepreneurs (all SMEs) and business professionals with a migrant background: the “New Europeans”. Due to their dual cultural and linguistic background, as well as their entrepreneurial spirit, “New European” entrepreneurs and business professionals constitute a major asset in terms of international trade, job creation and innovation. UNITEE advocates for its members at the Euro-pean level and provides them with a wide range of services to help them develop their enterprise. UNITEE will organise the New European Days in Brussels on the 5th and 6th of June 2015 (neweuropeandays.eu).

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AND DIPLOMATIC EXCHANGE

IBDE is a London-based international organisation providing leadership in promoting financial and professional services, international trade and investment flows. Through selected high-profile events such as invest-ments forums, round-tables, conferences, seminars and networking opportunities, IBDE supports international businesses and embassies in identifying key investment opportunities and strategies within the international economic and political context. IBDE provides an inde-pendent, accessible platform to explore global business and investment opportunities as well as to examine the international business, regula-tory and political issues impacting global markets. For more information on IBDE Events and Membership visit www.ibde.org


159EBS 2015

SPEAKER PROFILES

160 161EBS 2015 - SPEAKER PROFILES EBS 2015 - SPEAKER PROFILES

Paul AdamsonSenior European Policy Advisor - Covington & BurlinIn a career spanning more than 30 years, Mr. Adamson has advised clients in a wide range of industries as well as many important public sector organizations. He specializes in thought leadership, developing strategies to position clients as key stakeholders and partners in public policy formation and helping clients ensure their views are heard and understood in the EU political process. After two years as a political aide in the European Parliament, in 1981 he embarked on a career in EU public affairs and founded Adamson Associates, where he advised clients on legislation and policy matters in the European Union. In 1998, Mr. Adamson sold his firm to consultancy giant BSMG, which three years later was acquired by the world’s largest PR company, Weber Shandwick. Weber Shandwick/ Adamson then became Brussels’ biggest lobbying firm. He then founded the “think-do tank,” The Centre, a consultancy and policy forum that was sold to PR firm Edelman in 2010. Mr. Adam-son is a member of Rand Europe’s Council of Advisors and on the advisory boards of the polling/think tank YouGov-Cambridge and the Washington European Society. He is a trustee of the Citizenship Foundation, a patron of the University Association of Contemporary European Studies (UACES) and an academician of the UK Academy of Social Sciences. Mr. Adamson is also the editor-in-chief and founding publisher of E!Sharp, an on-line magazine on Europe and Europe’s place in the world. He is also on the advisory group of the American Security Project.

Alexandre AffreDirector for Industrial Affairs - BUSINESSEUROPEAlexandre Affre is Director for the Industrial Affairs department at BUSINESSEUROPE, the confederation of European industry. Alexandre is responsible for the overall policy coordination on energy, environment, industrial policy and research & innovation. He played a major role in the political discussions leading up to the adoption of the Industrial Emis-sions Directive and the Energy Efficiency Directive. More recently, he coordinated BUSINESSEUROPE’s vision on a 2030 framework for energy and climate policies.

Vytenis AndriukaitisCommissioner for Health & Food Safety - European CommissionVytenis Andriukaitis was appointed European commissioner for Health and Food Safety in November 2014. Born in Siberia, Vytenis Andriukai-tis holds degrees in medicine and history. One of the founders of the Lithuanian social-democrat party and the signatory of independence act of Lithuania, Andriukaitis was a Member of Parliament for six mandates. From 2012 to 2014 Vytenis Andriukaitis was minister for Health. The commissioner is one of the co-authors of the Constitution of the Repu-blic of Lithuania adopted in 1992 and has led the Lithuanian delegation to the Convention on the Future of Europe

Andrus AnsipVice-President for Digital Single Market - European CommissionAndrus Ansip was appointed Vice-President of the European Commis-sion with responsibility for the Digital Single Market in November 2014. Before moving to Brussels, he was a member of both the Estonian and European Parliaments. This followed almost nine years in Tallinn spent as Estonia’s longest-serving Prime Minister, when Ansip worked with both centre-right and centre-left parties to lead three different coalition go-vernments. During his time as Prime Minister, he also acted as chairman of Estonia’s liberal Reform Party. Ansip first entered national politics in September 2004 when he became Minister of the Economy. Up to this point, his career was spent in Estonia’s second largest city of Tartu where he was born in 1956. Ansip was Mayor of Tartu for six years after working in banking and business. A chemistry graduate from the city’s university.

Jim AttridgeSenior Consultant - Charles River AssociatesJim Attridge is a Senior Consultant to Charles River Associates and a Visiting Research Fellow in the Business School at Imperial College, London. His current research interests include the industrial economics of the pharmaceutical industry; in particular the effects of globalisation of both the supply and demand side of the sector. Recent publications include models of the innovation process in the biopharmaceutical sector, price & reimbursement regulation and access to medicines in developing countries. He was formerly Vice President of International Government & Economic Affairs at AstraZeneca plc, where he had also held the following senior positions in the international business.

James BardrickUK Country-Officer - CitiJames Bardrick is Citi’s Country Officer for the United Kingdom having previously been Co-head of Corporate and Investment Banking for EMEA from 2009 to 2014 and Global Head of Industrials client coverage prior to that. He sits on Citi’s EMEA Operating Committee as well as the EMEA Governance and Risk Committees. James is Chief Executive of Citigroup Global Markets Limited and Chief Executive of Citibank International plc. James has been with the firm for over 27 years and is a Business Senior Credit Officer. During this time he has developed a broad expe-rience of global client relationship management and coverage as well as providing strategic and transaction advice to multinational clients through many advisory, equity and debt financing transactions, in addi-tion to his leadership responsibilities. Prior to joining Citi he worked for five years as an engineer and in marketing for GKN plc and for Tomkins plc. He graduated with first class double honours degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Economics from the University of Birmingham, England and completed the Corporate Finance Programme at London Business School in1988.


Malgosia BartosikActing CEO - European Wind Energy Association – EWEABorn in Poland in 1978, Malgosia Bartosik moved to Brussels and star-ted working in 2004 at the European Wind Energy Association, working her way up from intern to deputy CEO. Across the decade she spent at EWEA, she emerged as the true back-bone of the European Wind Energy Association, of which she is now the longest serving employee. She is the brain behind EWEA’s high-profile industry events, marketing and commu-nications campaigns and membership services and growth. In addition, Bartosik has been an essential link between EWEA’s policy department and the rest of the departments, thereby enabling the integration of the various trade body’s activities in one coherent and concerted effort.She is directly responsible for all revenue-generating activities, ensuring that EWEA remains a financially strong association able to deliver its all-important lobbying mandate for the benefit of its members and the international wind industry as a whole. Bartosik has attracted industry praise for her remarkable ability to create synergies and encourage creative collaboration among different industry players coming from media, policy and business, as well as other national and regional trade bodies. Alongside former leaders, she turned EWEA into a 600 strong members base, and saw the leading EU wind energy trade association growing from a team of 10, to a team of 70 employees, making it the world’s largest and most powerful wind energy network.Bartosik is a regular speaker at various meeting industry events, advising events’ planners and marketers on creative marketing and communica-tion strategies.Last year, magazine Recharge has announced Bartosik as one of the 40 under 40, in acknowledgement of her key contribution in driving EWEA’s successful operations, and a celebration of the decade of outstanding commitment to the development of the wind industry in Europe.

Antonella BattagliniChief Executive Oficer - Renewable Grid InitiativeAntonella Battaglini is founder and Executive Director of the Renewables Grid Initiative, a forum for transmission system operators and environ-mental NGOs. In addition to the RGI activities, she is a senior scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) where she leads the SuperSmart Grid (SSG) process, a concept she developed toge-ther with her team to reconcile different approaches to renewables. By adopting a holistic approach, the SSG addresses the challenges of the transformation of the power sector considering generation, transmis-sion and demand management. In this concept both centralized and decentralized generation play an undisputed role. Ms. Battaglini holds an MBA from the Berlin School of Economics.

Daniel BentonManaging Director, Global IT Strategy Lead - Accenture Strategy Daniel Benton is responsible for Accenture’s IT Strategy practice. IT Stra-tegy encompasses Accenture’s IT Strategy and IT Transformation prac-tices, and works with our biggest clients to help shape and deliver their technology agendas, and to improve the performance of the IT function itself. Daniel leads much of Accenture’s thinking around the CIO agenda, and sponsors our High Performance IT research programme. He is driving much of Accenture’s current thinking around Digital Business. Daniel has worked for Accenture for 25 years, focusing on IT Strategy for more than half of this time. Before taking on his current role, he led our technology business in Financial Services across Europe, Africa and Latin America.

Bruno BerthonGlobal Managing Director, Digital Strategy - Accenture StrategyBruno Berthon serves as Global Managing Director for Accenture Cross Industry Strategy practices. He leads Accenture Centers of Excellence for M&A and Post Merger Integration, Sustainability Services and Digital Strategy – a new practice that he recently created. He is also the regional Lead for Accenture Strategy France, Belgium/ Luxemburg and Netherlands. Bruno has been working for the past 20 years with the top management of large multinationals and administrations across seve-ral industrial sectors, particularly, hi-technology and media, consumer goods and retail on their transformation agenda, helping them address the specific challenges of globalization, large-scale operating model change, the internet and now digital revolutions and innovation and sustainability-led transformation.

Markus BeyrerDirector General - BUSINESSEUROPEMarkus J. Beyrer is Director General of BUSINESSEUROPE. From 2011 to 2012 he was CEO of Österreichische Industrieholding AG (ÖIAG) and from August 2004 to 2011 he was Director General of the Federation of Austrian Industries (IV), alongside his role as member of the Executive Committee of BUSINESSEUROPE. Mr Beyrer was Director for Economic Affairs of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, and has also been Chief Economic Adviser to Dr Wolfgang Schüssel, Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria. Before this, he was Economic Adviser to the Federal Vice-Chancellor, prior to that to the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Austria.


Elżbieta BieńkowskaCommissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs - European CommissionElżbieta Bieńkowska was appointed Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs in November 2014. Between 2007 and 2013 she was the Minister for Regional Development of Poland and from 2013 to 2014, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Poland. As Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Infrastructure and Development she was in charge of the strategic development system of the country, including the effective investment of the European funds. Fom 1999 to 2007 she worked for the local government of the Silesia Region in Southern Poland. A graduate of the Jagiellonian University. She also graduated from the Polish National School of Public Administration and completed the business administration post graduate studies at the Warsaw School of Economics.

Jean Charles BocquetDirector General – European Crop Protection AssociationJean Charles Bocquet is Director General of ECPA - the Brussels-based trade association representing the manufacturers of agrochemicals in Europe - since November 2013. Jean Charles is French; an agronomist with a specialised degree in Crop Protection. He has spent all of his ca-reer in the plant protection sector, at first with Roussel Uclaf (Hoeschst subsidiary) and then at DuPont de Nemours in various assignments from technical development, through registration, marketing, sales and management roles. From 2002 to October 2013, as Director General of the French crop protection association (UIPP) he played a significant role in France in many working groups involving various stakeholders with a strong commitment for promotion and defence of the crop pro-tection industry sector, promoting stewardship, sustainable agriculture and openness in communication.

Michel BoniFormer Chairman of the Board - Council on the Prevention of Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related IntoleranceBorn in 1954 in Poznan, a graduate of the University of Warsaw, where for many years he lectured in the Department of Polish Culture. Involved in «Solidarity» underground movement since 1980, since 1987 its leader on University of Warsaw and from march 1983 till 1989 editor in chief of underground weekly newspaper «Wola». Since 1989 a member of the na-tional authorities of «Solidarity», in 1990 – chairman of the «Mazowsze» Region Managing Board. In 1991, the Minister of Labour and Social Policy, from 1992 to 1993 he held the position of the Secretary of State in the same ministry, where he was responsible, inter alia, for labor market policy. Member of Par-liament of the first tenure. Since 1995, the director of the Social Policy Reform Program at the Stefan Batory Foundation. Councillor of Centrum Commune of the municipal city of Warsaw in 1994-1996. From 1996 to

1997 Director and Member of the Institute of Public Affairs. From 1998 to 2001, the chief advisor to the Minister of Labour and Social Policy. By 2007, Enterprise Investors consultant in the field of human resource. Key expert cooperating in shaping of the National Development Plan and the National Action Plan for 2007-2013. By 2007, Lewiatan (Polish Confede-ration of Private Employers) advisor. From 2003 till 2007 member of the Governing Board in Eurofund, where he represented Polish employers. Expert in a labour market policy, also cooperated with the World Bank and OECD. Since January 2008, the Secretary of State in the Prime Minis-ter’s Office. In 2009 appointed to the office of the Minister – a member of the Council of Ministers and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers. Since 2008 he was the Head of Strategic Advi-sors to the Prime Minister . Under his leadership the team has conduc-ted a socio-economic evaluation of Poland and has participated in the development of strategic plans of the government. Among some of the most important documents are: «Report on Polish Intellectual Capital», «Returner. Navigation for returning migrants», «Poland 2030. Develop-ment Challenges» and «Youth 2011». The Minister of Administration and Digitization of Poland from 2011 till 2013. The host of the Congress of Freedom on the Internet, the organizer of the consultation on digital privacy and data protection, creator of the Governmental Operational Programme Digital Poland 2014-2020, which aims to foster internet development in Poland, author of the report «State 2.0 - a new start for e-administration» and many other government strategic documents. Successfully carried out in Poland digitization of public television, chan-ged the law on public collections of money and goods more accessible and useful for citizens. Supported the acquisition of digital skills in the elderly and the introduction of science programming for children, as well as the creation of open public data register. Former Chairman of Council on the Prevention of Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, which was created in 2012 as a response to the pro-blem visible in the public space – hate speech and actions motivated by intolerance targeting the representatives of minorities.

Sandro BonomiChief Executive Officer and President - Enolgas/OrgalimeMr Bonomi is currently the President of Orgalime, the European Engi-neering Industries Association, the President of the company Enolgas Bonorni S.p.a. (Valves), and the Vice President of UNI (Italian Organiza-tion for Standardization). He is also currently chairman of the Brescia Export Consortium. Among others he was previously the President of ANIMA (Federation of the Italian Associations of Mechanical and Engi-neering Industries), the Chairman of AHG (ad hoc group) for the CEN standards for gas ball valves (1998-2000), and the President of CEIR (Comité Européen Industrie Robinetterie from 2005-2007). He holds a university degree in Business Economy and studied in the U.K., Ger-many and Spain.


Gerard Bos Director of the Global Business and Biodiversity Programme - International Union of the Conservation of NatureGerard Bos is Director of the Global Business and Biodiversity Pro-gramme at the International Union of the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) since 2012. He is passionate driving Transformational Change through multi-sector collaborative platforms with the aim to challenge current and future business models. Gerard worked for 5 years for Barclays Bank and 17 years for Holcim, one of the largest building materials producers, in Europe, USA and Africa. At Holcim, he managed the relationship with IUCN, developing the biodiversity strategy for the Group. He also repre-sented Holcim at the World Business Council for Sustainable Develop-ment (WBCSD) on the Vision 2050 project from 2007 to 2012.

Nathalie BrunelleSenior Vice President Strategy, Development & Research – TotalMs. Brunelle is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique engineering school in Paris and of a joint post graduate program between the French Petroleum institute (IFP) and McGill University in Montreal, Canada. After the mergers between Total, Fina and Elf, Ms. Brunelle transferred to Belgium, where she held different positions in Business Development and Marketing & Sales for Base Chemicals. From 2006 to 2008, she was Operations Manager at Fina Antwerp Olefins, a joint venture between Total Petrochemicals and ExxonMobil in Antwerp. In 2009, she was named Vice President; Strategic Planning at Total Petrochemicals and in 2010 became Vice President, Base Chemicals Marketing & Sales. Mrs Brunelle has been non-executive Director of Futerro (2009-2010), CEPSA (2010-2011) and Rosier SA (2012-2013)Ms. Brunelle was appointed to her current position on January 1, 2012 and transferred to Paris headquarters.

Saskia BruystenCo-founder and CEO - Yunus Social BusinessSaskia co-founded YSB together with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus and Sophie Eisenmann. Saskia has been featured on the Wired Smart List 2013, contributed widely to the Huffington Post, and Forbes, and co-authored a report with the Boston Consulting Group on the experiences of building large scale social business joint ventures in Bangladesh. Saskia was appointed to the EU Commission’s expert group on social business and has assisted Prof. Yunus on Ban Ki-Moon’s UN MDG Advocacy Group as well as Sir Richard Branson’s B-team. Saskia is the youngest Generation CEO member and a Young Leader of the Atlantik Brücke. She has lectured at several universities and speaks regularly at high profile events. Prior to YSB, Saskia was the Co-CEO of the Grameen Creative Lab and a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group.

Reinhard BütikoferMember - European ParliamentReinhard Bütikofer is a Member of the European Parliament (Greens/EFA) and the Co-Chair of the European Green Party. He sits on the Com-mittee of Industry, Research and Energy and is a substitute member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs as well as the Sub- Committees on Security and Defence (SEDE) and Human Rights. He is a Member of the Board of Directors of the European Endowment for Democracy and delegated Chair of the AFET Working Group on External Financing Instruments. He is Vice-Chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with the People’s Republic of China and a Member of the Delegation to the United States. Before getting elected to the European Parliament in 2009, Mr. Bütikofer was the co-chair of the German Green Party Bündnis90 (from 2002 until 2008). He was the party’s Secretary General from 1998 until 2002. Prior to that he served as the Chair of the Greens in the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg. From 1988 until 1996 he served as a Member of the Baden-Württemberg State Parliament.

Ann CairnsPresident International Markets - MastercardAnn Cairns is president, International Markets for MasterCard, res-ponsible for the management of all markets and customer-related activities outside of North America. She is credited with building sus-tainable, strong growth rates for the company, leading the rollout of innovation, and building new global partnerships with governments, telecommunication companies and organisations such as the World Food Programme. Ann brings more than 20 years’ experience working in senior management positions across Europe and the U.S., running global retail and investment banking operations. Prior to joining MasterCard in August 2011, Ann was head of the Financial Industry group with Alvarez & Marsal in London, where she led the European team managing Lehman Brothers Holdings International through the Chapter 11 process. Prior to that Ann was CEO, Transaction Banking at ABN-AMRO. At the start of her career, Ann spent time as an award-winning research engineer, culminating as the head of Offshore Engineer-Planning for British Gas. Managing a team of 50 plus engineers, Ann was the first woman quali-fied to go offshore in Britain.


Daniel Calleja-CrespoDirector General of DG Grow - European CommissionSince 1st February 2012, Mr. Daniel Calleja is Director General of DG Growth, before DG Enterprise and Industry, having previously been the Deputy Director General of the same DG. He is also the Special Envoy for SMEs. Mr Calleja was the Director responsible for Air Transport at the European Commission from November 2004 to February 2011, in charge of the single European aviation market and its external dimension. He success-fully negotiated, on behalf of the E.U., the EU-US Open Skies Agreement. He was the Chairman of the Air Safety and the Single Sky Committees and Chairman of the Board of the SESAR Joint Undertaking. Between 1999 and 2004, he was Head of Cabinet of the Vice-President of the European Commission, Mrs. Loyola de Palacio, responsible for Transport, Energy and relations with the European Parliament. During this period, he par-ticipated actively in the elaboration of the EU transport policy, notably in the launching of the Transport White Book, the Single European Sky, the creation of the European Air Safety Agency (EASA) and the Galileo program. Between 1995 and 1999, Mr. Calleja was the Head of Cabinet for Commissioner Marcelino Oreja, responsible for institutional affairs, and for the Amsterdam Treaty negotiations. In 1995, he was the legal adviser in the Cabinet of the President of the European Commission, responsible for Transport, Competition, State Aids and the control of the application of Community Law. Between 1993 and 1994, he advised the Transport Commissioner in the area of liberalisation of air transport, State aid cases concerning the restructuring of airlines, the first directive on groundhandling, the implementation of the third air package and the CRS regulation. Between 1986 and 1993, he was Member of the Legal Ser-vice of the Commission and he represented the institution in numerous cases before the European Court of Justice. M Calleja is the author of seve-ral publications. He has lectured in European Law in several universities and institutes of various Member States. Mr Calleja has a degree in Law and in Business Administration from the University of Comillas, Madrid.

Kumardev ChatterjeeFounder & President - European Young Innovation ForumKumardev is a highly regarded Young Innovation leader, top-tier ICT industry professional, European Commission appointed expert and New York Times published opinion leader, all by the age of 35. Kumardev’s vision, opinions and views have been published by the New York Times, World Economic Forum, European Commission, European Busi-ness Summit, Microsoft and leading tech media across Europe. Kumardev is an Advisory Board member of the Journal of Innovation Management with Henry Chesbrough. Kumardev is one of the 50 leading digital minds around the world who have been invited to contribute to the European Commission’s “Visions for Europe’s future in the new digital era”, alongside Eric Schmidt of Google. In recognition of his Innovation leadership and the high-impact achievements of EYIF, the Intel and the European Commission have awarded Kumardev as an Innovation Luminary – Young Innovation Champion. Kumardev is both the youngest-ever recipient of this award

and the first-ever Young Innovation Champion. Kumardev has been enga-ged in both the entrepreneurial world from the age of 14 when he started his first social business, and the ICT industry from the age of 19, when he started his first for-profit company as well as his corporate ICT career. He has broad experience in both public, private and non-profit sectors, as well as expertise in ICT Strategy, Innovation and Programmes in multiple industry domains over 15+ years, internationally. Kumardev leads EYIF’s broad community of young innovators, entrepreneurs, startups and SMEs and led Europe’s first-ever delegation of Young Innovators on a joint US State Department-EYIF program, the InnotourUSA. Kumardev is responsible for EYIF’s key stakeholder relationships with the European Commission, US State Department, World Economic Forum, European Investment Fund, and Fortune 500 companies. He represents EYIF on various Expert Groups and Stakeholder Committees of the European Commission in the areas of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and ICT. Kumardev holds a MSc. in Computer Science, as a British Chevening Science Scholar.

Gérard ChoplinFree-lance expert on environment policiesFrom 2014: Free-lance expert on farming, food, trade, environment policies. 2008-2013: Policy officer on agriculture policy at European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC). 1988-2008: Coordinator at European Farmers Coordination (CPE). 1982-86: Coordinator at Confédération Nationale des Syndicats de Travailleurs Paysans (CNSTP), France. 1974-1982: Teaching, research in agricultural universities in Algeria (Mostaganem), Germany (Hohenheim).1970-1973: Agronomy study - ENSA Grignon and Agro-Paris, France.

Jean-Pierre ClamadieuChief Executive Officer - Solvay/CEFICJean-Pierre Clamadieu joined Solvay in September 2011 as member of the Executive Committee, immediately after Solvay acquired Rhodia. Before that, he was Rhodia’s Chief Executive Officer since October 2003 and since March 2008 also Chairman of the Board of Directors. Between 1993 and 2003, Jean-Pierre Clamadieu held several executive positions within Rhodia and its former parent company Rhône‐Poulenc, notably President of Rhodia Chemicals Latin America, President of Rhodia Eco Services, Senior Vice-President Corporate Purchasing as well as President of the Pharmaceuticals & Agrochemicals Division. After graduating from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris, he had a nine‐year career at the French Civil Service, including as advisor to the Minister of Labour. Jean‐Pierre Clamadieu is member of the Board of Directors of French car parts maker Faurecia and of French insurer Axa. He is President of the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC), member of the Board of Directors of the International Chemical Industry Council (ICCA), as well as member of the Executive Committee of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).


Jean-Pierre CoeneFree consultant - Itim International networkJean-Pierre Coene spent 35 years in Sales & Management for a French paper mill, (Clairefontaine). He created and developed businesses in a great variety of countries like: UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Ireland, Denmark, Egypt, Dubai, and the USA. Since 2010, he is free consultant, member of the prestigious Itim International network, consisting of 75 specialists sponsored by Geert Hofstede. He spends the majority of his time helping international organisations understand and use cultural differences to their advantage. He is also the author of the book “Négo-ciation Internationale” Edipro, 2013.

William ColtonVice President, Corporate Strategic Planning - ExxonMobilMr. William (Bill) M. Colton is Vice President, Corporate Strategic Planning for Exxon Mobil Corporation as of February 1, 2009. In this role, he over-sees all of the corporation’s strategic planning activities and the develop-ment of its Energy Outlook, ExxonMobil’s assessment of global energy trends. Mr. Colton received his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Michigan Technological University in 1975. He joined Exxon Corporation in 1975 and his career has been spent in both upstream and downstream businesses throughout ExxonMobil, including project development, refining, lubes, synthetic fuels and natural gas marketing. Mr. Colton also worked in finance and planning positions, including ExxonMobil corporate headquarters and eight years overseas in Tokyo and Bangkok. Mr. Colton’s previous assignment was as the Corporation’s Assistant Treasurer.

Michel CombesChief Executive Officer - Alcatel LucentMichel Combes became CEO of Alcatel-Lucent on April 1, 2013, joining the company with more than 20 years of experience in the telecom sector, as well as a strong international background. His appointment to Alcatel-Lucent follows four years at telecom operator Vodafone plc, where he was appointed CEO Europe in October 2008, subsequently being appointed to the Vodafone board in June 2009. Previous positions include amongst others Chairman and CEO of TDF Group, CFO of France Telecom Group, and CEO of Assystem-Brime. Michel studied in Paris at the École Polytechnique and the École Nationale Supérieure des Telecommunications. Michel is also a board member of MTS, Altice and HDL Development.

Marco ComastriPresident & General Manager - CA Technologies, EMEAMarco joined CA Technologies in 2011 as President & General Manager, Europe Middle East and Africa. In this role, he is focused on helping cus-tomers to not only realize the business opportunities presented in the application economy but also deliver superior user experiences that engage customers and deliver on their brand promise. Marco has a thirty year track record within the ICT industry, advising leading global organi-zations in the private and public sector on how to drive transformation,

productivity and sustainable growth. Prior to joining CA Technologies, Marco was CEO of Postecom, an IT ser-vices Company of Poste Italiane, where he helped the company achieve its aim of developing a new digital offering around communication services and the internet. Marco joined Microsoft as Country Manager for Italy in 2003. In this role, he helped contribute to the development of innovation in small and medium-sized companies in Italy. In addition, he led several projects to increase penetration in large enterprises within the Commu-nications, Banking and Automotive industries. Promoted in 2007, to Vice President, Middle East and Africa at Microsoft, Marco not only led the Company’s business in the region but was also actively involved in initia-tives to drive social development. Prior to joining Microsoft, Marco spent 17 years at IBM where he held a variety of positions, culminating in his role as Vice President for the Software and Services group in the EMEA South region. Marco began his career at Italimpianti, an Italian enginee-ring company. Marco, who holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pisa, is married with three children. Based in Morges, Switzerland, he is also a member of the Executive Council of the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU, a group of CEOs who lead the European operations of some of the world’s largest multinational companies. A regular at the World Economic Forum Annual and Regional meetings, Marco also frequently engages with policymakers across the region to help advance policies that contribute to growth, investment and jobs.

James CrispDeputy news editor - EurActivJames is deputy news editor at EurActiv. He has covered energy and environment, trade, financial services regulation, EU and UK politics, and innovation and enterprise since joining EurActiv last year. Previously James worked as media manager at the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association and as financial services correspondent for MLex. Before moving to Brussels, James, a University of Manchester gra-duate, worked for national and local newspapers in the UK.

Marc DalMember of the Board of Directors - CEPANIMarc Dal is a lawyer, member of the Brussels Bar, partner of the law firm Dal & Veldekens. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Cepani, The Belgian Center for Arbitration and Mediation. He is a past member of the Conseil de l’Ordre of the Brussels French speaking bar. He has been involved in national and international arbitration proceedings both as counsel or as arbitrator (co-arbitrator, sole arbitrator or presiding arbitrator) in over forty arbitration proceedings, administered (incl. ICC, CEPANI) and ad hoc, governed by various procedural and substantive laws, both civil law and common law (incl. English law), and by interna-tional law. His areas of expertise include joint venture, share purchase agreement, M&A, sales, construction, and insurance.


Matthew DaltonJournalist - Wall Street JournalMatthew Dalton is Brussels Correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, focusing on euro-zone economic policy and trade. He previously cove-red energy and environmental policy for Dow Jones in New York City. Matthew graduated cum laude from Brown University in 2001 with a degree in philosophy.

Ioana DavidPresident - JADE, European Confederation of Junior EnterprisesIoana David is a Junior Entrepreneur who started her activities 4 years ago, at the same time with her Bachelor’s Degree in Communication. Throughout those 4 years Ioana has learned different types of mana-gement thanks to her work in the Junior Enterprise. She entered as a marketing Junior Entrepreneur, to be promoted a year after to the crea-tive division coordinator, while on mobility in Spain. Upon her return she managed marketing campaigns for the national office of the organisa-tion only to be elected one year later as the President of the European Confederation of Junior Enterprises and move to Brussels to be the voice of Junior Entrepreneurs in Europe and empower the youth to diminish and abolish youth unemployment.

John DavisHead of Division for Life Sciences and Health - European Investment BankJohn Davis is a chartered chemical engineer having completed his stu-dies at Cambridge University. He worked for the National Coal Board and ICI before joining the EIB in 1991. Since joining the Bank his prime role has been to carry out techno-economic assessments of projects reques-ting EIB funding. Initially working in the chemical, pharmaceutical and related sectors, his responsibilities have expanded and, from January 2008 to April 2011 he headed the team within the Bank that was res-ponsible for all policy and project analysis in the health and education sectors. Since April 2011 he has been responsible for the team of sector specialists looking at investments in the life sciences and health sectors.

Philippe De BackerMember - European ParliamentBefore joining the European Parliament, Philippe De Backer worked as Technology Transfer Officer at CRP-Santé and as analyst at Vesalius Biocapital, a Luxembourg based venture capital firm specialised in life-sciences. He has an expertise in the valorisation of IP developed by public research institutes and settingup early ventures in life-sciences. Philippe is currently a Member of the European Parliament where he is a full member of the Industry, Technology, Research and Energy Com-mittee. He is a substitute Member of the Economy and Monetary Affairs Committee. As a liberal, Philippe truly believes that it is his duty to take up responsibility in the community and actively work for society and the people living in it. He strongly believes in individual liberty, self-develop-ment, free markets and equal starting chances for everybody.

Philippe de BuckMember of the European Economic and Social CommitteePhilippe de Buck is Member of the European Economic and Social Com-mittee, President of Belgian Business for Europe (VBO/FEB) and visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges where he teaches “Seminars on Business Cases” for the specialized masters in European Economic Integration and Business. Prof. de Buck has been Director General of BUSINESSEUROPE from 2002 to 2012. Previously, from 1987 to 2001, he was CEO of Agoria, a Belgian multi-sector federation for the technology industry, after holding other management positions within the federa-tion since joining it in 1971. He is a member of the Board of Directors of ING Belgium and formerly of BASF Antwerp. Philippe de Buck is Doctor in Law from the University of Leuven. He has also studied tax and accoun-ting at the Ecole Supérieure de Sciences Fiscales in Brussels.

Marc de GaridelVice-President - European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA)Marc de Garidel is a graduate from the French Engineering School ESTP, and has an Executive MBA from Harvard Business School. Marc de Garidel started his career with Eli Lilly with various responsibilities in countries like the US, Germany and France. Between 1995 and 2010, he held Exe-cutive positions at Amgen including Corporate Controller of the group in the US as well as increasing line management responsibilities including the biggest region of Amgen International operations. Marc de Garidel joined Ipsen as Chairman and CEO in November 2010. He also holds a number of other visible positions for the industry: Chairman of the group of French health care companies (G5 santé), nominated by the last two French governments as Vice-President of the French Health Care Strategic Committee. Marc de Garidel has recently been appointed Vice-President of EFPIA, the European Pharmaceutical Trade Association, as well as Chair of the IMI Governing Board, the world largest public-private partnership in life sciences with a €3.3 billion budget.He is distinguished as Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur.


Luiz de Mello Deputy Director of the Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate - OECDLuiz de Mello is Deputy Director of the Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate at the OECD. Previously, he served as Deputy Chief of Staff of the OECD Secretary-General. He started his career at the OECD in the Economics Department, where he was the Head of Desk res-ponsible for bilateral surveillance activities with Brazil, Chile and Indone-sia before becoming the Economic Counsellor to the Chief Economist. Prior to joining the OECD, Mr. de Mello worked in the Fiscal Affairs Department of the International Monetary Fund, where he was involved in different projects in the areas of public finances, as well as programme monitoring and policy surveillance, with an emphasis on emerging-mar-ket and transition economies in Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.Mr. de Mello holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Kent, United Kingdom, where he started his career as a lecturer. His main areas of interest are open-economy macroeconomics, public finances, and growth and development issues.

Dirk De MeulemeesterPresident - Belgian Center for Arbitration and Mediation, CEPANIDirk De Meulemeester is a lawyer, member of the Bars of Ghent and Paris and President of CEPANI, The Belgian Center for Arbitration and Mediation. He has been practicing dispute resolution for over 15 years, in both national and international commercial arbitration, acting as counsel or arbitrator (co-arbitrator, sole arbitrator or presiding arbitrator) in over fifty arbitration proceedings, administered (incl. ICC, Swiss Rules, CEPANI, ISCID) and ad hoc, governed by various procedural and substantive laws, both civil law and com-mon law (incl. English and Swiss), and by international law. His areas of speciali-zation include joint venture, share purchase, M&A, sales, agency, distribution, IT, construction, the pharmaceutical sector and investment arbitration.

Olivier De SchutterMember - United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural RightsProf. O. De Schutter is currently a Member of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and co-chair of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food). An expert on economic and social rights, he was between 2008 and 2014, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food. He teaches at the University of Louvain (UCL) and at SciencesPo (Paris); he has been a visiting professor at Columbia University and New York University, as well as at UC Berkeley.

Jo Deblaere Chief Operating Officer and Group Chief Executive – Europe Accenture StrategyJo Deblaere is Accenture’s chief operating officer, responsible for lea-ding the company’s business operations globally, executing Accenture’s business strategy and ensuring operational excellence company-wide. Mr. Deblaere is also group chief executive—Europe with overall leadership responsibility for Accenture’s business in Europe, covering the company’s presence in more than 20 countries in Europe. Mr. Deblaere leads enter-prise risk management for Accenture, working across the company to identify, assess and actively manage enterprise risks. He is a member of Accenture’s Global Management Committee and chairs Accenture’s Capi-tal Committee. Prior to becoming COO in September 2009, Mr. Deblaere was chief operating officer of Accenture’s outsourcing business globally, a position he held since 2006. From 2005 to 2006, Mr. Deblaere led Accen-ture’s global network of business process outsourcing delivery centers. From 2000 to 2005, he had overall responsibility for Accenture’s work with public-sector clients in Western Europe. Earlier in his career, he worked with numerous clients in a variety of industries including automotive, metals, energy, chemicals, media and entertainment, and public service. Mr. Deblaere joined Accenture in 1985 and became a partner in 1996.

Pierre Dejoux President Intelligent Building Technologies & Operations Europe - United Technologies CorporationPierre Dejoux, President for UTC Intelligent Building Technologies & Operations Europe since January 2015 and President Otis Europe since January 2014. In his last position he was President Otis North Europe and Africa Area (since 2012). Previously based in Singapore, he served since 2008 as President Otis South Asia Pacific and Gulf Area. His terri-tory included Australasia, India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Export. Pierre joined Otis France in 1990 as a superintendent. During his 17-years tenure, he has held a number of field and manage-ment positions with increasing responsibility including his appointment as Regional General Manager for North Western France. He was appoin-ted Zone Operations Managing Director of Otis France in September 2001 prior to his move to Asia in 2007.


Larry DownesInternet industry analyst – authorLarry Downes is an Internet industry analyst and author on business strategies and information technology. His research focuses on busi-ness strategies in an age of constant disruption caused by information technology. Downes is the co-author, with Paul Nunes, of “Big Bang Disruption: Strategy in the Age of Devastating Innovation” (Portfolio/Penguin, 2014). He is also the author of “The Laws of Disruption: Har-nessing the New Forces that Govern Business and Life in the Digital Age” (Basic Books, 2009) and “Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance” (Harvard Business School Press, 1998).He has written for a variety of publications, including USA Today, Inc., Wired, CNET, Entrepreneur, Upstart and The New York Times. He writes regular columns for Forbes, CNET, the Harvard Business Review and the Washington Post, covering the intersection of technology, politics and business. Downes has held faculty appointments at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Northwestern University School of Law and the University of California-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business where he was Associate Dean of the School of Information. From 2006-2010, he was a non-resident fellow at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet & Society. He is currently project director at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern University and a doctor of law degree from the Uni-versity of Chicago. He is based in the San Francisco Bay area.

Richard EllisDirector of Corporate Social Responsibilities - Walgreens Boots AllianceRichard has spent the past 35 years working for a range of Companies on all aspects of the CSR agenda. The early part of his career was spent in Banking before becoming involved in CSR after the Inner City riots of the early 1980s. After this involvement he held CSR related positions at HSBC, TSB, British Aerospace and ran his own CSR consultancy for five years. In 2003 he joined Boots and became responsible for all the Com-pany’s CSR activities. Following the merger between Boots and Alliance UniChem and the subsequent Private Equity Buy Out he was appointed Director of CSR. 2014 saw the creation of Walgreens Boots Alliance fol-lowing the merger between Walgreens in the USA and Alliance Boots. He now has responsibility for CSR globally for this new enterprise.

Richard ElsnerFounder - MORE projectRichard Elsner retired from his career in consultancy and business lea-dership in 2012 to pursue his interest in European social and economic issues. Together with the Schöpflin foundation, he founded the MORE project in 2014. This organisation supports European SMEs which are campaigning for responsible trade agreements, and for a TTIP which consolidates rather than undermines SME businesses. SMEs represent the backbone of the European economy and the lifeblood of many of its communities. Richard is committed to a democratic and forward-loo-king European project.

Robin EmmottSenior Journalist - ReutersRobin Emmott is correspondent for Reuters, covering EU trade policy and economics, based in Brussels, where he has worked since 2011. He has reported from more than a dozen countries for Reuters in Europe and Latin America and was nominated for an Overseas Press Club award in the United States for his work in Mexico. He joined Reuters from the Financial Times in 2002 and also worked for the English-language sector of Amsterdam’s Het Financieele Dagblad.

Carolina FernandesSenior Innovation, Funding Manager, EU R&D Advisor - Enterprise Europe NetworkCarolina Fernandes is Senior Innovation & Funding Manager and EU R&D Advisor at Enterprise Europe Network covering England, Northern Ire-land and Wales, a consortium led by Innovate UK and empowered by the European Commission to provide business support to local SMEs, from access to funding to technology transfer, with a component of inno-vation management. Within the same framework, Carolina holds the chairmanship of the EC Creative Industries Sector Group, coordinating a group with representatives of EU countries focusing on opportuni-ties for SMEs within the Creative Sectors. Carolina has a proven track record in supporting SMEs in acquiring grant funding from both UK and European programmes and in helping organisations source technology, innovation and business partnerships in Europe and beyond. She holds an MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management from Chalmers Uni-versity of Technology (Sweden) and a diploma in Innovation, Strategy & Entrepreneurship, where she focused on the connection between high-value entrepreneurial opportunities and collaborative innovation.

Martina Francesca FerracanePolicy Analyst - European Centre for International Political Economy, ECIPEMartina Francesca Ferracane is a Policy Analyst at the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE). Her work focuses on Euro-pean sectoral policies with a special interest in the area of healthcare policy and its interplay with innovation and technology policy. She is also engaged in several activities concerned with entrepreneurship, innova-tion and 3D printing and is member of the European Health Parliament. Her previous experience touches both the public and the private sector. She has worked as a consultant for the European Commission and the United Nations, while she has also collaborated in the creation of two start-ups, and has recently worked in a FabLab in Brazil.


Stephen FidlerJournalist and Brussels Bureau Chief - Wall Street JournalStephen Fidler has been Brussels Editor of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires since 2009. He leads a team of journalists covering the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He was part of a team of Journal reporters named as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2011 for reporting on the euro-zone debt crisis. He spent 22 years with the Financial Times in senior roles, including international capital markets editor, Latin America Editor, defence and security editor, and U.S. diplomatic editor. He spent almost a decade as a correspondent for Reuters in London, New York and the Middle East.

Doru FrantescuDirector - VoteWatch EuropeDoru Petrisor Frantescu is the Director of VoteWatch Europe, a Brussels-based organiastion he co-founded in 2009. A political scientist and com-munication expert, he is the main author of numerous publications on voting behavior in the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers. His analyses have been quoted by the media around the world (including the New York Times, Financial Times, the Economist, Wall Street Journal, Euronews) and by specialized research institutes in over 20 countrie.

Vitālijs GavrilovsPresident - Employers’ Confederation of LatviaPresident of Employers’ Confederation of Latvia (LDDK) since 1993. Co-owner and vice-chairman of the Investments companies - “Ice-Balt Invest” Ltd. and “VITALIAN” Ltd. since 2005 Chairman of the board & pre-sident of Brewery JSC “Aldaris” 1985-2004 Social activities: Member of the Council of Presidents of BUSINESSEUROPE; Co- chairman of Latvian National Tripartite Council, member of the board of Latvian Economic Council, member of European Economic and Social Committee.

Andrea Gerosa Founder - Think YoungWorking with and for young people since 2002, Andrea started his career at university joining the Junior Enterprise Network. Today he is the founder of a non-profit think tank for youth, a consulting company focused mainly on student housing, a series of summer schools for young entrepreneurs and a coworking space for start-ups. Recently Andrea has been appointed to the executive board of Rentxpress SA, an agency that enables travellers to rent plug&play accommodation all around the world.

Pascal GoergenGeneral Secretary - Federation of Regional Actors in EuropePascal Goergen, born in Cologne in 1963, is Secretary General of the Fede-ration of Regional Actors in Europe (FEDRA) and is working as a Professor at the EPHEC University College (Marketing and Business) in Brussels. He holds a PhD in Political Sciences at the UCL (Louvain-la-Neuve). Between end 2011 and 2014, he was the Secretary General of the AER (Assembly of

European Regions). From 2001 to 2011 he was the diplomatic Represen-tative of the Brussels-Capital Region to the EU involved in the Research and Structural Funds Working Groups of the EU Council. For more than ten years, he strongly contributed to the creation of regional thematic networks such as ERRIN, NEREUS. He also acquired deep knowledge in re-gional matters through institutional networks such as REGLEG and CALRE.

Hubert GoffinetHead - Research & Innovation Unit of Wallonie-Bruxelles International (WBI)Hubert Goffinet is Head at the Research & Innovation Unit of Wallonie-Bruxelles International (WBI), the public body in charge of international relations of Wallonia and the French Community of Belgium. The main objective of this unit consists in actively building networks between re-search and innovation operators of Wallonia, Brussels and other countries and in promoting scientific and technological partnerships in internatio-nal research projects. Among his duties, he is in charge of coordinating a network of 6 scientific liaison officers and animates the WBI Research & Innovation Platform which gathers the main research and innovation stakeholders of Wallonia-Brussels. By stimulating an open innovation ap-proach in the field of international scientific and technological coopera-tion, this Platform defines joint activities and common priorities between academia, research institutes and clusters of Wallonia-Brussels. Besides, he contributes to the work of the OECD Directorate for Science, Techno-logy & Innovation and the Strategic Forum for International Cooperation of the European Research Area Committee (ERAC). Before joining the WBI Research & Innovation Unit, Hubert worked for the Belgian Presidency to the EU Council in the fields of industrial policy and research. Hubert holds a Master degree in Economics and a Master degree in International Rela-tions, both from the Free University of Brussels (ULB), as well as a Master of Arts in European Studies from the Academy of Louvain.

Leo GoovaertsCo-Founder & Chairman - EcoNationProf. Leo Goovaerts is Doctor of Laws and studied European law (University of Straatsburg) and Economics (University of Leuven). He is Senior Partner of the law firm ‘’NovaLex (Brussels), Honorary Judge of the Tribunal of First Instance of Brussels and was a member of the Belgian Senate from 1991 till 1999 and of the Parliamentary Assembly of the European Council between 1995 and 1999. He did teach negotiation at the Vlerick Leuven Ghent Business School. He is the author of several books and articles about negotiation. He is an acknowledged arbitrator for the American Arbitra-tion Association and the International Arbitration Forum. Prof Goovaerts is co-founder and Chairman of the Board of EcoNation N.V. and EcoNation Research and Development N.V. whose product the Lightcatcher won the European Business Award for the Environment – Products & Services 2014.


Joachim GoyvaertsHead of Paypal in BelgiumJoachim Goyvaerts is Head of PayPal in Belgium since September 2014. Repre-senting PayPal, the leading digital payment solution, Joachim’s mission is to enable e-commerce growth for Belgian consumers and e-commerce industry with seamless payment experiences. Prior to joining PayPal, Joachim built more than 15 years of experience in the financial industry on payment tran-sactions with KBC Bank and Atos Worldline, focusing on customer centricity and the war against cash. Joachim Goyvaerts (36) holds a Master degree in Applied Economics at the KU Leuven and specialised in Marketing Manage-ment at the Vlerick Business School and in Financial Transaction Services at the Solvay Business School.

Rudi GuraziuExecutive Chairman - International Business and Diplomatic Exchange IBDERudi Guraziu is Executive Chairman of IBDE (International Business and Diplo-matic Exchange), a Visiting Professor at the London Academy of Diplomacy, University of Stirling, and a regular public speaker. He spent the 1990s as a principal of a large pharmaceutical business. Before founding IBDE, he initia-ted the establishment of the Centre for Business and Parliamentary Dialogue. For much of that time he has worked with different parliaments particularly in the relationship between legislative bodies and economic operators. For many years, Mr Guraziu has been actively engaged with senior policy-makers, business leaders and diplomats as an expert on international affairs, including as an external expert at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office high-level «policy challenge» sessions. His expertise covers trade & investment promo-tion, international affairs with a particular focus on EU affairs, public policy, fi-nancial services, energy security, and political risk, economic and commercial diplomacy. His research interests are in exploring the impact of international events and turning crises into opportunities.Mr Guraziu is member of the International Steering Board at the International Festival for Business. The IFB 2014 which took place in Liverpool UK during June and July 2014 hosted 415 business events and 68.600 business delegates from 92 countries across the globe. IFB 2016 will be held in Liverpool from 13 June to 1 July 2016.Mr Guraziu serves on the advisory boards of a number of companies. He holds an MA in International Relations (distinction). Mr Guraziu is a UK National and has previously worked and lived in the Balkans, Switzerland, Sweden.

Daniel GrosDirector - Centre for European Policy Studies, CEPSDaniel Gros has been the Director of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) since 2000. Among other current activities, he serves as adviser to the European Parliament and is a member of the Advisory Scientific Committee of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) and the Euro 50 Group of eminent economists. He has held past positions at the IMF and the European Commission, and served as advisor to several governments, including the UK and the US at the highest level. He is

editor of Economie Internationale and International Finance. Daniel Gros holds a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago and is the author of several books and numerous articles in scientific journals. His main areas of expertise are the European Monetary Union, macroecono-mic policy, economics of transition to a market economy, public finance, banking and financial markets.

Hans HackHead of Financial Services - FTI ConsultingHans Hack heads the rapidly expanding Financial Service practice at FTI Consulting in Brussels. Hans’ expertise is wide-ranging on EU financial service regulations: asset management, retail financial services including savings and investment products, financial infrastructure, insurance, audit and banking. Hans deploys his expertise and extensive network to expertly guide clients through these challenges and the ever-changing legislative environment. Hans and his team support a wide range of Financial Services clients, including Prudential, Deutsche Börse, Piraeus Bank, City of London and the Managed Funds Association.

Aimé HeeneGuest Professor - College of EuropeProf. Heene is honorary professor at Ghent University where he headed the Management and Organization Department from 2005 to 2010, and guest professor at the University of Antwerp. He is visiting profes-sor at the College of Europe where he teaches for the specialisation in European Economic Integration and Business. He also trains the mana-gement of private and public organizations on strategy issues. He has been vice-president of the Dutch-Flemish Academy for Management, founding member of the Flemish Strategy Society, member of the advi-sory board of the European Foundation for Business Qualification, and national representative for Belgium at the European Academy of Mana-gement. He published several books in English and Dutch on strategic management, and co-chaired over ten international conferences on competence-based strategic management. He holds a Ph.D. in educatio-nal sciences and an MBA from Ghent University.


Aongus HegartyPresident EMEA - DellAongus Hegarty serves as President of Dell for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), responsible for leading the privatised company across the EMEA region, delivering innovative, efficient technology solutions to public and private sector organisations. Aongus leads a team of over 18,000 sales, solutions and services professionals who are delivering Dell’s end-to-end solutions to a diverse range of customers across 120 countries. With responsibility for Dell’s business across the entire region, he oversees partners, online and direct channels providing EMEA customers with greater choice and delivering greater value for their organisations. Following a series of acquisitions by Dell, Aongus is directing the successful integration of newly acquired businesses into Dell’s existing organisational structure. Aongus is the executive sponsor for Dell’s Global Giving Council in the region; directing the investment of important funding to not-for-profit organisations. He also co-leads the Dell EMEA Women’s Network and is a member of the Dell Global Diversity Council, chaired by Michael Dell. An on-going commitment to fostering a better appreciation of diversity and inclusion within Dell has led to an increased focus at all levels of the organisation; recognised by Aongus being awarded ‘Diversity Champion of the Year’ at the European Diversity Awards in October 2014. A fifteen-year veteran of Dell, Aongus has held a number of senior roles within the organisation including Vice President and General Manager for Dell’s Consumer, Small & Medium Business and Vice President of Marketing for Dell EMEA. He brought si-gnificant technology industry experience to Dell having previously held senior leadership positions with Modus Media, RR Donnelley and Digital Equipment Corporation. Aongus is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). He is Vice Chairman of the Executive Council for the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union and he is a member of the Special Olympics Ireland Council of Patrons. Aongus holds a bachelor’s degree in business studies from the University of Limerick and, in October 2013, was presented with the Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievement.

M. Helleput Thibault Helleputte is born in Belgium in 1982. He got an Engineering degree in Computing Sciences from the Université catholique de Lou-vain (UCL, 2006), then joined the Computing Sciences and Engineering Department (INGI) of the UCL in August 2006 as a PhD student, under su-pervision of Prof. Pierre Dupont (Engineering Faculty) and Prof. Etienne Sokal (Medicine Faculty). He got his PhD in Engineering Sciences from UCL in 2010. He received IBM Belgium/FRS-FNRS Computer Science Award in 2011 (Best Belgian PhD Thesis in Computer Sciences). From October 2010 to September 2013, he worked on a Spin-Off Project in order to provide data mining and IT solutions for predictive and perso-

nalized medicine, funded by a First Spin-Off grant from Wallonia. This startup project received the Innovation Award from the Microsoft Inno-vation Center late 2011. Concurrently, he got a Master in Management Sciences from the Louvain School of Management (LSM). He founded DNAlytics in April 2012 with Prof Pierre Dupont, which he runs since. He has been awarded «Innovator under 35» by the MIT in 2015.

Thibault HelleputteCEO, Société DNAlyticsThibault Helleputte is born in Belgium in 1982. He got an Engineering degree in Computing Sciences from the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL, 2006), then joined the Computing Sciences and Engineering Department (INGI) of the UCL in August 2006 as a PhD student, under supervision of Prof. Pierre Dupont (Engineering Faculty) and Prof. Etienne Sokal (Medi-cine Faculty). He got his PhD in Engineering Sciences from UCL in 2010. He received IBM Belgium/FRS-FNRS Computer Science Award in 2011 (Best Belgian PhD Thesis in Computer Sciences). From October 2010 to September 2013, he worked on a Spin-Off Project in order to provide data mining and IT solutions for predictive and personalized medicine, funded by a First Spin-Off grant from Wallonia. This startup project received the Innovation Award from the Microsoft Innovation Center late 2011. Concurrently, he got a Master in Management Sciences from the Louvain School of Management (LSM). He founded DNAlytics in April 2012 with Prof Pierre Dupont, which he runs since. He has been awarded «Innovator under 35» by the MIT in 2015.

Bertrand HerryWallonie Manager - H2020 SME, JRC, Legal & Financial NCP Bertrand Herry has a deep working experience with international large indus-trial bicompanies (PSA Peugeot Citroën) as well as with SMEs and research centers. Besides the task of coordinating the NCP Wallonie team, Bertrand is in charge of the «SME» and «Legal & Financial» transversal thematics.With an engineering diploma (ESTP Paris – 1997), a PhD. in Computational Mechanics (ENS Cachan – 2002) and a MBA (IAE Paris – 2001), he had the opportunity to contribute in several regional and international collaborative projects (FP7, ERA-Nets, Eurostars,…). This expertise is made available to SMEs, research centers and universities in order to support them to set up their R&D and innovation financing strategies.

Jonathan HillCommissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union - European Commission Jonathan Hill has been European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Finan-cial Services and Capital Markets Union since 1 November 2014. Prior to his appointment, he was Leader of the House of Lords and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (2013-2014), and Under-Secretary of State for Education (2010-2013), having previously worked in the private sector. Commissioner Hill has a Master of Arts in History from Trinity College, Cambridge (1982).


Dörte Höppner, Chief Executive Officer - The European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, EVCADörte represents the industry at the very highest levels of business and government and is a regular commentator in the international media on all aspects of the private equity industry. In 2012, Financial News named her the most influential person in European Private Equity and one of the 100 most influential figures in European Financial Markets. Again in 20I3 and 2014, she was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in finance in Europe. Dörte joined EVCA in 2011 after spending four years as Managing Director at the BVK, the German Private Equity Association, where she played a leading role in the industry’s response to the Alterna-tive Investment Fund Manager’s Directive. Before joining the BVK, Dörte held the role of Communications Director at the German Institute for Economic Research, Germany’s leading think tank.

Olivier ImbaultChair of the energy and Climate working Group Business EuropeVice President European Energy & Industry Affairs, Olivier Imbault is in charge of the Air Liquide Energy Operations in Europe and Head of Public Affairs for the European Industry Activities, in particular with regard to energy and low carbon economy developments. Olivier Imbault joined Air Liquide Group in 1981 as head of the Advanced Information Techno-logies Department in Paris. In 1986, he joined Air Liquide Italy (Milan) and held increasing business responsibilities within the Italian subsidiary up to the position of CEO and then Vice President of the Mediterranean and African Zone. In 2007, he was appointed as Vice President Energy Group in Paris. Since 2010, he serves as Vice President European Energy & Industry affairs Prior to join the Air Liquide Group, Olivier Imbault worked in the Oil and Gas sector (USA and Algeria) from 1978 to 1981.

Jeffrey R. ImmeltCEO - GEMr. Immelt has held several global leadership positions since coming to GE in 1982, including roles in GE’s Plastics, Appliances, and Healthcare businesses. In 1989 he became an officer of GE and joined the GE Capi-tal Board in 1997. Mr. Immelt has been named one of the «World’s Best CEOs» three times by Barron’s, and since he began serving as chief exe-cutive officer, GE has been named «America’s Most Admired Company» in a poll conducted by Fortune magazine and one of «The World’s Most Respected Companies» in polls by Barron’s and the Financial Times. Mr. Immelt was the chair of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Compe-titiveness. He is a member of The American Academy of Arts & Sciences.Mr. Immelt earned a B.A. degree in applied mathematics from Dart-mouth College in 1978 and an M.B.A. from Harvard University in 1982. He and his wife have one daughter.

Andrew JackJournalist - Financial TimesAndrew Jack has worked as a journalist for the Financial Times since 1990. He is currently deputy editor of its Analysis section. He is author of several reports and the books Inside Putin’s Russia and The French Exception, and contributes to the BMJ and the Lancet. He led the FT’s coverage that won the communications award of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 2011. He received the 2013 media award of the European Organisation for Rare Diseases; First Prize in the Stop TB Award for excel-lence in reporting for 2010; and a Kaiser Family Foundation mini-fellowship in global health reporting in 2008. He won the Grand prix de l’association des anciens élèves du centre des hautes etudes d’assurances, and was twice the ACCA accountancy journalist of the year award and a member of the FT team that won a British press award for the BCCI affair. He is co-chairman of Pushkin House, a London-based independent centre for Russian culture.

Caroline Jenner Chief Exective Officer - Junior Achievement-Young Entreprise, JA-YEMrs Jenner began her career as an entrepreneur in Slovakia. After taking the role of CEO for Junior Achievement-Young Enterprise Europe in 2001, she became deeply engaged in entrepreneurship education policy with the European Commission, serving on expert groups and more recently on New Skills for New Jobs. In addition, appointed as Senior Vice President Europe for JA Worldwide in 2004, she has worked on global initiatives such as the World Economic Forum’s 2010 Report on Entrepreneurship Education. Mrs Jenner is a regular contributor, speaker and panelist. JA-YE Europe is Europe’s largest provider of entre-preneurship education programmes, reaching 3.2 million students in 39 countries in 2014.

Peter JungenChairman - Peter Jungen Holding GmbHHe is Business Angel Investor in numerous start-ups, Co-Founder/Pres-ident of the German and European Business Angels Network (1998-2001 resp. 2001-2004) and a member of the New York Angels. He is Member of the Advisory Council, Deutsche Bank AG and of the Governing Board, “Institute for New Economic Thinking”. He is Honorary Chairman, Center on Capitalism and Society, Columbia University, Board Member, Hayek Ins-titute, Wien and New York Philharmonic. “Wirtschaftswoche” named him one of the 100 most important personalities shaping the “New Economy”. He is former member, Presidency, BDI. He is Awardee, Grand Cross of the German Order of Merit.


James Kanter Journalist and EU Correspondant - iNew York TimesJames is EU Correspondent for The International New York Times and he has been with the company since 2005. His previous experience includes four years in Southeast Asia where he was editor-in-chief of The Cambo-dia Daily. He later studied law and regulation as a Knight Fellow at Yale Law School, earning a masters degree. James has won awards for his re-porting on markets and antitrust and he has contributed to prizewinning coverage of banking scandals and the euro crisis. He received the 2009 Reporting Europe prize for an investigation of the European Emissions Trading System. He was raised in California, England and Massachusetts.

Christiana KalogirouGovernor of the North Aegean RegionChristiana Kalogirou is, since the regional elections of 2014, Governor of the North Aegean Region (consisting of the islands of Lesvos, Chios, Limnos, Samos, Ikaria, Fournoi, Agios Efstratios, Oinousses, Psara). She is an economist and politician, former member of the Hellenic Parlia-ment and Secretary-General of the Decentralized Administration of the Aegean. Mrs Kalogirou studied economics at Athens University of Eco-nomics and Business and worked as a manager and consultant in private sector companies.

Amit KapurDirector & Head – Benelux - Tata Consultancy ServicesAmit Kapur is the Director Benelux at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a world leading IT Services, business solutions and outsourcing organi-zation. Mr. Kapur is in charge of driving strategy and operations for the market. Mr. Kapur has been a member of the Netherlands business of TCS for past 10 years and has led strategy, sales, business development and operations successfully. Under his leadership, TCS has been able to demonstrate full services play in the Netherlands and has added several marquee brands to its customer portfolio in the region. Mr. Kapur has over 16 years of experience in the IT industry. Since joining TCS in 1999, he has worked with some of the top global 500 firms in several consul-ting, advisory and management roles, helping them drive efficiencies and improve their business results. Mr. Kapur graduated from Mumbai University, India in 1999, with his Master in Management Studies.

Dave KeatingFreelance journalistDave Keating is a freelance journalist. He was a reporter for the Euro-pean Voice newspaper and the editor of EuropeanVoice.com. He is spe-cialised in covering European Union energy and environment policy, and has covered EU politics for five years. Previously, Dave covered finance in London, legal affairs in Chicago and US politics in Washington, DC.

Anatoliy KinakhPresident - Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, ULIEMr. Anatoliy Kinakh is an accomplished Ukrainian politician who current-ly serves as the President of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE) – the biggest business association in Ukraine (uspp.ua/en). Former long serving (1992-2014) People’s Deputy of Ukraine, during his dynamic 24-year political career Mr. Kinakh also held posi-tions of Prime Minister of Ukraine, First Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Economy, Minister of Industrial Policy and Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. Both in politics and in business, Mr. Kinakh has dedicated his professional life to ensuring prosperity of Ukraine through its economic development.

Lisbeth KirkFounder and Editor-in-Chief - EUObserverLisbeth is the founder and managing editor of EUobserver. She has a degree from the Danish School of Media and Journalism. Prior to EUobserver, she worked as journalist, analyst, editor, and consultant for Danish media, including Notat and Danmarks Radio.

Sean KleinJournalist - SeanKlein Media LtdSean Klein is a journalist, media consultant and event moderator. He began his career as a conference interpreter, working throughout Eu-rope. In 1992 he joined the BBC as a reporter, moving into foreign news in 2000. He worked for the BBC in the USA, Africa, Asia and Russia. He also spent 10 years in Brussels, working in the BBC’s Brussels Bureau - its European news hub. He was firstly a news producer for key flagship news programmes, including the BBC 10 O’Clock News and the Today Pro-gramme; and was then the BBC Brussels Bureau Chief for five years. Sean worked with the BBC’s award-winning news teams in Europe on stories ranging from the Euro crisis to the death of Pope John Paul II; and from natural disasters such as the l’Aquila earthquake to various European national elections. In 2013, after more than twenty years at the BBC, Sean launched the media consultancy, SeanKlein Media. The company - based in London and Brussels - advises and trains government and EU officials, European lobby groups, industry and NGOs on all aspects of broadcast media. Sean also moderates conferences on EU-related topics throughout Europe.


Ingrid KlingmannChairman - European Forum for Good Clinical PracticeDr. med. Ingrid Klingmann specialized in General Medicine, Clinical Phar-macology and Pharmaceutical Medicine. After having joined the phar-maceutical industry as medical advisor, she held senior management positions in different international contract research organisations and was responsible for operational, scientific, regulatory and business aspects of international clinical research projects from Phase I to Phase IV. Since January 2003 she has her own pharmaceutical development and site management support consulting company. Dr. Klingmann is Chairman of the Board of the European Forum for Good Clinical Prac-tice (EFGCP) and president of PharmaTrain Federation. She had and has leadership roles in different EU- and IMI-funded projects dealing with education and training in pharmaceutical medicine, patient education in medicine development, in projects on paediatric medicine and anti-biotics development. Dr. Klingmann chairs the clinical research module of the post-graduate Master in the Regulatory Affairs course at the University of Bonn, Germany, co-chairs the Diploma Course in Clinical Trial Practices at the University of Basel, Switzerland, and is lecturer in the ECPM course at University of Basel and in the Pharmed course at Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.

Ingrid KösslerMember - European Economic and Social CommitteeIngrid Kössler has been president of the Swedish Breast Cancer Associa-tion 2001-2010 president of EUROPA DONNA 2006- 2008. She served as a board member of the Swedish Cancer Society 2005-2009 and was expert in the Official Inquiry on a National Cancer Control Strategy and is now involved in the implementation of the National Cancer Control Strategy in Sweden. Ingrid Kössler is Member of the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels since 2006. She was reporter of the opinions on: The European Partnership for Action Against Cancer, Proposal for a direc-tive of the European Parliament and of the Council relating to the transpa-rency of measures regulating the prices of medicinal products for human use and their inclusion in the scope of public health insurance systems and Clinical trials on medicinal products for human use.

N. Peter KramerEditor-in-chief - European Business ReviewNicolaas (Peter) Kramer is a Brussels based journalist/EU-correspondent; he is editor-in-chief of European Business Review (Athens/London), pre-sident of PressClub Brussels-Europe and former international secretary-general of Association of European Journalists.

Jacek KrawczykPresident - Employers’ Group of the European Economic and Social CommitteePresident of the Employers’ Group of the European Economic and Social Committee. Between 2010 and 2013, Mr Krawczyk served as vice-president of the EESC with responsibility for the budget. He is Vice-president of the Confederation Lewiatan, the largest organisation of private employers in Poland. Furthermore, Jacek Krawczyk is the EESC rapporteur for Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and for numerous opinions on the aviation industry. He is a former chairman of the supervisory board of LOT Polish Airlines, an entrepreneur with many years’ experience, a former board member and CEO of several banks and companies from various sectors of the economy.

Adem KumcuPresident - UNITEE President of UNITEE-New European Business Confederation since 2011, Dr Adem Kumcu has long combined his multiple entrepreneurial experience with a career in academia. He obtained a PhD in Social and Economic Sciences from the University of Amsterdam in 2001 and has worked for various Commissions of the Dutch Ministries, as well as Pro-gram Manager for Diversity and Integration Policy at the Municipality of Utrecht and as Strategic Advisor of the Executive Board of Utrecht University. He was Urban Economist for WIBW and Scientific Researcher at the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies of the University of Amsterdam. Dr Kumcu is also an active promoter of social and cultural entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility.

Taneli LahtiHead of Cabinet of Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis – European CommissionTaneli Lahti is an EU official, currently serving as Head of Office for Val-dis Dombrovskis, European Commission Vice President for the Euro and Social Dialogue. Trained in economics in Finland and Germany, Mr Lahti began his career in the Finnish diplomatic service. As an official of the European Commission, he has specialised in Economic and Monetary policy, EU-Russia relations and EU Enlargement. Before working for Vice President Dombrovskis, he worked as Head of Office for EU Vice Pres-ident Jyrki Katainen, as advisor to EU Vice President Olli Rehn and pre-viously in the EU Delegation in Moscow.


Philippe LambertsCo-chair Group of Greens - European ParliamentPhilippe Lamberts was elected in June 2009 for a first term in the European Parliament. In May 2014, he was re-elected for a second term and appointed Co-President of the Green group in the European Parliament. His political career within the Belgian green party started in 1991. As of 1999, he became more and more involved with European politics, and more specifically through the European Green Party, of which he has been the co-president from 2006 to 2012. As Member of the European Parliament, he focuses on economic and financial questions, and has become a specialist on fiscal, banking and macroeconomic issues. He also deals with industrial, research and innovation matters, and has a great interest in relations with China. Philippe Lamberts is currently co-chair of the Greens/EFA political group with Rebecca Harms. During this term, he aims to reinforce the Greens both within and outside the EU institutions and to continue his work on the financial regulation front.

Karl-Heinz LambertzFirst Vice-President - Committee of RegionsKarl-Heinz Lambertz was born on 4 June 1952 in Schoppen, Belgium. After having completed his studies in Law, Karl-Heinz Lambertz started his acade-mic career in 1976 as an Assistant Lecturer at the Law Department of the Catholic University of Louvain-La-Neuve (UCL) and then worked as a Lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the UCL. Between 1984 and 1990, he was also active as the President of the Socialist Party of the German-speaking Community of Belgium. From 1990 onwards he held different ministries in the government of Belgium’s German-speaking Community. In 1999 he also became Minister-President of the German-speaking Community, a political office that he held until May 2014, when he became President of the Parliament of the German-speaking Community. Since 2000, Karl-Heinz Lambertz has been Member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe and is currently the President of its Socialist Group. From March 2013 until June 2014, he has been President of the Euregio Maas-Rhine (EMR). He is also the President of the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR). Member of the Committee of the Regions since 1999, he was President of the PES Group from June 2011 to February 2015, when he was elected First Vice-President of the Committee of the Regions.

Mikel Landabaso Head of Cabinet of Commissioner Corina Cretu - European CommissionMikel Landabaso works in the European Commission since 1990. He is Head of Cabinet of Regional Policy Commissioner Corina Cretu. Previous-ly he has worked as Head of Unit of the Competence Centre on Smart and Sustainable growth in the Directorate General for Regional Policy. Before that, he has worked as assistant to the Director General of DG Regio and in both, policy design and policy implementation. He was also Head of the Research Department and Assistant to the Director general of the Basque Regional Development Agency (SPRI S.A.) 1986-1990.

Ola LandströmLegal Adviser - Swedish National Board of TradeOla Landström joined the National Board of Trade in 2010. Among his areas of expertise are e-commerce and the Services Directive and he co-authored a survey of trade barriers for e-commerce in the EU (2011). He holds a Master of Law degree from Uppsala University in Sweden and a Certificat de droit français et européen from Université Paris, La Sorbonne, France.

Jean-Pierre LartigueHead of Corporate Strategy - Alcatel-LucentJean-Pierre Lartigue is the head of Corporate Strategy at Alcatel-Lucent. Prior to this, Jean-Pierre was Vice-President, in charge of the Marketing and Stra-tegy successively within Alcatel-Lucent’s Wireline and Wireless Divisions. In particular, Jean-Pierre has led the product marketing launch of award-winning lightRadio™. He has been closely involved in defining Alcatel-Lucent’s FTTH strategy, board member of the FTTH Council Europe and a strong proponent of deep fiber development in Europe. Prior to joining Alcatel-Lucent in 2002, Jean-Pierre was with the management consulting firm, Boston Consulting Group. Jean-Pierre holds a Masters Degree in Engineering from the French School of Telecommunication Engineers and is a published author of several papers and articles.

Céline LaurenceauManaging Director - Talent & Organization Performance Lead for France - Accenture Strategy Céline graduated from Audencia (1996) and has followed a Stege at ESCP EAP (2007) as well as an executive training in ENS (2008). During her career at Accenture, Céline has helped clients in defining HR strategy, conducting global HR operating model transformations, improving HR business process, tackling Talent Management issues (diversity, engagement …) and imple-menting Leadership program in a number of industries such as automotive, retail and banking. Céline has taken part to the Commission Attali to boost the French Growth and is a member of the National Association of VP HR in France (ANDRH). Céline has published various articles on topics such leader-ship, diversity and women’s leadership.

Isabelle LebrocquyCancer Survivor, Patient Advocate and Social Entrepreneur - oPuceIsabelle Lebrocquy lost her job when she had colon cancer. This motivated her to improve labour participation after cancer. She founded oPuce to help create jobs after cancer and to inspire employers and society to look differently at cancer survivors. She set up an online survey: 25% of the 1.000 respondents lost their job. A number of universities have now been involved in finding solutions. The EORTC has started a special program for cancer survivorship. Isabelle asked the Dutch Parliament to adapt social legislation and to install a plan of action for Cancer & Work. The Netherlands is now one of the first countries addressing the burdens of cancer survivorship.


Dominique Leroy is the CEO of the Belgian telecommunication company Belgacom. The ministers of the Belgian Cabinet appointed Dominique Leroy as successor to Didier Bellens on 9 January 2014. Since June 2012, she has been Executive Vice President of the consumer business unit and was a member of the management committee of Belgacom. Earlier she was an independent board member of Lotus Bakeries (since 2009). Before joining Belgacom she worked for 24 years at Unilever where she was managing Director of Unilever Belgium from September 2007 until October 2011.

Philip LevinLegal Adviser - Swedish National Board of TradePhilip Levin started working for the National Board of Trade in 2011, focusing on the free movement of services in general and the services directive and e-commerce in particular. He has also worked with EU consumer law at the European Consumer Centre (ECC-Net) at the Swe-dish Consumer Agency, and he has been a member of the National Board of Consumer Disputes. He holds a Master of Laws degree from Uppsala University in Sweden and has studied law at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University in Toronto, Canada.

Olivier LindenSenior Legal Adviser - Swedish National Board of TradeOlivier joined the National Board of Trade some 10 years ago and has, since then, been involved in a number of e-commerce projects. Notably, Olivier co-authored a survey of trade barriers for e-commerce in the EU (2011) and the report “Online Trade, Offline Rules” (2015). An expert in EU law and in e-commerce, Olivier participated in several committees on the digital economy set up by Swedish trade organisations. Olivier has a background as a business lawyer, working in private practices and for major corporations in Europe and in Asia. Olivier graduated from Sciences-po Strasbourg and holds a French law degree as well as a Mas-ter degree in EU law.

Gianpiero LolitoFounder & Chief Exective Officer - FacilityLiveSince 2010 Gianpiero Lotito is the founder, with Mariuccia Teroni, of FacilityLive, a startup that is launching on the international market a next generation search engine. FacilityLive owns patents in 43 countries including USA, Europe, Japan, Israel and Korea. Gianpiero is a techno-logist, with a musical career behind, working for over twenty years on innovative projects in the publishing world and on technologies applied to content. He taught Multimedia Publishing at the University of Milan and wrote books and articles on technology for major Italian editors like Bruno Mondadori and Kataweb-L’Espresso. Gianpiero is “Ambassador” for “e-Skills for Jobs” under the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs of the European Commission.

Edward LucasEnergy Editor - The EconomistEdward Lucas is a senior editor at The Economist, responsible for cove-rage of energy, commodities and natural resources. He is also a senior vice-president at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA)., a Washington DC think-tank. His expertise includes energy, cyber-security, espionage, Russian foreign and security policy and the politics and eco-nomics of Eastern Europe. Edward is the author of several books. Cyber-phobia, a book on security, identity, privacy and anonymity in the digital age, will be published in mid-2015. The Snowden Operation, a critical account of the leaks from the NSA in 2013, appeared as a Kindle Single in 2014. His prescient and best-selling analysis of the threat posed by the Putin regime in Russia, The New Cold War, originally written in 2007 was republished last year in a revised and updated edition.

Mauro Macchi Senior Managing Director Management Consulting, Health & Public Service Strategy & Transformation - Accenture Strategy, Europe, Africa and Latin AmericaSenior Managing Director Management Consulting, Health & Public Service Strategy & Transformation - Accenture Strategy, Europe, Africa and Latin America. Mauro Macchi is senior managing director for Europe, Africa and Latin America within Accenture Strategy. His role focuses on enabling organizations across all industries to improve their com-petitive advantage in markets that are being transformed by digital technologies. Mr. Macchi has more than 25 years of experience working for Accenture. Prior to his current role, he was managing director of Accenture Management Consulting for Italy, Eastern Europe and Emer-ging Markets. At the beginning of his career, Mr. Macchi contributed to establishing the strategy group in Italy. He led several projects involving mergers and acquisitions (M&A), corporate strategy and sales and distri-bution, primarily for the banking industry. Mr. Macchi has a Bachelor of Science in economics and a Master of Business Administration from the Graduate School of Management at the University of California. He is based in Milan, Italy.


Thierry MalletExecutive Vice President in charge of Innovation and Business Performance - Suez EnvironmentThierry Mallet began his career working for the French Ministry of Transport between 1987 and 1989, and then moved to the Générale des Eaux Group, where he held various positions, primarily as Head of the water activities in Spain between 1995 and 1997, and in North America between 1997 and 1999. Thierry joined Degrémont as Executive Vice- President in 2002, working closely with Jean-Louis Chaussade, who was the company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at that time, before becoming Chief Executive Officer in June 2004, a position that he held until October 2009, when he became Chairman. On 1 October 2009, Thierry Mallet was appointed as Senior Vice President in charge of International Operations. Since 15 April 2013, Thierry Mallet is Exe-cutive Vice President of Innovation and Business Performance for SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT.

Emma Marcegaglia President - BUSINESSEUROPEEmma Marcegaglia is Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mar-cegaglia S.p.A., which is a leading group in steel processing. President of Confindustria from May 2008 until May 2012. President of Luiss Guido Carli University from July 2010. Furthermore she is the President of Mita Resort, the company in charge of running the Forte Village touristic resort in Santa Margherita of Pula (Cagliari). She is also in the Board of Direc-tors of the following companies: Bracco and Gabetti Property Solutions. Since June 2003 Emma Marcegaglia has been President of Areté Onlus Foundation for the support of the activities of Vita-Salute San Raffaele. In the past she has held the following offices: President of Societé Turismo & Immobiliare, a joint venture, in equal shares, between Gabetti Property Solutions, Marcegaglia and Pirelli R.E. Vice President of Italia Turismo. Member of the Management Board of Banco Popolare of Italcementi and Indesit Company, Member of the Board of Directors of Finecobank. She has been Vice President of Confindustria, with a proxy for infrastructures, energy, transport and environment from May 2004 until May 2008 and Ita-lian Representative in the High Level Group for energy, competitiveness, and environment created by the European Commission. She has been Vice President of Confindustria for Europe from 2000 until 2002, National Pres-ident of Confindustria Young Entrepreneurs from 1996 till 2000, President of YES (Young Entrepreneurs for Europe) from 1997 till 2000, National Vice President of Confindustria Young Entrepreneurs from 1994 till 1996.

Eleni MarianouSecretary General - Conference for Peripheral Maritime Regions of EuropeMrs Marianou has been active in European activity in Brussels for over 20 years. She is currently elected Secretary General of the Conference for Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe (CPMR), managing 20 staff members based in Rennes and Brussels, with responsibility in advising

and directing policy development and strategic leadership in the areas of territorial cohesion, EU governance, balanced competitiveness, mari-time policy and sustainable development.

Mario MarinielloResearch Fellow - BruegelMario Mariniello joined Bruegel in October 2012. From 2007 to 2012, Mario was a member of the Chief Economist Team at DG-Competition, European Commission. He holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Organization from the European University Institute of Fiesole (Florence). During the time he spent at the European Commission, he developed the economic analysis of a number of topical Antitrust and Merger cases such as Qualcomm, oneworld and Star alliances, ebooks, KLM/Martinair, Newscorp/BSkyB, UPM/Myllykoski. He also participated to the drafting of the new European Guidelines for the application of Art.101 TFEU to Horizontal Cooperation Agreements. Mario’s work at Bruegel focuses on European competition policy and regulation issues. His columns and policy works are published or quoted in leading in-ternational media, such as Wall Street Journal, New York Times, La Tribune, Project Syndicate, Vox, Les Echos, De Standaard and others.

Nicholas MartynDeputy Director General of DG Regional Policy - European CommissionNicholas Martyn practised as a lawyer in England for 10 years. Since 1988 he has worked as a civil servant in the European Commission in Brussels. During his career at the Commission he has worked as a lawyer in the area of agriculture, held posts relating to financial control and audit, and for the last fifteen years worked in the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy. He was director of audit for 5 years, and subsequently director of a geographic directorate responsible for the management of programmes in six Member States. In 2011 he was appointed Deputy Director-General, and he has responsibility for performance, policy and compliance. As DDG, he had particular responsibility for the preparation and negotiation of the legislative package for Cohesion Policy for the 2014-2020 period.

Ian McCarthyDirector of Programmes - Liverpool VisionIan’s background is in the built environment and local economic deve-lopment, particularly area based regeneration, community business and business economics. In the mid 1990s Ian become Head of the Economic Initiatives at Manchester City Council with a focus on supporting the City’s economic regeneration, development projects, business support and international trade activity. In 2002, Ian became a Director at Liver-pool Vision, a key member of the team, which delivered the comprehen-sive redevelopment of Liverpool City Centre, from 2000-2009. Currently the Festival Director for the UK’s International Festival for Business. He successfully established the Festival in 2014. Now he is planning the delivery of the second Festival to take place in Liverpool in June 2016.


Françoise MeunierDirector Special Projects - European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer, EORTCSince 1991, Françoise Meunier has managed EORTC, a major European organisation in oncology with a network of 2500 oncologists in 300 uni-versities. As Director Special Projects, she is now responsible for public relations, communications and the survivorship program. She is mem-ber of numerous international scientific societies and received several awards for her contribution to oncology. In 2007, she was conferred the title of Baroness by His Majesty, King Albert II of the Belgians. She is a board member of the Federation of European Academies of Medicine), the Académie Royale de Médecine de Belgique and of the Centre Scien-tifique de Monaco.

Charles MichelPrime Minister of BelgiumIn 1994, at the age of only 18, Charles Michel polled 4,000 preference votes in the provincial elections, thereby winning a seat as a member of the Walloon Brabant provincial council, before becoming vice-chairman of this body the following year. He studied at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the University of Amsterdam, graduating with a law degree in 1998, and was elected to the Chamber of Representatives (the lower house of the Belgian federal parliament) in 1999. In 2000, aged just 24, he took up the post of Walloon Minister for Interior Affairs. He was elected to the municipal council of Wavre the same year, going on to become an alderman in 2004 and mayor two years later. He was re-elec-ted as a member of the federal parliament at the 2007 elections, achie-ving 42,088 preference votes in the constituency of Walloon Brabant. On 21 December 2007, he took office as Federal Minister for Development Cooperation. Having won the Mouvement Réformateur (MR – Reformist Movement) party leadership election, he tendered his ministerial resi-gnation on 14 February 2011. After the May 2014 federal elections, King Philippe appointed him informateur and then, along with Kris Peeters, co-formateur of the federal government. On 7 October 2014, a coalition agreement was signed by the four parties involved in the negotiations (N-VA, CD&V, Open VLD and MR) and on 11 October, Charles Michel and the members of his government swore the oath to King Philippe. At 38 years old, the new Prime Minister was the youngest head of a Belgian federal government since the Second World War.

Iskra MihaylovaChair of Regional Development Committee – European Parliament Iskra Mihaylova was born in 1957 in Sofia. She was Deputy Minister of Regional Development of Bulgaria (2005-2009). During 2009-2013 she was Member of Bulgaria’s 41st Parliament (2009-2013) and Chair of the Parliament’s Committee on Environment and Waters. From May 2013 up to June 2014 Iskra Mihaylova was Minister of the Environment and Wa-ters of Bulgaria. She has participated in numerous international forums as a lecturer and as an official representative of Bulgaria in her capacity of Deputy Minister, Member of Parliament, and Minister in EU Member States, the U.S., Israel, China, Georgia, Armenia, Serbia, and Azerbaijan. Since 01.07.2015 she has become Member of the European Parliament to the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. Iskra Mihaylova is Chair of the Committee on Regional Development at the European Parliament. She is also substitute at the Committee on Envi-ronment, Public \health and Food Safety. Iskra Mihaylova is Member of the Delegation to the EU-Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Joint Parliamentary Committee, Delegation to the EU-Armenia, EU-Azerbaijan and EU-Georgia Parliamentary Cooperation Committees and the Delega-tion to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly

Wim MijsChief Executive Officer - European Banking FederationWim Mijs worked at the International Court of Arbitration at the Peace Palace in The Hague until 1993. Wim then joined ABN AMRO in Amster-dam before moving to Brussels to head up the ABN AMRO EU Liaison Of-fice. Wim moved back to The Hague in 2002 where he became the Head of Government Affairs for ABN AMRO. From 2001 – 2007 Wim was chair of the Financial Markets Committee of the European Banking Federa-tion. In 2007 Wim was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Dutch Banking Association. In this role Wim was chairman of the Executive Committee of the European Banking Federation (2012 – 2014). In 2011 he was appointed chairman of the International Banking Federation in London and as from January 2013 he was also appointed as President of the Board of EURIBOR.

Montserrat MirInternational and Development Secretary - CC.OO Trade UnionMontserrat Mir joined CC.OO on 1993 through the postal sector. She was member of the Executive Committee of Correos, International Secretary of the Postal Sector, and member of the Council of the Federation of Com-munication and Transport. In 2008 she was appointed to CC.OO Executive Board. In the 10th Congress of CCOO she was elected as International and Cooperation Secretary. She is member of ETUC Executive Committee, de-puty member in ITUC General Council and Workers Delegate at ILO. Since 2000 she has been working in the European Social Dialogue Committee of the Postal Sector in Brussels. She is also a founding member of the Euro-pean Social Observatory of the Postal Sector and has participated in the negotiation of four European agreements between unions and employer


Carlos MoedasCommissioner for Research, Science and Innovation - European CommissionCarlos Moedas worked in engineering for the Suez-Lyonnaise des Eaux group in France until 1998. He obtained an MBA from Harvard Business School (USA) in 2000, after which he returned to Europe to work in mer-gers and acquisitions at investment bank Goldman Sachs in London (UK). He returned to Portugal in 2004 as Managing Director of Aguirre New-man and member of the Executive Board of Aguirre Newman in Spain. In 2008, he founded his own investment company, Crimson Investment management. In 2011, he was elected to the National Parliament and was called by the government as Secretary of State to the Prime Minis-ter of Portugal in charge of the Portuguese Adjustment Programme. In 2014, he became a Member of the European Commission, as Commissio-ner in charge of Research, Science and Innovation.

Wilhelm MoltererVice-President - European Investment BankWilhelm Molterer is a Vice-President of the European Investment Bank since 2011. Previously, he was Austria’s Vice Chancellor and Federal Mi-nister of Finance (2007-2008), Federal Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management (1994-2002) and a long-time Member of Parliament (first elected in 1990). He is a member of the Austrian People’s Party, having been its Secretary General (1993-1994), Vice-Chairman (1995-2007), Chairman (2007-2008), and Chairman of its Parliamentary Group (2002-2006).

Bruno MoorChairman - EUREKADuring his professional life Bruno H. Moor was responsible for various aspects of the security policy. As Colonel of the Swiss Armed Forces he participated in different activities of the United Nations. In 1996 he was made head of division at the Directorate for Security Policy and later at the Ministry of Defence. Today, Bruno H. Moor is head of the ‘Inter-national Cooperation in Research and Innovation’ division at the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation. In that function he is responsible for the participation of Switzerland in the large Euro-pean infrastructures, the framework programmes for research of the European Commission, in COST and EUREKA. During the Swiss EUREKA Chairmanship 2014/2015 he has been appointed by the Ministry of Eco-nomic Affairs, Education and Research to the position of Chairman of the EUREKA High Level Group.

Christian MoralesVice-President General Manager EMEA - IntelChristian Morales is corporate Vice President and general manager of Intel Europe, Middle East and Africa. He is responsible for Intel product sales and marketing in the EMEA region. Morales has held senior inter-national management roles in sales, channel operations and general management. He brings extensive experience in marketing and building brand awareness for new product segments, as well as a strong back-ground in expanding and driving Intel’s business into new and emerging markets. Prior to this role, Morales was Intel’s vice president of the Sales and Marketing Group and co-general manager of Asia Pacific responsible for implementing Intel’s strategies in Asia. He was also responsible for championing Intel’s worldwide emerging markets strategy.

Pierre MoscoviciCommissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs - European CommissionPierre Moscovici is a French politician who served in the government of France as Minister of Finance from 2012 to 2014. Previously he was Minister for European Affairs from 1997 to 2002. A member of the French Socialist Party (PS), he has been a member of the Departmental Council of Doubs and of the French and European Parliaments, he has also been National Secretary of his party since 1995. On May 2014, the Prime Minis-ter of France has entrusted him with a six-month mission to assess how European policies can better contribute to growth and employment. On July 2014, the French President François Hollande proposed him to be France’s representative in the next European Commission. On September 2014, he was named as European Commissioner for Economic and Finan-cial Affairs, Taxation and Customs.

Emmanuel Mourlon-DruolUniversity of GlasgowEmmanuel Mourlon-Druol is Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Fellow at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow. He is also Visiting Profes-sor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and Visiting Fellow at Bruegel. Emmanuel’s research ranges across a variety of topics in European and international economic relations, including European monetary inte-gration, the development of Western European financial regulation and the rise of the European Council. He is the author of A Europe Made of Money: the Emergence of the European Monetary System (Cornell UP, 2012) and has edited International Summitry and Global Governance: the Rise of the G7 and the European Council (Routledge, 2014, with Federico Romero). His publications appear in journals such as West Euro-pean Politics, Business History, Cold War History and Diplomacy & Sta-tecraft. Emmanuel holds a PhD from the European University Institute (EUI) and an MSc from the London School of Economics. He is fluent in French, English, German and Italian.


Jayson MyersPresident & Chief Executive Officer - Canadian Manufacturers & ExportersJayson Myers is the President and CEO of Canadian Manufacturers & Expor-ters, Canada’s largest industry and trade association and principal Canadian partner within the Enterprise Europe Network. Mr. Myers is Chair of the Canadian Manufacturing Coalition, a coalition of 52 industry associations that have come together to speak with a common voice on priority issues for Canada’s manufacturing sector. He is also Chair of the Enterprise Canada Network, a network of private and public sector agencies working together to identify qualified leads for technology partnership opportunities for small Canadian businesses. Mr. Myers is an advisor to Canada’s Minister for Interna-tional Trade, Minister of Industry and the Canadian Border Services Agency.

Julián José Nebreda MarquezPresident EMEA and CIS - AESJulián J. Nebreda is the AES Corporation President for Europe and Middle East, with broad experience in the power, legal and financial sectors. He has held senior positions in AES, such as Senior VP for Europe, VP for Central America and Caribbean, CEO of La Electricidad de Caracas in Caracas, Vene-zuela and President of AES Dominicana, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Repu-blic. Prior to AES, Nebreda held positions in the public and private sectors, namely Counsellor to the Executive Director from Panama and Venezuela at the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) in Washington, D.C.

Rudolf NiesslerDirector for Policy coordination, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy – European CommissionRudolf Niessler was born in Austria. He studied economics and infor-matics at the Vienna University and holds a PhD in economics. After qualifying he worked in economic research at the Institute for Advanced Studies and at the Institute for less favoured areas and mountainous in Vienna. In 1991 he moved to the Federal Chancellery and was detached to the OECD in Paris where he was councillor for trade and environment. In 1997 he joined the European Commission. He served as Head of Unit in several functions covering Responsibilities such as impact assessment and urban affairs. In 2007 He was appointed Director for Policy Coordi-nation. Since 2012 he is responsible for the overall policy strategy for Cohesion Policy. This covers impact assessment in relation to the EU economic governance and the relationship with the EIB group and other international financial institutions.

Johanna NymanPresident - European Youth ForumJohanna Nyman is the President of the European Youth Forum. Johanna, 25, lives in Helsinki where she studies environmental change and politics at Helsinki University. Johanna has a long background in youth organisa-tions. She joined the Scouts at the age of twelve and held various posi-tions within the Scouts and Guides of Finland. She was an activist in the school student movement, and acted as Vice-Chair of the Swedish-Spea-king School Student Union of Finland. She previously served as President of Allianssi’s (the National Youth Council of Finland) international commit-tee. In 2013-2014 she was a board member of the European Youth Forum.

Peter O’DonnellJournalist - European VoicePeter O’Donnell has been covering European and international affairs as a freelance journalist for more than twenty-five years. In Brussels he has written for The Financial Times, The Sunday Times, Reuters, the Economist Intelligence Unit, and UPI, among other media outlets in Europe and beyond, as well as doing tv and radio work. He was editor-in-chief of Europe Information Service, and is currently associate editor of European Voice. In addition to his work as a journalist, he has acted as editor, editorial adviser and speechwriter for the corporate, political and academic world. He frequently chairs EU-level policy debates across Europe, and lectures on EU affairs and journalism.

Günther OettingerCommissioner for Digital Economy and Society – European CommissionGünther H. Oettinger is European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society since 1st November 2014. On 10 February 2010 he became European Commissioner for Energy and from 1st July – 31st October 2014, he was Vice-president of the European Commission. From 2005-2010, he was Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg (Germany) and, since 1984, a member of the regional Parliament («Landtag»). He was the leader of the CDU Landtag group from January 1991 to April 2005. A lawyer by training, Günther H. Oettinger became actively involved in politics during his adolescence. He is a member of the Federal Executive Com-mittee and of the Steering Committee of the CDU Deutschlands.


Mark PearsonSenior Managing Director Management Consulting, Health & Public Service Strategy & Transformation – Accenture StrategyMark Pearson is senior managing director for Operations within Accen-ture Strategy. His role focuses on assisting clients to develop dynamic supply chain and service operations capabilities to more rapidly respond to changing customer demands and market opportunities across North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific. Mr. Pearson has more than 26 years of experience working for Accenture, specializing in supply chain management transformation programs across procurement, ful-fillment and service management. Mr. Pearson has worked in a diverse range industries, including consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, telecommunications, high-tech and automotive. Most recently, he has worked with organizations in the chemicals and agro-sciences industries, where he is responsible for developing innovative supply chain strategies for a range of different organizations. In the recent past, Mr. Pearson has been responsible for the definition and execution of the Accenture supply chain mastery research—one of the largest pieces of empirical research into high-performing supply chains. Mr. Pearson has first class honors degrees in business administration and in German from Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom. He is based in Munich, Germany.

Ulf PehrssonVice President Head of Government and Industry Relations - EricssonMr. Pehrsson is responsible for Telecom, Regulatory & Trade Policy at Ericsson. Leveraging over twenty-five years of experience in government and telecommunication, Mr. Pehrsson is the architect of the company’s strategic focus on developing strong ties to Governments and Regula-tors around the world. Prior to joining Ericsson, Mr. Pehrsson served as the Deputy Director-General, Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA), Director, Ministry for Industry and Trade working primarily in the trade policy, trade & investment promotion and EU Single Market fields as well as represented the Swedish government at various embassies around the world. Currently Mr. Pehrsson is on the board of a number of organizations such as the Swedish IT and Telecom Industries, the Swedish Foreign Trade Association, International Council of Swedish Industry (NIR), ICC (Inter-national Chamber of Commerce) Vice-chair of the Trade & Investment Commission, ICC Sweden, Chair of the Computer/Telecom Group as well as the Trade Policy Group, SPIDER - Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions and the Palestine International Business Forum. Mr. Pehrsson holds a Master of Business Administration from the Stockholm School of Economics. Mr. Pehrsson is married with three children.

Mauro PetriccioneDirector General of the Directorate General for Trade – European CommissionRaffaele Mauro Petriccione was born in Italy (Taranto) in 1957 and gra-duated in Law from the University of Bari in 1982. After a brief spell doing research at the same University and performing military service in the Italian Navy (officer of the Coast Guard), he moved to London in 1984, first as a Visiting Research Scholar at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and then as postgraduate student at the London School of Economics. He obtained an LL.M. from the University of London in 1986, and then worked as in-house Attorney for IBM Italy in Milan for a little less than a year. He joined the European Commission in September 1987, and has worked in trade policy since then, covering a wide range of activities, negotiations (both multilateral and bilateral) and areas: from trade defence to standards, investment, competition, WTO, dispute settlement, or relations with Member States and the other European Institutions. He was director in the Directorate General for Trade cove-ring WTO and OECD coordination and Dispute settlement (2004-2006), policy coordination (2007), Services & Investment, Bilateral trade rela-tions with the Americas and the Far East (2007-2012) and finally Asia and Latin America (2012-2014), before becoming Deputy Director Gene-ral of the Directorate General for Trade in 2014.

Iván Pineda Director of Public Affairs - European Wind Energy Association, EWEAIván Pineda is Director of Public Affairs at the European Wind Energy Asso-ciation (EWEA), Europe’s leading renewable energy industry association. He oversees EWEA’s work on advocacy, business intelligence and EU-fun-ded projects. Iván has taken on various roles since joining EWEA in 2011 including Head of the Policy Analysis department. Before joining EWEA, he has worked for several years for global companies including as Process Engineer for Procter and Gamble and Finance Management for Carrefour.

Guo PingDeputy Chairman of the Board of Directors and rotating CEO - HuaweiMr. Guo is Deputy Chairman of Huawei’s Board of Directors and Chairman of Huawei’s Finance Committee. Since 2003, Mr. Guo has also served as President of the Corporate Development Dept. In this role, Mr. Guo over-sees Huawei’s corporate development strategy, M&A, and other invest-ment activities. He has led dozens of Huawei’s M&A and investment transactions around the world, helping Huawei to successfully establish joint ventures, including H3C (a joint venture with 3Com), TD Tech (a joint venture with Siemens), Huawei Symantec, and Huawei Marine. Mr. Guo served as President and Chairman of Huawei Device from 2004 to 2011, helping the company develop into a world-leading network device provider; Huawei Device is now one of Huawei’s most important busi-ness divisions. Since joining Huawei’s R&D Dept in 1988, Mr. Guo has held several senior positions, including Head of Huawei’s Supply Chain, Chief Information Officer, and Chief Legal Officer.


Michael PrivotDirector - European Network Against Racism, AISBLMichael started as Networking and Campaigns Officer in the ENAR team in January 2006 and became ENAR Director in March 2010. He is also an international expert on radicalisation processes within Muslim communities. Previously, he worked for four years as FNRS Research Fellow at the University of Liège (Belgium). He has more than a decade of experience in community building of Muslim communities in Belgium and Europe. He has authored a book with T. Oubrou and C. Baylocq on imams in France, a number of academic publications, published op-ed articles and appeared in a variety of media, including Euronews, Voice of America, Al Jazeera, Le Soir, RTBF and European Voice.

Viviane RedingMember - European ParliamentViviane Reding is one of the most prominent personalities of Europe, completing 3 terms as member of the European Government, currently Member of the European Parliament in charge of International Trade and Rapporteur for the TiSA agreement (Trade in Services agreement). In 1999, she became European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport. In 2004, she became EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media. She was instrumental in the reform of the European telecom sector, opening the internal market to competition. In 2010, she became first Vice-President and EU Commissioner responsible for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship. She put in place a truly EU Justice policy, launching a series of groundbreaking proposals thus crea-ting the basis for a European area of justice.

Andrea RendaSenior Fellow - Centre for European Policy Studies, CEPSProf. Dr. Andrea Renda is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Euro-pean Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels. He is an ongoing consultant for several institutions, including the European Commission, the European Parliament, the World Bank and several national governments on issues related to better and smart regulation. He is Professor at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome (Italy). He is also Part-Time Professor at the European University Institute in Florence (Italy). He was the author of the European Commission’s pilot study on administrative burdens, the lead author of the study on the costs and benefits of regulation for the European Commission’s Secretariat General, and the lead author of the recent cumulative cost assessments of the European Commission in a number of economic sectors (steel, aluminium, furniture).

Bernd ReichertHead of Unit - European Agency for Small and Medium EnterprisesUniversity studies and PhD in physical chemistry and quantum physics at the Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany). After Post-Doc studies at the Technical Universities of Berlin and Munich, he joined the European Com-mission, Directorate General for Research, in 1992. There he has held several

assignments as programme officer in the areas chemistry, biotechnology, nanotechnology as well as science and society, until he became Head of Administration of the directorate «Industrial Technologies» in 2003. From 2007 until the end of 2013 he was heading the unit «Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises» in the Commission’s Research and Innovation Directorate General. Since 1 January 2014 he is responsible for setting-up the activities «Horizon 2020: Small and Medium-Sized Companies» , in particular the implementation of the SME Instrument under Horizon 2020, within the European Agency for Small and Medium-Sized Companies (EASME).

Jorgo RissDirector - Greenpeace European UnitJorgo directs the European government affairs of Greenpeace where he manages policy-, legal- and communications- experts and advises direc-tors of national offices in Europe on EU-focused advocacy. To ensure socially and environmentally sustainable production and heal-thy food for this and future generations, Greenpeace promotes ecological farming which nurtures biodiversity and protects soils, water and climate, and campaigns to prevent the cultivation of GM crops and reduce the use of chemicals in agriculture. Within EU civil society Jorgo, is a representa-tive of the Green 10 alliance of environmental NGOs and a board member of the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation.

Eckhardt RümmlerChief Executive Officer - E. ON Climate & RenewablesSince 2014, Eckhardt Ruemmler has been CEO of both E.ON Climate & Renewables and E.ON Generation. With more than 27 years of expe-rience in the utility industry, Eckhardt has held a number of execu-tive management positions in the E.ON Group, including Senior Vice President Strategy & Corporate Development, Senior Vice President Upstream/Generation both at E.ON SE, and Member of the Managing Board of E.ON Energie. Eckhardt Ruemmler joined E.ON predecessor PreussenElektra in 1994, subsequently managing conventional and renewable generation assets.

Luisa SantosDirector for International Affairs - BUSINESSEUROPEUntil 2003, Luisa Santos was Director of International Relations of APT–Portuguese Textile and Clothing Association and teacher at EGP – Oporto Management School. During 2003-2009, she was Member of the Execu-tive Council of “Riopele-Têxteis, S.A.”(one of the leading Textile Fashion companies in Portugal) responsible for International Partnerships and Outsourcing (2003-2009). She was also Chief Responsible for a Joint-Ven-ture Project in India between “Riopele-Têxteis, S.A.” and a local Partner (2007-2009). From 2009 till November 2013, she was Trade and Industry Manager at Euratex-European Apparel and Textile Confederation and also Administrator in CITH- Centre for Textile and Clothing Intelligence. Today, she is Director of International Relations in Businesseurope and a Member of the TTIP.


André Sapir Senior Scholar - BruegelAndré Sapir, a Belgian citizen, is Senior Fellow at Bruegel. He is a Professor of Economics at Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and a former econo-mic adviser to the president of the European Commission. In 2004, he pu-blished ‘An Agenda for a Growing Europe’, a report to the president of the Commission by a group of independent experts that is known as the Sapir report. André holds a PhD in Economics from The Johns Hopkins University, 1977. At ULB, he holds a chair in international economics and European integration. He is also a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). In addition, he is a member of European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso’s Economic Policy Analysis Group. André is a founding Editorial Board Member of the World Trade Review, published by Cambridge University Press and the World Trade Organisation.

Philippe SauquetPresident, Refining & Chemicals - Executive Committee Member - TOTALPhilippe Sauquet began his career in 1981 as a civil engineer at the French Ministry of Infrastructure. He subsequently worked at the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance. He joined chemical company Orkem in 1988 as Vice President, Strategy before being appointed Senior Vice President, Acrylics Sales & Marketing. He moved to Total in 1990 as Vice President, Anti-Corrosion Paints and was subsequently named Vice President, Chemicals Strategy. In 1997, Mr. Sauquet transferred to the Gas & Power Division, where he was successively Vice President, Americas; Vice President, International; Senior Vice President, Strategy & Renewables; Senior Vice President, Trading & Marketing, Gas & Power, based in London. He was appointed President of Gas & Power on July 1, 2012, in which capacity he also sat on the Group Management Commit-tee. On October 29, 2014, Mr. Sauquet was named President, Refining & Chemicals and joined Total’s Executive Committee.

Jack ScannellResearcher and former equity analyst - Sanford C. BernsteinDr Jack Scannell studies biomedical R&D productivity, particularly the puzzling contrast between cheaper and better scientific inputs, and what has been a long-term decline in output efficiency. He is an Associate Fellow at the Centre for the Advancement of Sustainable Innovation (CASMI) at Oxford University, an Associate Member of the Innogen Ins-tititute, and a Visiting Fellow at Edinburgh University. Before returning to academia, Jack was Head of Discovery Research at e-Therapeutics PLC, an Oxford-based biotechnology firm, applying bio-informatics methods to drug discovery. Prior to that, Jack worked in financial markets, in drug industry investment, leading the European Healthcare team at Sanford Bernstein between 2005 and 2012. From 1999 to 2005, Jack worked at the Boston Consulting Group with healthcare and financial clients. He has a PhD in Physiology (Computational Neuroscience) from Oxford University and a degree in Medical Sciences from Cambridge University.

Martin SchulzPresident - European ParliamentJoining the Social Democratic Party of Germany at the age of 19, Martin Schulz started out his political career. Aged 31, he was elected as the youngest mayor of North Rhine-Westphalia, a post he held for 11 years. Since 1994, Martin Schulz is a Member of the European Parliament and has served in a number of committees, first serving on the sub-committee on Human Rights and then on the Committee on Civil Liberties and Home Affairs. He led the SPD MEPs from 2000 and was subsequently elected Vice-Chair of the Socialist MEPs. In 2004 he was elected group leader of the second largest group in the European Parliament. As leader of the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, Martin Schulz cam-paigned for social justice, promoting jobs and growth, reforming financial markets, fighting climate change, championing equality and creating a stronger and more democratic Europe. Martin Schulz was elected Pres-ident of the European Parliament on 17 January 2012. On 1 July 2014 he was re-elected President, becoming the first President in the history of the European Parliament to be re-elected for a second term.

Maroš Šefčovič Vice-President for Energy Union - European CommissionMaroš Šefčovič is a Slovak career diplomat and since 1 November 2014 Vice President of the European Commission in charge of the Energy Union. In this capacity, he leads the «Energy Union» Project Team within the Commission, which comprises 14 commissioners. From 2010 – 2014 he was Vice President of the European Commission in charge of Inter-Ins-titutional Relations and Administration. In 2009-2010, he was European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth. From 2004 -2009, he was the Permanent Representative of the Slovak Republic to the European Union. As diplomat by profession he served between 1992 and 2004 in Zimbabwe and Canada and as Ambassador to Israel.

Frédéric SimonEditor & Publisher - EurActiv.comFrédéric Simon is publisher and editor of EurActiv.com. He joined EurAc-tiv in 2004 as a reporter to cover some of the EU’s most heated policy debates such as the REACH regulation on chemicals, energy liberali-sation, and the emissions trading scheme. In his current position, he oversees the editorial and technical development of EurActiv while continuing to write about EU affairs with a particular focus on economic and environmental issues. He is also Brussels correspondent for France 24, the 24/7 international TV channel. He graduated in journalism from Brussels University (ULB) in 1998 and holds a Master’s degree in EU poli-tics from the Institut d’Etudes Européennes (IEE) in Brussels.


Narry SinghManaging Director - AccentureNarry is a serial entrepreneur and advisor with over 17 years of expe-rience in building and managing digital businesses. He has been based in Silicon Valley for over 20 years and relocated to London last year to join Accenture as Managing Director, Head of Digital Strategy for Europe, Africa and Latin America. At Accenture, Narry’s team helps senior exe-cutives and their organizations digitally transform their business. This often results in significant changes in the way they grow, work, lead and partner to create new ventures. Most recently, he helped Outfit7 (creators of “Talking Tom” amongst other mobile apps) become a glo-bal mobile media powerhouse, with over 2 billion user installs in 104 countries. Today, Outfit7 has more active users than Twitter, is profi-table and never raised any external funding. Prior to Outfit7, he was on the executive team of several companies, one was acquired (Rapt, a data analytics company sold to Microsoft), and another went public in 1998 (Commerce One, a B2B procurement marketplace company). His very first start-up failed miserably and, as they say, was a “character building experience ». Early in his career, Narry was a partner at The Regis McKen-na Group, a strategy consultancy where one of his first clients was Steve Jobs at Apple Computer. Narry has served on the boards of Bebe Stores (Nasdaq: Bebe) and the advisory board of ProsiebenSat1 (FWB: PSAT). In 2012, he selected by the United Nations Foundation as one of their «Top 10 Global Entrepreneurs”. He was also on the boards Architecture for Humanity and CommerceNet (non-profit that conducted first successful Internet e-commerce transaction). He received a B.S. with Honors in Civil Engineering from Punjab University in India, a graduate degree in Civil Engineering and Management from Stanford University, and conducted graduate research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a pas-sionate but terrible golfer.

Michèle SioenPresident - Federation of Enterprise in BelgiumMichèle Sioen is CEO of the stock quoted Sioen Industries group. Sioen Industries produces technical textiles, technical protective clothing and specialised chemicals. Sioen Industries is a growing company focussing on innovation, research and development. After her graduation in eco-nomics and 2 years at a company in the IT sector, Michèle Sioen started her career at Sioen Industries in 1990. She worked in different divisions of the company and became General Manager of one of the three divi-sions (Coating division). In 2005, she was appointed CEO of the group. In 2010, Michèle Sioen became president of Fedustria (Belgian fede-ration of the textile, wood and furniture industries). She was member of the Board of Directors of Belgacom from 2007 until 2013. She is also administrator in several other companies (including D’ieteren and ING Belgium) and is member of the Commission Corporate Governance and director at Guberna. In April 2014, she became the president of FEB.

Mario TaroucaDirector of Public Affairs - JADE, European Confederation of Junior EnterprisesWhile in high school, at 17, he co-founded his own company. Two years later he co-founded an IT startup in the area of telecommunication. In 2012, however, he got to know the Junior Enterprise movement. He joi-ned the network in the same year as a consultant, only to get elected in a couple of months later as the new President of his Junior Enterprise. He is the Director of Public Affairs for JADE. Mário is responsible for repre-senting the movement to Global Organisations, such as WEF and OECD, at the European level.

David ThomasExecutive Chairman – Council of British Chamber of Commerce in EuropeAppointed as President of the previous Association in August 2012 and now Executive Chairman of COBCOE, David Thomas is a former Chairman of the British Polish Chamber of Commerce 2003-2010. He has served as the BPCC’s Vice Chairman 2000-2003 and Vice Chairman of COBCOE from 2007 to 2012. David Thomas’ professional occupation is as CEO and Principal Partner Financier Sp. z o.o., a corporate finance boutique, based in Warsaw. Previous roles include Country Head of Coopers & Lybrand; Deputy CEO of Schroder; Head of Investment Banking, ING Barings, Exe-cutive Director of Baring Brothers UK; Managing Director of HSBC and Head of Corporate and Investment Banking.

Marianne ThyssenCommissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Mobility - European CommissionMarianne Thyssen was successively legal adviser, head of a research department and acting Secretary-General at UNIZO (a Belgian organisa-tion for the self-employed and small and medium-sized businesses). She entered the European Parliament in 1991 and was re-elected 5 times. During her almost 23 years as a member of European Parliament, she mainly focused on economic and social issues. Between 2008 and 2010 she was also the President of her party, CD&V (the Flemish Christian Democrats in Belgium). In November 2014 she became European Com-missioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility.

Patrick Van BenedenPartner - GimvPatrick Van Beneden has worked at Gimv since 1985 and has built a strong track record in life sciences, both in early and late stage investments and successful exits, such as Devgen, Cropdesign, Plexxikon and Endosense., Patrick is currently a board member at JenaValve, Complix, AgroSavfe, Bio-tech Fund Flanders, Gimv-Agri+ Investment Fund and FlandersBio. Patrick holds a Master degree in Financial Sciences from Vlekho, Brussels.


Hans van der LooPartner - Global Resource Security & Resilience InitiativeMr van der Loo is an expert on systemic risk and societal resilience advi-sing senior policy makers (BEPA, NATO, etc). He is also an advocate of strengthening EU Talent Pipeline Development and EU Ambassador for Jet-Net. He brings over 30 years international experience. He has been Vice President EU for Royal Dutch Shell, the sherpa of two Shell CEOs in the ERT (European Roundtable of Industrialists), Member of the Advisory Council of BusinessEurope, Adviser to the President of the WBCSD (World Business Council for Sustainable Development). He is a coalition builder & storyteller on future, energy and sustainability matters and lectures at World Economic Forum, Business Schools and various Universities.

Henriette van EijlPolicy coordinator of the Directorate of Innovative and Sustainability Mobility - European CommissionDr Henriette van Eijl is the policy coordinator of the Directorate of «Innova-tive and Sustainable Mobility» in the European Commission’s Directorate-general for Mobility and Transport (MOVE). Since 2012, she has developed EC actions in smart cities and coordinated the Horizon2020’s funding program in urban mobility. Before joining DG MOVE, she worked in the Euro-pean Commission’s Directorate-generals for Industry (GROW) and Research (RTD), industry and academia in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands.

Gijs van HoutenResearch Officer Working Conditions and Industrial Relations - EurofoundDr Gijs van Houten is a Research Officer in Eurofound’s Working Conditions and Industrial Relations unit. He works on the European Working Conditions Survey and the European Company Survey – focussing on issues of job quali-ty, work organisation and employee involvement – and is the coordinator of Eurofound’s Survey Methodology Working Group. Before joining Eurofound in 2010 he worked at the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP).

Lambert van NistelrooijMember Regional Development - European ParliamentLambert has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2004. As a member of the Dutch political party CDA, he is an MEP for the Euro-pean People’s Party (Christian Democrats). As an MEP he has focused on regional policy, research, innovation, energy and the Digital Agenda. Cur-rently, he is a member of the Committee on Regional Development and a substitute member of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consu-mer Protection. He is also actively involved with Active Ageing. One of his main projects in the last months has been the European Structural and Investment funds. At the age of 24 Lambert started as a member of the municipal council. From 1991 to 2004 Lambert was a member of the ‘ Provinciale en Gedeputeerde Staten’ in the Dutch region Noord-Brabant. Lambert has an educational background in social geography. He graduated cum laude from the Catholic University Nijmegen.

Bart VanherckeDirector - European Social ObservatoryBart Vanhercke is the coordinator of a European project on «Unemployment and Pensions Protection in Europe: the Changing Role of Social Partners» (ProWelfare) while being the Social Protection Leader in the «European Social Policy Network» (ESPN). Until recently, he coordinated the dissemi-nation activities of the FP7 NEUJOBS Project (2011-2014) and has been research Director of an EU-funded comparative assessment of the EU PROGRESS Peer Review Programme. Before that, Bart Vanhercke managed research projects on the social dimension of the Europe 2020 Strategy and on the Inclusion of Roma Families. Between 2006 and 2009 he was the coor-dinator of a research project on “European tools for social policy” (ETOS.be), funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office. Bart Vanhercke is currently finalizing his PhD at the University of Amsterdam and was appointed, for the academic year 2013-2014, Associate Professor at the Institute for Euro-pean Studies of the Saint-Louis University (FUSL). He was the coordinator of the “Social Affairs” Task Force of the Belgian Presidency of the EU in 2001.

Philippe VanrieCEO of EBNPhilippe Vanrie is the CEO of EBN, the leading pan-European Network bringing together 200+ accredited Business & Innovation Centers (EU-BICs), Innovation-based Incubators, Accelerators, Clusters and Entrepre-neurship Centers across Europe and beyond (Brazil, Chili, Russia, India, China, Taiwan, Egypt, Canada,…), a community gathering thousands of smart innovators and entrepreneurs. An experienced expert in innova-tion, incubation, entrepreneurship and economic development, Philippe has a long collaboration experience with the European Commission (EC), and other European institutions (EIB, EIT), as well as the European Space Agency (ESA), and a series of national & regional Governmental Agencies. He is active in various EC Experts Groups, such as the “Smart Specialization Strategy (S3)” Mirror Group, an area where he developed a specific field expertise. On the private sector side, he initiated Open In-novation partnerships between small businesses and large Corporations such as Procter & Gamble, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, and Auchan.Engineer by education, Philippe started his career at the University of Brussels and then joined the first EU-BIC in Liège. Afterwards, he joined the private sector where he had senior Business Development responsi-bilities within several industrial SMEs, before transforming EBN into a high-caliber leading innovation network.


Yanis VaroufakisFinance Minister – GreeceBorn in Athens, 1961, Varoufakis read Mathematical Economics (Essex), Mathematical Statistics (Birmingham) and completed a PhD in Econo-mics (Essex). His academic appointments included posts at the Univer-sities of Essex, East Anglia, Cambridge, Glasgow, Sydney, Athens and Texas at Austin. Varoufakis has authored fifteen scholarly books, in a variety of languages, including: The Global Minotaur: America, Europe and the Future of the World Economy (Zed Books, 2013); Economic Inde-terminacy: A personal encounter with the economists’ peculiar nemesis (Routledge, 2013); Foundations of Economics (Routledge, 1998); Ratio-nal Conflict (1991). Since the global and European crises began in 2008, Varoufakis has been an active participant in the debates occasioned by these events. Together with Stuart Holland and James Galbraith, he is the author of A Modest Proposal for Resolving the Euro Crisis, with a Preface by M. Michel Rocard, former Prime Minister of France. Varoufakis stood for the Hellenic Parliament for the first time in January 2015 and was subsequently appointed Greece’s Minister of Finance.

Karmenu VellaCommissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries - European CommissionIn 1976 Karmenu Vella was elected to parliament. He continued to be elected in the nine consecutive elections that followed. In 1981 he was appointed as minister for public works, and in 1984 he was appointed as minister for industry. He served as minister for tourism in 1996–98, and was again appointed as minister for tourism in March 2013. He graduated with a degree in architecture and civil engineering from the University of Malta and later obtained his master of science in tourism management from Sheffield Hallam University.

Steve Verheul Chief Trade Negotiator, Canada-European Union, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development - Government of CanadaIn early 2009, Mr. Verheul was appointed as Canada’s Chief Trade Nego-tiator for negotiations between Canada and the European Union in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Prior to that appointment, he worked in international trade policy at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada from 1989 to 2009, where he worked on the NAFTA negotiations, the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negociations that led to the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the Doha Round of WTO negotiations. He was Canada’s Chief Agri-culture Negociator from 2003 to 2009, responsible for leading Canada’s involvement in international trade negociations on agriculture, inclu-ding the WTO. Mr. Verheul gratuated from the University of Western Ontario in 1984, after obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Arts degree in Political Science.

Michael VermaerkeChief Executive Officer - Belgian Financial Sector Federation, FEBELFINMichel Vermaerke started his professional career at the Kornmeier, Lepon & Harris lawyers’ office in Washington. Subsequently, he worked as legal advisor at Generale Bank, as Secretary-General of Cedel (now Clearstream) and as Head Corporate Affairs of Belgacom. In 2005, he took up his current function of Chief Executive Officer of Febelfin, the Belgian Financial Sector Federation. Febelfin represents more than 250 financial institutions that are active in Belgium, including banks, stockbrokers’ firms, lease and factoring companies, investment funds and institutions such as Euroclear & SWIFT.

Daniela VincentiEditor in Chief - EurActivDaniela Vincenti is editor-in-chief at EurActiv. She joined EurActiv in 2008 as parliamentary editor, leading the coverage of the European elections and managing 33 professionals across Europe. She worked as a journalist for more than 20 years in Italy, the United States and Germany, where she was the financial correspondent for Italian daily Il Messaggero. Upon her arrival in Brussels in 2002, she developed the communication activities of the Platform of European social NGOs (Social Platform) and in 2007 joined Paris-based think-tank Notre Eu-rope to promote the first pan-European deliberative poll (Tomorrow’s Europe). She was educated at the Sorbonne in Paris and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in New York.

Arūnas VinčiūnasHead of the Cabinet of the Commissioner Andriukaitis for Health & Food SafetyMr. Arūnas Vinčiūnas is the Head of the Cabinet of the Commissioner Andriukaitis for Health & Food Safety. Prior to this role Mr. Vinčiūnas served as Ambassador-at-large and Deputy Permanent Representative for Lithuania between 2009 and 2014, involving a term as a President of COREPER I during the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2013. Mr. Vinčiūnas also repre-sented Lithuania at the Political and Security Committee between 2009 and 2010. During his diplomatic carrier Mr. Vinčiūnas worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as the head of the Russia Division at the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Department and later as the Director of the Eastern Neighbourhood Policy Department. Mr. Vinčiūnas was Lithuania’s Ambassador in Bulgaria and has also worked in Lithuania’s Embassy’s in Spain and Latvia.


Lucas VisentiniDesignate Secretary General - Europan Trade Union ConfederationLuca Visentini was born in Udine, Italy in 1969. His trade union experience encompasses 26 years at a regional, national and European level. With many years’ experience in collective bargaining at confederation, natio-nal and sectoral level, and of Inter-Regional Trade Union Councils, Luca was General Secretary of Italian trade union UIL in Friuli Venezia Giulia (one of the 20 Italian regions) from 1996-2011, and a member of the UIL steering committee. All these activities led to the European Trade Union Confederation secretariat, where Luca has worked for the last 4 years as Confederal Secretary. He is also a published poet and writer.

James WatsonDIRECTOR ECONOMICS - BUSINESSEUROPEJames Watson was appointed Director of Economics at BUSINESSEU-ROPE, the Confederation of European Business, in June 2011. In this role he is responsible for developing and communicating the organisation’s positions on macroeconomic policies, structural and financial market reforms, economic governance, taxation, the EU budget and EU regional policies. Prior to joining BUSINESSEUROPE, James worked for 14 years as an economic adviser in the UK Government’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (formerly DTI), providing economic advice and analysis on policies to raise the UK’s long-term growth rate. During this period he co-authored a number of research reports on subjects ranging from the role of high-growth firms in the UK economy to the UK’s trade relationship with China and India. He has also worked on secondment to the Cabinet Office in the UK, at the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry and the European Commission’s DG Economics and Financial Affairs. A graduate of Cambridge University, James also holds an MSc from the University of York.

Hubert WeberEVP and President of the European Region - Mondelez InternationalAppointed Executive Vice President and President of Mondelez Europe in 2013, Hubert Weber is responsible for Mondelēz International’s largest region by sales, with over 30,000 employees and USD 14 billion in annual revenues across 33 countries. Prior to leading the European business, Hubert led the company’s global Coffee category from 2010 to 2013, the DACH region (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) as its President between 2009 and 2010, and was Managing Director Spain from 2007 to 2009. During his 25-year career with the company he has been responsible for sales strategy in global and regional roles, and has worked in seven European countries, as well as the United States.

Dr. Walter WeigelVice President - Huawei European Research Institute (ERI)From 1984 to 1991 Dr. Walter Weigel was assistant professor at the Institute of Data Processing at the Technical University in Munich. Dr. Weigel is since 1st April 2015 VP of the European Research Institute of Huawei, based in Munich Germany. He used to be from September 2006 to July 2011 the Director General of the European Telecommunication Standards Institute ETSI. Between February 1991 and February 2015 he held several positions within Siemens AG, including VP of External Coo-perations and Head of Standardization in Corporate Technology, VP of the Research & Concepts- department of the Mobile Networks business unit as well as Head of the business segment Video Processing for the semiconductor business unit (today Infineon). Dr. Weigel initiated and founded the industry consortium on CPRI (Common Public Radio Inter-face) together with Ericsson, NEC, Nortel, Siemens and Huawei.

Peter WittHead of the Siemens Representation office to the EU – SiemensAs of July 1st , 2010: Head of the Siemens Representation office to the EU, Brussels. 2008-2010: Independent Consultant in Brussels, Partner in GPlusEurope. Retirement from Government Services at age of 65.2001-2008 Ambassador, Deputy Permanent Representative of Ger-many to the EU, Brussels. 1996-2001 Deputy Director General for European Affairs, Ministry of Economics, Bonn/Berlin. 1987-1996 Head of the Office for the Multilateral Trade Negotiations, Geneva. German representative to the Uruguy Round and the WTO. 1973-1987 various functions in the German Ministry of Economics (incl. Chef de Cabinet) and the Foreign Office (Oslo, Washington). 1972 Robert Bosch GmbH, Legal Department, Stuttgart.Education: Read Law, Political Science, Sociology at Kiel and Freiburg Universities. Fully trained German lawyer. Dr. iur. utr., Freiburg/Br. 1971.

Christoph WolffManaging Director - European Climate FoundationChristoph Wolff is Managing Director of the European Climate Foun-dation (ECF), where he heads the power sector decarbonisation, low-carbon transport and energy efficiency programmes. A mechanical engineer by training, Christoph was senior partner at McKinsey for 16 years, leading the global work in logistics and infrastructure. As Board member of DB Schenker, he was responsible for the international growth and operations of the company´s rail division. He was the CEO of com-panies in the renewable energy sector, namely Novatec/ABB GmbH and Solar Millennium AG, and acted as Board Advisor for Flagsol/Ferrostaal in the renewable division. Christoph is on the board of several new energy start-ups and faculty at the Institute for Energy Economics in Cologne.


Robert WollanSenior Managing Director – Accenture Strategy, Sales & Customer ServicesRobert Wollan is senior managing director for Sales & Customer Services within Accenture Strategy. His role focuses on shaping and delivering the Accenture front office strategy and technology solutions for marke-ting, sales, service and customer analytics functions. Mr. Wollan is also a member of the Accenture Global Leadership Committee. Mr. Wollan has more than 20 years of experience working for Accenture. His main area of expertise is helping organizations achieve high performance by desi-gning and executing new strategies for managing the customer expe-rience–—consistently providing customers with a differentiated, more profitable, and more satisfying experience. Mr. Wollan has supported large-scale, transformational programs for clients across a wide range of industries, including consumer products, retail, financial services, tele-communications, high-tech and utilities as well as government entities. He has extensive experience in the United States and has supported international customer relationship management (CRM) efforts in Cana-da, Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia Pacific. In addition to his client responsibilities, Mr. Wollan served on the International Standards Com-mittee for COPC-2000® (customer service provider standards designed for service environments) and has served on the Board of Directors for CustomerWorks (a company owned by Enbridge Inc., a leader in energy transportation and distribution, and BC Gas Inc., a leading provider of energy and utility services in Western Canada).An acknowledged leader on customer experience management and next generation customer service delivery, Mr. Wollan has authored several articles on these topics, and is frequently quoted in the business and technology press. He is also the author of two books: The Social Media Management Handbook (J.W. Wiley), a practical guide for business exe-cutives to implement key social media strategies and achieve business goals throughout their organization, and Selling Through Someone Else (J.W. Wiley), which explains how new ecosystems of partners can be crea-ted, managed, and incentivized to drive greater sales and profitability.Mr. Wollan has a bachelor’s degree from the University of St. Thomas and attended the Executive Program at IMD – the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. Mr. Wollan holds seven patents for innovations in CRM, with two additional patents pen-ding. Mr. Wollan is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States.

Guntram WolffDirector - BruegelGuntram Wolff is the Director of Bruegel since June 2013. His research focuses on the European economy and governance, on fiscal and mone-tary policy and global finance. He regularily testifies to the European Finance Ministers’ ECOFIN meeting, the European Parliament, the Ger-man Parliament (Bundestag) and the French Parliament (Assemblée Nationale) and is a member of the French prime minister’s Conseil d’Ana-lyse Economique. Guntram Wolff is also a member of the Solvay Brussels School’s international advisory board of the Brussels Free University. He joined Bruegel from the European Commission, where he worked on the macroeconomics of the euro area and the reform of euro area governance. Prior to joining the Commission, he was coordinating the research team on fiscal policy at Deutsche Bundesbank. He also worked as an adviser to the International Monetary Fund. His columns and policy work are published and cited in leading international media such as the Financial Times, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Caixin, Nikkei, El Pais, La Stampa, FAZ, Handelsblatt, Les Echos, BBC, ZDF, and others.

218 EBS 2015 - SPEAKER PROFILES

Peter ZemskyDeputy Dean - INSEAD The Business School for the WorldProfessor Zemsky joined the INSEAD strategy area in 1994 after receiving his Ph.D. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was supported by a doctoral grant from the National Science Foundation. His B.A. is from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was recognized as the outstanding graduating economics major. Professor Zemsky has been a member of the INSEAD leadership team since 2010, first with global responsibility for the faculty and then with global responsibility for the school’s MBA and EMAB degree programmes. He served as the Acting Dean in 2012 and then as Interim Dean in 2013. As the current Deputy Dean of the school, Professor Zemsky plays an important role in external relations and alumni outreach. As Dean of Strategic Initiatives and Innovation, he is responsible for leading the school’s many digital initiatives, as well as advancing other strategic priorities including the development of the Abu Dhabi Campus. Professor Zemsky has taught core strategy courses across the school’s educational programmes, with a particular focus on analyzing, shaping and responding to industry dynamics. He has several nominations for best MBA core teacher, including when he was a visiting Professor at Wharton in 2003. He has been an active Programme Director in Executive Education including launching the school’s Blue Ocean Strategy open-enrolment programme. Professor Zemsky is a leading contributor to the value-based approach to strategy that develops rigorous economic treatments of the verbal theories traditionally used in the strategy field. Areas of research include the sustainability of competi-tive advantage, disruptive technologies and the choice of generalist versus specialist strategies. His research has appeared in leading economics and strategy journals including American Economic Review, RAND Journal of Eco-nomics, Strategic Management Journal, and Management Science. His docto-ral students have been hired by leading business schools including Wharton, NYU, HEC, and IESE and have been recognized three times for having the best dissertation in strategy by the Academy of Management.

Georg ZachmannResearch Fellow - BruegelGeorg Zachmann joined Bruegel in September 2009. He is also a member of the German Advisory Group in Ukraine and the German Economic Team in Belarus and Moldova. Prior to that he worked at the German Ministry of Finance and the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin. Georg Zachmann’s work at Bruegel focuses on energy and climate change issues. He has worked on the European emission trading system, the European electricity market and European renewables policy. Upcoming works will deal with market concentration, the effectiveness of the EU ETS, electricity market design and transmission system investment as well as the economic perspectives in the southern Mediterranean countries.

Notes

Notes Notes


223EBS 2015

PARTICIPANTS LIST

ACCESS EU FUNDING

GRASP EU RULES

M A K E I N T E R N AT I O N A L

CO N N EC T IO N S

BRING YOUR INNOVATIONS

TO MARKET

50countries

more than

offices over4 continents

× 4500local experts

We help SMEs to:

Who we are:

een.ec.europa.eu

EASME

The way tonew markets: Enterprise Europe Network

We can help you! There is a contact point near you. Visit our website:

× 600

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

EBS Advertisement.pdf 1 08/04/2015 16:52:35

224 225EBS 2015 - PARTICIPANTS LIST EBS 2015 - PARTICIPANTS LIST

A

Jerome A Bandry Caterpillar Senior Manager

Dafydd Ab Lago Argus Media

Mahfuz Hassen Abamegal Ethiopia To meet business people

Dennis Abbott BursonMarsteller Media

Samir Abdurahimov Embassy of Azerbaijan Commercial Attach

Iris Abraham Euronews

Aivaras Abromavicius Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine

Christian Abt Permanent Representation of Germany Health Counsellor

Hatem Abu El Ezz ThinkYoung Alumni

Dries Acke European Climate Foundation Manager

Ulrich Adam European Ag Machinery Association (CEMA) Secretary General

Karl Adams SRIW Vice Président

Paul Adamson Forum Europe Chairman

Renato Addis EPPA SA Partner

Besarta Ademi JAYE Alumni Sweden

Adeyeye Adewole Centre for Organisational and Professional Ethics (COPEAFRICA) Executive Director

Celine Aemisegger Agencia Efe Deputy Chief

Corinne Aertsen Van der Valk Hotel Brussels Airport

Alexandre Affre BusinessEurope Director Industrial Affairs

Irene Afonso Délégation des Iles Canaries de Bruxelles Intern

Spyridon Agathos UCL Professeur ordinaire à l’UCL

Gauthier Agimont Accenture Managing Director

Victoria Agnew EORTC Cancer Research Fund Director

Ana Aguado Cornago EDSO Secretary General

Joao Aguiar Machado Directorate General for Mobility and Transport, European Commission Director General for Mobility and Transport

Delavar Ajgeiy Head of Kurdistan Regional Government’s Mission to the European Union Ambassador

Süleyman Aksünger IHA Broadcast Services

Hassan Al Hashemi Dubai Association Centre

Sheikh Ali Bin Jassim Al Thani Embassy of Qatar Ambassador of Qatar

Yasmina Al-Gannabi Deutsche Welle

Khalid Al-Rafai Regents University London MSC oil and gas trade management student

Yousef Mohammad Alamour Palestinian Federation of Business Associations Board Member

Iadicicco Alessio AIESEC in Belgium Business Development

Joel Alexandre European Society of Intensive Care Medecine

Ene Alexandru JADE European Confederation for Junior Enterpris Vice President Director of Communication and Event

Istvan Alfaro Solano Embassy of Costa Rica Ambassador

Eveline Algoet TMAB BUSINESS EVENTS

Martine Allaire ORANGE Corporate Public Affairs, Europe & International

Michel Allé SNCB NMBS HOLDING Finance Chief Financial Officer, SNCB Holding

James Allen Confederation of British Industry Senior Policy Adviser

Thomas Allvin EFPIA Senior Policy Analyst

Carlos Almaraz Philip Morris Spain Manager Regulatory Affairs & Int Trade

Esthel Almasi BUSINESSEUROPE Secretary in charge of events and publications

Gabriella Almberg Director Government Affairs

Amadeu Altafaj Government of Catalonia Permanent Representative to the EU

Efrain Altamirano-Sanchez IMEC Principal R&D Engineer

Julia Altenhofer Bayer European Public Affairs Manager

Elena Alvarez Diez Repsol European Affairs Manager

Silvia Amaro MNI Journalist


Laura Ambardaryan College of Europe Student

Marc Amblard EFQM CEO

Goffredo Amodio Accenture Strategy Managing Director

Osama Mohd. Salim Amro Palestinian Federation of Business Associations Vice Chairman

Madatli Anar Republic of Azerbaijan Embassy First Secretary

Dorthe Andersen Confederation of Danish Employers Director EU Policy

Robin Anderson Press

Joan Andreu Mediapro - Imagina Producer

Olvy Andrianita Embassy of Indonesia Trade Attach

Vytenis Andriukaitis European Commission Commissioner for Health and Food Safety

Alvise Angelini The European Lotteries Policy Officer in Charge of Insitutional Relations

Sognia Angelozzi EWETA ASBL Directrice adjointe

Rasmus Anker-Moller South Denmark European Office Director

Franziska Annerl EU-PANORAMA, EU-TODAY, Landeskammerzeitungen Press Officer

Andrus Ansip European Commission VicePresident for Digital Single Market

Ioannis Antypas Proto Thema S.A. Brussels Correspondent

Chris Anyfantis European Sting Economics Editor

Movsisyan Anzhela College of Europe Student

Jonadav Apelblat The Brussels Times Editor

Omry Apelblat The Brussels Times Editor

Carlos Appelgren Balbontin Embassy of Chile Ambassador of Chile to the Kingdom of Belgium, Luxembourg and to the EU

Denitsa Arabadzhieva Singapore Exhibition and Convention Bureau

Putu Juli Ardika Embassy of Indonesia Industry Attach

Javier Arias BBVADelegation to the EU Director

Quentin Ariès POLITICO Reporter

Sokholutsky Arkady Radio Echo of Moscow Journalist

Loic Armand President of Cosmetics Europe

Pauline Armandet BFM Business Journalist

Rosa Armesto Insurance Europe Head of Public Affairs

Trina Armstrong The American Society for Cell Biology

Thomas Arnold European Commission Advisor

Dorothee Arns Cefic Executive Director

Judith Marcia Arrieta Munguia Ambassy of Mexico to the EU Minister

Bernard Ars Fondation Universitaire

Pabriks Artis European Parliament MEP

Simon Ashwell Ford Motor Company Head of Office

Moller-Nielsen Ask Vestas Policy Specialist, Global Public Affairs

Leigh Aspin Mission of Canada to the European Union Administrative Assistant

Lynn Asselman VBO Attach Competence Centre Taxation & Investment

Giovanni Asta Ipsen

Guilherme Athia Nike, Inc. Senior Director, Government and Public Affairs EMEA

Laura Atienla European Commission Project Manager

Caroline Atlani SANOFI Head of Project

Nil Atmaca EUROGIA2020 Head of Secretariat

Muriel Attane EARTO Secretary General

Jim Attridge Charles River Associates Senior Consultant

Jerome Auchere Dubai Association Centre

Michel Audet General Delegation of Quebec Delegate General

Aurelia Serena Auerbacher College of Europe MA Candidate


Elise Auvachez-Millot Bombardier Recreational Products Public Affairs and Government Relations Senior Advisor

Juliette Avez Euronews Assistante Back Office

Juliette Avez Euronews Assistante Back Office

Alfredo Avila Sanchez Accenture Managing Director

Dursun Aydemir Anadolu Agency

Dilek Aydin TUSIAD Researcher

Franco Azahara JADE Member

Boris Azais Merck Director Public Policy

Samira Azzam Accenture Senior Manager

Sarah Azzoug MCI

B

Ben Backwell SolutionWind Analyst, Journalist, and Campaigner Renewable Energy

Nikolaas Baeckelmans ExxonMobil VP EU Affairs

Geert Baekelandt SPACE Network

Benjamin Baelus European Parliament Assistant to MEP de Backer

Jean Baeten FEB Executive Manager Competence Centre Taxation & Investment

Alain Baetens EURONEXT Head of Listings, Belgium

Hanne Baeyens CMS DB CMS Business Developer

Foteini Bakadima Ministry of Finance HELLENIC REPUBLIC PA TO THE MINISTER

Simon Baker Alcoa President, Europe Region

Jennifer Baker The Register

Anastasia (Anna) Bakola JT International Holding BV, EU Affairs Office EU Communications Manager

Ignacio Baleztena Government of Navarre Head of Office

Christopher Ball Dods Senior Monitoring Consultant

Jesus Ballesteros College of Europe Director

Michel Ballieu European Cancer Organisation

Jean-Luc Balligand UCL Biowin

Katarzyna Balucka-Debska EC Policy and Outreach Officer

Jan Bambas BUSINESSEUROPE Adviser for environmental policy and R&D&I

Dennis Bamidele Sunday National Center for Youth Development Director General

Liliane Banczyk European Commission IT Account Manager

Marsida Bandilli University of Antwerp PhD Researcher in Political Science

Jérome Bandry Caterpillar EU Government Affairs Director

Monika Banka Regional Office of Lubelskie Region Head of the Regional Office

Martin Banks EBR Jounalist

Gonzato Barbara Hill and Knowlton Strategies Account Executive

Clara Barbarini Université Libre de Bruxelles Research Student

Nadezda Barcalova European Commission Trainee

Yvonne Barcelona European Coil Coating Association Managing Director

Isabel Bardinet European Society of Cardiology

James Bardrick Citigroup UK Country Officer

Marie-Lorraine Bareth Confédération Construction Conseillère Affaires européennes

Colin Barker Contact the Mission of Canada to the EU First Secretary, Trade and Economic Policy

Agostino Barrasso European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology

François Barrault FDB Partners Chairman and Founder

Eduardo Barredo Capelot Directorate D Government Finance Statistics (GFS) and quality; European Commission Director

Isabel Barrios Government of the Canary islands (Delegation in Brussels) EU Policy Adviser


Pierre Barthélemy Cefic Executive Director, Research & Innovation

Malgosia Bartosik EWEA Deputy CEO

Raluca Barzu European Business Summit Speakers and Communication Manager

Luc Bas IUCN Director Global Business and Biodiversity Programme

Ismail Basman BN Magazine Advisor Board

California Basse LA News Journalist

Renaud Batier Cerame-Unie Director General

Antonella Battaglini Renewables Grid Initiative CEO

Anne Bauer Les Echos Journalist

Christina Baumgarten SPAEN Sarcoma Patients Euronet and sos Desmoid Germany Board member

Peter Baur European Commission Policy Officer

Birgitte Bay DONG Energy Head of European Affairs

Ludovic Bayard GEB Chief Commercial Officer

John Bean EORTC Medical Science Writer

Frances Bean Stefan Scheuer Consulting Policy Director

François Beaudonnet France 2 Journalist

Rose Beaumont MasterCard Europe Senior Vice President Group Head Communications

Ellwyn Beck Ambassy of South Africa to the EU Ambassador

Markus Becker GE Executive Government Affairs & Policy. Alstom Integration Planning

Tanya Beckett BBC World Service Presenter

Bart Becks Angel.me Founder

Romano Beda ilsole24ore Correspondent

Irena Bednarich HewlettPackard Director, Corporate Affairs, EU and Western Europe

Ase Marit Befring NRK Journalist

Bart Beirlant De Standaard EU-Correspondent

Jean Beka Liege Science Park CEO

Niels Bekkhus EFTA Senior Officer

Kristina Belikova WHO office at the EU Associate Technical Officer

Hughes Belin Enerpresse

Olivier Belle Permanent Representation of Belgium to the EU Deputy Permanent Representative of Belgium to the EU

Fiorenzo Bellelli Warrant Group Srl President

Fernando Bello EUREKA High Level Representative

Aurore Belot Demotix Agency Photographer

Alexandra Benard POLITICO Senior Account Manager

Roberto Bendini European Parliament Principal Administrator

Sophia Bengtsson Confederation of Swedish Enterprise Deputy Director

Liam Benham IBM Vice President, Governmental Programs, Europe, IBM

Peter Beno Permanent Representation of the Slovak Republic to the EU Second Secretary

Eva Benova EU Publications Office Resources & Logistics Director

Daniel Benton Accenture Strategy Managing Director, Global IT Strategy Lead

Pierre-Olivier Bergeron The Brewers of Europe Secretary General

Drea Berghorst Dow Europe GmbH Public Affairs & Government Affairs

Ulrika Bergsten SVT Journalist

Jean Luc Berlot FacilityLive Board Member

Jean Berlot TF1/canal+ Producer

Jorge Bernal Geschier Airbus Group EU Support Officer

Florent Bernard European Commission DG Research & Innovation Policy Officer

Elisabetta Bernardini visit.brussels


Luc Bertens Rai-radiotelevisione Italiana Sound man

Bruno Berthon Accenture Strategy Global Managing Director, Digital Strategy

Roberto Bertollini WHO WHO Representative to the EU

Marc Bervoets Accenture Managing Director

Alexandre Beuf European Commission DG GROW Information and Communication Assistant Trainee

Jeff Bevan American Chamber of Commerce to the EU Policy Intern

Maria Beylina Assembly of European Regions Communication and press relations assistant

Markus Beyrer BUSINESSEUROPE Director General

Petra Beyrer BUSINESSEUROPE

Mauro Bianchi MINERVA C C Founder and Senior Partner

Andrew Bianco European Commission Policy Analyst

Jason Bickley EWEA Senior Web Manager

Vanessa Biebel FEB VOB Advisor Environment

Tina Bielawska Ogilvy Project Director

Elzbieta Bienkowska European Commission Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs

Adrian Biernacki Regional Office of the WarminskoMazurskie Voivodeship in Brussels Representative of The Podkarpackie Region to Brussels

Pauline Billiouw ILMH Student

Florence Bindelle Federation of European Risk Management Associations

Claus Binder BMWFW Attach

Claus Binder BUSINESSEUROPE

Fernando Birman Solvay Head of the Digital Office

Cédric Bister Interface ADISIF Collaborateur Interface ADISIF

Kristina Bitvai Eurideas Linguistic Services Managing Director

Marcia Bizzotto Notimex Correspondent

Henri Blaffart ArcelorMittal EVP, Head of Human Resources & Corporates Services

Marta Blanco BUSINESSEUROPE Intern

Oliver Blank ZVEI Director European Affairs

Philip Blenkinsop Reuters Chief Correspondent Journalist

Petr Blizkovsky Council of the European Council Director

Liliane Bloem SPF Affaires étrangères Ambassadeur

Barbara Blohberger Mondelez Europe Director Corporate & Government Affairs

Anne Blondeel The European CanCer Organisation Blondel KitoZyme CEO

Paolo Bochicchio JT International Holding B.V., EU Affairs Office EU Affairs Manager

Jean Charles Bocquet European Crop Protection Association Director General

Bart Bode ODE CEO

Bawibadi Tcha Bodjona N.J.V. Company Directeur Commercial

Christian Boehmer dpa Chef de bureau

Bert Boers SAS Institute Vice President, South West Europe

Jerome Boesch Square Brussels Meeting Centre

Francis Boeynaems Community Pubic Affairs Director

Ardita Jola Bonatti Promoting Social Business Director

Roberta Bonazzi European Foundation for Democracy Executive Director

Andrea Bonetti Federchimica Policy Officer

Fabio Bonfanti Accenture Managing Director

Michal Boni European Parliament Former Chairman of the Board

Emanuele Bonini eunews.it

Françoise Bonnet European Commission Secretary General

Sandro Bonomi Orgalime aisbl President

Luc Bontemps FEBIAC Afgevaardigd Bestuurder

Patrick Bontinck Visitbrussels


Denis Bonvillain SUEZ environnement EU Permanent Delegate

Mateusz Boratynski Permanent Representation of the Republic of Poland to the European Union Intern

Greta Borg European Commission EASME Project Advisor

Bram Borgman VNONCW and MKBNederland Advisor European Affairs

Azais Boris MSD Director Public Policy Europe Canada

Elwira Borkowska EC Assistant

Daniela Borlea Allegro Group

Damian Bornas Cayuela EUROPEAN COMMISSION INEA Project Manager

Philippe Borremans GROUP S Attaché de direction

Stefan Borst IDA International Partner & Head of Strategies

Henry Borzi brusselsdiplomatic Journalist

Gerard Bos International Union for Conservation of Nature Director Global Business and Biodiversity Programme

Simone Boselli Hill+Knowlton Strategies Account Director

Sarah Boselli HEINEKEN International Head of EU Public Affairs

Herv Bosquet Visitbrussels

Holly Bostock HEINEKEN International Global Channels Manager, Internal Communications

Darina Botsova EASME Project Advisor

Dominic Boucsein EUROCHAMBRES Trade Advisor

Anja Boudon HanseOffice Policy Officer

Hinde Boulbayem SUMY BELGIUM Sustainable Urban Logistics & Mobility

Valerie Boulet European Aerosol Federation

Marc Bourgeois Research Dpt, HELB Prigogine Director of the Scientific Unit of th HELB I

Hendrik Bourgeois GE Vice President European Affairs

Michael Bourguignon International Florist Organisation Director

Chris Bourillon euRobotics

Gauthier Bourlard Ministry of Finance Advisor

Sofia Bournou BUSINESSEUROPE Adviser

Claire Boussagol APCO WORLDWIDE Managing Director

Leila Boutayeb Brussels Invest & Export

Olivier Boutellis-Taft FEE CEO

Jean-Marie Boutin Accenture Senior Manager

Frederic Bouyges EUREKA Communications Officer

Pierre Bouygues AmCham Policy Officer

Paulina Boveington-Fauran European Parliament Adviser of President Martin Schulz

Laurent Boveroux Institut Libre Marie Haps Student

AdamBowering DeHaviiland EU

Alan Bowman Mission of Canada to the European Union Deputy Head of Mission

Jean-Francois Branders Maison des Associations Internationales

Victoria Breck Grayling Head of Public Affairs

Alexandre Brecx Assembly of European Regions Coordinator for Institutional Relations

Annika Breidthardt European Commission Coordinating Spokesperson for Economic and Financial Affairs

Michael Brennan Pan European Networks Brussels Editor

Olivia Brennan EDiMA Research Assistant

Vera Brenzel E.ON Head of EU Representative Office

Emiliano Briante The European House Ambrosetti Senior Consultant

Pascale Brien Fédération Bancaire Française Senior Policy Adviser

Catherine Bril Belgische Vereniging van Pensioeninstellingen Secretaris Generaal

Federico Brinchilin ULB PHD

Stéphanie Brochard American Chamber of Commerce to the EU Policy Officer


Luc Broes SPACE network

Daniel Broessler Sueddeutsche Zeitung

Tom Brookes European Climate Foundation Executive Director, Strategic Communications

Alexis Brouhns Solvay Senior Executive Vice President

Morgan Adokwei Brown Ghana Embassy, Brussels, Belgium Ambassador of Ghana to Belgium, Luxembourg and the EU

Paul Browne Ireland Belgium Business Association

Maria Brozmanova Permanent Representation of Slovakia to the EU HealthFood Labelling Attach

Philipp Bruchert MasterCard Communications

Philipp Bruchert MasterCard Europe Communications Public Affairs & Regulatory

Michael Brueckner Accenture GmbH Managing Director

Nathalie Brunelle TOTAL Senior VicePresident Strategy, Development, Research Refining & Chemicals

Christian Brunet EORTC Chief Financial Officer

Oliver Brunet European Commission Policy Officer

Sofie Brutsaert FEB Expert Mobility and Logistics

Saskia Bruysten Yunus Social Business Cofounder and CEO

Jeffrey Bugeja Ministry for Economy, Investment and Small Business Director

Poppy Bullock MLex

Olivier Bulto Brussels Diplomatic

Filip Buntinx Antwerp World Diamond Centre Public Affairs Officer

Maxime Bureau 3M Director for Government & Public Affairs, Europe

Susanne Burger Federal Ministry of Educatin and Research Deputy Director General

Olga Burlyuk The Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Interpreter

Chris Burns Euronews Journalist

Chris Burns European Business Summit Press Advisor

Simon Burns BVCA Public Affairs Manager

Nathalie Burteau Administration de la recherche ADRE Responsable Cellule Financements régionaux et fédéraux

Antonio Buscardini Assembly of European Regions Coordinator for Press and Communications

Philip Buskens BASF Antwerpen N.V. Vice President Verbund Site Development & Optimization

Valeria Bustos Sierra FEB Events Coordinator

Hrvoje Butigan Dubrovnik Neretva Region Head of office

Reinhard Butikofer European Parliament Member

Frank Butstraen FuturoCité Directeur Exécutif

Faustine Buttenshaw Pompeu Fabra Assistant

Martin Buxant L’Echo Journaliste

Martin Buxant Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Amara Buysse Europese Commissie Head of Press & Media

Anju Bye Hurree Brussels Airlines

C

Ann Cairns MasterCard President International Markets

Ivo Caizzi Corriere della Sera Journalist

Alessia Calabrese SOLVAY Corporate Government & Public Affairs Project Manager

Daniel Calleja-Crespo European Commission Director General of DG GROW

Arhur Campredon Fédération Bancaire Française Adviser

Elena Canas Euroconsumers Product Manager

Qian Cao Boao Review Europe editor

Teodora Capelle Architect

Nancy Carfrae Union of International Associations

Cynthia Cariaux-Sanflilippo Dow Corning Head of Government Affairs


Mark Carlson Associated Press Video Journalist

Marc Carrel-Billiard Accenture SAS Managing Director, Emerging Technology Global Lead

Paul Cartuyvels BOUYGUES Europe Director EU Affairs

Rafael Carvalho AIESEC International Business Development Director

Jordi Casanova EEAS Trainee

Raf Casert The Associated Press News Editor

Daniele Castaldelli EUobserver Account Manager

Myriam Castanié European Climate Foundation Media Assistant

Alexia Castellani FacilityLive Head of Content and Marketing Communication

Maria José Castellano Fuentes PROEXCA Gobierno de Canarias Delegate of PROEXCA in Europe

Eleonora Catella BUSINESSEUROPE Trade advisor

Berckmans Catherine GM EU Affairs Manager

Jean-Louis Caulliez LeasePlan Belgium Sales Manager Wallonie

Sarah Cayrafourcq Prospero & Partners Consulting Partner

Geoffroy Cazenave Young Professionals in Foreign Policy Communications Officer

Leo Cendrowicz Independent Correspondent

Michel Cermak CNCD

Maxime Cerutti BUSINESSEUROPE Director

Wojciech Cetnarski Polish Wind Energy Association President

Christophe Cevasco Philip Morris France Director Corporate Affairs FR

Oscar Chabrera Villarreal ViLynx CoFounder & EU Manager

Hui Chai ICBC General Manager

Romain Champalaune REA Agency

Pathana Chansamone ADECCO

Tsai-wei Chao ArcelorMittal Director Global Trade Policy

Sylviane Chapelle EPO EU Affairs

Kumardev Chatterjee European Young Innovators Forum Founder & President

Asterios Chatzitheodorou European Commission Finance & Procurement Officer

Ioannis Chatzitheodorou Industrial Engineer

Jérome P. Chauvin BUSINESSEUROPE Deputy Director General

Marcela Chavez University Liège Hospital PhD

Yaou Chen The Mission of China to the European Union Counsellor

Yongfang Chen Economic & Commercial Counsellor’s Office the Mission of China to the European Union

Vsevolod Chentsov Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Director for the EU affairs

Mohammed Cherif European Business Summit Developer

Yanika Chetcuti Ministry for Economy, Investment and Small Business EU Funds Officer

Alexandre Chevalier Solvay Business School MBA Student

Michela Chia FEDRA Assistant

David Chica Marcos Mercadona

Andrea Chiesi Chiesi Director R. & D. Portfolio Management

Tadeous T. Chifamba Embassy of Zimbabwe Ambassador of Zimbabwe, Brussels

Evelyn Chimfwembe European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology

Dario Chiru Embassy of Panama Ambassador

Peter Chisnall EUREKA Secretariat Eurostars Operations Controller

Kacper Chmielewski Philip Morris International Manager EU Affairs & ITS&P

Pia Choksi ThinkYoung Project Manager

Gérard Choplin Unknown Freelance

Else Christensen-Redzepovic Danish Cultural Institute EU Director

Ethan Chua Ambassy of Singapore to the EU Deputy Chief of Mission

Mirna Cieniewicz European Boating Industry


Guido Cinzia Confindustria Policy Advisor

Patricia Cirez CEOE Delegation to the EU Senior Adviser

Jef Claes Trends

Philip Claeyssens Belgian Hip Society

Jean-Pierre Clamadieu CEFICSolvay CEO

Andrew Clapham Bloomberg News Journalist

Vincent Clay «Vincent Clay Pfizer» Senior Manager

Ackermann Clement EDF EU affairs

Stephanie Cleven European Party Caterer Association

Daniel Cloquet BUSINESSEUROPE Director

Denis Closon Isopix

Francesco Cocco Adriatic Ionian Euroregio Secretary General

André Cochaux Fedustria vzw-asbl P.A. André Cochaux

Anne-Laurence Cock BNP Paribas Fortis Innovative Banker

Svetlana Cocul College of Europe MA Candidate

Roger Coelho American Chamber of Commerce to the EU Policy Manager

Jean Pierre Coene Itim International Network Consultant

Jerome Coenraets BlazeClan Europe Managing Director

Pierre Collin TWIST Executive Manager

Marykate Collins American Chamber of Commerce to the EU Communications Officer

Giovanni Collot The New European Editor in Chief

Rebecca Collyer European Climate Foundation Programme Director, Power

Antoine Colombani European Commission Cabinet of First Vice President Frans Timmermans

Radu Colonescu JT International Holding Public Affairs Manager

Bill Colton Exxon Mobil VicePresident, Corporate Strategic Planning

Marc Columbo Baxter Supply Chain

Anders Colver DG RTD, European Commission Project Officer

Magdalena Comas Coll ATT Executive Assistant

Marco Comastri CA Technologies President EMEA

Michel Combes AlcatelLucent CEO

Barbara Cominelli Vodafone Omnitel BV Commercial Operations Director

Jean Comte Bulletin quotidien

Barbara Connell American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy

Tony Connelly RTE Journalist

Susanne Connolly Mission of Canada to the European Union Media Relations

Davide Coppaloni JAYE Alumni Italy

Carlo Corazza European Commission Head of Unit DG GROW Internal Market, Industry, SMEs and Entrepreneurship

Patrice Corbiau K&L Gates GP

Gino Cormons Regione Friuli Venezia Giulia Policy Officer

Julien Cornet Semetis Ebusiness Consulting Manager

Frédéric Cornet visit.brussels

Alessandro Cortese European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology

Francisco Javier Cortina Aurrecoechea Accenture S.L. Managing Director

Fabienne Corvers European Commission Policy Officer

Ornella Cosomati BursonMarsteller Associate

Mihai Costea MIXcoach networx Editor

Declan Costello Directorate F Economies of the Member States II; Economic and Financial Affairs; Taxation and Customs Director

Agnès Courades Allebeck Kommerskollegium Swedish National Board of Trade Head of Departement

Xavier Couture ProtocoleTV President

Fran Coutureau Belgian Ministry of Finance, VAT Department


Karl Cox Oracle Corporation Vice President, Public Policy and Corporate Affairs

Ianina Cozari TV-7 Moldova Reporter

Andreas Cremer AUDI Secrétaire Général d’Audi Belgique

Jennifer Crespo EORTC Events office

Miriam Cresta JAYE Italy CEO

Giorgio Crisanti Low Associates Sherpa

James Crisp EurActiv Deputy News Editor

Alan Cross DG Research, European Commission Deputy Head of Unit Horizon 2020 Policy

Michelle Crowley Professional Convention Management Association

E

laine Cruikshanks Acumen Public Affairs Partner

Emanuele Cuccillato European Commission DG JRC Policy Analyst

Matteo Cuda Italian Banking, Insurance and Finance Federation Advisor

Nathalie Cueto Pérez Gobierno de Cantabria

Philippe Cupers European Commission (DG RTD) Head of Unit

Raf Custers Gresea/De Wereld Morgen Journalist & researcher

Oliver Cusworth The European Investment Bank Institutional Relations

Valérie Cuvelier Cabinet du VicePremier Ministre et Ministre des Affaires étrangères Conseillère

Florentina Czirok EORTC Communications Officer

D

Jaime D’Alessandro La repubblica Editor

Alessandro D’Alfonso European Parliament Policy Analyst

Peter D’haese ArcelorMittal GM Industrial IT, Automation & Modeling

Xavier d’Harveng BNP PARIBAS FORTIS Managing Director Structured Finance

Marine D’Hollander Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe

Patrick D’Hose PlasticsEurope

Antonio Dai Pra Solvay Business School MBA Student

Marc Dal CEPANI Member of the Board of Directors

Matthew Dalton The Wall Street Journal Brussels Correspondent

Anneleen Dammekens FEB Company Lawyer

Susan Danger American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union (AmCham EU) Managing Director

Eric Danhier visit.brussels

Oxana Danilevich ANTRO GROUP bvba Managing director

Muriel Danis eu.Ness SPRL Senior Communication Advisor

Carsten Dannhoel Caterpillar EU Government Affairs Manager

Henriks Danusevics Euro Trade Chamber OC President

Robertas Dargis Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists President

Christine Darville FEBVBO Executive manager

Lucia Dastis Alonso College of Europe MA Candidate

Luengo David Indra Director, Head of Brussels Office

Ioana David JADE European Confederation of Junior Enterprises President

John Davis EIB Head of Division for Life Sciences and Health

Robson Dazzi AIESEC Business Development Director

Paolo De Angeli Chiesi International & Public Affairs Senior Advisor


Philippe de Backer European Parliament MEP

Robert De Baerdemaeker KOAN LORENZ Brussels Partner

Emmanuel De Beughem Brussels Invest & Export

Michel De Bièvre Project T&T - Tour&Taxis CEO

Philippe De Buck Belgian Business for Europe President

Ghislaine De Coninck International Associations Centre

Monica De Coninck Federaal Parlementslid sp.a

Alexander De Croo Minister of Belgium Minister

Chiara De Felice ANSA Journalist

Marc de Garidel Ipsen CEO

Wouter De Geest BASF Antwerpen N.V. CEO

Jean de Gheldere European Business Summit Managing Director

Filip De Jaeger Fedustria Deputy General Manager

Hayte de Jong HEINEKEN Netherlands Specialist Public Affairs

Serena De Jonge World Health Organization at EU Associate Technical Officer

Valerie De Kergorlay CFA Institute

Jean-Pierre De Kesel Recticel CSO

Fabienne De Kimpe Embassy of Canada to Belgium and Luxembourg Trade Commissioner

Diana De Koning MeetingLinq

Christian de la Tour Ipsen

Leonor de la Vega Marie haps Student

Baron Ernest de Laminne de Bex CIDIC President

Thérèse de Liedekerke BUSINESSEUROPE Deputy Director General

Paul de Lophem Cercle Royal Gaulois VicePrésident

Claudia De Maesschalck FOD Buitenlandse Zaken Ambassaderaad

Bruno De Man The European Cancer Organisation

Cedric de Meeus Holcim VP Government Relations

Dirk de Meulemeester CEPANI President

Jacques De Mevius Union of international Associations

Bernardo De Miguel Cinco Dias EU Correspondent

Filip De Pooter Adecco Personnel Services Director Professional Staffing

Frederic de Pryck CIDIC President

François de Ribaucourt David Plas Photography Photographer

Laurence de Richemont Head of Unit, International Dimension of the Single Market policies

Julien de Ridder Committee of the Regions Advisor to the First VicePresident

Pedro de Sampaio Nunes EUREKA Secretariat Head of the EUREKA Secretariat

Rebeca De Sancho Mayoral EASME EUROPEAN COMMISSION Project Advisor

Louis de Schorlemer EMEA Corporate Communications Manager

Louis de Schorlemer Cargill EMEA Corporate Communication Manager

Patrick de Schrynmakers Patricknewstart Consultant

Olivier De Schutter United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Member

Anne De Smedt Interface ADISIF Collaborateur Interface ADISIF

Chris de Smedt Nine Sigma Toshiba Director Open Innovation

Christiaan H.M. de Smedt Toshiba NineSigma Eu Rep, Director NineSigma

Anna-Maria De Smet The Brewers of Europe Regulatory Affairs Director

Tommy De Temmerman Belfius Advisor

Vincent De Temmerman Confederation Construction

Yves De THIBAULT ANEDAL Belgium sa International Management

Hubert De Viron Independant in European Public Affairs

Hanneke De Visser Transparency International Belgium

Elin De Vits FEB Chief Press Officer

Cindy De Volder Flanders Investment & Trade Deputy Director Inward Investment


Alain De Waele InBevBaillet Latour Fund General Secretary

Véronique De Waele BASF SE Head of Economic, Trade & Social Policy

Françoise De Waele EPHEC Head of the International Office

Quentin de Walque Independant Lawyer

Elizabeth De Wandeler Fedustria European & international policy

Michel De Wolf JA Europe Board Member

Anne De Wolf Institut des juristes d’entreprise Director Général

Brigitte De Wolf-Cambier L’Entreprise & L’Homme Rédactrice en chef

Jo Deblaere Accenture COO and Chief Executive, Europe

Hans Deblieck visit.brussels

Frederik Debrabander Accenture Senior Manager

Arne Debruyne General Representation of the Government of Flanders to the EU Intern

Vincent Debusschere Accenture Managing Director

David Dechamps MasterCard Group Head, Emerging Payments, Europe

Marc Decorte Shell VP Connected Digital Technologies

Wim Decraene Accenture Managing Director

Pierre Defraigne Madariaga College of Europe Foundation Executive Director

Arvids Degis Newspaper Rigas Balss Journalist

Aurélie Deherve Fedra Staff Member

Sven Deimann Bombardier Transportation Director Contract

Iacopo Deiuri JA Alumni Secretary General

Pierre Dejoux United Technologies President, Intelligent Building Technologies & Operations Europe

Giovanni Del Re Avvenire EU Correspondent

Bart Delaere Punch Power Train CFO

Richard Delahay Sustainability Consult Consultant

Barry Delany Permanent Representation of Ireland to the EU Food Labelling Attach

Sophie Delaval Europolitics Project Coordiantor

Sebastian Deletaille Big Data CEO

Marine Delhommeau UCL Intern

Philip Delistoyanov Prospero & Partners Consultant

Gianfranco Dell’Alba Confindustria Director

Michael Delle Selve European Container Glass Federation

Ann Delmiche International Association of Public Transport

Franco Delneri Italian Banking, Insurance and Finance Federation International and European Affairs, Senior Advisor

Thibaud Delourme European Commission Policy Officer

Jean-Marc Delporte SPF Economie Président du Comité de direction

Janine Delruelle Sénateur Honoraire et Juge émérite de la Cour Constitutionnelle

Bernard Deltour Praetica I Sablon Avocat

Duncan deLugt Mission of Canada to the European Union First Secretary

Vincianne Delvigne VivEvent Events Organizer

Jean-Pierre Delwart Eurogentec CEO

Maryanne Demarco Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations

Jean-Luc Demarty European Commission Director General DG Trade

Carole Dembour FEB Deputy Adviser

Stéphanie Demunck Best of Publishing Sales Manager

Antonietta Demurtas Lettera43.it Journalist

Viktoria Dendrinou THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Journalist

Manon Dene ThinkYoung Project Assistant

Alain Deneef Brussels Metropolitan


Claude Dengis AGORIA Sales Business Developer

Bayraktutar Deniz European Commission EC

Thierry Denuit Cabinet du VicePremier Ministre et Ministre des Affaires étrangères Conseiller

Dominique Derestiat Multitel CEO

Yves Desbazeille EDF Senior Advisor Energy

Eleni Despotou EuLA Secretary General

Chantal Despret Buildings Performance Institute Europe

Frederic Destrebecq European Brain Council

Vincent Detemmerman Confederation Construction Director International

Michel Deurinck Europolitics Project Director

Hervé Devavry DeHavillandEU Journalist

Jerick Develle Adecco Head of Marketing, Innovation and Communication

Nele Devolder International Association of Lighting Designers

Jean-Luc Dewez CENEXI Laboratoires Thissen S.A. Directeur Général

Jean-Pierre Di Bartolomeo SOWALFIN Président du Comité de Direction de la SOWALFIN SA

Sergio Di Caro GEB Chief Executive Officer

Francesco Di Lodovico The European House - Ambrosetti Head of Brussels Office

Amalia Di Stefano CLEPA Deputy CEO

Michael Dickstein HEINEKEN International Global Sustainable Development Director

Christophe Diercxsens FTI Consulting Director

Nicolas Dierickx Centex Bel Key Account Executive

Ralph Diestelhorst EASME Project Advisor

Barbara Dietrich Diplomatic Council Chairwoman Global Art Forum

Boniface Dikolo bin Dikolo Forum Citoyen Président de Forum Citoyen

Yovka Dimitrova The 24 Chasa Daily

Christina Dimopoulou European Society of Cardiology

Hilda Diodati Hotel M

Corinne Diserens Ecole de Recherche Graphique Director

Kim Dixon Politico Reporter

Sandrine Dixson-Decleve «The Prince of Wales Corporate Leaders Group (CLG) & University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, EU Office & Policy Platforms» Director

Youssef Djouaher Permanent Representation of France to the EU

Mario Djuragic Representation in Brussels Head of the Representation REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

Kristel Dobbelaere Pullman Brussels Centre Midi

Sandra Johanna Elizabeth Doest Provincie Flevoland Intern

Belén Dominguez El Pais Correspondant

Julio Dominguez Mission of Mexico to the EU Economic Counselor of Ministry of Economy

Cristina Dominguez Beautell Gobierno de Canarias Legal Advisor

Virag Domokos Office of Ms Joanne Kellermann, Member of the Board

Kristof Doms Philip Morris International VP Fiscal Affairs, Int’l Trade & ITSP

Leonardo Doni Liaison Office Tuscany Region Assistant

Bernard Donnay New Mind S.p.r.l. Communication consultants General Manager

Marie-Noelle Donneaux Cabinet du VicePremier Ministre et Ministre des Affaires étrangères Secrétaire de Cabinet

Cillian Donnelly Xinhua Journalists

Axel Donzelli The Digital Post Co-founder and Digital Director

Edyta Dorenbos Tilburg Law Reveiw MBA

Edyta Dorenbos European Banking Center, Center for Company Law, Tilburg University, National Arbitration Court Research Fellow, Counsellor, Arbitrator

Jakub Dospiva Czech News Agency (ÄŒTK)

Sabine Dossa Interface ADISIF Directrice

Timme Dossing CabinetDN Partner

André Douette Federation of European & International Associations based in Belgium


Larry Downes Internet Industry Analyst and Author

Una Downey Office of the Northern Ireland Senior Public Affairs Manager

Fatima Dqaichi Proximus Director Customer Centricity

Kubiak Dr Ruben European Commission Directorate General for Energy Energy Efficiency Unit Policy Officer

Nicole Dr. Mau MAU Consulting Owner

Drasko Dr. Veselinovic Slovenian Business&Research Association President

Wolff Dr.Ing. Christoph European Climate Foundation Managing Director

Diana Draganescu JAYE JA alumna

Iana Dreyer Borderlex & BNE Intellinews Trade and EU Correspondent

Clothilde Dreyfus PROTEINE

Constance Dreyfus PROTEINE

Yves Dricot Foreign Affaire DG development Director ai Thematic direction

Madeleine Drielsma European Research Council Press Advisor to ERC President

Angela Droussiotou Regional Policy Counsellor Permanent Representation of Cyprus

William Drozdiak Maximus, Inc. Senior Advisor for Europe

Marie-Hélène Dube JT International S.A. Media Relations Director

Olivier Dubois Husa President Park Hotel

Natacha Duchesne visit.brussels

Francois Ducobu Watch TV Cameraman

Cécile Ducourtieux Le Monde EU Correspondent

Simon Dufaur MCI Benelux SA Global Director Healthcare and Life Sciences

Kerstin Duhme FTI Consulting Senior Managing Director

Annette Dumas Annette Dumas Director

Olivier Dumelie Fisa Account Manager

Sébastien Dumont De Chassart Redebel Administrator

François-Xavier Dumont de Chassart TOTAL European Affairs Delegate

Emmanuel Dunand Agence France-Presse (AFP) Responsable Photo Benelux

Kathrin Duning Enercon International Governental and Political Relations

Maxime Dupont Spotlinks Ltd. CEO

Olaj Dusan DUOL d.o.o. CEO

Karolina Dutkiewicz Regional Office of Silesia in Brussels EU Policy Officer

Dariusz Dybka Permanent Representation of Poland to the EU Environment Attach

Morten Dyrholm Vestas Vice President, Global Public Affairs

Jan Dzieciolowski European Commission Member of Cabinet Cretu

E

Rummler Eckhardt E.ON Climate and Res CEO

Anne Eckstein Europolitics Journalist

Emmanuel Economou European Commission DG COMP Case Handler Infrastructure

Florian Eder POLITICO Managing Editor

Florian Eder POLITICO Managing Editor, Expansion

Lanza Eduardo TELEFONICA SA EU Regulatory Manager

Louise Edwards Siemens Wind Power Graduate Program

Jan Egeman Guggenheim Partners Analyst

Nicolaj Egerod Radius Kommunikation AS Senior Consultant

Alexandre Egger ThinkYoung Team Coordinator

Jan A. Eggert Foreign Trade Association


Marie Eichholtzer Hill+Knowlton Strategies Account Executive

Layla El Khadraoui European Commission Development Cooperation Officer

Said El Khadraoui European Commission Policy Analyst

Kawtar El Ouali AIESEC in Belgium

Bishr El Touni The associated press televeision news Videojournalist

Hassane Elarif Comoros Ousoni Director

Villa Elena Turistec CEO

Christine Elfers ZVEI European Affairs Manager

Hartman Elizabeth American Chamber of Commerce to the EU Communications Officer

Richard Ellis Walgreens Boots Alliance, UK Director of Corporate Social Responsibilities

Richard Elsner MORE Project Founder

Robin Emmott Reuters News Senior Correspondent

Robin Emmott Reuters Senior Journalist

Alexandru Ene JADE European Confederation for Junior Enterprise Vice President Director of Communication and Event

Robert Engelen Accenture Senior Manager

Honnay Erika GRE Liege Director

Olof Erixon Confederation of Swedish Enterprise Director Trade Policy

Kasper Ernest Dansk Erhverv Director

Thomas Christian Ernhede statusquo.eu Contributing Editor

Samira Essiaf SIOP EUROPE (the European Society for Paediatric Oncology) Secretary General

Eugene Eteris The Baltic Course Magazine International Editor www.baltic-course.com

Freddy Evens Department Foreign Affairs Flanders Team Coordinator

Antoine Evrard Cabinet of the Prime Minister Diplomatic Advisor

Christian Ewert Foreign Trade Association FTA Director General

F

Tom Fairless The Wall Street Journal Reporter

Francesc Fajula Banc Sadadell Director of Innovation

Benoit Fally Coach & Grow

Kembo Fangila Chico KEMBO BUSINESS Agri Consultant

Sarah Farley International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes

Sarah Farndale European Youth Forum Communications Coordinator

Peter Faross UEAPME (European Association of Craft, Small and Mediumsized Enterprises) Secretary General

Greg Farrett GE Exec. Director, Communications GE Europe

Jean-Emmanuel Faure European Commission (DG RTD) Senior Policy Officer

Vincent Favrel European Commission, DG Research & Innovation Head of Unit

Detlef Fechtner Boersen-Zeitung EU Correspondent

Jessica Federer Bayer AG Chief Digital Officer

Zeneda Feratllari ALDE Party Assistant

Maurice Fermont BUSINESSEUROPE Adviser

Carolina Fernandes Enterprise Europe Network Senior Innovation, Funding Manager and EU R&D Advisor

Isabel Fernandez European Federation of Geologists Executive Director

Alberto Fernandez Watch TV Journalist

Laura Fernandez Alvarez EurActiv Journalist/Video producer

Michael Fernandez-Bertier UCL PhD Candidate, Lecturer

Martina Francesca Ferracane European Center for International Political Economy Policy Analyst

Alexandra Ferreira MCI

Christian Feustel BUSINESSEUROPE Senior Policy Advisor - Advocacy Management

Maryline Fiaschi Science Business Director


Denis Fichot JT International SA Corporate Affairs & Communications WE Director

Stephen Fidler Wall Street Journal Journalist Brussels Bureau Chief

Bruno Fierens Burson-Marsteller Media

Javier Figueroa Sanz College of Europe MA Candidate

Diana Filip JAYE Europe asbl Deputy CEO I VP for Marketing and Development

Silas Findlay Citi Managing Director

Frank Finzel RES Deutschland General Manager

Julia Fioretti Thomson Reuters Correspondent

Yvan Flamant Fedra Staff Member

Beatrice Flammini Citi Director

Eleanor Flanagan Grayling Senior Consultant

Silvestroni Flavia EC Temporary Agent

Mark Fleming Janssen Inc. Canada Director, Federal Affairs & Health Policy

Jeremy Fleming EurActiv Journalist

Hakim Flissi Tagrimount Go Big Directeur International

Joanna Fliszewska European Internet Forum Events manager

Andrei Florea European Commission Policy officer

Sonia Florian Hill+Knowlton Strategies Account Executive

Laszlo Florian Laszlo FLORIAN Senior Counsellor

Francesco Florindi European Cancer Patient Coalition Public Affairs Coordinator

Maika Foehrenbach CEEP Policy Officer

Frederik Foket Deloitte Consultant

Franz Folker ABB Senior Vice President Public Affairs

Irina Fomina European Economic and Social Committee Policy Officer

Jose Fonseca Philip Morris International Direcotr EU Affairs

Yun Chee Foo Thomson Reuters Senior Competition Correspondent

Pierre-Jean Forget Mutualité Chrétienne de Liège Chef de Service Gestion des batiments

Agata Fornasari Expert in Global Marketing

Anne Kristin Fosli Ministry of Finance Senior Advicer

Mark Foster Kreab Partner

Lotte Frach Accenture Dienstleistungen GmbH Research Manager

Fr Fran Advanced Fair

Joao Francisco Guerreiro TSF Journalist

Marie-Tiphaine François-Dainville Ile de France Europe Chargée d’information

Marcus Franken E.ON Climate & Renewables EU affairs

Magali Frankl Accenture BeLux Corporate Citizenship Coordinator

Lieve Fransen European Commission Director

Doru Frantescu VoteWatch Europe Director

Lorenzo Franzi Rocket Internet Global Venture Managing Director

Edwina Frawley-Gangahar Citi Director

Georges Freiha Meeting Destination Experts

Lena Frej Ohlsson Directorate D Government Finance Statistics (GFS) and quality; European Commission Head of Unit; Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP)

Jelle Frencken VTM Journalist

Georges Friden Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the EU Ambassador, Deputy Permanent Representative

Sylviane Friedlingstein Représentation Permanente de la Belgique auprès de l’UE Délégué de la Région de Bruxelles Capitale auprès de l’UE

Hajo Friedrich Europraxis Correspondent


Anna-Karin Friis Freelance Journalist

Simona Frisoli GEB Head of Marketing and Communications

Marc Frisque Xpand Managing Partner

Peter Fritz ORF

Koen Fruyt BNP Paribas CIB IT Global Head of Digital Banking

Christophe Fruytier App & Web SA CEO

Jing Fu China Daily Journalist

Tetsuro Fukunaga Japan Machinery Center for Trade and Investment Executive Director

Anita Furstenberg-Lucius European Investment Bank Director

Dominik Futschik BUSINESSEUROPE Adviser Energy and Industrial Affairs

G

Cabau Gabriel 648 London Managing Partner

Andreas Gahleitner EVCA Communications

Kurt Gaissert Stuttgart Region European Office Advisor

Oliver Gajda European Crowdfunding Network Chairman & Executive Director

Elzbieta Gajeska European Commission Principal Administrator

Andreas Galanakis American Chamber of Commerce to the EU Policy Director

Viktor Galasyuk The Ukrainian Parliament Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine People’s Deputy of Ukraine

Flaminia Gallo Red Cross EU Office Head of Unit

Andrea Gallo FASI.biz Publisher

Antonio Galvao TVI (Televisao Independente) Cameraman

Fabio Gamba EBAA CEO

Cerstin Gammelin Sueddeutsche Zeitung

Patrycja Gan DEVCO European Commission Administrative Assistant

Chun Gan Xinhua News Agency Journalist

Wu Gang People’s Daily Correspondent

Shuang Gao China Daily Journalist

Eliana Garces Tolon European Commission Deputy Head of Unit

William Garcia Cefic Executive Director

Ignacio Garcia Alves Arthur D. Liittle Chairman and Global CEO

Antonio Garcia del Riego Santander Delegation Benelux Director

Maria Garrido CEOE Delegation to the EU Trainee

Jean-Marie Gaspar WILINK Associate Partner

Nikita Gaur ThinkYoung Media Office Manager

Vitalijs Gavrilovs Employers’ Confederation of Latvia Adviser on Sectoral Economic Issues

Marco Gazzo Accenture Managing Director

Francesco Gazzoletti ERG Renew Head of International Affairs

Anne-Bénédicte Genachte EWEA Key account manager

Pascale Genot TEC Group Assistante de Direction

Theodora Gentzis Cabinet du VicePremier Ministre et Ministre des Affaires étrangères Conseiller

Zachmann Georg Bruegel Resident Scholar

Marianna Georgallis European Youth Forum Policy and Advocacy Coordinator

Thomas George European Commission EU Policy Officer

Benoit Georges Service public de Wallonie, DG Agriculture, Ressources naturelles et Environnement Attach

Andrea Gerosa Think Young Founder

Jurgen Gevaert Belga

Monica Ghecea Union europaischer Industrie und Handelskammern (UECC) Fur Verkehrsfragen UECC BXL Representative


Charles Gheur Burson Marsteller Senior Advisor

Redouane Ghezouani visit.brussels

Bernard Ghyoot The Association of the European Adhesives & Sealants ndustry

Alexandre Gianasso Affairs Today Managing Editor

Gregor Gianella Think Young Project Manager

Patrick Gibbels ESBA Secretary General

Graeme Gibbs EPRA Policy officer

Maria Rosa Gibellini European Internet Forum

Norbert Giese Senvion Vice President Agency

Elena Gil None Manager

Eric Gilbers VNONCW and MKB Nederland Advisor European Affairs

Abrial Gilbert European Climate Foundation Associate Transport

Sarah Giles European Crop Protection Association, aisbl

Neena Gill European Parliament Member of the European Parliament

Hugh Gillanders GE Director for Public Affairs Europe

Olivier Gillerot Accenture Managing Director

Francisco Gimeno Nogués European Commission Project Manager

Doug Gingerella UCB Senior Vice President of Global Internal AuditM&A

Michela Giuffrida European parliament Member of European Parliament

Francesco Giusti EORTC Fellow, Statistics Department

Vesela Gladicheva MLex

Ivan Glushko Russian Mission to the EU Counsellor

Katarzyna Gluszak eu.Ness Communication Officer

Rezarta Godo Junior Achievement of Albania CEO

Pascal Goergen Federation of Regional Actors in Europe (FEDRA) Secretary General

Rutger Goethart HEINEKEN International Manager International Labour Relations

Hubert Goffinet WBI Plateforme recherche de WBI

Daniela Goldman JADE European Confederation of Junior Enterprises Global Public Affairs

Natalia Golovneva Lawyer

Pawel Golsztajn European Commission Budget Officer

Juan José Gomez Camacho Ambassy of Mexico to the EU Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary

Vasco Gonçalves CIP Confederation of Portuguese Business CIP trainee at Brussels Delegation in BUSINESSEUROPE

Manuel Gonzalez Evangelista Fundacion Comunidad Valenciana Coordinador

Gustavo Gonzalez-Quijano COTANCE European Leather Industry Secretary General

Barbara Gonzato Hill + Knowlton Strategies Account Executive

Serge Goossens Belfius

Leo Goovaerts EcoNation CEO

Stefanic Goran Permanent Representation of the Republic of Croatia to the EU Deputy Permanent Representative, Ambassador

Robert Gordon Multivoxx Senior Advisor for Europe

Nadine Gouzée Club of Rome Full Member

Floris Goyens ASSURALIA Adjunctdirecteur European Affairs

Joachim Goyvaerts PayPal

Marietta Grammenou European Commission Policy Officer

Viviana Grandi Fondazione Renato Grandi Presidente

Patrick Grant BUSINESSEUROPE Adviser

David Grant The Leuven Institute for Ireland in Europe Programme Manager

Maria Grapini EP MEP EPP

Paolo Grassia Community Pubic Affairs Consultant

Oriana Grasso European Commission Policy Officer


Jan Grauls EY Senior Advisor

Antonio Graziano Huawei VicePresident, Huawei EU Public Affairs and Communication Office

Sara Green Brodersen Implement Consulting Group Management Consultant

Vincent Gregoire St Luc University Hospital Professor in Radiation & Oncology

Guenter Gressler 3M President, West Europe

Joana Griffin EWEA Business Development Manager

Marie Jo Grilo Rosa BUSINESSEUROPE Executive Assistant and Adviser to the Director General

Brian Grima Ministry for Economy, Investment and Small Business Senior Manager

Marc Grojean AQUABIOTICA Managing Director

Alessandro Gropelli European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association

Daniel Gros Centre for European Policy Studies Director

Paul Grosjean Editions Ventures Editeur en Chef

Ignasi Guardans K&L Gates GP

Françoise Guaspare-Gal Ile de France - Europe Region Reprensentation to the EU Adviser

Georgine Guelton visit.brussels

Aurélie Guillemette Accenture Senior Manager

Pierre-Marie Guitton Centre de Coop

Roald Gulbrandsen Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise Director

Dirk Gullentops Synergrid Legal Counsel

Melissa Gunnewig VOLKSWAGEN AG EUAffairs manager, Political Advisor

Ping Guo Huawei Deputy Chairman of the Board, Rotating CEO

Rudi Guraziu International Business and Diplomatic Exchange Executive Chairman

Anca Gurzu Europolitics Journalist

Magdalena Guzowska European Parliament Cabinet of the President

Olga Gvozdyova College of Europe MA Candidate

Jesper Gyberg European Parliament Assistant to MEP Fjellner

Zoltan Gyevai Figyelő EU-Correspondent

Sara Gysen Gfk Belgium

H

H. R.H. Princess Astrid of Belgium

Cheryl Haber Ministry for Economy, Investment and Small Business Manager

Hans Hack FTI Consulting Head of Financial Services

Amin M. A. Haddad Palestinian Federation of Business Associations Board Member

Artes Haderi Charles River Associates Consulting Associate

Bart Haeck De Tijd

Peter Haegeman Comeos Chief Economist

Chris Haenen GE Funding manager

Morgane Haid FEB Attach

Stuart Haire Royal Bank of Scotland Managing Director Direct Bank

Svatopluk Halada AIE CR EUREKA Manager

Karolina Halarewicz AIESEC Corporate Relations


Siobhan Hall Platts Senior Editor, EU energy policy

James Hallam Accenture Senior Manager

Bernd Halling BAYER SA NV Head of EU Liaison Office

Annik Halmes Brussels Special Venues

Hanna Halonen TURKU Southwest Finland European Office Junior Political Assistant

Yasmin Hamed European Commission Blue Book Trainee

Valéry Hamende Le Forem Chargé de mission grands comptes et investisseurs étrangers

Declan Hamill Canada’s ResearchBased Pharmaceutical Companies (Rx&D) Chief of Staff and VicePresident, Legal Affairs

Patrick Han Taipei Representative Office Economic Secretary

Jean-Pierre Hannequart ACR President

Rueppel Hans-Dieter AGATHON Informationsdienste

Jeroen Hardenbol BUSINESSEUROPE Senior Adviser

Ignacio Kristanyo Hardojo Indonesian Embassy Chargé d’Affaires a.i.

Cecile Hardon-Villard European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology

Elaine Hargrove ExxonMobil Communications Advisor

Adrian Harris Orgalime Director General

Cliff Harris GE Power & Water General Manager for Renewable Energy Europe

Adrian Harris Orgalime, the European Engineering Industries Association

Jorge Harrison Committe of the Regions Secretary General PES GROUP

Julia Harrison FTI Consulting Belgium SA Senior Managing Director and Senior Partner

Daniel Hart Hill + Knowlton Strategies Account Executive

Anke Harthoorn Europolitics Journalist

Jarno Hartikainen Kauppalehti EU Correspondent

Eddy Hartog European Commission Head of Unit

Odile Harvey Mear lemagazine.info

Geir Askvik Haugum Financial Mechanism Office, EFTA Programme Manager

Christian Hauke European Commission Assitant Policy Officer

Caroline Hayat eu.Ness SPRL Managing Partner

Emmanuel Hazard AGC Glass Europe Corporate Responsibility Director

Liqin He Bank of China General Manager

Vivien He Belgium Public Affairs Manager

James Healy GE General Manager Communications

Kristian Hedberg European Commission Deputy Head of Cabinet

Jens Hedstr Confederation of Swedish Enterprise International Director, Head of Brussels Office

Aimé Heene Ghent University Honorary Professor

Bertil Heerink The Alliance of Beverage Cartons and the Environment

Aongus Hegarty Dell President EMEA

Dionne Heijnen Mondelez International Manager Public Affairs

Laurent Hellebaut Agoria EU Affairs Coordinator

Thibault Helleputte Societé DNAlytics CEO

Cecilia Hellner Vattenfall Head of EU affairs

Ania Helseth ESOA Head of Public Affairs

Aalain Hemelinckx Green Bazar Managing Director

Florence Hennart Direction générale opérationnelle de l’économie, de l’emploi et de la recherche Attachée

Olivier Hennebert NA Photographe

Vianney Hennes Orange Director Brussels Office

Mike Hentges Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the EU Counselor


Didier Herbert European Commission Director

Jean-Baptiste Herbout European Commission Policy Analyst

Grégory Herman HydroScan SA Account Manager Wallonie et France

Sylvie Herman Peter Drucker Society Europe

Stefaan Hermans European Commission Head of Cabinet for Commissioner Marianne Thyssen

Pierre Hermant DEFICOM GROUP SA Owner

Jorge Hernández Aquí Europa Journalist

Manuel Herrera Rabago Embassy of Mexico and Mission to the EU First Secretary

Felicity Herrmann Dods Business Development Executive

Bertrand Herry NCP Wallonie

Bruno Hery Lyondell Chemical Products Europe

Claire Hewitt DG Connect Communications and PR

Thomas Heynisch European Commission (DG GROW) Deputy Head of Unit

H.E. Dr Mark Higgie Australian Mission to the European Uniion Ambassador

John Higgins DIGITALEUROPE Director General

Martina Hilger Vertretung der Freien Hansestadt Bremen bei der Europaischen Union ERRIN Working Group Leader

Jonathan Hill European Commission Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union

Matti Hiltunen Tekes Counsellor

Yuki Hirajo Grayling Senior Consultant

Nicholas Hodac IBM Europe Government Affairs Executive

Sandra Hodzic-Meglajec APTN Senior Producer

Mathieu Hoeberigs EC Principal Administrator International Relations Tourism

Ellen Hof Hill+Knowlton Strategies Account Manager

Manuela Hofer RIZ StartUp Agency of Lower Austria Head PR and Marketing

Valérie Hoffenberg Vconferences Connecting leaders CEO

Jerry Hofhuis HEINEKEN International Public Affairs Analyst

An Hofman Television Journalist

Kunze Holger Orgalime

Simon Holland EC DG for Growth Deputy Head of Communications

René Höltschi Neue Zürcher Zeitung Correspondent

Alexander Homann Leiter der Vertretung der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft Belgiens

Petra Hoogendoorn Your Years B.V. Founder Your Years B.V.

Kris Hoornaert AGFA CFO

Dorte Hoppner EVCA CEO

Camelia Horlaci JA Romania Chair of the Board

Xavier Hormaechea UCB Director Public Affairs UCB

Simon Horner BVCA Director, Public Affairs and Policy

Renate Hornung-Draus BUSINESSEUROPE Chairman of the Social Affairs Committee

Selwa Hosna Algerian Embassy Attaché Commercial

Joana Hostein Radio France Internationale

Vincent Houdry Permanent Representation of France to the EU Health Attach

Greg Houlahan High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom Senior Trade Commissioner

Georges Houtappel Solvay Vice President CE

Hongbo Hu The Mission of China to the European Union First Secretary

Damien Hubaux CETIC General Manager

Heidi-Beth Hudson Northern Ireland Executive Senior EU Liaison Officer

Susanne Huefner ExxonMobil Regional Communication Manager

Chantal Hughes European Commission Member of Cabinet of Commissioner Hill


Morgane Humbert MEDEF Conseiller

Philip Hunt shoeman.eu Editor

Damien Huvelle Haute école Leonard de Vinci Directeur Président

Hana Huzjak European Commission Policy Officer

Jan Serup Hylleberg Danish Wind Industry Association CEO

I

Marco Iacuitto Chambre de Commerce BelgoItalienne Project Manager

Walmsley Ian FacilityLive SVP Corporate

Myts Iana 3M Manager Government Affairs

Waseem Ibraheem APTN/ Middle East Reporter

Olivier Imbault Air Liquide Group Vice President, European Energy & Industry Affairs

Jeffrey Immelt General Electric CEO

Karin Impens Brussels Commissioner for Europe and International Organisations

Audrey Imperiali Best of Publishing Sales & Marketing Director

Marco Incerti CEPS News Head of Communication

Marco Incerti CEPS Centre for European Policy Studies Head of Communication & Research Fellow

Klingmann Ingrid European Forum for Good Clinical Practice Chairman

Andras Inotai European Commission Member of Cabinet of Commissioner Vella

Mariano Ion mixCOACH networx

Lorena Ionita European Commission Policy officer

Elisa Irlandese VoteWatch Policy and events assistant

Jan Ising Accenture GmbH Managing Director

Shada Islam Friends of Europe Director of Policy

Dilek Istar Ates TUSIAD Turkish Industry & Business Association Adviser

Petya Ivanova European Commission Trainee

J

Andrew Jack Financial Times Journalist

Sophie Jacobs Intel Corporation Public Policy Manager

Henriette Jacobsen EurActiv Journalist

Baudouin Jambe SPW-DG-O6 International programmes Directorate Director

Petra Janbroers De Persdienst Correspondent

Suela Janina Mission of Albania to EU Ambasador

Celine Jankowiak Agence France-Presse Camera person

Anna Jansen European Commission AD

Talander Janssen Grayling Head of Transport Practice

Daniel Janssen Solvay SA Honorary Chairman

Sarah Jaques FEPPD

Leszek Jarosz EESC Employers’ Group Communication officer

Katarina Jastrzembska European Commission Policy Officer

Dean Jayson Accenture Managing Director

Antony Jean-Mertens SQUAREBRUSSELS Meeting Centre

Veselin Jelev Club Z Media

Maximilian Jell Philip Morris Internaitonal Manager EU Affairs

Caroline Jenner JAYE Europe asbl CEO

Nicholas Jennett European Investment Bank Director

Heidi Plougsgaard Jensen jyllands-posten eu Correspondent

Kia Marie Jerichau College of Europe MA Candidate

Alenka Jerkic Finance and Regional Policy; Council of the European Union Counsellor

Kathleen Jeske JADE European Confederation of Junior Enterprises Secretary General


Louise Bang Jespersen Embassy of Denmark Ambassador of Denmark

Victoria Julie Jessen Confederation of Danish Industry Policy Assistant

Saida Jinah EORTC Personal Assitant

Cécile Jodogne Brussels Secretary of State for Foreign Trade & Investment

Nyman Johanna European Youth Forum President

Jason John Accenture Managing Director Financial Services

Thomas John European Foundation for Democracy Senior Counsellor

Joseph Babadi Johns O.P.A.D. And Masianday Foundation Regional Director for West Africa

Brice Jolivet IHA Broadcast Services

Ramsay Jonathan Monsanto Europe S.AN.V Accounts Payable Government and Industry Affairs Lead

Joanna Jong Solvay Executive Education

Shannah Jongstra Rapporteur of the meeting

Erik Jonnaert ACEA Secretary General

Jacques Jooris OMPP Organisation Press mondiale periodique Brussels diplomatic CCAE Etterbeek

Robert Joos Groupement de la Siderurgie Staalindustrie Verbond Director General

Griet Joppen Accenture Marketing Manager

Lars Jordahn TNT Managing Director Global Airlines

Daniel Jordan Touchroad International Holdingd Group Managing Director

Olivier Joris FEBVBO «Executive Manager European & International Affairs Permanent Delegate to BUSINESSEUROPE»

Delbeke Jos DG Climate Action, European Commission DirectorGeneral

Orion Joss AIESEC International Business Development Director

Annick Josz Indépendante

Christophe Journet MPE-MEDIA Rédacteur en chef

Oliver Joy EWEA Spokesperson

Jasper Juinen Bloomberg News Photographer

Eve Jumel CreaJob Directrice

Peter Jungen Peter Jungen Holding GmbH Chairman

Elisa Jungk European Commission, Cabinet Oettinger Political Assistant to the Commissioner

Ieva Jurgaityte LAWIN ELEX Brussels Lawyer

Emmanuel Jusserand Accenture Managing Director

K

Odette Kabagonza Abooki European Investment Bank Assistant

Ilari Kallio Confederation of Finnish Industries EK Senior Advisor

Christiana Kalogirou Region of North Aegean Governor

Diodorus Kamala Embassy of Tanzania Ambassador

Efstratios Kamenis European Commission EUUS Trade Policy Analyst

Bernard Kamp EORTC Head of Human Ressources

Constance Kann The European Investment Bank Director of Institutional Relations and Public Affairs

James Kanter The New York Times Journalist

Eszter Kantor US Mission to the EU Commercial Specialist

Jonathan Kapstein Press Club Brussels Europe President

Amit Kapur Tata Consultancy Services Director & Head Benelux


Andrea Karan EASME Blue Book Trainee

Janos Karpati MTI Correspondent

Niels Karssen Avisa Partners Associate Director Jakub Karwanski European Parliament Office of Michal

Boni Alexander Kasper Airbus Group EU Policy Analyst

Weronika Kasprzak 20 seconds to midnight Production Director

Chrysoula Kassianidou EP Policy Advisor

Jyrki Katainen European Commission Vice President for jobs, growth, investment and competitiveness

Keiichi Katakami Mission of Japan Ambassador, Head of Mission

Munoz Katia ThinkYoung Alumni

Sigma Kato Sony Service, Quality and Environment

Panos Katsampanis European Sting CoFounder & Marketing Manager

Panos Katsampanis The European Sting Marketing Manager

Rea Katsanevaki AigaioTV Journalist

Angelos Katsikas Solvay Business School MBA Student

Franklin Katungwe Embassy of Uganda Brussels Minister Plenipotentiary

Agita Kaupuza Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments Head of the Office

Ewelina Kawczynska Imagina-EU Journalist

Snezha Kazakova GfK Belgium Business Expert Public Services

Anne Keane Afore Consulting Director

Dave Keating European Voice Reporter

Rupert Keeley PayPal Senior Vice President EMEA

Dennis Kefalakos European Sting CoFounder & Editor in Chief

Dennis Dionyios Kefalakos European Sting Ediror in Chief

Roderick Kefferpuetz European Parliament Assistant

Joanne Kellermann Single Resolution Board Board Member

Tobias Kellner College of Europe Student

Eanna Kelly Science|Business News editor

Erwan Kermadec EARTO Policy Assistant

Pascal Kerneis Euroepan Services Forum (ESF) Managing Director

Ernst Kernmayer ORF Reporter

Gilbert Kerremans Belgacom Senior VP treasury

Johan Kestens ING Belgium CIO

Cornwell Kevin AIESEC International Global VP Business Development

Pieterjan Keymeulen AIESEC in Belgium vzw Director of Finance&Legal

Nawab Khan Kuwait news agency

Mykhaylo Khariy Nongovernmental Organization-Center of Transformation of Ukraine Chairman

Régine Kiasuwa WIVISP Collaboratrice scientifique

Kazuhiro Kida Nikkei Correspondent

Delila Kidanu ThinkYoung External Relations Officer

Camille Kievits European Business Summit Event Assistant

Kololo Mimie Kilewuka ETS Kololo Mimi Agro Business Commerçante

Anatoliy Kinakh Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs President

Fabienne Kinard UCL Louvain Head of Unit EU & International Research Funds

Matthew King European Commission Head of Unit

Wepke Kingma Permanent Representation of Netherlands to the EU Deputy Permanent Representative

Ignacio Kingsley Husa President Park Hotel

Lisbeth Kirk EUobserver Founder and Editor-in-chief


William H. Kirkpatrick CEPULB Former Director

Ilona Kiukucane Employers’ Confederation of Latvia (LDDK) Permanent Delegate

Jonas Kjellberg Google

Sarah Klamert European Office of Local Authorities of BadenWurttemberg Policy Assistant

Alexandra Klee European Commission, OIB Legal counsel

Sean Klein SeanKlein Media Ltd Journalist

Baldwin Klep ODGERS BERNDTSON Partner

Ingrid Klingmann European Forum for Good Clinical Practice (EFGCP) Chairman

Bernadette Kloesch Austrian Embassy Chargé d’Affaires a.i.

Stepan Klokocka ThinkYoung Alumni

Beatrice Klose Intergraf European Association for Print and Digital Communication

Johannes Klumpers European Commission Head of Unit Budget

Ben Knapen EIB EIB Permanent Representative

Frank Knecht European Commission DG GROWTH Team Leader

Klemens Kober BDI International Trade Department

Charles Koch Headquarters Magazine

Roxanne Koenis House of the Dutch Provinces Communication Officer

Tom Koerkemeier Reuters EU Correspondent

Nadezda Kokotovic NIS j.s.c. Novi Sad Chief of Staff to CEO

Kristian Koktvedgaard Confederation of Danish Industry Head of VAT, Accounting and Auditing

Dani Kolb Association of European Candle Makers

Boris Kolev JT International CEO

Maria Koleva Europosr Weekly

Joost Koomen H+K Strategies Director

Dirk-Jan Koops Accenture Managing Director

George Kopetz TTTech Computertechnik AG Cofounder and Member of the Executive Board

Frank Korsstrom Accenture Senior Managing Director

Dimitrios Koskeridis European Commission TV News Producer

Ingrid Kossler European Economic and Social Committee European Economic and Social Committee, Member Group III

Nikos Kostopoulos Region of North Aegean Executive Secretary

Athanasios Kotsis INTRASOFT International SA Chairman

Samir Kotti Classe Export Tunisie PDG

Andrea Kovacova European Parliament Trainee

Olga Kozhaeva SIOP EUROPE (the European Society for Paediatric Oncology) Public Affairs Coordinator

Kornelia Kozovska European Commission Policy officer

Raido Kraavik European Commission Blue Book Trainee

Thomas Kramer Dods Business Development Executive

Régine Kramer AER Coordinatrice Relations Membres

Peter Kramer European Business Review Editor-in-chief

Nicolaas Peter Kramer European Business Review Editor-In-Chief

Franz Kraus Mondelez International Manager Public Affairs

Birgit Krausse International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics Jacek Krawczyk European Economic and Social Committee President of the Employers’ Group

Dennis Kredler Dow Director European Union Affairs

Alexander Krestiyanov Perment representation of Russia to the EU Deputy Head of the Mission

Markus Krischer BAYER SA NV EU Policy and Communication Advisor

Ignacio Kristanyo Hardojo Ambassy of Indonesia to the EU Deputy Ambassador

Jelena Krstovic Corpo Public Affairs CEO


Ewa Krukowska Bloomberg News Reporter

André Kruse Securex Algemeen Directeur Externe Dienst voor Preventie en Bescherming

Alexander Kryvosheyev JTI Corporate Affairs VicePresident

Maciej Krzysztofowicz European Commission Policy officer

Ruben Kubiak European Commission Policy Officer

Jan Kuijken BursonMarsteller Media

Karlijn Kuiper Ondernemen.in Business Development Director

Adem Kumcu UNITEE President

Holger Kunze VDMA Head European Office

Gregor Kupper Press Club Brussels Europe - COO Narroway - COO

Zana Kurda KRGEU Mission Advisor EU Affairs

Susanne Kuschel BASF Group Senior Manager Energy & Climate Policy

Natalia Kuznetsova European Business Summit Event Assistant

Charles Guy Kwesiga Uganda Industrial Research Institute Executive Director

Anna Kwiatkiewicz Polish Confederation Lewiatan Head of Brussels Office

L

Fabienne L’Hoost Belgian Foreign Trade Agency Deputy Director General

Sylvain L’Hote Alcoa Vice President Government Affairs

Bertrand L’Huillier European Parliament Policy Adviser on Trade and Digital

Thibaut L’Ortye American Chamber of Commerce to the EU Executive Assistant to the Managing Director

Florien Labree VNONCW Trainee European Affairs

Angel Labrusse Fedra Staff Member

Ludovic Lacaine Grayling Government Affairs Director

Agnieszka Lach European Commission Administrator

Denis Lacombe EORTC Director General Lacroix Lacroix SA Adm Délégué

Alexandra Lacroix www.blog.unitee.eu UNITEE Blog Editor in Chief

Anders Ladefoged Confederation of Danish Industry Director European Affairs

Jacques Lafitte Avisa Partners Founding Partner

Raido Laht Estonian Public Broadcasting Cameraman

Taneli Lahti European Commission Head of Cabinet of VicePresident Dombrovskis

Kathleen Laissy EBCD Deputy Director

Ana-Paula Laissy European Commission Head of Communication Unit, Communication Manager

Jose Lalloum FORUM Owner

Kristof Lambert Accenture Managing Director

Philippe Lamberts European Parliament Member

Karl-Heinz Lambertz Committee of the Regions First VicePresident

Philippe Lambrecht FEB Secretary General

Elodie Lamer Agence Europe

Evan Lamos EurActiv Multimedia Director

Nikos Lampropoulos EurActiv.gr Director

Mikel Landabaso European Commission Head of Cabinet of Commissioner Corina Cretu

Rémi Landau EDF Chargé de financements européens

Ola Landstrom Swedish National Board of Trade Legal Adviser

Jason Lane MasterCard Group Executive, European Market Develoment

Frederik Lange BUSINESSEUROPE Adviser

Didier Lannoy BNP Paribas Fortis Chief Operating Officer Capital Markets


Frank Lanssens Erasmus University College Director

Reinhard Laroy Cabinet of Minister Alexander De Croo Advisor Minister Alexander De Croo

Soren Larsen Nordic Logistics Association CEO

Jessica Larsson European Commission Economist

Anne Britt Larsson North Denmark EuOffice Project Manager

Justyna Lasik European Commission DG TRADE Policy Coordinator

Guy Laszlo Lasne Group sprlbvba Managing Director

Florian Laszlo AIM Senior Counsellor

Deirdre Latour GE Chief Communications Officer

Isotalo Laura European Commission Trainee

Céline Laurenceau Accenture Strategy «Managing Director Talent & Organization Performance Lead for France, Belgium and Netherlands»

Brihay Laurent Press Club Brussels Europe Executive Director

David Laurier AppliTek NV President

Samuel Laurinkari Ebay Senior Manager Government Relations

Yury Lavrov Oil of Russia Special Correspondent

Mark Lawler Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology Chair in Translational Cancer Genomics and Associate Director of Postgraduate Studies

Fred Le Borne Accenture Strategy Managing Director

Alain Le Grix De La Salle ArcerlorMittal ArcerlorMittal Europe Sales VP

Ellen Leaver Scottish Government Senior Policy Adviser

Myriam Lebeer European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology

Isabelle Lebrocquy oPuce Founder, Patient Advocate and Social Entrepreneur

François Lebrun I.R.I.S. Solutions & Experts Sales Account Manager-International Organizations

Andrea Lecce Intesa San Paolo SpA Head of Marketing

Nathalie Lechanteur Brussels Airlines Coach for Ground Operations

Arta Leci-Dajlani European Society of Radiotherapy and Oncology

Christophe Leclercq EurActiv.com Founder

Nicolas Ledent Cabinet du VicePremier Ministre et Ministre des Affaires étrangères Conseiller

Nicolas Ledent SPF Finances Inspecteur des finances

Pei Juan Lee Singapore Exhibitions and Conventions Bureau

Isabelle Lefebvre ULB Directeur ULBTTO

Pascale Lega Fedra Staff Member

Jean-Marc Legrand F!DE Capital Partner

Eline Leirman EY Director

Gauthier Lejeune Commerce extérieur

Stephane Lejeune EORTC Coordinator, EU Programme Office

Jerome Lejeune Accenture Senior Manager

Jean-Christophe Leloup Cabinet du Ministre JeanClaude Marcourt Conseiller Recherche et Universités

Craig Lemaire VALMETAL Director

Marie-L. Lemaire World Periodical Press News Free-lance

André Lemaitre Cabinet du Vice Président et Ministre de l’Enseignement supérieur, de la Recherche et des Médias Conseiller Recherche et Universités

Jean-Paul Lemieux Mission of Canada to the European Union Counsellor

Kwin Lemmens Solvay Business School MBA Student

Pierre Lemoine EUROPOLITICS Editorial director

Yossi Lempkowicz EUROPEAN JEWISH PRESS Editor-in-chief

Steven Lenaerts BNP Paribas Head of Connexis Marketing & Implementation

Stefaan Lenaerts Brussels Invest & Export

Francois Lenoir Reuters Photographer

Pierre Leonard Gouvernement Wallonie


Chantal Léonard AWEX EU Office Coordinatrice

Andrej Lepavcov Mission of the Republic of Macedonia Ambassadeur

Dominique Leroy Proximus CEO

Florence Leroy Eneco Wind Belgium Wind project leader

Alexandra Leunen Startuplist Founder

Philip Levin Swedish National Board of Trade Legal Adviser

Anna Levytska Ukraine’ Correspondent

Andrew Lewer European Parliament (EP) MEP

Mikel Lewis E.ON Climate & Renewables GmbH Chief Operating Officer Assets

Julian Lewis EuroBrussels Marketing Consultant

Zhenhua Li Economic & Commercial Counsellor’s Office the Mission of China to the European Union Third Secretary

Francois Licoppe Alliance D1920 Member

Loebrecht Lievens Alken Maes Brewery Legal & Corporate Relations Manager

Anders Liljeberg Central Sweden European Office Information Officer

Jeannie Lim Singapore Exhibition and Convention Bureau

Kevin Lin Chaolun Huawei Translator

Carl Johan Lind SAAB GROUP Trainee

Olivier Linden Swedish National Board of Trade Senior Legal Adviser

Christian Linder European Commission Member of Cabinet

Pawel Lisiak European Commission Financial Officer

Andrei Litiu European Building Automation and Controls Association Director Governmental Relations

Constanze Litt EurActiv PA Manager

Jia Liu China Daily Journalist

Lifang Liu EORTC Junior Epidemiologist, Statistics Department

Dong Liu People’s Daily

Jorge Liz EUREKA Secretariat Project Monitoring

Pascal Lizin GSK Director External & Public Affairs

Jakic Ljubomir Economi Ekonomist

Bengt Ljung Direkt News Agency Correspondent

Ava Lloyd American Chamber of Commerce to the EU Policy Officer

Antonio Lo Cascio Expert indépendant auprès de la Commission Européenne Docteur en Sciences Biologiques

Guido Lobrano BUSINESSEUROPE Deputy Director

Nadia Loddo EASME Communication officer

Willems Lode EDWARDS & WILLEMS

Sander Loones Europees Parlement Europees Parlementslid voor NVA

Dusko Lopandic Mission of Serbia to the EU Ambassador

José Lopez Thomas de Carranza College of Europe Student

Pierre Lorquet Capgemini Consulting BeNeLux Vice President, Head of Utilities BeNeLux

Gianpiero Lotito FacilityLive CEO

Adrienne Lotos European Crowdfunding Network Head of Office

Philip Lowe Former Director General for Energy, European Commission

Dan Luca EurActiv Institute Director

Marco Lucaccioni European Business Summit Finance and Administration

Edward Lucas The Economist Energy Editor

Thomas Ludwig Handelsblatt

Filip Lugovic EUobserver Business Development Manager

Teresa Luis-Ruiz Endesa Brussels Office Head of Endesa Brussels Office

Virginie Lurkin visit.brussels

280 281EBS 2015 - PARTICIPANTS LIST EBS 2015 - PARTICIPANTS LIST280

Aylin Lusi UPS Public Affairs

Rainer Lutkehus Energate EU Correspondent

Fanny Lutz Université Catholique de Louvain Academic Researcher, Teaching Assistant Researcher

Felix Lutz European Parliament Trade Policy Counsellor

Carlo Luyckx Europe.Brussels Liaison Office

Christoph Luykx CA Technologies Director, Global Government Relations EMEA

Luc Luyten Stichting Evens Voorzitter

Dirk Lybaert Proximus Chief Corporate Affairs Officer

Ciara Lynch Dell Communications Director

Ruta Lynikaite European Internet Forum Communications Manager

M

Chunjiao (Joanna) Ma Huawei Media Affairs Manager

Mohamed Majed Mustafa M. Maali Palestinian Federation of Business Associations General Trustee

Tania Maammary Brussels Special Venues

Diarmaid Mac Mathuna Ireland Belgium Business Association

Massimo Macaluso Euradia International Director

Mauro Macchi Accenture Strategy Senior Managing Director

Alastair Macdonald Reuters Bureau Chief

Kirsty Macdonald Intel Director Global Public Policy EMEA

Benoit Macq Councelor to the Minister Marcourt in the digital field Former prorector at the UCL

Susanne Madders EUREKA Secretariat Senior International Cooperation Advisor

Pierre-Luc Madillo Euronews International Account Manager

Jorgen Skovmose Madsen Danish Energy Association European Affairs Advisor

Bettina Maeding E.ON Energie Deutschland GmbH Legal department

Klaas Maenhout De Standaard Online Editor

Stefan Maes VBOFEB Head Communication

Mia Magazin EWEA Event Officer

Jacques Magen CelticPlus Chairman

Maria Maggiore Radio Popolare Correspondant

Veneta Magistrelli Press Club Brussels Europe External Relations Manager

Giorgio Magistrelli Freelance + Blogger Treasurer Press Club Brussels Europe + Additice Manufacturing Project Manager of CECIMO

Arnaud Maheas Servier Director of European Public Affairs

Virginie Mahin Mondelez International External Communications and Public Affairs Manager

Justine Maillot Greenpeace European Unit Advisor

Catherine Mainville Délégation générale du Québec à Bruxelles Attachée aux Affaires européennes

Michael Majster Accenture Senior Manager

Zsanett Makkai EurActiv.com European Network Manager

Denis Maksimov The Brussels Times Magazine EditorJacques Malache International PRESS Agency Senior Director

Didier Malherbe UCB SANV «Executive Management Assistant to Vice President & Head of Public Affairs UCB and Administrateur Délégué UCB Belgium»

Sanjeev Dev Malik Asian News Channel

Thierry Mallet Suez Environment EVP for Innovation

Simone Mancini IKEA Group Senior Policy Advisor

Hubert Mandery Cefic Director General

Naim Mandri Mission of Albania to the EU First Secretary

Paola Maniga Bruegel Development Manager

Erika Mann Facebook Managing Director Public Policy


Eibhilin Manning DG Sante, European Commission Policy officer

Beatriz Manrique RFI

Marco Mansani Menarini Corporate Grants and Funding Manager

Mina Mansoor Rankel CBC Project manager

Marina Mantay EU Parliament Stagiaire

Jean Marbehant Lhoist S.A. VicePresident Public Affairs

Emma Marcegaglia BUSINESSEUROPE President

Isabelle Marchand Febelfin Head of European Affairs

Gregory Marchand Pullman Brussels Centre Midi

Lorenzo Marchese EUobserver Consultant

Selfino Marco KPMG Italy Partner

Jean-Claude Marcourt Belgium Minister of Economy and Industry

David Maréchal Cabinet du VicePremier Ministre et Ministre des Affaires étrangères Porteparole

Meier Marelus o.m.p.p.++ Syndicate writer

Yves Marenne ICEDD asbl, Institut de Conseil et d’Etudes en Développement Durable Secrétaire Général

Bruno Mariani Press club Brussels europe Photo Journalist

Barbara Mariani Confindustria Delegation to the EU Senior Adviser

Bruno Mariani Fedra Staff Member

Eleni Marianou Conference for Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe (CPMR) Secretary General

Marta Marin Basque Goverment Basque Delegate to the European Union

Lucian Marinescu EASME Your Europe Business Web Content Editor

Mario Mariniello Bruegel Resident Scholar

Mistry Mark Nickel Institute Public Policy Manager

Simon Marks MNI (Euro Insight) Brussels Correspondent

Giuseppe Marletta International Association of Young Lawyers

Belhaj Marouan ULB Student

Michel Maroy 2 m public affairs Senior Consultant

Ana Marques European Commission Communication assistant

Sonia Marques European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology

Gabriel Marquette EUROGIA2020 Manager

Olivier Marquette The AES Corporation Managing Director, Bulgaria

Essie Marsianti Indonesian Embassy First Secretary, Economic Affairs

Claudia Martens Menerva Managing Director-Shareholder

Laura Martin CEOC International Junior International Affairs Manager

Carlos Martin Urriza CCOO Responsible for Economic Cabinet

David Martinez Ambassade Espagne Conseiller Economique et Commercial

Marina Martinez-Garcia Spanish Office of Science and Technology H2020 Programme Officer

Sophian Martins Pentahotel Brussels City Centre

Nicholas Martyn European Commission Deputy Director General of DG Regional Policy

Anders Marvik Statoil Director of Public Affairs

Sebastian Marx Gothenburg European Office CEO

Matilde Masciulli Deloitte UK Analyst

Oleg Mashkov VERNA Chairman of the board

Stefano Mason EUREKA Events coordinator

Joshua Massarenti Afronline

Filip Masschelein ING Regional Head Structured Finance

Françoise Masson The belgian economic journal in chinese Manager


Martin Mata Junior Achievement of Albania Chair of the Board

David Mata PYNK SYSTEMS S.L. Founder

Alejandro Matamala ANP Senior Accountmanager

Raluca Mateescu European Commission Assistant

Gantar Matevz European Commission Blue Book Trainee

Katarina Mathernova European Commission Conseillère Hors Classe

Jipson Mathew TCS Country Head Belgium

Alexandre Mato Capital Radio EU Correspondent

Yasuhisa Matsumoto JiJi Press Correspondent

Schreder Matthaeus ThinkYoung Alumni

Alberto Mattiuzzi EASME Project Officer

Rebekka Mattyasovszky The European Cancer Organisation

Elze Matulionyte LAWIN Associated Partner

Markus Mau MAU Consulting Owner

Eric Maurice EUobserver Journalist

Orsola Mautone EASME European Commission PO

Virginia Mayo Associated Press Photographer

Anna Mazur PL Perm Rep I Secretary

Stephen Mazurkiewicz Independent Consultant

Ariola Mbistrova EWEA Finance Analyst

Mas Mboup Africa International

Meabh Mc Mahon France24 Journalist

Ian McCarthy UK’s International Festival for Business Director

Celia McClements European Society of Intensive Care Medecine

Lisa McCooe Philip Morris International Manager Communications Planning

Robert McGruer Hill+Knowlton Account Manager

Tom McLaughlan Accenture Managing Director

Emily McLaughlin High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom Counsellor

Neil McMillan EuroCommerce Director Advocacy and Political Affairs

Anna McNally American Chamber of Commerce to the EU Communications Director

Enda McNamara European Commission Press Assistant

Marcus McQusiton Permanent Representation of Ireland to the EU Fisheries Attach

Fergus McReynolds EEF, the Manufacturers’ Organisation Director of EU Affairs

Līga Meņģelsone Employers’ Confederation of Latvia Director General

Quirino Mealha Portuguese Permanent Representation to the EU Counsellor

Rassidou Medjessiribi International Business Center Manager

Lucia Medori ACQUEAU Eureka Cluster for Water Project Officer

G. Medou Voyages-sncf Benelux

Simon Meehan Tata Group European Affairs Director

Paraskevi (Voula) Mega European Commission Senior Policy Analyst

Joel Meggelaars EWEA Political Affairs Advisor ETS

Igor Meglajec APTN Video journalist

Nandan Mehta Tata Consultancy Services Corporate Affairs EMEA

Emilia Meissner European Commission Policy officer

Claude Melen Gouvernment Wallonie Chef de cabinet adjointe

Bruno Mellado BNP Paribas Manager

Jackie Mellese ECCO the European Cancer Organisation

Ross Melzer Science l Business Director

Ricardo Mendes da Silva EASME Trainee

Juan Menéndez-Valdés Eurofound Director


Zhaohong Meng Association of China Newspapers Deputy Secretary General

Tala Mensi AIESEC International Business Development Director

Sanchez Varela Mercedes KPMG Partner

Christophe Merer MasterCard Government & Public Sector Europe

Magali Merindol DIGITALEUROPE Senior Marketing & Events Manager

Rony Mertens European Press Federation Freelance - Manager

Rudy Meul ABBIT Meeting Support Manager

Pascale Meulemeester Barry Callebaut Vice President Global Gourmet & Marketing

Ariane Meunier Treasury Director

Françoise Meunier EORTC Director Special Projects

André Meyer European Commission SME Envoy Network

Hermance Meyer Hilton Brussels Grand Place and Hilton Antwerp Old Town

Felicia Meza Guillen SUMY BELGIUM, Sustainable Urban Logistics & Mobility Assistant

Issiaka Mgboron GPS Consulting Consultant

Antoine Mialhe European Commission (DG RTD) Projects Assistant

Lilianna Michalik Permanent Representation of the Republic of Poland to the European Union Counsellor for Public Health Affairs

Vincent Michel Crown Relocations BelgiumLuxembourg Business Development Manager

Dominique Michel COMEOS CEO, Administrateur Délégué

Charles Michel Prime Minister of Belgium

Francesca Micheletti PaRR Senior Reporter

Kenneth Michielsens Belgium Investment Advisor

Michal Mierzejewski Philip Morris Polska Director Corp. Affairs PL& Baltic States

Costea Mihai BROmotion EP Adviser

Iskra Mihaylova European Parliament Chair of Regional Development Committe

Wim Mijs EBF CEO, Government Affairs

Howard Miller Citi Director

Cindy Miller UPS President, Europe

Mathew Milner HSBC Public Policy Manager

Veromejus Mindaugas European Commission Policy Officer

Alexandre Mineev Novaya Gazeta European Correspondent

Ronny Mingels Arttic Liaison Manager EC projects

Ana Mingo Fedra Staff Member

Aitor Mintegui Basque Governement EU Affairs Officer

Montserrat Mir CC.OO Trade Union of Spain International and Cooperation Secretary

Thierry Misson L’Eventail Administrateur délégué

Benjamin Mitchell The Brussels Times Sales

Cosmina Miu Permanent Representation of Romania to EU Minister Counselor

Jacopo Moccia Ocean Energy Europe Policy and Operations Director

Carlos Moedas European Commission Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation

Larry Moffett Dyslexia International

Mia Moisio European Commission Blue Book Trainee

Jan Molema BENELUX Hoofd bij Team Markt

Daisy Molfese Veneto Agricoltura Veneto Region

Maria Molina Sierra European Commission EASME Comunication Adviser

Nathalie Moll EuropaBio Secretary General

Aurélie Moller Minister Maggie De Block Cabinet

Stijn Mols Permanente Vertegenwoordiging van Belgie bij de E.U. Coordinateur Mertens

Wilhelm Molterer European Investment Bank VicePresident


Rob Monk HEINEKEN International Global Entreprise Architecture Director

Matteo Montanaro FACILITILIVE Press Office FacilitiLive

Benoit Monteyne VBOFEB Deputy Advisor Europe & International

Anouk Montminy Embassy of Canada to Belgium and Luxembourg Research Officer

Bruno Moor EUREKA Chairman

Carlos Morais Pires European Commission Project Officer

Abraham Morales GE Power & Water EMEA Marketing Leader

Christian Morales Intel VicePresident and General Manager EMEA

Pedro Moreira TVI (Televisao Independente) Journalist

Guillaume Morel European Commission Member of Cabinet

Vicente Moreno Accenture Senior Managing Director

Oleksii Morgun UkrAgroConsult Financial Analyst

Manabu Morimoto Nikkei (Nihon Keizai Shimbun) Chief Correspondent

Gintaras Morkis Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists Deputy Director General

Christina Morkve Oslo Region European Office Assistant

Attilio Moro Polipress Correspondent

Laurence Morvan Accenture Managing Director

Pierre Moscovici European Commission Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Union

Elizabeth Charlotte Moser Champalimaud Foundation Physician

Carlo Motta Press

Pierre Mottet IBA Chairman

Ibrahim Mourani Representation of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen to the EU Head of Unit Financial Affairs

Quentin Moureau visitbrussels

Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol University of Glasgow Research Fellow

Séverine Moutquin European Business Summit Graphic Designer

Bastian Mueller Yunus Social Business Advisor

Cornelius Muller EVCA Head of Research

Claus Muller Joint Representation of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the State of SchleswigHolstein to the EU Représentant de région, Director Hamburg

Marc Mullie Cabinet du VicePremier Ministre et Ministre des Affaires étrangères Directeur de Cabinet adjoint

Dolores Muniz AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe

Katia Munoz ThinkYoung Alumni

Irantzu Murguiondo Orinuela Mondragon

Jonathan Murray DIGITALEUROPE Director

George Murray Accenture Strategy Marketing & Communications

Julien Mus visit.brussels

Josche Muth GIZBMWi Senior Consultant Energy and Climate

Jayson Myers Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters President & CEO

Anni Mykkanen European Association of Corporate Treasurers (EACT) Policy Advisor

Nataliya Mykolska Trade Representative of Ukraine

N

Penny Naas UPS Vice President & Head of EMEA Public Affairs

Jana Nackberg EFPIA Manager

Alain Nadeau EIB Head of Division

Dr. Kakha Nadiradze Business Time Georgia President

Roel Naessens Google Belgium Industry Leader

Jun Nagata Kyodo News Brussels Bureau Chief

Roblain Namegni NAMé Group General Manager

Sergio Napolitano European Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Association (EGA) Legal Affairs and Trade Director

Serafino Nardi Comité des Régions Chef d’unité Direction Communication, Presse et Evenements


Alexis Nasard HEINEKEN President Western Europe and Global Marketing Officer

Niki Naska EUREKA Communications Manager

Thomas Natalis European Business Summit Event Assistant

Sbrizaj Natasa 3M Manager Government Affairs

Pasi Natri Momentous Brussels Senior Partner

Julian Nebrada The AES Corporation Corporate Vice President for Europe, Middle East, Africa & CIS

Anastassia Negrouk EORTC Head of International Regulatory and Intergroup Office

Sandrine Nelissen-Grade Proximus Sherpa

Eglé Nemeikstyte European Parliament Assistant

Marie Neyrick Cabinet of the Prime Minister Foreign Policy Advisor

Philip Neyt Belgische Vereniging van Pensioeninstellingen Voorzitter

Kandifai Ngbedema NJV Company CEO

Tien Phong Nguyen Embassy and Mission of Viet Nam Counsellor

Joel Nhleko Embassy of the Kingdom of Swaziland Ambassador

Migle Niauraite Project Management Institute (PMI) Government Relations Manager EMEA

Christian Nibourel Accenture Senior Managing Director

Lynn Nicholson EVCA Head of Communications and Events

Mabey Nick E3G CEO

Raluca Nicolae IWTO Administration and Finance Officer

Delia Nicolaescu EurActiv.com PR & Events Director

Paolo Nicoletti Community Public Affairs Senior Partner

Lars Holte Nielsen Central Denmark EU Office Director

Rudolf Niessler European Commission Director of the Policy Directorate

Theo Nieuwenhuis Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH Senior Vice President

Lora Nivesse Cabinet du VicePremier Ministre et Ministre des Affaires étrangères Conseiller

Jean Pierre Niyoniringira ECOEF LTD Managing Director

Jean-Louis Nizet Belgian Petroleum Federation Secretary General

Christelle Njomgang BNPParibas Fortis Financial Analyst

Mario Nobilo Embassy of the Republic of Croatia Ambassador

Pierre-Yves Noble Government Relations EU Policy Advisor

Sebastien Nolens visit.brussels

Boban Nonkovikj Macedonian Information Agency Journalist/Correspondent

Lars Erik Nordgaard Mission of Norway to the EU Counsellor for Industrial Affairs

Emelie Nordstrom Confederation of Swedish Enterprise Trainee

Valerie Nowak MasterCard Country Manager Belux

Anna-Karolina Nowak Aléthés Legal IT

Thomas Nowak European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) Secretary General

Clément Nshimiyimana IRISTONE CONSULTING Managing Director

Jean-Pierre Ntumba Kabessa Minoterie de Matadi, MIDEMA SA Conseiller Juridique MIDEMA SA

Jonas Numrich Mondelez International Corporate Affairs

Ana Nunez Milara Telecinco Journalist

Juha-Pekka Nurvala EPP Political Adviser

Bertrand Nusbaumer TOTAL Delegate European Public Affairs

Tom Nuttall The Economist Charlemagne Columnist

Tom Nuttall The Economist Charlemagne Columnist

Carmelo Nvono Nca Embassy of Equatorial Guinea Ambassador

Dorte Nybroe DI Senior Adviser


Adam Nyman Debating Europe Director

Johanna Nyman European Youth Forum President

O

Brenda O’Brien European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EUOSHA) Manager, Brussels Liaison Office

Peter O’Donnell European Voice Journalist

Erik O’Donovan Ibec Head of Ibec Europe

Sean O’Neill HEINEKEN International Chief Corporate Relations Officer

Angela O’Neill College of Europe Director Communications

Kate O’Regan Association of European Cancer Leagues (ECL) Project and Policy Officer

Isabelle Odesser The Consumer Goods Forum

Gunther Oettinger European Commission Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society

Pierre Oldenhove Wibee.be Founder

Gavryluk Olesya Embassy Trade and Investment

Daniel Olin YLE Journalist

Varhelyi Oliver Permanenet Representation of Hungary to the EU Ambassador, Deputy Permanent Representative of Hungary to the EU

David Oliver Mondelez International Director Global Public Affairs

Daniele Olivieri BUSINESSEUROPE Senior Adviser to the President and the Director General

Eric Oller Bam Contractors Construction Project Manager

Anne Ollivier HEINEKEN CSR Advisor, Sustainable Development

Olupitan Olusegun Sikiru National Center for Youth Development Business Development Manager

Iqbal Omar LAFARGE SA SVP Distribution Segment

Temitope Omoyele Topies Energies and Chemicals LTD Executive

Rob Onderwater Materia Nova ASBL Biotech Scientific Leader and Site Director

Susan Mugechi Ongalo Kenya Tourism Federation Programs Manager

Raphael Oni Diplomats Extra Magazine

Adina Onofrei EC Desk Officer

Corianne Oosterbaan European Commission Blue Book Trainee

Peter Op De Beeck Belgische Vereniging voor Interne Communicatie

Alfred Osaretin Osas Chinko Commercial Enterprises Sales Executive

Clemens Osl European Commission Stagiaire

Christian Ost Parabruma s.a. Administrateur

Dirk Ostijn Metlife Regional Head Western Europe & Chief Executive Officer for Metlife Europe Limited

Dominique Ostyn EurActiv.com PLC Director of Communications

Serguei Ouattara EUAfrica Chamber of Commerce Chairman & Executive Manager

Abdou Salam Ouedraogo UNICOM Directeur Général

Elsa Ozmen Industrial Innovation for Competitiveness Senior Associate

P

Artis Pabriks European Parliament MEP

Stephen Page EuroBrussels Marketing Consultant

Daniel Pajor European Commission Project Officer

Felipe Palacios Sureda European Commission DG TRADE Investment Negotiator

Allan Pall European Youth Forum Secretary General

Rémi Palmentier GSK Director, R&D, GSK

Alejandra Panighi Mediapo Journalist

Lara Paoletti ThinkYoung Media and Communication Manager

Andreas Papadopoulos Junior Achievement Cyprus Chair of the Board

Andreas Papastavrou Permanent Representation of Greece Deputy Permanent Representative of Greece


Emmanuelle Paquat Sonaca Assistante Direction

François Paquay Europolitics Journalist

Jorge Paradela Gutiérrez HEINEKEN Spain Corporate Relations Director

Mathieu Parenteau Délégation générale du Québec à Bruxelles Director European Affairs

Yana Pargova EASME Communication Officer

Irini Pari SEV Hellenic Federation of Enterprises Permanent Delegate

William Parker Dell Government Affairs Europe, Middle East & Africa

Tom Parker Cambre Associates Managing Partner

Laura Parret Houthoff Buruma Lawyer

Jack Parrock Feature Story News

Jerick Parrone ZN Account Manager

Robert Parry Pennaeth Materion Ewropeaidd Welsh Government Llywodraeth Cymru Head of European Affairs

Letizia Pascale Eunews Journalist

Ruth Paserman European Commission Deputy Head of Cabinet

Giuseppina Paterniti RAi-Radiotelevisione Italiana Journalist Correspondent

Smita Pati EWEA Events Assistant

Russell Patten Grayling SA CEO

Davide Patteri EurActiv Public Affairs Executive

Alexandra Paul Accenture Associate Manager

Christoph Pauly DER SPIEGEL

Michaela Pavlikova Representation of South Moravian Region to the EU Intern

Michela Pavoncello European Commission Blue Book Stagaire

Sean Paw Lwin Embassy of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary

Carlo Peano Un Italiano nelle Istituzioni Europee Blogger

James Pearson British Chamber of Commerce in Belgium Business Development

Mark Pearson Accenture Strategy Senior Managing Director, Operations

Claire Pécheux Délégation de la Région de Bruxelles Capitale Attachée Recherche & Innovation, Industrie, Aides d’Etat

Erik Peetermans Federation of Enterprises in Belgium Attach

Anne Peeters Cabinet du Ministre Jean-Claude Marcourt, Economie, PME, Technologies Nouvelles et Commerce extérieur Conseillère Europe

Maggy Peeters American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union (AmCham EU) Events and PR Manager

Eric Peeters Dow Corning Vice President, Emulsions, Blends and Powders

Tom Peeters ORF

Ulf Pehrsson Ericsson Vice President Government and Industry Relations

Ioana Pelin Raducu EU commission EU official

Jacques Pelkmans CEPS Senior Fellow

Thomas Pellerin-Carlin College of Europe Research Assistant

Antti Peltomaki DG GROW European Commission Deputy Director General

Silvia Pelz European Parliament Cabinet of the President

Monica Pena Sastre European Investment Bank (EIB) Policy Adviser

Ilse Penders-Stadlmann Noevbb Director

Dange Peng Government of Shenzhen Municipality Economic, Trade and Investment Representative Office in Europe

Sandra Penning CCI Paris IledeFrance

Mehdija Pepic DELTA PLUS Engineering&Consulting CEO

Julie Perain Association of European Cancer Leagues Intern

Ana Lidia Pereira College of Europe MA Candidate

Daniel Perez ICAM Manager Director

Claudi Perez El País


Daniel Perez Gomez Asaja International Affairs

Alba Pérez Grandi European Business Summit Account Manager

Rodrigo Perez Grandri BpostBbank Business Analyst

Angel Perez Sain Association of China Newspapers Consultant

Angel Perez Sainz ex EU commission Resarch and Innovation

Thagesen Peter Confederation of Danish Industry Deputy Director

Giulia Petrarulo SIOP EUROPE (the European Society for Paediatric Oncology) Communication Administrator

Mauro Petriccione European Commission DG Trade Deputy Director General

Snezhina Petrova European Parliament Accredited Parliamentary Assistant

Victoria Petrova European Commission Advisor

Carlo Pettinelli European Commission Director

Michela Petz-Michez Verbindungsburo des Landes Salzburg zur EU Director

Daniel Pflumm VdTUV Verband der TUV e.V. Director Brussels Office

Madi Piano Mortari The European House Ambrosetti Director, Events Division

James Pieper Cefic Cefic Press Manager

Sara Pietryszyk College of Europe Student

Alexander Pigman Agence France-Presse Journalist

Evgeniy Pikalov Ukraine Mission to the EU Attach

Ludwig Pinchart Watch TV Cameraman

Ivan Pineda EWEA Director for Public Affairs

Guo Ping HUAWEI Rotating CEO

Valentina Pinna Regione Lombardia Head of sector, Research, Innovation & Competitiveness

Karel Pinxten European Court of Auditors Member

Tomas Pirkl Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic Head of Brussels Office

Alexandre Pirson College of Europe MA Candidate

Lucian Pirvoiu Romanian Public Television TVR Senior Journalist

Mary Pitsy Odgers Berndtson Partner

Julia Pittam BBC

David Piver Mission of Canada to the European Union Intern

Luis Planas Herrera European Commission Policy Analyst

David Plas David Plas Photography Photographer

Anna Platonova International Organization for Migration Regional Labour Migration Specialist

David Plunkett Mission of Canada to the European Union Ambassador

Alessandro Maria Poggiali Philip Morris Italia Director Corporate Affairs IT

Piotr Pogorzelski EUREKA Communications Officer

Antonella Pollazzi Tuscany Region website Press Officer

Guy Pollentier BNP Paribas Fortis Services Managing Partner International

Antonio Pollio Salimbeni il sole 24 ore radiocord Journalist

Salvatore Poloni Intesa Sanpaolo Group Service Direttore Centrale

Catherine Poncin IAM Infrabel Asset Management

Enrico Ponzone EUBrasil Head of European Affairs

Aurelian Popa ArcelorMittal CIO Long Products Europe

Cosmin Popa EuropaBio Communications and National Associations Manager

Giuseppe Porcaro Bruegel Head of Communications and Events

Fabrizio Porrino FacilityLive VP Global Public Affairs

Martin Porter European Climate Foundation Director

Eline Post EWEA Head of Human Resources & Legal

Michael Potter Doosan Company Lawyer


Yves Pottiaux Rai-Radiotelevisione Italiana Cameraman

Alexis Poulin EurActiv Director

Karin Poullier Accenture

Thomas Poulsen Erhvervsavisen Fyn Journalist

Sunil Prasad Europe India Chamber of Commerce Secretary General

Attilio Alfredo Pratolongo HEINEKEN Italia Communication and Institutional Relations Manager

Isabel Pratt European Parliament Assistant

Hugo Pratt Dos Santos Solvay Brussels School Student

Dimiter Prenerov IHA Broadcast Services

Teresa Presas Steps Management President

Dario Prestigiacomo Agenzia Vista Video Reporter

Robert Priester European Banking Federation Deputy Chief Executive

René Prihoda South Bohemia Region Head of the Brussels Office

Cornelia Primosch ORF

Ian Pritchard Architects’ Council of Europe

Michael Privot ENAR-European Network Against Racism aisbl Director

Carolin Proft College of Europe MA Candidate

Giorgia Projetti Unioncamere Europa Intern

Chiara Puletti Independent Communication and business development consultant

Angelika Pullen IUCN Communications Lead

HE Mr. Manjeev Singh Puri Embassy of India Ambassador of India, Luxembourg and the EU

Ruchita Puri Stichting Asia Europe Foundation President

Albert Puttaert Association pour le développement de l’analyse de la valeur Administrateur

Q

Winand Quaedvlieg VNONCW and MKBNederland Permanent Delegate

Clodagh Quain EuroCommerce Manager of Relations with the European Parliament

Benjamin Quatre French Banking Federation Directeur des affaires européennes, internationales, financements export

Isabella Quattrocchi European Parliament Head of Unit

Antoine Quentin European Brands Association Senior Public Affairs Manager

Robert Quesnel Sanofi Canada Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs

Tom Quintelier Accenture Managing Director

R

Sandra Radulj European Commission EC Trainee

Richard Raeburn European Association of Corporate Treasurers (EACT ) Chairman

Narson Rafidimanana Ministre de l’industrie et du développement du secteur privé Ministre de l’industrie

Jonathan Ramael BBT Online

Edson Ramos European Commission Communications Officer

Muhammad Naseem Rashed Embassy of Pakistan Commercial Secretary

Anker-Müller Rasmus South Denmark European Office Director

Toufik Rata Ambassade d’Algérie à Bruxelles Attaché

Martina Rattinger EU Representation Office of Carinthia Director

Laurentiu Rebega European Parliament (EP) MEP

Mark Redgrove Orgalime Head of Communications


Viviane Reding European Parliament Member

David Reed Kreab Partner

Michiel Reerink JT International S.A. Global Regulatory Strategy Vice President

Nico Reeskens Adecco Personnel Services Country Head Adecco Group Belgium

Laurence Reichelt European Accreditation Committee in CNS

Berndt Reichert Head of Unit Horizon 2020 SMEs

Stuart Reigeluth Revolve magazine Founder and CEO

Jacob Reijneveld Vrije Universiteit Medisch Centrum Dept of Neurology

Ulrike Reimann European University Association

Stephan Reimelt GE President Europe

Thomas Philipp Reiter Push TV Head of Brussels Office

Jozica Rejec ZZSPM JA Slovenia CEO

Wilfried Remans BNP Paribas Fortis Director Social Relations

Yan Ren People’s Daily Chief Editor

Rémy Renaudin EURIPIDES2 Operation manager

Andrea Renda CEPS Senior Research Fellow and Head of Regulatory Policy

Alexandra Renison Institute of Directors Head of Europe and Trade Policy

Thomas Reynaert United Technologies President UTIO Europe

Bernadette Reyntjens Diplomatic World Editor of Diplomatic World

Saehu Riaz Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia to EU Counsellor

Margarida Ribeiro European Commission Expert

Francesca Ricardi Veneto Agricoltura Veneto Region

Stephen Richards AO World PLC Director of Business Expansion

Julia Ridsdale - Saw European Business Summit Media & Communications

Bernd Riegert Deutsche Welle Correspondent

Roel Rijssenbeek Brussels Design September Art Director

Melissa Riley Destination DC

David Rinaldi College of Europe Academic Assistant

Jorgo Riss Greenpeace European Unit Director General

Rodrigo Rivera Embassy of Colombia Ambassador

Elisabeth Robino FCH JU Head of Finance & Administration

Tim Robinson EWEA Head of Corporate Governance & Conference Programmes

Lorenzo Robustelli Eunews Editor

Paulo Rocha Trindade COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS ADMINISTRATOR Administrator

Christelle Roche EWEA Head of Membership & Business Development

Christelle Roche European Wind Energuy Association EWEA

Viola Rocher EnBW Senior Manager European Affairs

Luc Rochtus EUROPEES PARLEMENT NVA Delegatiesecretaris

Bernardo Rodrigues London’s European Office Senior EU Policy Officer

Sander Roelandt Europees Parlement Lid van het Europees Parlement

Andreas Rogal Europolitics

Reiner Roghmann DOW Vice President for EMEA Operations

Bogdan Rogin European Parliament Policy Advisor

Frédéric Rohart L’Echo Journaliste

Frédéric Rohart L’Echo Journaliste

Verstappen Roland HEINEKEN International Global Public & Governmental Affairs Director

Rocio Salvador Roldan European Commission (DG SANTE) Policy Officer

Alberto Romagnoli Rai-Radiotelevisione Italiana Journalist, Chief of the Office

Alberto Romagnoli Uffici di Corrispondenza dall’Estero


Beda Romano Sole24 Ore Correspondant

Marta Romo Oficina deLa Rioja en Bruselas Directora

Enzo Romoli MEDEF Conseiller

Virginie Ronvaux Lower Austria, Brussels Liaison Office Administrator, Information officer

Edward Roosens FEB Chief economist

Alice Rosmi EWEA Conference Programme Manager

Clement Rossignol Thomson Reuter

Laurence Roudart Université Libre de Bruxelles Professor

Didier Rousselle D.D.A. Consulting Owner

Thibault Roy College of Europe MA Candidate

David Royaux Délégation wallonne auprès de l’UE

Kristian Ruby EWEA Head of Political Affairs Division

Paul Ruebig European Parliament MEP EPP

Bruno Ruffolo Rai Radioteleviosione Italiana Journalist Correspondent

Eckhardt Rummler E.ON Climate and Res CEO

Daniela Runchi JADE European Confederation of Junior Enterprises Private Cooperation

Ellen Runngren European Business Summit Project Manager

Gregory Rust Embassy of Canada to Belgium and Luxembourg Senior Trade Commissioner

Lynikaite Ruta European Internet Forum Communications Manager

Philippe Ruttens Accenture Strategy Media Coordinator

Peter Ryan HewlettPackard «Senior Vice President & General Manager for HP Enterprise Group (EG) in Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA), & Managing Director for HP EMEA»

Linda Ryden Confederation of Swedish Enterprise Trainee

Vinciane Rysselinck Osborne Clarke

S

Lina Sabaitiene Association of Local Authorities in Lithuania Head of Brussels Office

Dario Sabbioni College of Europe Student

Mian Ali Saeed Arham Engineering & Contractors Director Executive

Youssef Sah visit.brussels

Julia Sahitava Newton21 Senior Communication Manager

Ana Saldariaga AIESEC International Global VP Operations

Rocio Salvador Roldan European Commission (DG SANTE) Policy Officer

Maxime Samain Best of Publishing-European Business Summit Editorial Manager

Samir Hulileh PADICO Holding CEO

Vidhya Sampath Tata Consultancy Services Director Public Affairs Europe

Miguel Sanchez COPE Journalist

Mercedes Sanchez Varela Head of KPMG EU Office

Margarita Sandler IMA-MEDIA NEWS AGENCY journalist, Director of press-office

Roxana Sandu College of Europe Senior Academic Assistant

Jean-louis Sangare Permanent Representation to the EU Advisor Eu affairs

Eleonora Santi Philip Morris International Manager EU Affairs

Nelson Santos Embassy of TimorLeste Ambassador

Luisa Santos BUSINESSEUROPE Director International Relations

Gisela Santos EASME Project Adviser

Antonio Santos LAFARGE SA VP Distribution Segment

Feriel Saouli EuroVAprint

Andre Sapir Bruegel Senior Scholar

Farndale Sarah European Youth Forum Communications Coordinator

Aleksander Sarapuli Junior Achievement of Albania Board Member


Natalie Sarkic-Todd EurActiv Director European Network

Noriyuki Sato Mitsui & Co Europe Plc Gerenal Trading

Maxime Sattonnay EurActiv EU Community manager

Philippe Sauquet TOTAL President Refining and Chemicals

Kaloyan Savov IHA Broadcast Services

Jack Scannell Oxford University Associate Fellow

Elisabetta Scano Merodis M&A consultant

Marietje Schaake European Parliament MEP

Hugo-Maria Schally European Commission Head of DG ENV Unit

Johan Scharpé ExxonMobil EU Affairs Manager

Roy Scheerder Transavia Chief Commercial Officer

Adriaan Scheiris American Chamber of Commerce to the EU Senior Policy Officer

Peter Schellinck EOTA Secretary General

Stefan Schepers EPPA SA Partner

Julien Schiettecatte Atlantic Strategy Group Consultant

Anka Schild Siemens Senior Policy Adviser

Sabine Schlecker Scholz & Friends European Office Account Director International Business

Silke Schlinnertz Euroheat & Power

Christoph Schmidt Trouw Correspondent

Gustavo Schmitt Walker AIESEC Business Development

Bernd Schneider Brussels Capital region to the EU Economic Adviser

David Schoibl Dods Business Development Manager

Lars Scholtyssyk Deutsche Welle Journalist

Ivan Schöning ORF

John Schranz European Parliament Member of President Cabinet

Jean-Pol Schrauwen Photographer

Stephanie Schretlen American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union (AmCham EU) Senior Member Relations Officer

Niels Schreuder AGC Glass Europe Public Affairs Manager

Renaat Schrooten SPF Economie Directeur Général

Markus Schulte European Commission Member of Cabinet

Teri Schultz Freelance Reporter

Martin Schulz European Parliament President

Raluca Schumacher ALSTOM European Affairs Manager

Olivier Schunck Accenture Strategy Global Offering Development LeadDigital Customer

Gregor Schusterschitz Permanent Representation of Austria Deputy Permanent Representative

Amarens Schuurmans ClearFocusCompany Strategic marketing communication advice

Jean-Léopold Schuybroek Interel Chairman

Daniel Sciberras Radisson Blu Hotels Brussels

Maria-Elena Scoppio European Commission Advisor

Christopher Scott-Wilson Cefic Director Advocacy

Nicole Scourti British American Tobacco Coordination Centre V.O.F.S.N.C Regulatory Engagement Manager

Dmitrij Scuka CEO

Gaspard Sebag Bloomberg News

Sabine Seeger VDI-Nachrichten Correspondent

Sabine Seeger VDINachrichten Correspondent Europe

Didier Seeuws EUROPESE RAAD Head of Cabinet

Maros Sefcovic European Commission Vice President for Energy Union

Robert Seghers ALSTOM BELGIUM Business Development Director

Paw Lwin Sein Ambassy of Myanmar to the EU Ambassador

Luca Selva ThinkYoung Advocacy and Campaign


Vladimir Semenov Russian Mission in EU First Secretary

Laurent Sempot FEBVBO Deputy Advisor Europe & International

Jean-Claude Semuyco Belgian Ministry of Finance, VAT Department

Peter Sennekamp BUSINESSEUROPE Director

Carla Sequeira CIP Confederation of Portuguese Business Director for International Relations and Delegate in Brussels

Keith Sequeira European Commission Member of Cabinet of Commissioner Moedas

Mimosa Seraphin Ministre de l’industrie et du développement du secteur privé Directeur de cabinet du Ministre de l’industrie

Cassandre Sergent AREVA European Affairs Officer

Marco Serifio KPMG Partner KPMG Italy, Head of Major Projects Advisory Global Infrastructure

Silvi Serreqi European Commission Project Advisor

Yves Servotte FoodforFuture Managing Partner

Helga Severyns International Association for Public Transport

Lars Seynaeve Citi Director

Domenico Sfalanga Intesa Sanpaolo Head of Trasformation Program Private Banking Division

Arianna Sgammotta Euronews

Mahmood Shahid EFT BUSINESSWEEK Business Editor

Marral Shamshiri American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union (AmCham EU) Managing Director’s Intern

Charlotte Shaw EUROCLEAR CSR Manager

Zoya Sheftalovich POLITICO Reporter

Chris Sherwood Grayling Head of Public Policy

Sapna Sheth The European Cancer Organisation

Annelien Siau FEB Communication Officer

Frederic Sierakowski Isopix

Nathalie Silberman College of Europe Student

Claudia Silva European Business and Innovation Centres Network Communications and PR

Alessandra Silvestro NBC Universal International

Monika Simaskaité BUSINESSEUROPE Intern

Chloé Simeha SUEZ environnement Head of EU Public Affairs

Frédéric Simon EurActiv Editor and Publisher

Antonelli Simone Enel Green Power Senior Regulatory Analyst

Xavier Simonetti Blue Iris CEO

Varos Simonyan Mission of Armenia to the EU Trade Representative of the RA to the EU

Kieran Simpson HEINEKEN International Global Public Affairs Manager

Sophie Sine FEB Press Officer

Narry Singh Accenture Strategy Managing Director

Matjaz Sinkovec Embassy Republic Slovenia Ambassador

Sisekelo Sinyolo AIESEC in Belgium Director of Marketing

Michèle Sioen FEB President Western Europe and Global Marketing Officer

Gustaf Sirait Daud Permanent Representation of France to the EU

Marie-Pascale Sire Mondelez Europe Managing Director Benelux

Magdalena Skajewska Polish Radio Correspondent

Triki Skan Ijsberg Presse écrite

Minna Skau Ritzaus Bureau Bureau Chief

Jorgen Skovmose Madsen Dansk Energy Head of European Affairs

Sergei Skvortsov Embassy of Belarus to Belgium and Luxembourg Mission of Belarus to the EU Commercial Counsellor Head of Commercial Section

Svetlana Slavcheva European Business Summit Event Coordinator

Andrea Slavkovic Vojvodina European Office First Secretary

Jan Sliva European Investment Bank Senior Adviser to VP Molterer

René Sloten CEFIC


Jacques Smal Techspace Aero VP Strategy Commerce & Program’s

Viktorija Smatko-Abaza European Commission Principal Adviser

Kim Smouter ESOMAR World Association for Market, Social, and Opinion Research

Hannah Snoeck VBOFEB Service Assistant

Antony So British Chamber of Commerce in Belgium EU Policy Executive

Talita Soares EARTO Policy Officer

Diana Sofronie Huawei Intern, Huawei EU Public Affairs and Communication Office

Bert Sohl EyeonlineTV Director

Andrea Soldani FacilityLive Head of Digital Branding & Communication

David Soldani Huawei VicePresident Huawei European Reseach Centre

Suru Eflaimue Solomon Hamwealths Limited Global Impact Program Manager for Training and Research

Laura Somerhausen HEINEKEN International

Tereza Sommernitzova CEBRE Project and Policy Manager

Stephane E Somssich Stratego International Director International Projects

Christian Sondergaard Telenor Group Vice President Public Affairs

Arnaud Sonnet EurActiv Public Affairs Director

Christopher Sortino Gouvernement Wallonie

Fred Soudain Fedra Secretary general

Andrew Souter EUAfrica Chamber of Commerce Communication Officer

Tommaso Spanevello EIM EU Policy Analyst

Despina Spanou European Commission Director for Consumers

Tricia Speirs Accenture Marketing Manager

Jacques Spelkens GDF Suez Head of Territorial and CSR Networks Development

Mark Spelman Accenture Strategy Managing Director

Peter Spiegel Financial Times Brussels bureau chief

Jean-Alexis Spitz Peter Drucker Europe Community Manager

Thomas Spliller The Walt Disney Company Vice President, Global Public Policy

Philip Springuel European Food Information Council

Aniela Sroczynski Radius Kommunikation Senior Consultant

Benjamin John Semakula Kigula Kato Electrical Engineering EAST Africa Technical Teams Limited

Jonathan Stabenow European Commision, Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen Policy assistant to the Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen

Barbara Staebler Swiss news agency Journalist

Owen Stafford EuroParlRadio, Radio X Freelance Reporter/Broadcaster

Virginie Stainier FEB Events Manager

Bjarne Stakkestad Mission of Norway to the EU Financial Counsellor

Karina Stan Permanent Representation of Romania to the EU Legal Adviser

Jean-Marie Standaert Bulgarian Industrial Association Permanent Delegate

Anne Starkie-Alves EASME Communication Adviser

Jonathan Stearns Bloomberg News Reporter

Alistair Steel Cefic Deputy Director General

Roxana Stefanescu JAYE JA alumna

Maria Stefanova EVCA Intern

Julia Stehling visit.brussels

Sabine Steimle Med concepts Independant Consultant Cancer Communications

Henrik Stein ECIIA Board Member

Gil Stein College of Europe Student

Sandra Steinhauer European Commission National Expert in Professional Training

Maria Stenroos YLE Journalist


Mazurkiewicz Stephen Independent Consultant

Leroy Steve AB Inbev Vice President Legal & Corporate Affairs Europe

Isabel Stevens East of England European Partnership European Policy Officer

Francesca Stevens Alcoa Head of EU Institutional Relations

Didier Stevens Toyota Motor Europe Senior Manager Marketing & Sales, European & Government Affairs

Isabelle Stoffel EIB Lending Analyst

Ulrike Stolze Ogilvy Client Director

Dimitri Stoquart Stoquart SA

Adrien Stouffs Assembly of European Regions Intern

Milena Stoycheva JA Bulgaria CEO

Anna Strandbacke Swe Perm Rep Internal Market Attache

Richard Straub Peter Drucker Europe President

Vivian Stribos House of Dutch Provinces EUrepresentative

Ulrik Stridbaek DONG Energy Head of Group Regulatory Affairs

Meghan Stringer The Bulletin Consultant

Niklas Strom Ministry for Foreign Affairs Deputy Director

Jan Strupczewski Thomson Reuters Deputy Bureau Chief

Roger Stupp UniversitaetSpital Zurich Department of Oncology

John Stuyck The Bulletin Publisher

Cristina Sucila European Commission Financial Officer

Shigeo Sugimoto Mitsui&CO Benelux Researcher

Claudia Suhov JA Alumni

Claudia Suhov Kidster.ro - Tortulet.ro Cofounder

Anna Sulkowska European Commision Assistant

Sandrell Sultana Kreab Director

Mingxi Sun The Mission of China to the European Union First Secretary

Yi Sun Xinhua News Agency Journalist

Paul Susman Susman Consulting Co-owner and Legal adviser

Simone Suter EuroBrussels Marketing Consultant

Lars Peter Svane EuroBrussels Director

Tonnes Svanes Royal Embassy of Norway Deputy Head of Mission

Mikael Svensson MasterCard Head of Government Affairs & Public Policy, Europe

Piotr Swiatek PTJFZJ German National Contact Point for Energy in H2020

Christophe Sykes Construction Products Europe Director General

Zsofia Szabo AIESEC International Business Development Manager

Michal Szczepura Regional Office of the WarminskoMazurskie Voivodeship in Brussels Representative of The Podlaskie Region to Brussels

Botond Szebeny Association of European public postal operators

Andrzej Szteliga Regional Office of Silesia in Brussels Director

Joanna Szwed European Commision Programme Manager

T

Lieven Tack Cabinet Flemish Prime Minister Deputy Chief of Cabinet

Lieven Taillie CApresse Brussels Correspondent

Ichiro Takahashi Grayling Executive Director

Naim Takieddin Kingdom Hospital, Medical Services Projects Company Ltd Insurance Specialist

Dennis Tan ThinkYoung Alumni

Susumu Tanaka Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Brussels Deputy Director General


Sumiko Tanaka International Union of Immunological Societies

Jean-Pierre Tanghe CanCham BeLux Chairman

Pierre Tardieu EWEA Deputy Director for Public Affairs

Mario Tarouca JADE European Confederation of Junior Enterprises Director of Public Affairs

Tyna Taskila The Work Foundation Senior Researcher

Olivia Taveirne College of Europe Commuincations Manager

Roland Teixeira GE Region Executive Benelux

Luis Teixeira European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology

Maria Tejero Martin Agencia Efe Correspondent

Alessandro Tempra Johnson & Johnson Manager

Francesco Tenuta College of Europe MA Candidate

Eric Ter Hark AECA CEO

Marie-Francoise Terlier ArcelorMittal Tubular Products Head of Strategy, IT and Operational Excellence

Morena Termini European Commission Assistant

Mariuccia Teroni FacilityLive Chair & COO

Edward Tersmette European Commision Unit A2, Policy Officer for Russia

Alexandra Terzieva Politico Reporter

Marie Claire Testa Ministry for Economy, Investment and Small Business Manager

Peter Thagesen Confederation of Danish industry Director International Market Policy

Lavan Thasarathakumar BVCA Regulatory Policy Assistant

Hendrik Theunissen Cabinet of the Flemish Ministerpresident Deputy Head of Cabinet

Anne Thielemans MSC BELGIUM NV Import Sales Manager

Stéphane Thiery Assistante de Direction TEC GroupDirection du Marketing

Frauke Thies EPIA Chief Policy Officer

Guy Thiran Eurometaux Director General

Venkatadri Thiruvallur EMD Serono, Inc. Chief of Staff, Office of the EVP and Head GS&F

George Thomas European Commission Cabinet Staff

David Thomas COBCOE Executive Chairman

Pierre-Henri Thomas Trends Tendances Journalist

Baudouin Thomas Accenture Managing Director

Reynaert Thomas UTC President

Cecilia Thorn Financial Reporting Council Inhouse Public Affairs

Marc Thoulen Belgian Senior Consultants Brussels Member of the Board, Expert in Local Governance

Anna Thum-Thysen European Commission, DG ECFIN Economic Analyst

John Thys AFP Photographe

Kris Thys TMAB Business Events

Arnaud Thysen European Business Summit General Manager

Paul Thysens BNP Paribas Fortis CIO

Marianne Thyssen European Commission Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility

Pieter Timmermans FEB CEO

Frans Timmermans European Commission First VicePresident

Thomas Tindeman H+K Strategies CEO

Ryan Titley ERRIN Communication & Planning Manager

Ettore Togni ULB Master Student

Alexandra Tolia PMW Senior Investment Manager Life Sciences

Mackenzie Tom Bloomberg Reporter

Grodzicki Tomasz European Alliance, Committee of the Regions Political Adviser

Ewa Tomczuk European Boating Industry

Konstantina Topouridou ERCEA, European Commission Trainee


Lene Topp Schuman Associates Manager

Richard Torbett EFPIA Chief Economist

Sonia Toro EUAfrica Chamber of Commerce Director Communication & CSR

Elena Tosheva JAYE Alumni Bulgaria

Nadia Touby Eko SITTRA General Director

Johannes Tralla Estonian Public Broadcasting Correspondent

Francesco Tramontin Mondelez International Director Public Affairs

Petar Traykov European Commission Blue Book Trainee

Sarah Treanor BBC World Service Features Editor

Sarah Treanor BBC Features Editor BBC Business

Patricia Trejo CEOE Delegation to the EU Adviser

Allison Trenholm Mission of Canada to the European Union First Secretary

Johanna Elena Trieb European Commission Research Programme Officer

Christos Trikoukis European Business Review, EMG Strategic Consulting Managing Director

Marianna Tripodi FAO Consultant

Eric Trodoux Sita News Office Brussels COO SITA NEWS Benelux & Germany

Kai Troll International Diabetes Federation

Tina Tsai Huawei Public Relations Manager, Huawei EU Public Affairs and Communication Office

Zeke Turner POLITICO Reporter

Krzysztof Turowski Polsat News Redacteur

Saila Turtiainen Confederation of Finnish Industries EK Senior Adviser

Marie Tuteleers SQUAREBRUSSELS Meeting Centre

Caroline Tweddle Accenture Strategy Marketing Manager

Caroline Tybergin Best of Publishing Sales Manager

Adam Tyler National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers Chief Executive

Fenella Tyler HEINEKEN International Global Cider Public Affairs Manager

Nicholas Tymoshchuk Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE) Director, Representative Office in the EU

U

Ana Nemba Uaiene Embassy of Mozambique Ambassador

Marco Uccelli European Commission European Commission DG Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union

Ahmet Ulusoy The New European SG

Anitha Urayeneza Schillo Phone LTD Business

Sabrina Urban DeHavilland EU News Agency EU Senior Policy Analyst

Birgit Urban Representation of the Land Brandenburg to the EU Policy officer for Economic Affairs and Energy

V

Marie-Christine Vaccarezza MEDEF Représentant Permanent

Bamba Vadro Action Entreprises Administrator

Joana Valente BUSINESSEUROPE Senior Adviser

Marina Valero Agencia EFE

Victor Valieiev Association IT Ukraine Director

Marco Valletta European Commission Member of Cabinet of Commissioner Andriukaitis

Aurelie Valtat Council of the European Union Digital Communications Manager

Kim Van Aken Innoviris Advisor Social Innovation

Lieke van Alphen Province of NoordBrabant Advisor EU Public Affairs

Timothy Van Audenaerde Accenture Senior Manager

Maarten Van Baelen EGA Market Access Director


Sandrine Van Bellinghen Institut des Reviseurs d’Entreprises Delegate General for European and international Affairs

Patrick van Beneden Gimv Partner

Vincent Van Breusegem Enterprise Europe Network Wallonie Coordinateur

Raf Van Bulck FEB Attach

Benoni Van Butsle BVBA Dr. Van Butsele Maxilofacial Surgeon

Katrien Van Cleemput Belfius Bank Business Architect

Nancy Van Damme Fondation Registre du Cancer Program Coordinator

Roos Van de Cruys Flanders Department of Foreign Affairs Policy Officer

Erik Van de Ven Alken Maes Brewery, Heineken International Managing Director

Luc Van de Vyver BRUSSELS Finance Consult Managing Director

Tanguy Van De Werve Leaseurope aisbl

Max Van de Wiele CERIA Student

Catherine van de wiele Eureka News

Erik Van den Broeck Maple Finance Partner

Nele Van den Cruyce Fondation contre le Cancer Knowledge Manager PhD in Social Sciences

Ingrid Mar Van Den Neucker ECCO the European Cancer Organisation

Eric Van den Rul ORES CIO

Anna van Densky EU Reporter Multi-Media

Laurent Van Der Elst Brussels Capital Region Attaché Brussels Minister Guy Vanhengel

Philippe Van Der Hofstadt B&C Group General Management, Chief Executive Officer

Mark van der Horst UPS Europe Director EU Affairs

Carl van der Horst Tata Steel Director European Affairs

Hans van der Loo Global Resource Security & Resilience Initiative Partner

Jorn van der Meer HEINEKEN International Public Affairs Manager International Organisations & Partnerships

Laura Van der Meer Kelley Drye & Warren LLP Special Counsel

Kim van der Mije HEINEKEN International Press Office Coordinator

Sophie Van Der Straten Scandic Grand Place

Ludwig Van Der Veken Kabinet Pieter De Crem Kabinetschef Pieter De Crem

Melina van der Velden European Parliament POLDEP trainee

Harry van Dorenmalen IBM Europe Chairman

Henriette van Eijl European Commission Policy Coordinator of the Directorate of Innovative and Sustainable Mobility

Raymond Van Ermen European Partners for the Environment Executive Director

Daniel Van Espen Federation of European & international Associations based in Belgium

Luk Van Eylen KBC Group Director Corporate Public Affairs

Thierry Van Eyll visit.brussels

Marc Van Gastel Flanders Investment & Trade Head of Department Invest

Magda Van Gompel Maison des Associations Internationales

Bert Van Gossum Philip Morris International Manager VP Corporate Affairs EU

Davino Van Hal Wonderland NV Consultant

Kay van Ham ITEA Office Communications

Chantal van Ham IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature EU Programme Manager Nature Based Solutions

Kristien Van Haver De Tijd Journalist

Julian van Hille South African Embassy Marketing Officer

Laurence Van Hoorebeke EUREKA Secretariat Chair and Network Support Officer

Victor Van Hoorn Hume Brophy Account Director Financial Services

Frederic Van Houte European Manmade Fibres Association

Gijs Van Houten Eurofound Research Officer

Elisabeth Van Ingelgem visit.brussels


Jan Derck van Karnebeek HEINEKEN International Chief Commercial Officer

Johan Van Laer BursonMarsteller Belgian Market and Crisis Lead

Julie Van Muysewinkel visit.brussels

Rob van Nes International Business Development Academy Founding Partner

Lambert van Nistelrooij European Parliament Member

Stephanie Van Oorschot European Party Caterer Association

Christian Van Parys RVC CEO, Conseils et Réalisations Informatiques

Johan Van Praet Verbond Belgische Ondernemingen Content Manager Website & Publications

Annie Van Praet VBOFEB Secretary

Johan Van Praet VBO and others Senoir Writer

Marie Van Raemdonck Community Pubic Affairs Director

Hannes van Raemdonck Huawei Public Affairs Manager, Huawei EU Public Affairs and Communication Office

Johan Van Regemorter SOLVAY Head of Government & Public Affairs Europe

Thibaud van Rooden International Affairs Executive

Rene Van Sloten CEFIC Director

Kristof Van Thylen SMTH Smooth CEO

Johanna van Vrede Business Bridge Europe Project Manager

Christine Van Waveren Den Bandt HEINEKEN International Financial Communication Manager

Wout van Wijk Huawei Public Affairs Manager, Huawei EU Public Affairs and Communication Office

Benjamin Van Zeveren European Commission DG Trade Trade Affairs Manager Canada and USA

Pierre-louis Vanantwerpen JADE European Confederation of Junior Enterprises Public Affairs Project Manager

Mark Vancoppenolle AlcatelLucent VicePrecident Public Affairs Europe

Dorien Vandebroek FEBVBO

Andre Vanden Camp AXA Belgium Chief Operating Officer

Geert Vanden Wijngaert Associated Press Photographer

Kathleen Vandenbroecke Brussels Airlines

Yoeri Vandenbroucke Brussels Invest & Export

Pascale Vandenbussche MCF ECIIA

Tom Vandenkendelaere Europees Parlement Europees Parlementslid

Gaston Vandenplas TCS Director Sales

Marc Vander Kelen WalTech

Didier Vander Steichel Fondation contre le cancer Medical & Scientific Director

Stéphanie Vandergooten EORTC Events Manager

Laura Vanderheyden European Business Summit Event Assistant

Michel Vandevelde HPhar SA Directeur Département économie, R&D, Affaires européennes Union Wallonne des Entreprises (UWE)

Isabelle Vandoorne European commission Principal administrator Policy Officer

Vincent Vandrepol TVCablenet VVD Finance & Management

Valère Vangeel FOD Economie Adviseurgeneraal

Bart Vanhercke The European Social Observatory Director

Pat Vanhove The European Cancer Organisation

Dries Vanneste HIll+Knowlton Strategies Brussels Account Executive

Jean-Luc Vanraes Societé Regionale d’investissement Bruxellois VicePresident SRIB

Philippe Vanrie Secretary General Federation of Region Director Special Projects European Business Network

Joost Vantomme FEBIAC Director Public Affairs

Pedro Vargas JADE Senior Project Manager

Sobha Varghese Tata consultancy Services Internal Communications Manager Continental Europe

Aniyan Varghese European Commission Programme Manager

Yanis Varoufakis Greece Finance Minister


Anastasia Vasilachi AIESEC in Belgium General Director

Christina Vasilaki Athens News Agency

Tomas Vasilevskis Brussels office of LPK Director

Dimitra Vasilia Schuman Associates Senior Consultant

Nicola Vatthauer EUROCITIES Communications Director

Chrysanthi Vazitari Project manager

Jana Vecerkova EYIF Director

Enrique Velazquez European Banking Federation Head of Public Affairs

Xavier Veldeman CMS DeBacker CMS Business Developer

Baudouin Velge Interel Managing Partner

Karmenu Vella European Commission Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries

Sidony Venema Provincie Flevoland Regional Representative

Francesca Venturi AGO Eu Correspondent

Simen Verbiest Solvay Student

Michael Verbraeken Deloitte Risk Consultant

Dirk Vercammen Foundation for Environmental Education Flanders President and Member ISC

Pascal Verdeau France 3 Journalist

Annick Verdegem Mondelez International Corporate Affairs Manager

Anne Vereecke Sowalfin, Novalia Director

Christine Verfaillie European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology

Milo Vergucht 27Names CEO

Luc Verhaege Television Cameraman

Philip Verhaeghe Financial Media Redacteur

Stefanie Verheij Crowne Plaza Brussels Airport

Jacko Verheijen BNP Paribas Digital Banking

Steve Verheul Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Chief Trade Negotiator, CanadaEuropean Union

Michel Vermaerke FEBELFIN CEO

Rolf Vermeij University of Twente Liaison Officer

Peter Vermeiren Belfius Managing Director

Julian Verocai College of Europe MA Candidate

Mindaugas Veromejus European Commission Policy Officer

Yves Verschueren Essenscia Belgian Federation for Chemistry and Life Sciences Industries Managing Director

Jean Verschure Starfish MRM

Peter Vertessy BUSINESSEUROPE Headlines Senior Press Adviser

Richard Verthé Rai-Radiotelevisione Italiana Soundman

Sébastien Verwilghen Umicore

Vadim Verzhbitsky Fédération de Russie Representation Commerciale de la Federation de Russie en Belgique et au Luxembourg

Drasko Veselinovic Slovenian Business and Research Association President of Management Board

Anne Vestbakke NTB Correspondent

Stefano Vettorazzi European Commission (DG SANTE) Policy Analyst

Thierry Vi Osborne Clarke

Loles Vidal Valencia Regional Office Policy Officer

Sarika Vij Helsinki EU Office Senior Advisor, EU Affairs

Michel Vincent Fedra Staff Member

Daniela Vincenti EurActiv.com Editorinchief

Marc Vinck SPF Affaires étrangères Directeur du service des intéréts économique

Lucio Vinhas de Souza European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC) European Commission Economic Adviser, Economics Team


Christian Vintergaard Danish Foundation For Entrepreneurship Young Entreprise Denmark CEO

Luca Visentini ETUC Confederal SecretaryMarcel Vissers Headquarters Magazine

Mirko Vitali EASME Your Europe Business Project Coordinator

Ilaria Vitiello ThinkYoung Project Assistant

Pedro Vitorio EDPR Brussels Representative

Laura Vivani Moverim CEO

Axel Volkery European Commission DG MOVE

Hans von der Burchard POLITICO Europe Trade Reporter

Georg von Harrach Quadrant Journalist

Jelena von Helldorff CEIPA Senior Policy Advisor

Christina von Westernhagen DOW Director EU Government Affairs and Public Policy

Michael Voordeckers Hill+Knowlton Strategies Strategy Director

Jan Vorstermans Venturewise General Partner

Jan-Willem Vosmeer HEINEKEN International Corporate Social Responsibility Manager

Radka Vostrejsova Representation of the South Moravian Region to the European Union Trainee

Dani Vranken Federation of European & international Associations based in Belgium

Phu Vu The Embassy of Viet Nam to the Kingdom of Belgium and Grand Duchy of Luxembourg Minister Counsellor Head of Commercial Section

Dmytro Vydolob Union Jewelers Ukraine President

W

Kate Waddell Dods Business Development Manager

Henri Wagener Fedil Business Federation Luxembourg Adviser in EU affairs

Reinhilde Wahlen FEPPD

Eleonora Waktare APCO Worldwide Associate Director

Nikki Walker American College of Chest Physicians

Oliver Wall HSBC Regional Head of Political Engagement, Europe

Zacharie Wandja Société Internationale de Prestation Director

Xiaojun Wang Agence de presse Xinhua Correspondant

Julien Warnand EPA ( europeanpressphoto agency) Photographer

Robert Warner GEB Head of Strategic Development

Dominique-Paul Warnier French EUREKA HLR Ministry of Economy and Industry

Pierre Warrant Recticel NV Treasurer

Malgorzata Wasilenko Regional Office of the Warminsko-Mazurskie Voivodeship Director

Manoelle Wasseige Délégation de la Région de Bruxelles Capitale

Robert Wassenaar Director Corporate Affairs Benelux Director

Bruno Waterfield The Times Brussels Correspondent

Emily Waterfield MLex Chief Energy Correspondent

Nicola Waterfield Mission of Canada to the European Union Second Secretary

Bruno Waterfield The Times of London

James Watson BUSINESSEUROPE Director economics

Asa Webber Swe Perm Rep DPR

David Webber Odgers Berndtson Partner EU Affairs, Public Sector, NotforProfit and Government Practice

Steffen Weber European Parliament Chief of Staff Assistant to MEP Pabriks

Hubert Weber Mondelez International EVP and President of the European Region


Wolfgang Weber BASF Group Vice President EU Government Relations

Cynthia Wee Association of European Public Postal Operators

Walter Weigel HUAWEI European Research Institute Vice President

Philippe Weiler CSR Europe Senior Advisor, Business Development

Herwig Weiss TTTech Computertechnik AG Management Assistant to Board

Martine Wellens EBAA Head of Administration

Dr. Volker Wendt Europacable Director Public Affairs

Daniel Wennick Confederation of Swedish Enterprise Deputy Director

Laurent Wenric Gouvernement Wallonie

Michael Juergen Werner Norton Rose Fulbright LLP Partner

Jan Werts International Spectator Brussels’ EU-Correspondent

Glynis Whiting British Chamber of Commerce in Belgium President

Jean Wibaut General Motors Opel Director EU Affairs

Patrick Wielemans Hotel Metropole Managing Director

Thomas Wieser European Council Chairman of the Eurogroup Working Group

Paul Wilczek EWEA Senior Political Advisor Grid Int

Bénédicte Wilders Brussels Invest & Export Chief Executive Director

Benjamin Wilhelm EWEA Political Communications Officer

Luc Willems BENELUX Adjuncts Scretaris Generaal

Lode Willems BNP PARIBAS FORTIS Advisor External & Governmental Affairs

Justin Willems Slijttijd.be English Correspondent/Contributing Editor

Tytsy Willemsma Northern Netherlands Alliance (SNN) EU Representative

Fabian Willermain EGMONT Royal Institute for International Relations Advisor in European Affairs

James Wilson The EU Ukraine Business Council Director

Anja Wimmer Bureau of International Recycling

Guy Winand Cameraman

Axel Winkel European Commission Trainee

Rik Winkel Het Financieele Dagblad

Ruth Wirtz Osborne Clarke

Ian Wishart Bloomberg European Politics Reporter

Ian Wishart Bloomberg Reporter

Peter Witt Siemens AG Head of the Siemens Representation office to the EU

Anne Witzke ThinkYoung Project Assistant

Krzysztof Wojcik Regional Office of the Swietokrzyskie Region (Poland) Director

Guntram Wolff Bruegel Director

Christoph Wolff European Climate Foundation Managing Director

Robert Wollan Accenture Strategy Senior Managing Director

Emma Woodford Hibou Director

Gregor Woschnagg Federation of Austrian Industries Adviser to the Board

Rodolphe Wouters European Commission Policy Officer

Kerstin Wuensch Conference & Incentive Management (CIM)

Barbara Wynne Accenture Strategy European Government Relations


X

Patrick Xhonneux SAS Institute EMEA Director Government Affairs

Jiang Xiaoyan Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the European Union Spokesperson

Muping Xie Project for Tilburg Law Review

Zhun Xu Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the European Union Spokesperson Assistant

Clemence Xu Permanent Representation of France to the EU

Y

Dahmane Yahiaoui Embassy of Algeria in Brussels Foreign Affairs Secretary

Hengyuan Yan Economic Daily Brussels Bureau Chief Correspondent

Lixin Yang NTD TV

Wendy Yared Association of European Cancer Leagues Director

Selim Yenel Turkish Permanent Delegation to the EU Ambassador, Permanent Delegate

Mina Yesilyurt TUBITAK, TuRBo Horizon 2020 National Contact Point

Andrei Yeudachenka Embassy of Belarus to Belgium and Luxembourg, Mission of Belarus to EU and NATO Ambassador

Janica Ylikarjula Confederation of Finnish Industries EK Head of Brussels Office

Abdulla Yousuf Dubai Association Center

Seong Deok Yun Korean Embassy Minister

Z

Victoria Zabala Council of the EU Secretary

Fabian Zacharias VOLKSWAGEN AG Digital Manager EU Affairs

Lucie Zackova European Commission Policy Assistant

Evi Zamba European Commission Trainee

Cecilia Zappala BUSINESSEUROPE Adviser

Bastian Zarske Bueno JA Alumni Europe Board Member

Marco Zatterin La Stampa European Editor

Patryk Zborowski Manufacturing Journal Magazine Editor

Rick Zednik EurActiv.com CEO

Judit Zegnal Bruxinfo - Hungarian news agency Correspondent

Peter Zemsky INSEAD Dean for Strategic Initiatives and Innovation

Jie Zhang People’s Daily Correspondent

Wenhao Zhang CCPIT Representative Office in Belgium Deputy Representative

Yu Zhang EIB Loan Officer

Jiangang Zhang Huawei President, Huawei EU Public Affair and Communications

Xiaowei Zhao Bank of China Head of Business Development Department

Eugenia Zhiglova KBC Senior Relationship Manager

Xu Zhou Government of Shenzhen Municipality Chief Representative

Hong Zhou Huawei Huawei Technologies

Rongxin Zhou Economic & Commercial Counsellor’s Office the Mission of China to the European Union Second Secretary

328EBS 2015 - PARTICIPANTS LIST EBS 2015 - PARTICIPANTS LIST

Miroslaw Zielinski Directorate R Resources; Economic and Financial Affairs; Taxation and Customs Director

Edyta Ziomek European Commission Policy officer

Angel Zlatanov IHA Broadcast Services SNG-Technician

Joe Zou Huawei Public Affairs Manager, Huawei EU Public Affairs and Communication Office

Henning Zoz Zoz Group President & CEO

Florin Zubascu Science|Business Project Manager

Being digitalRemaking business for a digital Europe

5181_EBS_Unified_reports_AW_LDM_WIP.indd 1 05/06/2015 10:38

Foreword Bruno Berthon 3

Foreword Emma Marcegaglia 4

Foreword Jo Deblaere 5

Being digital – Embrace the future of work and your people will embrace it with you 6A window of opportunity for the workforce of the future 8

Preparing the digital workforce 9

Capitalizing on employee positivity 14

Rewiring the workforce 15

Where next? 16

About the research 17

Being digital – Seven essential “no-regret” capabilities 18Prime time to be digital 20

Building new “no-regret” capabilities 21

A future with no regrets 27

Where next? 28


Being digital – Fast-forward to the right digital strategy 30Strategies for speed 32

Strategies for success 33

The strategy paradox 36

What makes digital leaders different? 37

Where next? 38


Contents


Bruno Berthon Managing Director—Accenture Strategy Digital Strategy Lead

As digital disruption becomes the new normal, finding ways for businesses to compete and win becomes more complex—and more urgent. In our work with leading organizations across the world, we see a gap is opening up between those businesses that are embracing digital, and those that are not.

In particular, Europe has its own challenges. Although many business leaders are more optimistic about Europe’s growth prospects than last year, they are feeling the pressure. Indeed, while Europe has been shoring up its economy, the rest of the world has been investing in technology, infrastructure and skills. I believe the answer lies in being digital: by this I mean not only baking in digital technologies in the way their businesses operate (such as, tapping into the power of mobile and analytics), but also rewiring their strategies and adopting the capabilities and skills that will help them become digital leaders.

Recent research by Accenture Strategy shows there is some way to go for European businesses to be digital. Although European business leaders are well aligned with those in the United States, China and Japan when it comes to the benefits of adopting digital technologies, they are still focused on cost effectiveness rather than pinpointing the need for agility, changes to business models, and attracting new partnerships and talent—the real differentiators in being a digital business. And although European business leaders say they are more ambitious than the rest of the world to become a digital business in the next 12 months, less than half have a digital strategy at enterprise level in place. European business leaders are slightly less well prepared than those in other countries (United States, China, Japan), too—even though, worryingly, they are showing themselves to be less concerned by the competition than companies outside of Europe. Perhaps some of their reticence is based on an expectation of greater regulatory obstacles to new business models, products and services than the United States or Japan.

Business leaders are not the only people with a vested interest in being digital. We also asked more than 2,500 employees across Europe how they felt about the advancements in digital technologies and the impact on their work. Surprisingly, we found the positivity of employees exceeded that of the business leaders—for instance, 57 percent versus 50 percent respectively believe digital will improve the work experience. It was a common theme throughout our research, with Southern European countries such as Spain and Italy more expectant of digital benefits than countries such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom, which take a more neutral line.

As we come together at the European Business Summit 2015, we invite you to read our enclosed series of reports that offer insights supporting the event’s theme, how to deliver a vision for the future. Backed by qualitative research, the reports explore what it takes for businesses to be digital. Designed to not only examine the issues, but also offer practical guidance, the reports detail how organizations can secure the skills and talent needed to innovate and build the workforce of the future, how to have the right digital strategy to compete and win and which are the critical capabilities that organizations can develop and improve now, irrespective of digital strategy or industry.

By embracing digital disruption, business leaders gain the means to compete more effectively and generate new levels of productivity and growth. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you would like to discuss any of the ideas further—and find out how your business can start being digital.

3Being digital: Remaking business for a digital Europe


Emma Marcegaglia President, BUSINESSEUROPE

Europe needs high-performing industries alongside a strong services sector to compete globally—but this is no longer sufficient. For future success, we must fully embrace the opportunities of the digital economy to help close the gap which has opened up in recent years between Europe and other major economies.

Along with a world-class infrastructure, Europe needs increased investment and the correct conditions to unleash a new wave of growth—and job creation—built on innovation and entrepreneurship. Completion of the Digital Single Market is therefore a priority and will lead to significantly higher levels of productivity, efficiency and growth across all sectors, including traditional industries and public service institutions.

As Europeans, we need to nurture the opportunity, instilling the trust and confidence that will allow all EU citizens to participate in and benefit from the digital economy.

Building the right skills will be essential. Executives, academic institutions and policy makers must collaborate to specify who is needed and where for digital. We must continuously reinvent our workforce and society to reposition Europe as a digital leader.

The Accenture Strategy study published during EBS 2015 highlights how industry and society are impacted by the digital economy. We believe there is unprecedented potential for Europe. By exploiting digital we can not only regain competitiveness, but also speed up the journey to economic prosperity.

Going forward, the digital economy is crucial as a key enabler of growth and job creation. Actions are urgently needed to restore Europe’s competitiveness on the global stage.

4 Being digital: Remaking business for a digital Europe


Jo Deblaere COO and Group Chief Executive—Europe, Accenture

Europe’s digital opportunity is enormous. We already have global technology leaders and we can create the conditions for large digital players to emerge, but the real opportunity for Europe lies in every business becoming a digital business.

In the last decade, the digital revolution was underscored by the emergence of software and Internet start-ups. In the next 10 years, technology maturity will enable Europe’s industrial leaders to embrace digital for themselves to drive both efficiencies and growth.

Europe has a competitive advantage across multiple industries: from healthcare to aerospace, from retail to precision engineering, from finance to automotive. Digital technologies are transforming all these sectors: the smart home, the connected vehicle, the intelligent factory.

Take the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) or Industry 4.0. Accenture estimates that in 2030 it will make up €450 billion of the German economy, €230 billion of the United Kingdom’s economy and €265 billion in France.1 But Accenture forecasts a significant uplift to gross domestic product if these countries invest more and improve the underlying economic conditions that support widespread adoption.

Europe faces three key challenges in becoming digitally competitive:

First, companies must shift the balance of their digital investments from internal efficiency toward growth. Sixty percent of companies think that the main benefit of the IIoT will be new growth models, but only 10 percent think their company will realize that benefit; the rest merely expect efficiency gains.2 The availability of technology is not the key issue here. To turn digital into growth, we must be open to disrupting our own traditional industries and business models, to sharing more data with business partners, and to collaborating across borders and sectors.

The second challenge is to improve the supporting business environment to encourage digital investment. This is where more needs to be done. The Accenture 2015 Digital Density Index—a framework for measuring the extent to which digital technologies penetrate businesses and economies—reveals that some European countries are world leaders in the widespread adoption of digital. These leaders tend to perform best in creating a supporting environment for business more generally: supporting policies, facilitating access to finance, minimizing red tape, and ensuring the availability of a skilled workforce.3

And of course, access to the right skills will be a key determinant of success. In the research conducted for the European Business Summit 2015, we found employers more hesitant to embrace digital than employees, who are far more optimistic about how technology can improve their work experience and job prospects—and they are proactively seeking out the skills they need to meet the demands of a digital business.

While it is clear that we all have our roles to play, as businesses, governments and policy makers, we also need to work together, to ensure we leverage the full potential of a Digital Single Market for Europe, in which digital businesses can truly flourish.

The European Business Summit and the launch of a Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe presents us with a great opportunity to discuss how Europe can achieve its digital potential.

1 The Growth Game-Changer: How the Industrial Internet of Things can drive progress and prosperity; Mark Purdy and Ladan Davarzani, Accenture (2015) 2 CEO Briefing 2015, From Productivity to Outcomes Using the Internet of Things to drive future business strategies, Accenture (2015) 3 Digital Density Index: Guiding Digital Transformation, Accenture (2015)



Being digital Embrace the future of work and your people will embrace it with you

5181_EBS_Unified_reports_AW_LDM_WIP.indd 6 05/06/2015 10:38 5181_EBS_Unified_reports_AW_LDM_WIP.indd 7 05/06/2015 10:38

A window of opportunity for the workforce of the futureWhile the effects of digital disruption on business and operating models are familiar territory, the impact on the workforce could be the Achilles’ heel of organizations seeking to be digital.

New Accenture Strategy research4 shows 78 percent of business leaders expect their organizations to be a digital business in the next three years. And if they are to realize the benefits they anticipate from being digital, the readiness of their workforce must become a priority.

From concerns around artificial intelligence, to those about employee resistance, the perceived landmines can mean organizations hesitate to make the workforce changes needed to advance their digital journeys. Indeed, business leaders feel one of the greatest challenges to being digital is not having the required skills and capabilities. Yet they should feel confident about moving forward with their workforce plans. Our research shows executives and employees are well aligned on the benefits of being digital. If anything, employees are even more positive than their leaders about the impact of digital on their work and jobs, and more proactive in addressing gaps in digital competencies.

Business leaders should develop their teams with the know-how to support their digital strategies and experiment with different ways of organizing work. They need to form new types of partnerships to make the most of non-traditional talent pools. They must build a diverse, digitally savvy team that can inspire flexible, agile ways of working. And they must lead by example.

This report is one of a series offering pragmatic advice on how to embrace digital technologies to not only compete, but also drive new value to help businesses grow. As business leaders seek to increase productivity and agility, how can their organizations be digital by default and secure the skills and talent needed to innovate and build the workforce of the future?

of business leaders say a lack of digital skills is a key barrier to transformation.

44%

4 Source: Accenture Strategy Executive Research 2015



Preparing the digital workforceTo capitalize on the positivity of their employees, business leaders need to act on their strategies, adjust their workforce skill sets and prioritize the workforce changes that will fast-forward their digital journey.

Right mind-set, wrong focus?Business leaders expect to see improvements across a wide range of factors from adopting digital technologies.

In addition to the expected cost efficiencies, a majority cite benefits from productivity, innovation, agility and quality of work. Business leaders are also positive about the potential impact on employee engagement and workplace safety (see Figure 1).

Moreover, business leaders expect those benefits to be driven by a variety of technologies and tools such as 3D interfaces and virtual reality, cognitive assistants and artificial intelligence, or robots. They also recognize the influence of the Internet of Things in transforming work practices in the next three years— 67 percent of business leaders acknowledge its impact.

However, recognizing the benefits of digital is not the same as being digital. Currently, only one in five business leaders describes their company as a digital business. The rest are on a digital journey where one of the most challenging aspects is preparing the workforce to drive the desired business outcomes of agility, productivity and innovation.

How toOrganizations need to come off the sidelines and adopt a “test and learn” mentality. By selecting an area that is differentiating for the business, executives can start experimenting—integrating new digital technologies into processes to simplify, automate and augment brain and brawn. In addition, they can identify specific skills and competencies required to be successful now and in the future and integrate them into job learning curricula and recruiting plans.



Source: Accenture Strategy Executive Research 2015

Figure 1. Top organizational benefits from adopting digital technologies in your industry

81%Productivity

79%Innovation

79%Cost efficiencies

77%Agility

76%Quality of work

71%Employee engagement

60%Workplace safety

2

3

4

5

6

7

1





Right strategy, wrong skills? Organizations are grappling with the changing roles, skills and technologies necessary to be digital.

While business leaders are signaling the importance of talent to the overall success of an organization’s digital journey, they express concerns about their talent readiness. Only 49 percent of business leaders said they already have a strategy for the management and development of skills and talent in a digital world.

While the skills and capabilities required in a digital age will vary based on industry and role, there are some factors that are broadly relevant. Many employees will be expected to be comfortable working with technology, such as sophisticated mobile devices that support field force workers, technicians and engineers. As more basic tasks are automated, workers can expect to take on higher value roles that require data collection, data analysis and problem-solving skills. Foundational skills will also be in high demand, including communication and negotiation skills, and strong business acumen. Finally, new jobs are being created with their own specialized skill sets, such as digital copywriters, scrum masters in IT, or digital product managers.

How toTo help manage their concerns around having the right talent and skills, business leaders need to expand the way they think about sourcing and developing talent. Increasingly, business leaders must use digital tools, such as social media networking sites, mobile apps and electronic job boards to attract today’s younger workforce. They must embrace the broader ecosystem in which their companies operate, partnering with educational institutions and exploring new talent pools. They must re-evaluate the types of skills they are likely to need—and be ready to reskill and retool their existing workforce. Digital offers new opportunities in terms of ubiquitous training and different ways of learning, such as massive open online courses.

of business leaders said they already have a strategy for the management and development of skills and talent in a digital world.

49%



Right priorities, wrong journey?From our research it is clear that the move to digital for organizations across industry sectors is a top priority.

Although nearly all the business leaders in our research said it is critical or important to take action now to transition their workforce to succeed in the digital economy, few are taking specific actions to prepare their workforce for a digital future.

As business leaders acknowledge, moving to a digital ecosystem affects the workforce in a variety of ways, not just skills and capabilities. Only about one-third of business leaders feel well prepared across a wealth of dimensions related to leading and managing the workforce. For example, only 33 percent of business leaders are ready to adapt HR and talent practices and 34 percent the new work practices and processes driven by digital technologies (see Figure 2).

In addition, our research shows that there is work to be done at the leadership level. Over a three-year horizon, business leaders cite a lack of leadership and vision as one of the main challenges to being digital. In addition, less than one-third (30 percent) of business leaders feel well prepared when it comes to making changes in leadership and management practices to adapt to the digital ecosystem—meaning 70 percent are barely prepared to transition to a digital business.

How toThe digital journey is a significant change for all organizations. Using data collected from more than 750,000 change journeys, we have identified strong leadership as a critical success factor in driving transformation. Moving beyond vertical-oriented leadership, effective change leadership radiates out from the center. Organizations need to focus on building the leadership skills to breed a culture of feedback and innovation at all levels, pushing out decision-making to the edges of the organization. Businesses and their workforces have much to gain from digital but without workforce changes, driven by strong leaders, their organizations’ ability to compete will be compromised.

Figure 2. Business leaders said they are well prepared for their organizations to transition to a digital business with respect to each of the following aspects

Sample base = All respondents

Organization of work 41%

Changing the skill and job mix of the workforce 34%

Recruitment of digital skills and capabilities 34%

New work practices and processes driven by digital technologies 34%

Providing customized, seamless and consumerized employee experiences 33%

HR and talent practices (incl. more customized learning, rewards, or jobs, real-time feedback) 33%

Tapping into non-traditional sources of talent (e.g. extended workers, workers in other geographies, etc.) 31%

Changes in leadership and management practices to adapt to the digital ecosystem 30%




Employees believe digital brings improvements Employees are upbeat about the anticipated advancements from digital technologies, with 71 percent identifying the team benefits of innovation, agility (69 percent) and productivity (68 percent).

Unsurprisingly, the young, better educated and those with higher level occupations are more positively disposed to digital technologies in the workplace.

More than half of all employees we researched believe their organization is ready for digital technologies, both in terms of the skills and capabilities of the workforce and with respect to work practices and processes. They are also more bullish than their employers on how digital technologies will improve their job prospects and their work experience—with only 12 percent feeling their job prospects will be negatively impacted.

Employees are actively seeking digital skillsA vast majority of employees (81 percent) acknowledge that digital technologies will transform the way they work in the next three years, half of that percentage saying the level of transformation will be to a significant extent. Employees know they need to adjust—but more than one-half fear that their leaders are not ready.

Rather than sitting still and waiting for transformation to happen, employees are honing their own skills and capabilities in readiness. Sixty-two percent said they are assessing the new skills and capabilities that will be required of them in the future. Almost two-thirds (64 percent) said they are proactively learning new digital tools and technical skills to prepare them to adapt to digital advances.

Employees are aware of the speed of change Business leaders must be sensitive to the likely concerns their employees have about the digital working environment.

Workers’ greatest worry is the pressure to keep up with new technologies to remain effective, and 70 percent worry that remote working will erode team spirit.

Capitalizing on employee positivityConventional wisdom suggests that employees are a barrier to digital progress, yet our research shows the opposite is true. Compared with the business leaders, European employees indicate that they are not only aware that digital will improve their work experiences and job prospects, but also they are proactively seeking out the skills they need to suit the demands of a digital business.5

5 Source: Accenture Strategy European Worker Research 2015



Rewiring the workforceThe digital journey is seen to offer tangible benefits by business leaders—and is being even more positively embraced by their employees. From new roles, different ways of organizing work, and changing work practices there are significant opportunities to humanize work—as long as business leaders reinvent their strategies, become digital role models and address the needs of the workforce of the future.



Where next? Align your workforce and HR strategy with the business Coordinate your workforce approach with the overall digital business strategy to influence areas such as workforce planning.

Start experimenting with more flexible and agile ways of working using proven digital technologies and tools Engage the workforce to reinvent business processes and capabilities with big data analytics, the Internet of Things, social collaboration tools and 3D/virtual reality interfaces.

Define the digital skill gap within the workforce Create a digital skills catalog by defining required skills and required level of competency by job.

Develop required digital competencies within the workforce Use ubiquitous training and new ways to learn via social learning platforms and other online forums.

Foster leadership behaviors that fuel a digital culture Set clear direction, engage with the workforce using collaboration technologies, actively encourage feedback and innovative thinking, and push out decision-making to the edges of the organization.



AuthorsCeline Laurenceau

[email protected]

Colin [email protected]

About the researchEarly in 2015, Accenture Strategy interviewed 700 business leaders in the United States, China, Japan and the European Union. We wanted to understand how business leaders and policy makers can take advantage of digital technologies to accelerate growth and competitiveness. In addition, we sought the views of more than 2,500 European employees in five countries—France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom —on the impact of digital technologies on the future of work.

Join the conversation @AccentureStrat



Being digital Seven essential “no-regret” capabilities


Despite these uncertainties, it is becoming evident that organizations that successfully leverage digital technologies for new growth operate with a different set of rules and capabilities. According to new Accenture Strategy research, creating these new digital capabilities within the next 12 months ranks as a top priority of executives.6

This report offers pragmatic advice on how incumbent organizations can identify, develop and excel with digital— and suggests seven critical “no-regret” capabilities to be digital now. As the term implies, these capabilities can help organizations develop and improve today, irrespective of their digital strategy or industry, to realize benefits for the longer term.

We believe incumbents not only have the right to play by the new digital rules, but also the ability to redefine them to their competitive advantage. As organizations move forward on their digital journeys, we explore the seven capabilities that are essential to manage disruption and grow.

Prime time to be digitalSenior executives of large incumbent organizations have many legitimate concerns and questions about the digital opportunity. Whether due to unclear monetization models, baffling market valuations, inflexible IT systems or never-ending jargon and predictions—some dire, some overly optimistic—there are complexities in seeking out a digital future.




Sense and interpret

disruption

Design a delightful customer

experience

Fully understand

and leverage data

Experiment to develop and launch new ideas, faster

Build and maintain a high digital

quotient team

Partner and invest for all

non-core activities

Organize for speed

required to win in the next few years

“No-regret” digital capabilities

3

4

7

1 2

56


Building new “no-regret” capabilitiesDigital change happens fast, but there are capabilities that can be adopted now to be better prepared for digital disruption.




1 Sense and interpret disruptionAs a species, human survival depends on our ability to sense and respond to change. Organizations are no different.

But sensing change is not enough. The trick is to interpret what these changes mean to the business and, more importantly, when they will have an impact. If business leaders are unable to interpret these change signals, they are no better placed than those who did not see change coming. Our research shows that half of business leaders expect competitors to change at least some part of their business models.7 The key questions are: What will these new business models be? When will those new business models become relevant?

Being highly sensitive to a fluid market is not easy. Timing plays its part. Just a few years ago many of us would have been keen to invest in a personal navigation device. Today, the idea of paying for such a service or having a distinct device for it seems almost archaic—an entire market sector almost obsolete in less than five years.

Knowing how to sense and interpret disruption is not intuitive. When you add up the market capitalizations of the recent social media “superstars,” you realize that even established digital business powerhouses missed out on the opportunity of US$280 billion in value and more than two billion active users.

Looking beyond your own back yard to determine which trends will matter and making a judgment on when they will impact the business is critical. Digital winners have institutionalized a disruption-seeking radar and antennae in many different ways. They may create an ecosystem of relationships within their industry, with the venture community and start-ups, and with technology providers and business schools. In addition, they must develop a team that is consciously mining and analyzing the information provided by this ecosystem to guide their decision-making.



79%

2 Experiment to develop and launch new ideas, faster

Seventy-nine percent of business leaders identify innovation to be a key benefit of adopting digital technologies in their industries.8

But ask most entrepreneurs about how they innovate and they may look nonplussed. Most digital disrupters do not see themselves as “innovating” per se. In their minds, they are solving specific customer problems the best way they know how. As such, innovation is a consequence not a goal.

Solving customer problems requires two actions: experimenting more and learning to self-disrupt. Digital technologies enable a new way of experimenting at almost an unlimited scale.

For example, a large mobile operator rapidly tested thousands of combinations of handset and pricing plan offers to customers with online users simultaneously to establish which offers optimized sales and profits.




“Work that matters.”

4 Build and maintain a high digital quotient teamWhile IQ and EQ measure intellectual and emotional intelligence respectively, the time is ripe for “DQ”—a measure of the digital quotient (or digital savviness) of corporations.

As organizations evolve their digital capabilities, they need to measure and rapidly build their teams’ DQ—not least among their senior members. In fact, further research among 2,500 employees shows that many doubt that their leadership is ready to adapt to the new advances in new digital technologies.11 One multinational Italian bank has a program in place to build digital skills by matching their senior leadership team with individual “digital mentors”—younger, “high flyers” from the bank’s workforce—over a sustained period of time.

Other organizations are pursuing a strategy of “acqu-hiring”—buying the right skills through acquisitions of technology start-ups, or by establishing formal relationships with the start-up community. At the FinTech Innovation Labs in New York, London and Hong Kong for example, established banks are able to build relationships with start-ups in the financial services technology space. The program is a “win–win,” giving the start-ups an introduction to potential major customers and enabling access to the latest digital insights for the senior leadership of participating banks.12

9 Source: Accenture Strategy Executive Research 201510 Source: Walmart corporate website, http://news.walmart.com/news-archive/2012/08/30/

walmart-announces-new-search-engine-to-power-walmartcom11 Source: Accenture Strategy European Worker Research 201512 Source: FinTech Innovation Lab website, http://www.fintechinnovationlab.com

3 Fully understand and leverage dataBusinesses hold almost unimaginable amounts of data, and are grappling with how to use it to develop new products and services that bring new value to their customers.

Indeed, slightly more than one-third of executives in our research said that they are currently implementing a strategy to monetize their data.9 Mastering the art of exploiting data, not only by turning it into useful information, but also by finding new ways to monetize it, will be fundamental to how businesses run in the future.

Consider Walmart—an incumbent leader that has been focused on driving its digital transformation. Walmart.com’s search engine, Polaris, was launched in 2012 and helps millions of shoppers browse, discover and purchase items in an easy, fast and intuitive manner. Using semantic search technology, Polaris anticipates the intent of a shopper’s search to deliver highly relevant results. The technology contributed to an approximate 10 to 15 percent increase in shoppers completing a purchase.10

$



13 Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/mckinsey/2014/01/07/ready-for-apis-three-steps-to-unlock-the-data-economys-most-promising-channel14 Source: “Amazon expands partnership with USPS to deliver groceries,” GeekWire, September 2014, http://www.geekwire.com/2014/

amazon-expands-partnership-u-s-postal-service-deliver-groceries

78%

5 Partner and invest for all non-core activitiesOne of the characteristics of effective digital leaders is their intuitive understanding that the journey is not one to be undertaken alone.

Seventy-eight percent of our research respondents indicated they would be increasing their partnerships and alliances as they attempt to boost digital growth in the next three years. Whether looking for new application programming interfaces (APIs), corporate development or business development partners, aligning with an ecosystem of partners is critical to digital progress. For example, estimates put the proportion of revenue Expedia realizes from application programming interfaces at 90 percent.13

The more they invest in others, the more organizations extend the team that is as vested in their success as they are.

Forming new partnerships, especially unorthodox ones, requires an open mind-set that will be critical for digital initiatives over the next few years. An interesting pairing is Amazon with the United States Postal Service (USPS), trialing the delivery of fresh groceries to Amazon customers.14

6 Organize for speed Most organizations are designed to withstand change. Our research shows that 39 percent of executives want their companies to be known as a “digital leader” in their industry.

For this to happen, they need their businesses to be organized for speed. Two elements are essential: according to our “digital leader” aspirants, the first is CEO-level support and the presence of a dedicated central team to drive the new digital growth.

The second is a team of “fixers”—those at the center of operations who are independent, respected and can draw on the right skills at the right time. Many organizations are establishing the role of Chief Digital Officer—a sound choice when that person also has the power to drive change and has responsibilities that are distinct from the CIO and CMO.

New structures are emerging to help organizations respond more quickly to digital change. Banks have partnered with accelerators that help bring new ideas, while many retailers have set up venture funds to access disrupters. Other companies have acquired digital teams to enhance their internal capabilities, often funding

entrepreneurs who know little about their industry to create a start-up that could seriously hurt the business. This counter-intuitive process can reveal some implicit industry assumptions that are holding back the business.

Perhaps one of the more profound characteristics of being a digital business (especially those that are consumer focused) is that there is a new set of metrics that measure value creation. Financial metrics are important, but it is imperative to measure these new “traction metrics”—assessing the momentum that leads to monetization. For example, for most mobile app businesses, measuring session or daily active users, number of active users and retention are far more important in the early stages of the business. To be digital, monetization is the simpler challenge; the real goals are distribution, user engagement and churn management.



15 Source: “Insights from a mobile banking innovator,” June 2014, The Financial Brand, http://thefinancialbrand.com/40287/mbank-mobile-banking-innovation

7 Design a delightful customer experience Customers’ primary motivation for repeat business is the quality of their experience.

Digital technologies have reset expectations here; today, a banking customer using a mobile banking app does not compare it with apps from other banks, but against their best mobile user experiences for usability or functionality, whatever the industry.

For example, mBank re-launched its mobile banking service after a fundamental overhaul of its online banking and its core functionalities, including some foundational back-end systems and services. The bank asked the question “What does a modern mobile service look like?” Once they understood that, the bank started reshaping banking processes and products to fit mobile, rather than adapting the solution to existing internal processes or thinking. mBank now offers 30-second mobile loan underwriting and credit scoring, which eliminates the need for paper or a branch.15



A future with no regretsBeing a digital business means adopting new ways of behaving and operating.

Ask yourself:

Where could you partner and acquire any “missing” capabilities if building them organically is unlikely to happen fast enough?

Have you identified your organization’s most digitally savvy employees (often the youngest and most junior) who can help drive transformation?

Do you understand how your customers rate their experiences against their expectations—and how does your company compare with your competitors?

Do you have the right digital team, unconstrained by traditional behaviors, that has a dynamic and innovative mind-set to identify upcoming opportunities?

Have you explored at least one potential venture that could seriously hurt your business tomorrow?



Where next?Identify the gaps Understand which capabilities are most critical to your business and fill any gaps; for example, designing delightful customer experiences might resonate with a bank.

Determine prioritiesBe objective about where your organization stands vis-à-vis your competitors—not just your traditional competitors—and against the digital expectations of your users.

Take actionHaving found out how your organization measures up against its required capabilities and the market, take the strategic choices that can realize your digital goals.



AuthorsNarry [email protected]

Bruno [email protected]





Being digital Fast-forward to the right digital strategy


16 Source: Accenture Strategy Executive Research 2015 17 Ibid

Today, business leaders recognize that digital technologies create new threats and opportunities. In the latest Accenture Strategy research among 700 business leaders in the European Union, United States, China and Japan, a majority identified large digital players or start-ups as the greatest competitive threat to profitable growth.

Finding the right competitive response is complex. Digital technologies change everything—from customer expectations to distribution channels and production methods. The scale of change creates a sense of urgency. Investors readily recognize the potential, assigning multi-billion-dollar valuations to digital pure plays that are little more than a strategy and a few initial customers and capabilities.

Business leaders have aspirations for their organization to be a “digital leader” in their particular industry. And while just 19 percent believe they are already a digital business, 59 percent plan to become one over the next three years.16

Aspirations are not necessarily translating into actions. The majority of business leaders (55 percent) said they do not yet have an enterprise-level digital strategy to support their corporate strategy— and a high proportion of those that do have a strategy are uncertain that they have the right one. Clearly, historical approaches to digitize strategies are missing the mark.17

This report is one of a series offering pragmatic advice on how to embrace digital to not only compete, but also drive new value to help businesses grow. As business leaders seek to rapidly respond to digital disruption, having the right digital strategy to compete and win is the new imperative.

Strategies for speedBusiness leaders are uncertain that they have the right digital strategy. It is time to stop assuming that digital is an adjunct to current strategies and plans. Competing in a world shaped by digital technologies requires a fundamentally different approach to how strategies are developed and executed.

Executives want their organizations to be digital leaders in their industries.



Strategies for successStrategy is the discipline of setting a direction, lining up resources and executing commitments. Digital disrupts business strategy. Possibilities opened up by new technologies reduce the reliability of proven practices and approaches. Business leaders must consider a new strategic approach.



18 Source: “First Wal-Mart, now IKEA Insurance?” Insurance Business, October 2014, http://www.insurancebusiness.ca/news/first-walmart-now-ikea-insurance-182541.aspx 19 Source: Celent report, “A Scenario: The End of Auto Insurance, What Happens When There Are (Almost) No Accidents,” May 201220 Source: Accenture Strategy Executive Research 201521 Source: UconnectTM website, https://www.driveuconnect.eu/en/home22 Source: “Defects, a vanishing species?” Pictures of the Future, October 2014, http://www.siemens.com/innovation/en/home/pictures-of-the-future/

industry-and-automation/digital-factories-defects-a-vanishing-species.html

Multi-speed—Moving quickly in the same direction In the past, orchestrating transformation was the norm, requiring everyone to act together. This approach works when organizations drive change from the inside-out. Digital drives change from the outside-in—and customers do not wait for organizations to be ready. A multi-speed strategy recognizes that each part of the organization needs to move at a different pace, but in the same direction.

Take the situation facing a multinational insurer. New distribution models offered by organizations such as Walmart and IKEA challenge the current business.18 New “customers” in the form of autonomous cars may threaten future premiums by up to 80 percent,19 while other technologies could create new opportunities for growth—insurance on household robots assisting the elderly, or commercial risk management for distributed manufacturing using 3D printing. Multiple challenges occurring at different rates require strategies that work across different time horizons:

• Optimizing the current business (the current core) to fuel future growth investments: For example, one insurer redesigned operations and customer experiences across digital and physical channels resulting in improved market share.

• Evolving new capabilities (the new): Another insurer built a new analytics-enabled offering focused on preventing customer health issues, instead of paying claims after an incident has occurred.

• Inventing the future (“the new, new”) business: A range of insurers are proactively engaging with technology companies that drive innovation in robotics and the Internet of Things. They seek future revenues from ensuring future technology innovations are safe for business and society.

Multi-layered—Changing from experience to infrastructureWorking at multiple speeds requires executing across multiple layers. Traditionally, organizations are vertically oriented, aligning resources against specific market-geographies or product lines. Digital technology cuts those layers horizontally along customer, enterprise and infrastructure lines.

Our research shows that nearly two-thirds of businesses have a digital strategy to address the customer experience, while less than one-half have a digital strategy to address the digital enterprise. Meanwhile, 40 percent of business leaders said they have a strategy to address the Internet of Things, which is becoming the future infrastructure for commerce.20 Examples of organizations successfully addressing opportunities within these layers include:

• Digital customer strategies: Fiat Chrysler is creating new connected services that change the ownership experience. Its UconnectTM Live Internet-based infotainment and diagnostic services help drivers remain focused on the road.21

• Digital enterprise strategies: IT lies at the heart of banking, and one multinational retail bank is using technology platforms to create efficiencies now to enable future growth through new business models. The bank adopted a mind-set that sought to emulate the success of Alibaba—which created the world’s largest eCommerce platform and identified a set of platforms that enable it to be part of the future of banking.

• Digital operations strategies: Technology advances blur the boundaries between the digital and physical worlds, transforming production processes and creating an Industrial Internet of Things. Siemens is an early adopter with its electronic control systems factory in Amberg in Germany, where products give instructions to the machines producing them.22

Maximizing the potential of digital business will require strategies that, over time, address all layers of the organization.

One direction, multiple speeds and layersIn a fast-changing world, the value of clarity has never been higher. Business leaders must meet the dual challenges of operating today while transforming for the future by executing strategies at multiple speeds and across multiple layers. It is not a matter of whether organizations will be digital, but a case of when and how.

1



23 Source: BMW website, http://www.bmw.com/com/en/insights/corporation/bmwi_ventures/index.html

When a telecommunications company faced diminishing returns from its core activities for business customers, it sought new opportunities for revenue growth by focusing on digital. The company took a portfolio approach to these growth “bets” by evolving its core digital product and service portfolio, and by seeking out new market opportunities for new types of digital products and services. In total, the company identified several hundreds of millions of dollars in business growth potential.

Digital leaders establish new governance mechanisms to manage multiple growth bets and their associated risks alongside today’s demands. One way that a large bank is managing growth alongside the traditional business is through the close alignment and cooperation of three key executives with specific roles. The CEO assumes the role of the “banking entrepreneur” and balances risk and business viability with sustainable profitability. A newly appointed CDO is the “digital entrepreneur,” with the emphasis on anticipating customer needs and setting the overall digital agenda. Finally, the CTO or CIO is the “technology entrepreneur” who is responsible, among other things, for creating the open, scalable and flexible platforms that support the digital strategy.

Another way to manage growth bets is separating them organizationally and financially from the core business. German automotive manufacturer, BMW, has set up BMW i Ventures to identify and grow start-ups in the area of mobility services. In particular, the company is aiming to “improve personal mobility in urban areas.” Investments from BMW i Ventures range from electric vehicle charging solutions to car park sharing apps.23

Several horizons, sequencing multiple bets There is no one path to becoming a digital leader. Success ebbs and flows with changing customer expectations and technology capabilities. These variables reduce the effectiveness of multi-year investment horizons leading to strategies based on sequencing multiple bets on the future.

2

Rapid cycles of test and learn strategies have been used for some time now in optimizing product offers in eCommerce. One leading eCommerce store, for example, can automatically create and test more than 4,000 page variations and can optimize the customer response dynamically through rapid, hypotheses-driven experimentation.

Executing through intelligent experimentation is more than trial and error. It requires developing hypotheses, building prototypes to rapidly test the hypotheses, advancing what works and learning from what does not.

Direct actions, experimenting intelligently Executing an effective digital strategy is characterized by short cycles between direction setting and direct actions— the equivalent of a marathon in sprints. Experimentation is central to quickly verifying and refining ideas in the face of changing demands.

3



The strategy paradoxLeading in turbulent times requires an apparent paradox—having clear goals and ambitions without knowing the totality of action required to achieve them. Here is the essential challenge for digital strategies that set one direction, work at multiple speeds and layers, and execute through intelligent experimentation. Such a combination is challenging, which may explain why few business leaders believe they have the right strategy for digital business today.



Growth focus Digital leaders set digital strategies for revenue growth and new business models—while followers focus on fixing the short-term cost and efficiency issues.

Agility Digital leaders organize for speed and adaptability. They appoint senior leaders, they create new digital governance structures and leverage external partners—while followers treat digital investments as functional issues and prefer to “go it alone.”

External empathyDigital leaders are proactively and provocatively engaging customers and start-ups—while followers tend to react to incumbents’ digital efforts.

$

3

2

1

What makes digital leaders different?Accenture Strategy asked business leaders about their approach to digital strategy and found differences between those with the ambition to be digital leaders and those with a fast follower or “wait and see” attitude. The digital leaders demonstrated three core differences: 24




Where next?Build digital strategy confidence and competency by keeping the following factors in mind:

Think in actions, not just ambitions An implementation mind-set that prioritizes value is at the heart of digital strategy. Be thoughtful and be considered, but do not think you can wait by being a follower.

Win through a series of sprintsMatch the external rate of change with your internal ability to change by being too focused to fail. Executing multiple initiatives enables success to become viral via frequent bursts, which is the essence of agility.

Embrace change at the edgeCustomer experience occurs at the edge, the front line, not in the back office. Enable the front-line workforce to adapt new ways of working in real time, blending human and digital resources and frequently experimenting.

Place a premium on results and experienceTurbulent times churn through good ideas. Be prepared to identify failure—understand what to pursue and when to move on. Reckon on disregarding 80 percent of ideas to be free to nurture the ones that deserve to grow.



ContributorsRyan McManus, Piercarlo Gera, Narry Singh, Jouni Hakanen, Mark Halvorsen, Clemens Oertel, John Cassidy, Emmanuel Jusserand, Gionata Tedeschi, Miguel Vergara

AuthorsBruno Berthon

[email protected]

Mark Pearson

[email protected]

Mark McDonald

[email protected]





Stay ConnectedJoin Us–Facebook www.facebook.com/accenturestrategy

Follow Us–Twitter www.twitter.com/AccentureStrat

Watch Us–Youtube www.youtube.com/accenture

Connect With Us–LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/accenture-strategy

About the European Business SummitThe European Business Summit (EBS) is Europe’s key meeting place for business leaders and decision makers, where business and politics shape the future. Every year, the EBS attracts more than 2,000 participants from over 60 countries, including: European Commissioners, Prime Ministers, high-ranking individuals and about 200 journalists. The European Business Summit is an initiative of BUSINESSEUROPE and the Federation of Enterprises in Belgium.

About BUSINESSEUROPEBUSINESSEUROPE is the leading advocate for growth and competitiveness at European level, standing up for companies across the continent and campaigning on the issues that most influence their performance. A recognized social partner, BUSINESSEUROPE speaks for all-sized enterprises in 33 European countries whose national business federations are our direct members.

Accenture StrategyAccenture Strategy operates at the intersection of business and technology. We bring together our capabilities in business, technology, operations and function strategy to help our clients envision and execute industry-specific strategies that support enterprise-wide transformation. Our focus on issues related to digital disruption, competitiveness, global operating models, talent and leadership helps drive both efficiencies and growth. For more information, follow @AccentureStrat or visit www.accenture.com/strategy.

About AccentureAccenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 323,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$30.0 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2014. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

Copyright © 2015 Accenture All rights reserved.

Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture.


Notes

ChinaEUSouth KoreaUSJapanCanada

2008 20132003

107.9

169.1

225.9

118.7

171.2

225.8

79.0

161.9178.3

70.857.5

137.1

65.1

106.290.2

7.6 23.0 31.9

* weighted average

The EU is the only major economy where investment in broadband has declined

Source. Broadband infrastructure investment per capita in euro

EUROPE NEEDS TO GRASP THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE DIGITAL ECONOMY

Challenges

Remaining barriers in the digital single market

Limited broadband coverage

Fragmentation of data protection rules

Fragmentation of consumers rules

Lack of consumers’ trust in the digital environment

Lack of specialised digital skills

Insufficient development of digital entrepreneurship

Insufficient investment in research, development and innovation

Solutions

Ensure “digital-economy proof” in new legislation

Adopt a data protection framework which enables data-driven innovation

Create a regulatory framework encouraging investments in networks

Favour investments in research, development & Innovation

Remove barriers to cross-border e-commerce

Promote development of e-skills

Stimulate digital entrepreneurship

Read our recommendations for a flourishing digital economy www.buinesseurope.eu

BUSINESSEUROPE acts for the digital economy.

EBS puts Europe’s top priorities into the spotlight in all its activities, by providing a platform where key issues for economic growth and the wellbeing of society are debated. EBS offers a unique one-stop event for organisations whishing to make their voices heard in the debate and help shaping the future of Europe.

For partnership packages and for customised proposals, please contact: Ellen Runngren - [email protected] - P: +32(0)2 645 34 86

DO YOU WANT TO PARTNER WITH EBS 2016?

Documents

EBS Report