Speakers

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  Dorien Aerts

  Project Manager at Unit Smart Energy and Build Environment (Energyville/Vito)

  Dorien Aerts has over 10 years of experience in the field of energy efficiency in the built environment. At present, she is a Project Manager at the Smart Energy and Built Environment department at VITO, and Coordinator of the Open Thor Residential Living Lab in Genk (Belgium), currently under development in the oPEN Lab project. She’s passionate about facilitating social and technological innovation in a complex, multi-stakeholder setting.
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  Jo Brouns

  Minister
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  Peter Claes

  Director (Febeliec)

  Peter Claes graduated in Managerial Economics at the Catholic University Leuven in 1984 and was Research Assistant in the same department until 1986. From 1987 until 1992 he was Research Department Analyst of the Belgian Economy at the BBL in Brussels. In 1992 he became Director of the Economic Department of essenscia (Federation of the Chemical Industry and Life Sciences, previously called FEDICHEM), where he was General Manager from 2002 until end 2008. He also became Board Member of FEBELIEC (Federation of Belgian Industrial Energy Consumers) in 1994, and from May 1996 until May 2003, he was President of this same federation. Since January 2009, he has been full time active for FEBELIEC. Since November 1998, he has been Vice-President of IFIEC Europe (International Federation of Industrial Energy Consumers), and was also President of this federation between April 2003 and 2007, and again since June 2021.
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  Jill Caubergh

  Innovation hub relationship manager, BNP Paribas Fortis Business center Limburg

  With a dedicated team of innovative bankers as a partner helping scale-ups grow to become an international success
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  Björn Crul

  Moderator

  Björn Crul (50) is founder and managing director of the content company, a content creation agency based in Brussels, that specializes in copywriting, PR, video production, podcasting and event storytelling for B2B companies, media, federations and public institutions. Björn has over 30 years of experience in journalism, communication, media relations and events. He keeps his finger on the pulse of the energy transition, digital transformation, Industry 4.0 and new technologies. He will be the host of the Energy Mission 2023 and moderate the panel discussions.
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  Koenraad Debackere

  Professor (KU Leuven)

  Koenraad Debackere is a professor of economics and management of technology and innovation at KU Leuven. He is chair of KU Leuven Associatie and a member of the Board of Governors of RWTH Aachen. He has held or holds directorships in several companies. He studied engineering, economics and business at the University of Ghent and MIT and held visiting professorships at several international universities.
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  Geert Deconinck

  Professor KU Leuven

  prof.dr.ir. Geert Deconinck is full professor at KU Leuven university, where he heads the research group on electrical energy applications and systems since 2013. He is a board member of, and an active researcher in, EnergyVille. From 30 years of experience, as a researcher / control engineer in power systems, he has the suited background to make smart grids robust and efficient, based on data-driven and model-based distributed coordination.
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  Sam De Frene

  Head of Energy Management (Blue Corner)
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  Brieuc De Hults

  Investment Director (Korys)

  Brieuc is Investment Director at Korys, Colruyt’s family office, and focuses on the development and management of the enabling technology portfolio within the Energy Transition ecosystem. Brieuc has 17 years of experience in the investment industry, acquired through various positions in major banks and investment firms in Belgium, Europe and the US, of which 11 specifically on the energy transition at Korys. He also sits at several boards in tech companies in Belgium and Europe.
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  Wim Dries

  Mayor of Genk

  Wim Dries serves as the Mayor of Genk and holds the positions of President of Fluvius and the Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities (VVSG). In his role as Genk's mayor, he demonstrates unwavering dedication to advancing sustainable initiatives, such as investments in renewable energy sources and the advocacy for environmentally friendly policies. His resolute commitment to both the economic development and sustainability of the region, as well as his dedication to local communities and progress, establish him as a highly esteemed mayor and president.
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  Roeland Engelen

  Head of Investment (LRM)
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  Celine Fellay

  Program manager (Brightsite)

  She hold a PhD in Chemistry from EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), Switzerland. She has 15 years of experience in chemical industry in diverse R&D positions. She recently joined Sitech services where She is working as Program manager for Brightsite. She lead the program on Transition scenarios and system integration, looking at how to realize the transition for an entire site like Chemelot in a safe, sustainable and economically sound way.
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  Regis Frankard

  VP Technical & Proposal, Integrated Renewable Solutions (John Cockerill)

  Régis Frankard is graduated as civil Engineer, electromechanics, specialized in energy. He has been working at CMI/John Cockrill for 22 years, always in the energy sector. For the first 15 years, he worked on heat recovery steam generators, in project and proposal management. He became the Proposal Director of the HRS BU. Then, he switched to renewable energy, mainly dealing with battery storage. He launched the Energy Storage BU in 2017, including the MiRIS project. Now, he is the CTO and VP Proposal and Technical of IRS (Integrated Renewable Solution), and he also has the software developers of the EMS in his team.
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  Frank Gielen

  Education Director (EIT InnoEnergy)

  Prof.Dr.ir. Gielen has extensive experience with R&D in the telecommunication and software technology sector as well as in raising venture capital, university-industry collaborative research and spin-off creation. Prof.Dr.ir. Gielen held a number of technical and management positions in the software industry. He started as a software architect with AT&T Bell Labs in the USA and was director of software technology at Alcatel. In 1998 he joined Tellium, a US based start-up company in optical network technology, as the VP of Software Engineering. Tellium had a successful IPO on NASDAQ in 2001. He then returned to Europe in 2001 as the CEO for Tellium EMEA. From 2010 to 2015 he was the Director of the Incubation & Entrepreneurship at iMinds, the leading digital incubator and business accelerator in Flanders. The iStart incubation programme of iMinds was ranked number 4 in UBI’s global ranking of university accelerators in 2015. Prof.Dr.ir. Gielen was head of the EIT Digital Professional School with the ambition to lead the innovation of professional development and executive education for companies, organisations and individuals going through a digital transformation. Since 2017 he has been the Education Director at InnoEnergy. Currently he is also a professor of software technology entrepreneurship at the University of Ghent.
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  Annelies Gorissen

  Moderator (POM Limburg)

  Annelies Gorissen thrives on fostering sustainable energy and circular economy initiatives. As part of the POM Limburg team, the Economic Development Agency for Belgian's Limburg, she actively contributes to making Limburg the friendliest province in Flanders to work, do business, innovate and excel. Annelies is driven to connect companies, knowledge institutes, and the public sector, enabling fruitful collaborations and pioneering in breakthrough projects. Her commitment revolves around accelerating and facilitating both successful and sustainable economic development, with a strong focus on digital transformation, carbon reduction, and scalability.
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  Leen Govaerts

  Unit Manager (EnergyVille/VITO)

  Leen Govaerts has longstanding experience in research on energy and sustainable urban development. At present, she leads the Smart Energy and Built Environment department of Research and Technology organization VITO and is also a member of the executive committee of EnergyVille – a research collaboration between the Belgian research partners KU Leuven, VITO, imec and UHasselt in the field of sustainable energy.
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  Stefan Hoekstra

  Projectmanager (Green Village /TU Delft)

  “Learning by doing” is the motto of Stefan. In his role as project manager Energy transition he works with researchers, students, startups, entrepreneurs and government bodies to accelerate innovation for a sustainable future. The Green Village is an “open air laboratory” at TU Delft Campus, exempt of standard rules and regulations, with a focus on the built environment where testing takes place on neighbourhood, street and building level. By paying attention to technical, corporate, social and policy-based challenges, we help innovative parties accelerate from theory to practice.
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  David Ketelaers

  Product Marketing Specialist (ABB)

  He is more than 15 years active in the world of Automation, Building Automation, Lighting and Energy Optimization in residential and commercial buildings. With his personal strong passion for innovation and a company that brings smart, safe and sustainable innovative products we realize projects where the user’s comfort is key and the building contribute to a better neighborhood and world.
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  Irena Kondratenko

  Project Manager at Unit Smart Energy and Built Environment (EnergyVille/VITO)

  Irena Kondratenko has over 15years experience in managing research and innovation projects. At present, she is a Project Manager at the Smart Energy and Built Environment department of Research and Technology organization VITO, and Coordinator of the European Digital Innovation Hub on Energy in the Built Environment. She actively contributes to market uptake of innovations enabled by advanced digital technologies for a circular, efficient and decarbonized built environment.
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  Evdoxia Kouraki

  Project Manager (Johanneberg Science Park)

  Evdoxia (Eva) Kouraki, M.Sc. Environmental Management & Policy, is Project Manager of the Urban Development Open Arena at Johanneberg Science Park – Sweden’s leading collaborative arena for urban development. Her focus has been the development and coordination of open innovation projects as well as living labs/testbeds as innovation test environments in Gothenburg, Sweden. These include, HSB Living Lab - a world unique arena in the form of residence building where new technological and architectural innovations are tested for 10 years and testbed “Sustainable Smart Parks” - an open and innovative arena for developing the smart green areas of the future.
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  Frederik Loeckx

  Managing Director (Flux50)

  Frederik Loeckx is Managing Director of Flux50. He graduated in 1996 as electrical engineer at the University of Leuven with a master thesis on data security and public key infrastructures. In 2001, Frederik obtained a Master in Business Administration from the Vlerick Leuven Ghent Management School. Frederik started his career at Utimaco, a data security specialist. Between 2002 and 2006, he worked as advisor on innovation strategy and innovation projects at the Flemish government. In 2006, Frederik Loeckx founded Triphase, a spin-off of the university of Leuven, operating internationally with research systems for smart energy systems and grew the company to 16 people on own accounts. Up to 2016, Frederik was CEO of the company. On behalf of Triphase, Frederik was founder and member of the board of Smart Grid Flanders, the predecessor of Flux50, for 6 years, as well as present in several innovation advisory groups in Flanders.
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  Joelle Mastelic

  Board member (European Network of Living Labs)
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  Inne Peersman

  Director General Management (Green Energy Park)
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  Jozef Poortmans

  Professor (EnergyVille/imec)

  Jozef Poortmans graduated in 1985 as a Civil Engineer in Electro-mechanics and joined imec shortly afterwards. After his PhD on bipolar transistor technology he joined the solar cell technology group in imec where he was responsible for the advanced solar cell activity. In 2003, he became responsible for the entire solar cell activity in imec. Because of his impact in the domain, he was appointed imec Fellow in 2013. From 2016 he was responsible for coordinating the research activities of the 4 R&D partners within the EnergyVille collaboration and combines this with his part-time professorship at KUL and UHasselt.
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  Albert Rosich

  Section Manager (Daikin Europe)

  Albert Rosich is passionate about new technologies and open innovation with a vast experience in collaborative initiatives between academia and industry. He is currently involved in digitalization and energy management systems for the HVAC industry in his role as Innovation Manager at Daikin EMEA Development Center. He believes that a new generation of heat pumps equipped with the latest technology will have a major impact on the present energy transition.
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  Dirk Saelens

  Prof.dr.ir.-arch. (EnergyVille/KU Leuven)

  Dirk Saelens (°1974) is a MSc graduate in architectural engineering (1997) from Leuven University (KU Leuven) where he also gained his PhD in Civil Engineering (2002) with research on ventilated double-skin facades at the Building Physics Section. Currently he is appointed full professor “Energy in Buildings” and head of the Building Physics and Sustainable Design Section at the Department of Civil Engineering at KU Leuven.
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  Gerrit Jan Schaeffer

  Managing Director (EnergyVille)

  Prof dr. ir. Gerrit Jan Schaeffer MBA (1966) is the General Manager of EnergyVille. After a career at the Energy research Center of the Netherlands (ECN) as a scientist and research manager he moved to the Flemish Institute for Technology Research (VITO) as Director Energy in 2007. In 2016 he became an entrepreneur in the solar business as CEO and co-owner of Dutch Solar Energy in the Netherlands. Since 1 June 2021 he got the position as General Manager of EnergyVille, the main sustainable energy research institute in Flanders, Belgium.
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  Ron Schuermans

  Founding Partner (Aconterra)

  Ron Schuermans is the founding partner of Aconterra, an early-stage VC fund focusing on European smart building technology and the energy transition. With a career spanning over two decades, Ron has extensive experience in launching and leading tech and energy startups. His background includes a wide range of technologies and solutions, such as sensor technology, wireless mesh networking, energy demand response and energy trading. Since co-founding Aconterra in 2019, his focus on innovation and sustainability has been instrumental in Aconterra's growth, aiming to contribute to Europe's progress towards a more efficient and environmentally conscious future.
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  Lieven Smeyers

  CO-founder & CEO (Litobox)

  Lieven is an energy thinker with a passion for great inventions and innovative solutions. Passionate by renewable energy, he starts at the newly founded Solar-division of HVAC manufacturer and distributor Sanutel Belgium that will become market leader in solar thermal energy in less than three years.
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  Elise Steyaert

  Director Energy Cooperative (Klimaan)

  Klimaan vzw is a local citizen movement focusing on sustainably managing our commons: Air, Soil, Water and Energy. We have +250 members and various projects on-going regarding circular economy in practice, rain water recuperation, softening surfaces for water infiltration, air scans and energy savings at home.
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  Daan Six

  Research program manager (EnergyVille/VITO)

  Daan Six received his master’s degree in commercial engineering in 2004 from the University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium. Since 2008, he is with the Energy Technology Unit of the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) and EnergyVille, Belgium. Since 2018 he is research program manager and coordinates several research roadmaps on energy market design, flexibility, thermal systems and electrical storage in the built environment. Since 2021 he is coordinating the Open Thor living lab initiative by EnergyVille, Thor Park and City of Genk
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  Bas van de Kreeke

  CEO (Soltech)

  Ir. Bas van de Kreeke (51) is a civil engineer and CEO at Soltech. His passions are: Digitization, sustainability energy, innovation and finally sharing knowledge and helping people grow. He is involved in various innovation projects on making the built environment more sustainable.
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  Dominiek Vandewiele

  Programme Manager Energy Transition (Transfo-site)

  Dominiek Vandewiele is program manager Energy Transition at Intercommunale Leiedal, supporting local authorities in Sout-West-Flanders. He is involved in innovation projects on 5th generation district heating, energy planning, empowering citizens in the energy transition, energy communities and the establishment of a living lab with smart microgrid.
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  Dries Van Gheluwe

  Business development advisor (Port of Antwerp Bruges)

  In 2020 Dries took a new step in his career by joining the Invest and Development team in the port of Antwerp. In this team, he is responsible for the commercial development of the NextGen District, an 88Ha zone 100% dedicated to circular economy in the port of Antwerp-Bruges. His main focus lies within the domains of circular economy, energy transition and sustainable industry.
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  Peter van Hooft

  Director (Fieldlab Industrial Electrification)

  After obtaining the Ph.D. degree in Bio-Organic Chemistry at the Leiden University, he started his career at TNO as Research Scientist in 2001. In the successive years he occupied various other functions amongst others Project Manager, Senior Business Developer and Head of Department. As operational program manager at the Fieldlab Industrial Electrification (FLIE), he was tasked in May 2021 to set-up the infrastructure of the pilot hall. Since July 2022 Peter acts as Director of FLIE.
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  Marlies Van Holm

  Managing Technological Research (EnergyVille/VITO)

  Marlies Van Holm is currently heading the research activities of VITO/EnergyVille on District Energy Modelling and Building Envelope Innovation/Construction Robotics. She started at VITO/EnergyVille as a researcher (°2010) and subsequently became program manager (°2015), leading several research teams on energy and environmental performance of buildings. She is also Board Member of Enperas, a VITO spin-off company and product Life Cycle Assessment SAAS business (°2021). She holds degrees in Civil Engineering – Architecture (Ghent University), Cultural Sciences (VUB, Brussels) and Business Administration (Warwick Business School, UK).
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  Alexandra Vanhuyse

  Cofounder (Snowball)

  Alexandra Vanhuyse is cofounder of Snowball. She is a hands-on entrepreneur with a passion for clean technology. As Managing Director at Snowball, she is in charge of Strategy, Partnerships and Alliances. Among others, Alexandra runs the Cleantech Accelerator at Snowball and heads a multi-year, multi-stakeholder Living Lab Research & Development Project supported by among others the Flemish Government and Interreg. She also represents Snowball and acts as sparring partner to different industry bodies, including Flux50 & VIL.
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  Guy Vekemans

  Business Development Manager (Flux50)
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  Conchita Vercauteren

  Innovation hub relationship manager, BNP Paribas Fortis , Business Center Antwerpen Metropool

  With a dedicated team of innovative bankers as a partner helping scale-ups grow to become an international success
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  Pieter Werbrouck

  Product Director - Smappee
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  Jeroen Rabaey

  CO-Founder & CEO of Noven

  Jeroen Rabaey is co-founder & CEO of Noven, an Esco company that specializes in providing energy-as-a-service solutions. Noven employs a range of technologies, including heat pumps and geothermal energy, to make both new and existing buildings more energy-efficient and sustainable. Prior to his role at Noven, he gained experience working at Boston Consulting Group and Electrawinds. Jeroen is a passionate advocate for sustainable energy, seeking to contribute to combating climate change.