SPEAKERS OF THE EVENT
KOSTA PERIC
"An economy that includes everyone benefits everyone.
We need to act decisively and rapidly to connect 2 billion people."
Kosta Peric is a visionary technologist and thought leader, that has been working in the fusion between technology, finance and innovation.
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One of the top fintech worldwide personalities, he is Deputy Director, Financial Services for the Poor, at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he leads the team that focuses on finance inclusion and digital payments.
From governance through business models to technology, from ideas through architecture to development, he oversees the strategy and grants to deliver secure, reliable and affordable financial inclusion and digital payment solutions.
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He is the author of The Castle and the Sandbox, a book on how to innovate in conservative companies.
STEVEN VAN BELLEGHEM
"Focus should not be on technology, it should be about creating
value for society and customers. Technology is crucial, but the real
differentiating aspect in the business world, will be the human part."
Steven is an expert in customer focus in a digital world. He is a popular speaker at home and abroad. In his keynote presentations, Steven takes his audience on a journey to the world of modern customer relationships in a clever, enthusiastic and inspiring way.
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Having written four bestsellers, he became known for his first book, The Conversation Manager, which won the award for most innovative marketing book of 2010. Over 100,000 copies were sold and they are published in 7 languages.
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Steven is also an entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of consultancy firm and the co-founder of content creation company.
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KRISTIEN VERMOESEN
"We live in the age of network"
Kristien Vermoesen worked as a journalist for De Tijd, De Standaard, VRT and Sanoma Magazines.
As managing partner she supports organisations in their communication and PR strategy, of worldwide leading companies. She was elected as one of the best bloggers and twittos about sales and marketing by Vacature, is regularly interviewed as an expert in social media and communication and is well recognised as a speaker about those topics.
If that is not impressive enough, she is Belgian ambassador of the "European Network of Female Entrepreneurship" under the auspices of EU Commissioner Antonio Tajani and was mentioned by Trends in their selection '40 managers under 40'.
MURIELLE MACHIELS
Being promoted to CEO of an educational publishing company in the midst of digital transformation she decided to make a change.
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Murielle learnt to apply new business principles and had to adopt new leadership habits to lead the company towards success.
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Now,she founded a company that aims to help enterprises to adapt and stay competitive thorough innovative digital strategies.
In addition she is an academic director leading in digital times at Solvay Brussels school. ​
"Speed of change is accelerating and shattering our old business techniques"
PHILIPPE BOULANGER
Philippe Boulanger started as an entrepreneur, worked for Sagem, Apple, Sony, Neopost, now an international keynote speaker & consultant.
Philippe Boulanger started his professional journey as an entrepreneur, while he was still a PhD student at the IBM Research Center of La Gaude (close to Nice, France). Philippe evolved from coding as an independant developer to being the CEO of a group funded by VCs.
After a period as a Business Unit Director for Sagem Group, Philippe has been hired by Apple to take over the « Communication Products and Technologies » team in Cupertino, and supervise the European R&D Centre, at the time of Steve Jobs return to the company. Headhunted by Sony, Philippe comes back to Europe to launch Vaio PCs.In his latest mission, Philippe becomes the Chief Technical Officer of Neopost Group. Philippe supervised more than 1100 employees and consultants spread on 20 sites across the world (from Brisbane to Seattle).
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"One day without learning is lost"
Antoine Geerinckx (1977) is the founder of CO2Logic, first Belgian company which helps other companies to promote ecology and sustainability.
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Grand-son of Antoine Humblet, former Belgian Minister of Agriculture, Geerinckx learn to appreciate nature from childhood. In addition to his industrial activities, his grandfather is passionate about arboriculture and owns large forests where the young Antoine spent hours to take care of trees.
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He has been working mainly as a climate consultant on different environmental issues for more than 10 years now and he is not about to stop. He loves to work closely with people, companies & organisations to reduce their climate impact and generate sustainable competitive and socio-economic advantages.
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"In 2004 I could not believe that there were no services to help people reduce their CO2 emissions and climate impact."
ANTOINE GEERINCKX
Luc Steels studied linguistics at the University of Antwerp and computer science/Artificial Intelligence at M.I.T. (US). He has been active in university education (as a professor of AI at the Free University of Brussels, VUB), academic research (as founding director of the VUB Artificial Intelligence Laboratory), and industrial research and management (as founding director of the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris).
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He is an elected member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Sciences and Arts and the European Academy of Sciences and is a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin, Goldsmiths College in London, the European Center for Living Technologies in Venice and the Catalan Institute for Advanced Studies (ICREA) in Barcelona, Spain.
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Besides his scientific work, Steels is a composer of operas working with neuroscientist Oscar Vilarroya as librettist. Their first opera Casparo premiered at the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona in 2011 and their newest opera Fausto.
LUC STEELS
"For me AI has been and still is one of the most, and maybe the most, interesting creative and dynamic field of science over the past 50 years."
JENNIFER GOBIET
"Cryptocurrencies will change the world"
Jennifer has always been mesmerized by innovation. Her curiosity, willingness to learn and disrupt are some of her principal motivations. After professional experiences in project management at SWIFT, administration and DJying, she discovered the blockchain and cryptospace industry.
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She is currently working as a Business Development consultant specialized in blockchain, cryptocurrencies and ICOs. Her goal is to become one of the global leading female experts in the cryptospace.
