Benoit Esmanne

Benoit Esmanne is graduated in public affairs from the Université Catholique de Louvain and also studied European Politics and Policies at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. After working for several years in Managing Authorities in charge of the implementation of regional and cross-border cooperation programmes (Interreg) supported by the European Fund for Regional Development, he joined the European Commission in 2011. Since then he developed an expertise in rural development by negotiating and monitoring programmes funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, setting-up the pre-accession assistance programme IPARD in an EU candidate country and contributing to the reform of the CAP post-2020. He has now joined the Cluster Team of DG GROW where he is in charge of the Cluster Excellence Programme. He is also involved in the Industrial Forum work and in organising the EU Industry Days.

Marek Przeor 

Marek Przeor is a team leader responsible for cluster policy in DG GROW since May 2020. He was previously a team leader for Smart Growth in DG REGIO (2013-20) and a programme manager in DG REGIO for national and regional operational programmes (2009-13). He joined the European Commission in January 2004 as a policy officer in DG ENTR. Since 1996 he has worked in the banking sector and top-management consulting services. He graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics in 1997 in finance and banking and international economic and political relations. He has a Master of Business Administration by Warsaw University and the Free University of Brussels and has also completed a PhD study programme in the Faculty of Management at Warsaw University. 

Jan Maarten de Vet

Jan Maarten de Vet, is senior director of Ecorys in Brussels, He has a long track record in managing complex and cross-cutting European research as well as integrated projects of a strategic nature in the areas of competitiveness, sustainable development and resource efficiency. Currently he is project director of the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP). He has been leading on a wide range of Industrial Competitiveness and Market performance studies. He has exceptionally strong educational and professional background in regional development including analysis of clusters. Before joining Ecorys, he gained experience as Young Professional at the OECD in Paris. He has MA degrees from Utrecht University (cum laude) and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), where his MA thesis was about cluster formation in the Medical Device Industry in Southern California. Jan Maarten is a native Dutch speaker, and fluent in English, French, and German 

Ulla Engelmann

Dr. Ulla Engelmann is Acting Director for Networks and Governance in DG GROW, the Directorate General being responsible for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, at the European Commission. Her portfolio covers Skills, services, Industrial Forum, Industrial Alliances, Enterprise Europe Network (EEN), Clusters and market surveillance. In previous functions, her unit was responsible Social Economy, women entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education. She worked at the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the in-house science service of European Commission. She started in the JRC in Ispra (Italy) in 1993 as a post-doc in fusion research, and moved on to manage various units (communication, international relations, and others) in Ispra and Brussels. Dr. Engelmann holds a PhD in analytical and radiochemistry completed at the National Research Centre in Karlsruhe.

Luisa Prista

Luisa Prista is the Head of Department at the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency in Brussels. She is responsible for the implementation of innovation and research European programs, including parts of the Single Market Programe, Horizon Europe and the EU Regional Development Fund . She is a thermodynamic  engineer, has 16 years of industrial private sector experience and has been a manager at the Commission, at DG RTD and GROW  for more than 25 years. Her main fields of expertise cover eco-innovation, circular economy, green chemistry, marine science, transportation and manufacturing. 

Peter Czaga

Peter Czaga is a Policy Officer working on clusters at the Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs of the European Commission. In his earlier positions he worked on external trade policy and environmental policy. . 

Pierre Hausemer

Pierre Hausemer is the Managing Director of VVA Brussels, a public policy consultancy providing economic, market and regulatory advice to public sector institutions. Over the course of his career, Pierre has led and contributed to studies across the European Commission, the European Parliament, decentralised agencies, national governments, business and trade associations. His speciality lies in impact assessment and evaluation of public policy and the importance of taking into account market impacts in such assessments. Before joining VVA, Pierre worked as an economic consultant in Washington DC on issues surrounding the liberalisation of telecoms markets, copyright and international trade. Pierre currently also runs a master level class at the University of Reading focused on the Politics of Public Policy. Pierre holds a PhD from the London School of Economics as well as a BSc in Economics from Miami University in the United States and a Master of Science in Comparative Politics (distinction) from the London School of Economics. 

James Wilson

James Wilson is Research Director at Orkestra and teaching faculty at the University of Deusto. He is an economist by training, with degrees from Warwick (BSc), Cape Town (MSocSc) and Birmingham (Phd) Universities. His research is focused on regional competitiveness, regional resilience and clusters, where he has over 20 years of experience analysing clusters and cluster policies in Europe (and beyond). This includes a wide range of projects and publications focused on quantitative and qualitative data analysis, including data mining, mapping clusters and evaluating innovation policies and other regional competitiveness policies. He has published widely on clusters and regional competitiveness in peerreviewed journals and academic books, and has played leading roles in data-focused European research projects on clusters and smart specialisation (European Cluster Observatory, European Cluster Collaboration Platform, JRC S3 Projects). 

Merete D. Nielsen 

Director of Cluster Excellence Denmark, European Expert Group on Clusters and president of TCI network

Merete is a leading expert on clusters with deep insight into the international cluster landscape. As the founder and director of Cluster Excellence Denmark, she has designed the Danish support program towards the 40 leading Danish clusters and pioneered work in areas like internationalisation and matchmaking. Through the Presidency of TCI Network Merete has an impressive network of leading experts worldwide and deep knowledge on global cluster trends. Merete is part of EU’s cluster expert group advising the EU Commission on clusters. She also led the working groups on clusters and internationalisation and green transition within the group. Merete has extensive knowledge of the European cluster landscape and policy from her work as part of evaluation of several European and international cluster programs. 

Antonio Novo

Antonio Novo combines his training as a technologist and psychologist to develop his professional life around Collaborative Innovation through Clusters. Antonio is Managing Director of the Cluster IDiA, which brings together 81 Aragonese companies and institutions that collaborate in the development of ICT initiatives and projects. He holds the presidency of the of the European Cluster Alliance and Clusters.es, the Spanish Federation of Clusters. He is also member of the Expert Group on Clusters of the European Commission.

Yann Wehrling 

Laurent Monnet

Augustin Becquet

Augustin Becquet is Recommerce’s CEO. Augustin has a long career in the high tech industry and an appetence for ecology and sustainable development. He was previously Executive Director of Lenovo Smart Devices EMEA. He was Executive Director for Motorola for different markets (Southern Europe, Northern Europe and emerging markets). He also previously worked at Orange, Acer and NC. Augustin is the President of Eurefas (European Refurbishment Association), gathering the main reconditioning and high-tech product actors in Europe. Augustin graduated from EDHEC, YMC INSEAD and CEDEP.  

Marline Weber

Marc Pattinson

Marc Pattinson is the Director of the G.A.C group in France specialised in cluster support, preparation of innovation strategies and evaluation, regional development and innovation strategies. He is part of the Policy Learning Platform team responsible for supporting Interreg Europe project partnerships in the fields of innovation and research which include a large number of cluster related initiatives. He recently published a Policy Brief on Clusters role in supporting green transition. He has a long track record in the field of clusters and related policy development initiatives. He was for four years in charge of the set up and animation of the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (2016-20). He regularly organises and moderates cluster workshops and B2B and C2C matchmaking events (Ukraine, Italy, India, Belgium, Germany …) on behalf of DG Growth and he is an auditor/evaluator for the ESCA Gold Cluster label.  He has extensive experience working for clusters across Europe in numerous fields. 

Alberto Pezzi

He is senior manager of competitive strategy in the General Directorate of Industry of the Government of Catalonia. He has more than 25 years of experience in cluster development leading and participating in more than a hundred projects both in the public sector and in international consulting. In the last decade he has advised regional and national governments on how to design cluster and competitiveness policies and is currently a member of the European Commission's group of experts (EEGC). As a senior cluster expert, he has also collaborated with other international organizations such as the World Bank and UNIDO. Alberto has been committed to cluster excellence since its beginning participating in the European Cluster Excellence Initiative and he is currently a member of the faculty of the European Foundation for Cluster Excellence (EFCE) and a gold expert of the European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis (ESCA). As part of his pro-bono activity Alberto has been one of the promoters of the TCI-Network and has chaired the organization between 2009 and 2011. More recently he has been appointed member of the Board of Advisors. Alberto has a degree in Economics from the University of Bologna, a master's degree in European Law and Economics from the European College of Parma and a postgraduate degree in History and Economic Institutions from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Thierry Gautreau

Thierry is leading the “Factory of the Future” transformation for industrials, offering solutions which create business value by focusing on technological innovation. Before joining CETIM in 2012, he completed 15 years of experience in the industry, both in R&D and in a production environment as a plant manager. During this period, he developed strong experience and expertise in composites and in mechatronic processes. Additionally, he leaded an acquisition in Japan, experiencing both disruptive and inspiring ways of working. These experiences have been very important in his subsequent career. 

Nawelle Nurmukhamedov

Bianca Muntean

Bianca Muntean is the Cluster Manager of Gold Labeled Transilvania IT, based in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, with over 20 years of experience in ecosystem building. She is a member of the European Cluster Expert Group, DG GROW, European Commission and also has an active participation in different Consultative Councils dealing with digital transformation at local, regional and national level. Bianca was awarded the EU Cluster Manager of the Year title for 2019 and she is involved in cross-sectoral collaborations all over Europe. Bianca is also a recipient for the Open Innovation Luminary Award in 2017 granted by the European Commission, the Open Innovation Strategy and Policy Group. In her quality of Transilvania IT Cluster Manager she has founded and coordinates the fully operational Transilvania Digital Innovation Hub. Transilvania DIH was a Finalist of the DIH Champion challenge in 2019 in Madrid. 

Thierry Louvet

Thierry Louvet started his career in the UK at Andersen Consulting and worked as project coordinator and consultant in London and Paris for EU programmes on Local Employment Development. In 1996, he joined the Association for the Monetary Union of Europe (AMUE) as head of its conference department. In 2000, he became Executive Director of the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER), an association representing over 60 European institutions (national establishments, University Departments) aimed at reinforcing the role of public health by improving the training of professionals in WHO Euro countries. He started working for SYSTEMATIC Paris Region in January 2008 to develop European and International activities. He is a Graduate from Sciences Po Paris in International Relations and holder of a BA in History and Geography as well as an MBA in Management of Local Development.  

Andreas Pauer

Andreas Pauer is a principal consultant at Ecorys in Brussels. He is an experienced project manager, leading assignments from small to large scale (>2 million euro) and across thematic areas and methodological focus. His focus lies on topics related to industrial modernisation, interregional cooperation and Better Regulation. Example projects under his management include the two main support contracts to the S3P-Industry ‘Regional Cooperation for Industrial Modernisation (ReConfirm) Initiative’ and ‘Technical Assistance Facility for Industrial Modernisation and Investment (TAF)’ as well as the ‘Just Transition Platform’. Moreover, he is leading the cluster actors capacity building work package of the ‘European Cluster Collaboration Platform’ and trained regional representatives on developing sustainable business models for Digital Innovation Hubs under DIHELP. 

Patricia Valdenebro

Patricia Valdenebro is CEO at TCI Network, the leading global network of people and organisations working in clusters and innovation ecosystems around the globe, where +500 members collaborate to create global connections, inspire clusters and improve policy learning.