SpEAKERS

Discover the speakers of the webinar.

DR. CHRISTIAN KETELS

Dr. Christian Ketels is a global expert on economic competitiveness and strategy. At Harvard Business School, he currently serves as faculty member and Principal Associate at Prof. Michael Porter’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness. He is a Director and Co-Chair of the Innovation Fund Denmark, chair the Advisory Board of the TCI Network and the Scientific Advisory Board of Orkestra, and a member of the Senior Economic Advisory Board of PIF, Saudi Arabia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund. He has extensive experience of working with top level political, corporate, and academic leaders around the world, having advised a wide range of governments, companies. and international organisations like the World Bank, the IMF, NIB, and the European Commission. His work focuses on the foundations of long-term growth, the role of location and broader macroeconomic factors in company success, the competitiveness of locations, clusters and cluster-based policies, and regional and innovation policies. Dr. Ketels holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the London School of Economics. He was a awarded an honorary Doctorate in Economics and Business by Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland.

FANNY MOUTIN

Fanny Moutin is an International Projects and Events Manager at Pôle Mer Méditerranée, Sea Innovation Cluster, France. Through her work, she empowers local maritime SMEs to reach out to new markets and investors. She is currently developing a network of international partners that promote the maritime industry on a global scale. She has been involved in developing the Blue Tech Cluster Alliance and in COSME projects supporting SME development. She graduated from Sciences Po Aix with a Master’s in International Affairs in 2019.

XAVIER AMORES BRAVO

Xavier Amores Bravo is the Director of Catalan Water Partnership (CWP) since 2012. He coordinates projects of R&D, digital transformation, and cluster internationalisation for the water sector, and has promoted international activities in over 20 countries. He is a member of the steering committee of the Spanish Association of Clusters since 2016. Between 2005-2011, he worked for the regional government of Catalonia in the promotion of innovation and regional economic development, clusters and industrial sectors. Before this, he worked as consultant in projects for the improvement of companies’ innovation processes and management of innovation, and with Spanish and South American public administrations to promote innovation, entrepreneurship, cluster policy and Science Parks. With a PhD in Business, he is an Industrial Engineer and graduate in the programme “Innovation, Information Technologies and Organisations”. An Associate Professor in Management and Business Administration at the University of Girona (UdG) since 2004, he is the director of the MBA in UdG, and collaborates with Business School EADA, UPC and UB in their MBA.

JEAN-PHILIPPE MERGEN

Jean-Philippe Mergen, Director for Internationalisation at BECI-Chamber of Commerce of Brussels, has been coordinating the internationalisation support services provided to Brussels companies within the framework of Enterprise Europe Network Brussels over the last 13 years. Amongst other things, this network advises companies on access to foreign markets as well as for their development in Europe through the single market. Enterprise Europe Network also connects SMEs with companies abroad for commercial partnerships.

HERVÉ G. FLOCH

Hervé G. Floch is the General Manager of ALPHA – Route des Lasers & des Hyperfréquences®, a French competitiveness cluster created in 2017. He instigated the signature of multiple inter cluster MoU, supported inter regional clustering and attended European Cluster Collaboration Platform sponsored matchmaking missions. As President of the “Europe” Committee of the French Association of Competitiveness Clusters, he has been involved into the European Cluster Excellence Initiative (ECEI2) launched by the European Commission to improve the European Cluster Excellence Policy leading to the creation of the European Cluster Labelling Excellence Structure (EUCLES) of which he is the first president. He is also the Vice-President of the European Cluster Alliance.

DOUGLAS THOMPSON

Douglas Thompson is the Manager of the International Area at Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação (SPI). He is an experienced consultant having advised many private sector and public sector clients in different areas. He leads the organisation of cluster support activities in the current ECCP and previous projects such as the European Observatory for Clusters and Industrial Change (EOCIC). Douglas has a strong focus on cluster cooperation, cluster mapping, helping SMEs create opportunities and incentives to engage in strategic inter-regional collaboration. Within the ECCP, organisation of international cluster matchmaking events, provision of the CXC helpdesk, enhancing skills, fostering stronger connections among stakeholders and assistance in implementing the European Cluster Conference in 2020. Within the EOCIC, he was involved in the activities on the provision of advisory support service to European Strategic Cluster Partnerships.