Former EIT Governing Board members
GB Member: 2016 - 2018
GB Chair: 2018 - 2020
Has been Chairman of the EIT Governing Board since 01 July 2018. He currently holds the Chair of the Association of Health Insurance Companies in the Netherlands (Zorgverzekeraars Nederland). He is the Chair of the Supervisory Board of the National Science Foundation (NWO) in the Netherlands. He also has several supervisory roles, in Gasunie BV (gas transport services in the Netherlands), FMO (the Dutch Development Bank) and TRADESPARENT BV (a start-up/scale-up in data management software).
Previously, Dirk Jan held high-level positions in the Dutch diplomatic and civil service, as secretary general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, permanent representative to the UN in New York and ambassador to the People's Republic of China. In academia, he served as the (executive) president of Delft University of Technology. In the past five years, he has held the chair of the Sanquin Foundation, the organisation responsible for the blood supply in the Netherlands.
GB Member: 2012 - 2020
Marja Makarow is Director of Biocenter Finland since July 2016. She is former Vice-President of the Academy of Finland - the Finnish Research Council (2012-2016), Chief Executive of the European Science Foundation in France in 2008-2011, and Vice-Rector for Research and Innovation of the University of Helsinki in 2003-2007. She is Professor of Applied Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She chairs from 2015 the board of Technology Academy Finland that awards one of the world’s most prestigious innovation prizes, the Millennium Technology Prize.
Marja Makarow advised the EU Commissioner of Research and Innovation in the European Research Area Board on Horizon 2020, and the Finnish Government in the Prime Minister’s Research and Innovation Council on development of the Finnish R&I system and the university renovation in 2008-2011. She was Vice Chair of the founding board of the newly established Aalto University in 2008-2012 and Chair of the founding board of the new Tampere University in 2017-2018. She is member of the strategic board of the University of Geneva, the international advisory board of the Heidelberg University and the board of the University of Arts Finland.
Marja Makarow has steered research assessment exercises of several universities and research institutes, and evaluated the performance of national R&I systems and research funding agencies, as well as EU programmes such as Eurostars and the Joint Research Centre. She was Panel Chair for the European Research Council ERC till 2012 and Vice-Chair of the Advisory Group of EU’s Future and Emerging Technologies program in 2014-2016.
She is Appointed Member of the Governing Board of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology EIT since 2012 and Executive GB Member since 2019. In June 2019, she was appointed to the European European Innovation Council (EIC) Pilot Advisory Board. She is member of Academia Europaea and the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, Commander of the Order of the White Lion, Finland, and Chevalier de l’Ordre de Legion d’Honneur, France, and Doctor Honoris Causa of Tampere University and Aalto University.
GB Member: 2016 - 2020
Dr Ana S. Trbovic is an academic, a policy advisor, civic activist and an entrepreneur. She is co-founder of Grid Singularity and the Energy Web Foundation, energy blockchain technology venture. Actively engaged in Serbia’s economic reforms as a nonpolitical high government official and advisor, she is proud to have been the first official to coordinate Serbia’s EU accession process. She has consulted private and international organisations including the EU, USAID and the World Bank in areas of economic development and innovation and taught in Belgrade on topics of Entrepreneurship, Strategic and Public Administration Management, Good Governance and European Integration.
She holds a PhD from the Fletcher School (Tufts and Harvard University) and Master Degrees from the Fletcher School and Harvard Kennedy School. She is the author of “A Legal Geography of Yugoslavia’s Disintegration” (Oxford University Press) and other publications on good governance and competitiveness policy.
GB Member: 2018 - 2020
Sasha Bezuhanova is a senior executive, angel investor and philanthropist with a 20-year executive business career in HP and a multi-dimensional track record of service to society. Her long list of business achievements and social development engagements throughout the years involves positioning Bulgaria as an ICT centre of global significance, boosting the entrepreneurial culture and women empowerment in her home country, Bulgaria, and at European level.
In 2013, she left her business career and devoted herself to supporting social prosperity through innovation, education and collaboration. Sasha is the founder of MOVE.BG – a think&do tank for sustainable solutions for the state, economy and society through innovation, participation and co-creation. She is also the initiator of EDIT.BG – an open network initiative for digital innovation, and the Pan-Balkan digital cooperation network.
Sasha is Chair of the Boards of the Bulgarian Centre of Women in Technologies, Technical University Sofia, co-founder of DIH DigiTecH 4.0, and founder of Entrepregirl Award. Sasha was named Digital Woman of Europe for 2013, was one of the Top 100 Challengers in New Europe for 2015, and holds many national and European awards for her contribution to societal development.
GB Member: 2016 - 2020
Peter Lakatos is Hungarian and was born in Budapest in 1961. He graduated from the Technical University of Budapest as an electrical engineer in 1983 and went on to perform scientific work as a PhD student in computer science on "Man-Machine Interaction".
He began his professional career at Műszertechnika Zrt. in 1986, and was a Member of the Board of Müszertechnika Zrt. from 1991 till 2013. In 1991, he joined Videoton Holding Zrt as a shareholder, where he is today a co-CEO and a member of the Board of Directors. Since 2007, he has been the joint owner and honorary president of Bravogroup Holding. Founded in 1992, Bravogroup Holding is one of the largest info communicational enterprises in Hungary. From 1999, the corporation has worked under the holding structure, representing the company on the business market through separate firms.
Together with his wife, Peter established and operates a charity website (ad6kap6) that has been online since 2008.
Peter is also the Vice President of MGYOSZ (Confederation of Hungarian Employers and Industrialists), which is a member federation of BUSINESSEUROPE. Here, his objective is to increase the number of successful Hungarian companies on the world market. Peter was selected as a Global Leader for tomorrow in 1995 by the World Economic Forum, and received the civilian Hungarian Order of Merit in 2015.
GB Member: 2016 - 2020
Dr Rolf P. Nagel is German and was born in 1965. He holds a Ph.D. in Business Economics from the University of Cologne and a Master’s Degree (Diplom-Kfm.) from the WHU Koblenz, Germany. While completing his Ph.D., he was awarded a research scholarship at the MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, USA.
Dr Nagel is Managing Partner of Munich Venture Partners, which he co-founded in 2004. Munich Venture Partners is a leading high-technology, research-to-business-transfer venture fund investing in innovative start-up companies in the European Union, with a focus on IT and Energy-Clean Tech. Munich Venture Partners has secured financial commitments from a wide range of institutional, private and philanthropic investors in the EU and the USA.
Currently, Dr Nagel is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Novihum Technologies GmbH, a Director of Shopwell, and an Observer of Harvest Power and Kebony, in addition to serving as Managing Partner of Munich Venture Partners.
Prior to founding Munich Venture Partners, he was an Investment Manager and Partner of SVM Star Ventures Management from 1994 to 2004 in the Munich office. He managed international investments in IT (e.g. Ciena, RF Micro Devices), energy (e.g. Capstone) and medical companies (e.g. Medigene), many of which were successfully taken public.
GB Member: 2018 - 2020
Barbara Nowakowska is Managing Director of PSIK, the Polish Private Equity and Venture Capital Association. She has managed PSIK for 15 years, working on the development and promotion of private equity/venture capital industry in Poland to investors, entrepreneurs, innovators, and academics, as well as representing the interests of the Polish private equity community vis a vis policy makers, legislative bodies, government institutions, and the media at national and EU levels.
Barbara served as a member of the High Level Group appointed by the EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport for the strategic evaluation of the EIT. She served as an expert on private equity and venture capital to the Polish government and the European Commission and gained experience in private equity at Enterprise Investors. At the beginning of Poland’s transformation to a market economy, she worked at the Ministry of Privatisation.
Barbara holds an MA in economics from SGH – the Warsaw School of Economics.
GB Member: 2012 - 2020
Patrick Prendergast is the President of Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin. Trinity is Ireland’s highest-ranked and oldest university, founded in 1592, and is a member of the League of European Research Universities (LERU). Under his leadership Trinity has developed a Global Relations Strategy which has doubled international student enrolments and student mobility, has engaged with industry through a new Innovation & Entrepreneurship Strategy, and has restructured the university's administration into three divisions, including a significant focus on commercial revenue generation through the Commercial Revenue Unit (CRU). Projects under development include the new Trinity School of Business co-located with an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub ‘Tangent’, the development of E3: the Engineering, Energy, and the Environment Institute, and the planning of a new Technology Campus at Grand Canal Dock. In September 2016 a “Provost's Council” consisting of alumni and benefactors of the university was created to advice the Provost on how to advance Trinity's position in the world by financing new projects and initiatives. Prior to his appointment as President in 2011, he was Professor of Bioengineering.
GB Member: 2008 - 2012
Prof. Caraça obtained a D.Phil. in Nuclear Physics at the University of Oxford and the Agregação in Physics at the Lisbon Faculty of Sciences. From 1996 to 2006 he was Science Adviser to the President of the Portuguese Republic. He was a member of the Expert Group set up by the European Commission in 2005 to assess "The role of foundations and the non-profit sector in boosting R&D investment" and at present integrates the Steering Group of the European Forum on Philanthropy and Research Funding. He is also a Member of the National Science Technology and Innovation Council and a delegate to the OECD Committee for Science and Technology Policy (Vice-Chairman 2003-2005) and to the Global Science Forum. He has been a delegate to several EC Programmes and served as Chairman and as an expert on numerous EC evaluation panels.
Prof. Caraça is Director of the Science Department, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian since 1983 and Professor of Science and Technology Policy, Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa since 1989.
GB Member: 2008 - 2012
Prof. Castells, born in Spain, was Professor of Sociology and of Planning at the University of California, Berkeley from 1979 to 2003. He was a Professor of Sociology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris; and Professor and Director of the Institute of Sociology of New Technologies at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. He is a Fellow of the European Academy, of the British Academy, and of the Spanish Royal Academy of Economics. He is the author of 24 books including the trilogy “The Information Age: Economy, Culture, and Society”, published in 22 languages.
Prof. Castells is currently Research Professor of Information Society and Director of the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute, Open University of Catalonia (UOC), Barcelona; Chair Professor of Communication Technology and Society at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles; Distinguished Visiting Professor of Technology and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Internet Studies at Oxford University.
GB Member: 2008 - 2012
Dr Collomb is an engineering graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and of the Ecole des Mines in Paris, has a French law degree and obtained a PhD in Management at the University of Texas. He held several positions at the French Ministry of Industry and within ministerial departments (1966-1975) and also founded and managed the Centre for research in Management at the Ecole Polytechnique. Having joined Lafarge in 1975, he occupied several positions and managed the group's North American subsidiary (1985). He was appointed Group Chairman and CEO in August 1989 and was Chairman of the Board from 2003 to 2007. As head of Lafarge, he has campaigned to promote sustainable development and the respect of the environment. He was also notably Chairman of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and a Member of the European roundtable of industrialists (ERT).
Dr Collomb is currently honorary Chairman of Lafarge. He is also Chairman of the Institut des Hautes Etudes pour la Science et la Technologie (IHEST), Chairman of the Institut Français des Relations Internationales (IFRI), spokesperson of the European Corporate Governance Forum, and a Director of Lafarge, Total, DuPont and Atco.
GB Member: 2008 - 2012
Dr Colombo graduated in Electrical Engineering at the Politecnico di Torino. Following a long management experience in the Telecommunications sector, he was appointed Head of Research of Telecom Italia Labs (2001-2003), Chief Technology Officer of Telecom Italia Labs (2003-2005) and finally Head of long-term research at Telecom Italia (2005-2006). For the European Commission, he was Chairman of two European R&D projects ("Rainbow" and "Wineglass") between 1995-1999; Chairman of the Mobile Domain, clustering European R&D projects on mobile and wireless communication technologies and services (1997-1999) and a Member of ISTAG (IST Advisory Group), defining the European R&D policy in the ICT sector as a support to the Commission's 7th Framework-Programme (2006-2007).
Dr Colombo is currently a Member of the European Commission's Strategic Advisory Board on Competitiveness and Innovation, a Steering Committee Member of the CVIS integrated Project, Member of the Scientific Board of the Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya and adjunct Professor at the Politecnico di Torino.
Giovanni Colombo has recently been appointed vice President of Istituto Superiore Mario Boella, a Research Centre operating in the ICT sector.
GB Member: 2008 - 2012
Dr De Brabander obtained her PhD in bio-organic chemistry and completed a post-doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Having joined DSM Research (Netherlands) in 1991, she occupied several positions, including R&D Manager (1995) and Global VP R&D of DSM Fine Chemicals (2001), before being appointed CEO of DSM Pharma Chemicals in 2004 and Deputy Chief Technology Officer in 2005. In 2006 she joined Intervet as VP R&D and Board Member. In 2008 she joined Merial as Vice President R&D and member of its Leadership team. Merial is a 50/50 JV of Merck and Sanofi-Aventis and is one of the global leaders in animal health.
Over the years she has been a Member of the European Research Advisory Board (EURAB, 2001-2007) and served on various Boards: Member of the Supervisory Board of Syncom and Chiralix, 2002-2005; Member of the Supervisory Board on Science and Technology to the Dutch government (AWT), 2002-2005; Board Member of EIRMA (European Industrial R&D Management Association), 2005-2008.
Dr. De Brabander is currently based in USA, France and The Netherlands.
GB Member: 2012 - 2017
María Garaña Corces is the vice president of the Business Solution Division of Microsoft EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) with responsibility for sales, marketing and operations of Microsoft Dynamics business in the region. She has a MBA from Harvard Business School, an International Trade Diploma by Berkeley University and a Bachelor degree in Law and Business Administration from San Pablo University in Madrid (Spain).
María Garaña joined Microsoft in 2002 as Chief Operations Officer for Microsoft Mexico. After three years, she moved to Argentina, as Microsoft Regional VP for the South Cone (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay) In 2008 she was appointed CEO of Microsoft Spain leading Spain's end to end operations until July 2015.
Before joining Microsoft, María Garaña worked for several companies in Europe, United States and México, including Zoom Media Group, Television Azteca Group, Merrill Lynch International, Andersen Consulting and Citibank.
María Garaña is a board member of listed retail bank Liberbank in Spain, DIA Supermarket Group, and Euler Hermes (Alliance) in Paris. She is also part of the advisory council of Harvard Business School in Spain and ESADE Business School.
GB Member: 2008 - 2014
Dr Tataj is a former member of the EIT Governing Board and Executive Committee and is an alumna of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council. Dr. Tataj graduated from the Paris Sorbonne University in art and design and holds an MBA from Warsaw University of Technology and London Business School. She was a faculty member at Warsaw University of Technology, Central European University and University of Michigan. Currently she advises at the Keller Center, Princeton University. Daria has had an entrepreneurial business career in the emerging markets of Central and Eastern Europe in banking and venture capital. She was recognized as 'Creator of Innovation 2014’ in Poland.
Dr Tataj is the Founder and CEO of Tataj Innovation, a consultancy helping governments and cities foster entrepreneurship through design thinking.
GB Member: 2008 -2012
Prof. Flodström started his career in Palo Alto, USA, as a member of research staff in Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. Since 1985 he is professor in physics at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden. Prof. Flodström has been the Secretary General of the Swedish Research Council for Engineering Sciences and President at Linköping University (LiU), Sweden. He was President of the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm until July 2007 when he was appointed University Chancellor for Swedish universities.
Flodström is member of the Swedish Academy for the Engineering Sciences (IVA). He is also honorary doctor at Riga Technical University in Latvia, honorary doctor of Helsinki University of Technology (TKK) and honorary professor in Dalian University of Technology in China. He is a member of the advisory board of Karlsruhe Technical Institute (KIT) and a former Chairman of CLUSTER and Baltech - a network of technical universities around the Baltic Sea. He has also been guest researcher at HASYLAB/DESY in Hamburg, Germany as well as in National Bureau of Standards (NBS) in Gaithersburg, USA.
GB Member: 2008 - 2014
Prof. Herrmann obtained his PhD in Chemistry at the Universität Regensburg, where he became a Professor (Institute of Inorganic Chemistry) in 1979 following a career as a researcher. He was made Chair Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the Universität Frankfurt/Main (1982) and Chair Professor at the Technische Universität München (1985). He became President of the Technische Universität München in 1995 and was re-elected in 1999, 2005 and 2007. He was Chairman of the Bavarian University Rectors Conference (2002-2004) and Chairman of "Universität Bayern e.V" (2004-2005). He is a Member of the Editorial Board of numerous scientific journals and editor of the Journal of Organometallic Chemistry since 1994. He is also a Member of the Supervisory Board of the E.ON Energie AG and member of the Supervisory Board of Evonik Industries AG.
Prof. Herrmann is currently President of the Technische Universität München and a Member of the International Advisory Council, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia. He belongs to the top-100 group of the worldwide most-cited chemists and holds numerous Honorary PhD´s from Europe, USA, Russia and China.
GB Member: 2012 - 2018
Elpida Keravnou-Papailiou is Professor of Computer Science at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Cyprus. She served as the first Rector of the Cyprus University of Technology during the period 2012-2015. She started her academic career in the Department of Computer Science at University College London in 1985. In 1992 she took up an academic position in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Cyprus where she served as Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs from 2002 to 2006, as Dean of the School of Pure and Applied Sciences from 1999 to 2002 and as the first Chairperson of the Department of Computer Science from 1994 to 1998. She also served as President of the Governing Board of the Cyprus University of Technology (2009-2010).
She is Associate Editor of the scientific journal Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (Elsevier) since the launch of the journal in 1989. During the period from 2003 to 2005 she served as Chairperson of the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Europe (AIME) Board.
She has served as Chairperson of the Cyprus Council for the Recognition of Higher Education Qualifications, as a member of the Council for Educational Evaluation and Accreditation, as a member of the Governing Board of the Cyprus Foundation for National Scholarships and as Vice-Chair of the Evaluation Committee for Private Universities in Cyprus.
GB Member: 2008 - 2012
Prof. King obtained her PhD at the University of Cambridge. She started her academic career At Cambridge University with appointments including Rolls-Royce Research Fellow, (1978-1980) and University Lecturer (1992-1994). In 1994 she was appointed Head of Materials, Rolls-Royce Aerospace Group and went on to hold a number of senior positions at Rolls-Royce including Director of Engineering & Technology, Marine (2000-2002). She served on the EU Aeronautics Expert Advisory Group (2000-2002), and on the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, EPSRC (2000-2003). She was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1997, serving as a Council member and Honorary Secretary for Education and Training from 2002-2006. She was Chief Executive of the Institute of Physics (2002-2004) before becoming Principal of the Engineering Faculty of Imperial College London (2004-2006).
Prof. King is currently Vice-Chancellor of Aston University, Birmingham, UK. She is a member of the UK Government’s Technology Strategy Board and as a non-Executive Director of .the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills. In 2007 she was appointed by the UK Government to lead an independent review into ‘decarbonising’ road transport.
GB Member: 2012 - 2018
Dr. Jana Kolar is the executive director of CERIC-ERIC, a distributed research infrastructure for characterization of materials.
In 1990 she was employed by the Conservation department of the National and University Library where she was the head of the Conservation and Preservation department and latter the head of the Laboratory for Cultural Heritage. In 2004 she had founded a company Morana rdt.
Dr. Kolar has been Director General of the Science and Technology Directorate within the Slovenian Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology and chair of the governing board of the Slovenian technology agency. She is currently a member of the high-level expert body advising the Austrian Minister responsible for Science and a member of the Horizon 2020 advisory group Innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises.
GB Member: 2008 - 2012
Mr. Loktu obtained a Master of Science in Physics and Economics at the University of Trondheim, Norway. Having worked as an advisor to Saga Petroleum (1984-1985), he joined Statoil ASA as a Senior Engineer (1985-1989) and, after a brief spell at Servi Hydrualikk A/S as Controller and Vice-President of manufacturing (1990-1991), returned to Statoil (1991-2002) where he held numerous positions : Senior Engineer (1991-1992), Manager of Research and Development (1992-1996 and 1998-1999), Vice President of Research and Development (1999) and finally Executive Vice President of Technology (1999-2002). After having been made CEO of the SINTEF group in 2002, he once again integrated Statoil ASA as Executive Vice-President of Technology and projects (2004-2005) and then Senior Vice President, Research and Commercialisation (2005-2007).
Mr. Loktu is currently Senior Vice President of Research and Development at StatoilHydro ASA, Chairman of the OG21 Board (responsible for the national oil and gas technology strategy) and a Member of the Board, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
GB Member: 2008 - 2014
Professsor Maex obtained her PhD in Electrical Engineering at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. Having started her academic career as a Research Assistant (1982-1987) she became Research Director (1987), Assistant Professor at K.U. Leuven (1989), then Professor (1998) and finally Full Professor (2003). Between 2002-2005 she was a Member of K.U. Leuven's Research Council and Founder-Coordinator of the Erasmus Mundus Programme on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. In 2005, she was appointed Vice-Rector for Science, Engineering and Technology at K.U. Leuven. Meanwhile at IMEC (Interuniversity Microelectronics Center), of which she is a fellow since 2001, she was Strategic Research Adviser for the Division on Semiconductor Process and Device Technology (2001-2005) and Programme Director of the IMEC Industrial Affiliate Programme (IIAP) on Nanotechnology (2004-2005).
Prof. Maex is currently Vice-Rector for Science, Engineering and Technology and a full Professor at K.U. Leuven, where she is also responsible for human resources and diversity policy.
GB Member: 2008 - 2012
Dr Magyar obtained his degree in History and Sociology at the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest and became a University Doctor there in 1980. Having started his career as a researcher (1977-1990), he became a member of the Hungarian Parliament in 1990 and served on several parliamentary committees. Appointed Minister of Education and Culture (1996-1998, re-appointed Minister of Education, 2002-2006), he initiated the higher education reform process, modernising the management and business structure of higher education institutions. He developed and passed the Act on Innovation (2003), set up an Innovation Fund (2004) and founded the National Office for Research and Technology (2004). He was Vice President of the National Development Council under the direction of the Prime Minister (2006-0032008) and Secretary of State for Development Policy (2007-2008), where he contributed to the reform for the development of R&D activities in higher education and gave support to innovative research teams and technology transfer.
Dr Magyar is currently Vice President of the Ad-hoc Committee for the Supervision of the Execution of European Union Programmes, Hungarian Parliament.
GB Member: 2008 - 2012
Dr Möller obtained her MD and her PhD at the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. A researcher for many years, she was successively appointed Lecturer in immunology (1975-1982), Professor in transplantation immunology (1983-1987) and Professor in clinical immunology (1987-2007) at the Karolinska Institutet. She was Physician in charge of the university hospital’s laboratory for clinical immunology. From the 1990s she gained experience in the pharmaceutical sector as the Director of Astra, Sweden (1995-1999) and Director of AstraZeneca PLC, Great Britain (1999-2007). She is a former Chairman of several Boards and Committees. She was elected member of the Nobel assembly in 1987, was a Member of the Nobel Committee of the Assembly (medicine) (2003-2005) before being made Vice-Chairman (2006) and then Chairman (2007) of the Nobel Assembly.
Since 2001, Dr Möller is the Executive Director of the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Sweden.
GB Member: 2008 - 2012
Prof. Dr Neuvo obtained his PhD degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Between 1976-1992 he was Professor of electrical engineering at the Tampere University of Technology and between 1984-1993 a National Research Professor of the Academy of Finland. In 1993 he joined the Nokia Group as Senior Vice President of Technology, before being made Senior Vice President, Product Creation (1994) and then Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (1999). He was Member of the Nokia Group Executive Board between 1993-2005. He has been the Chairman or Member of numerous Boards and working groups internationally and was notably the Chairman of the ARTEMIS Joint Technology Initiative (JTI) Governing Board and President of Artemisia until 2008.
Dr Neuvo is currently Professor and Research Director at the Helsinki University of Technology and Member of the Board of two listed companies, Metso and Vaisala.
GB Member: 2016 - 2018
Professor Björn O. Nilsson is Swedish and is the President of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA). He has a doctorate degree in biochemistry from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. Professor Nilsson has served in a number of management and executive roles in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, mainly within the Pharmacia group of companies. These leading roles include CEO, President and Vice President.
Professor Nilsson was also, for four years, Chairman of the Swedish Biotechnology Industry Organisation (SwedenBIO). Today, he serves on the boards of a number of companies, including Chairman of the Board of the public biotechnology company Biolnvent International AB. Professor Nilsson is also a board or committee member of a number of governmental and non-governmental organisations in areas such as science, education and innovation.
GB Member: 2012 - 2018
GB Chair: 2014 - 2018
Professor Peter Olesen joined the EIT Governing Board in August 2012 and acted as Chairman between 2014 and 2018. He spent 25 years as Research Director, Vice President of R&D and Executive VP/CSO in four major international companies: Danisco A/S (Denmark) from 1983 to 1993; Sandoz Seeds Ltd. (France) from 1994 to 1995; CPKelco/Hercules Inc. (DK & US) from 1996 to 2000; Chr.Hansen A/S (DK) from 2000 to 2008.
He has held three appointments as affiliated professor at the University of Copenhagen: Plant Sciences form 1986 to 1991 and from 1993 to 1998; Functional Foods from 2008 to 2013. From 2009 to 2011 he was professor at the Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Copenhagen. He has been Chairman of the Executive Board of the Danish Council for Strategic Research from 2008 to 2014 and member of the Executive Board of the Danish Innovation Fund 2014-15. In 2008 he founded his own consulting company, ActiFoods ApS.
GB Member: 2012 - 2018
Bruno Revellin-Falcoz is the former Vice Chairman of Dassault Aviation Corp. Graduated Engineer of Sup’Aéro, he joined Dassault Aviation in 1963 until 2008. He was appointed Senior Vice President Engineering in 1982 and carried the technical responsibility of all Dassault’s civilian and military aeronautical and space programmes. Throughout his career, Bruno Revellin Falcoz set up and built on partnerships with various public R&D laboratories in order to develop co-operation leading to industrial applications.
GB CHAIRMAN: 2008 - 2011
Dr Schuurmans (PhD TU/e, 1971) was professor of Solid State Physics at TU/Delft between 1985-1991. In 1968, he joined Philips to later become the head of experimental and theoretical physics in the Philips Research Laboratories, Eindhoven, Netherlands. From 1991-1994 he headed the solid state research at Philips Laboratories in Briarcliff, NY, USA. In 1995 he was appointed Chairman of the Philips Research Laboratory, Eindhoven and Vice-Chairman of Philips Research world-wide. He was involved in the early preparations for the High Tech Campus of Eindhoven promoting open innovation. From 2000-2002 he was CEO of the global Philips Industrial Technology Centre, with offices worldwide and from 2002 he was responsible for Innovation and Industry at Philips Medical Systems PMS (Boston, USA) until retiring from Philips in 2005. In 2002-2005 he was also a part-time professor of Innovation Management at TU/e. In 2005 he co-founded the Sino-Dutch Biomedical School of Information Engineering (BMIE) in Shenyang, China ; in 2006/7 he lived in China and was BMIE’s dean. Dr Schuurmans is the honorary dean of BMIE and board member of the Foundation for the History of Technology in the Netherlands.
GB Member: 2008 - 2014
Dr Tropschuh obtained his PhD in Engineering at the Munich Technical University, where he was also assistant lecturer (1983-1988). During this time, he simultaneously carried out freelance work in engineering and design offices across Germany. In 1988 he joined Audi, where his appointments have included Senior Supervisor of Interior Engineering and Body Testing, Head of Vehicle Concepts, Head of Development Management, and Head of the Research Projects division. He has also been General Secretary of AUDI AG. Since 2006, Dr. Tropschuh has been the Head of AutoUni at Volkswagen Group.
Dr Tropschuh is a lecturer at the Munich Technical University and among other memberships and honorary appointments, he is Honorary Senator of Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), Member of the advisory board of St. Gallen University (Switzerland), Member of the Senat of GISMA Business School (Hannover), Member of the advisory board of TÜV Süd (Munich), Member of the advisory board of Foundation Lower Saxony (Stiftung Niedersachsen, Hannover), Member of the Curatorium of Foundation New Responsibility (Kuratorium Neue Verantwortung, Berlin), Member of the board of directors of FAT (Forschungsvereinigung Automobiltechnik im VDA, Frankfurt), Member of the advisory board of DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Köln) and Member of the advisory board of Automotive Cluster Bavaria (Automobil Cluster Bayern, Munich).
GB Member: 2008 - 2014
Mr Viik obtained an M.Sc. (Information Technology and Informatics) at the Tallinn Technical University and an M.Sc./Postgraduate diploma (International Economy) at the Helsinki University of Technology. Having worked as a management consultant at KPMG (Estonia and London) between 1993-1995 he became Chairman of the Board of the IT company Meediamaa Ltd. (1995-1998) and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Netexpress Ltd. (1998-1999) before becoming Member of the Board of Directors and Head of the Multimedia Department of Levicom Ltd. He was also an advisor to the Prime Minister of Estonia (1999-2001). In 2001 he co-founded Mobi Solutions Ltd. and was Member of the Board there until 2007. In 2004 he founded Keelevara Ltd., of which he is still Chairman of the Supervisory Board.
Mr Viik was Director of Skype Access at Skype Technologies Ltd. (2007-2009) and since 2000 has been lecturing at the Estonian IT College, where he was made Member of the Board in 2003.
GB Member: 2008 - 2014
GB Chairman: 2011 - 2014
Professor Alexander von Gabain obtained his Ph.D. in Genetics at the University of Heidelberg and held a post-doctorate position at the Stanford University. In the 1980s and 1990s, he was Professor at the University of Umeå and at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, as well as an advisor to pharmaceutical and biotech companies. From 1992 to 1998, he was Chair of Microbiology of the University of Vienna at the Campus Vienna Biocenter, Austria and has helped to build the public private partnership of the Vienna Biocenter/IMP. In 1998, he founded Intercell AG and led the company as CEO until it was successfully floated on the Vienna Stock Exchange in 2005. From 2005 to 2009, he was Member of the Executive Management Board and CSO of the Company.
Today he is serving the Company as member of the Supervisory Board and Chair of the SAB. His research interest is in the field of biomedical research and documented by a large number of publications, book chapters, edition of books and patents. He is professor of Microbiology at the Max Perutz Laboratories of the University of Vienna, and foreign adjunct professor at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, member of several professional organizations and serves on the boards of biotech and venture capital enterprises. In 2008, he was appointed to the Governing Board of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), of which he is the chairman since 2011. His achievements have been acknowledged by prestigious industrial awards, academic prizes, honourable memberships, including the Swedish Royal Academy of Engineering Science.
Nigel THRIFT
GB Member: 2012 - 2016
Professor Nigel Thrift has been Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Warwick since 2006 and is a leading academic in the field of human geography.
Since joining Warwick, Professor Thrift has led the University on a programme of substantial, innovative and selective internationalisation, culminating in a unique strategic alliance with Monash University (Australia), and Warwick’s recent selection as the only European university member of the new Centre for Urban Science and Progress in New York (CUSP). Prior to joining Warwick in 2006, he was the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Oxford from 2005 to 2006 and Head of the Division of Life and Environmental Sciences at Oxford from 2003 to 2005.
Professor Thrift’s academic awards include the Royal Geographical Society Victoria Medal, Distinguished Scholarship Honors from the Association of American Geographers, and the Royal Scottish Geographical Society Gold Medal. He was made a Fellow of the British Academy in 2003 and appointed a deputy lieutenant for the West Midlands in 2014. He received an Honorary LLD from the University of Bristol in 2010 and an Honorary LLD from Monash University in 2013. He is a Commissioner of the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission.
Resigned on 15 January 2016.
GB Member: 2012 - 2016
Gabor Bojar founded the architectural software company Graphisoft in 1982 in Hungary, well before the fall of the Iron Courtain. Today Graphisoft is the worldwide market leader in the field of 3D building modeling. Graphisoft Park SE a real-estate enterprise, spin-off of the software firm, re-cultivated an industrial site on the bank of the river Danube and turned it into a state-of-the art science park, which now hosts Microsoft, SAP, Servier and many other high-tech companies.
In 2007, Gabor established a school of information technology and entrepreneurship for an international student body. AIT is an example of social entrepreneurship demonstrating the viability of a self-sustaining investment in higher education.
GB Member: 2012 - 2016
Dr Ulf Johansson has been a Member of the Board of Ericsson since 2005. In 1990, he founded Europolitan Holdings AB, a Swedish GSM mobile telephone operator, which was publicly listed from 1994 to 2003. He was Chairman of the Board of Europolitan Vodafone AB until 2005.
He was a member of the Board of Directors of Novo Nordisk A/S from 1998 to 2005. From 2005 to 2013, he was Chairman of the Novo Nordisk Foundation and Novo A/S, the private Danish investment company, parent of the NovoNordisk Group and majority owner of NovoNordisk A/S and Novozymes A/S. He served as Chairman of the Board of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm from 1998 to 2003 and is, since 1990, a member of Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.
GB Member: 2012 - 2016
Gianfelice Rocca is Chairman of the Techint Group, a multinational corporation whose activities span across the steel industry, energy and power sectors, industrial and process plants, infrastructure and services. Mr. Rocca is member of the Board of Directors of Tenaris and Ternium, the main public companies of the Techint Group. He is President and Founder of the "Istituto Clinico Humanitas", one of the most important hospitals in Europe. In June 2013 he was elected President of Assolombarda, the largest territorial association of entrepreneurs in Italy.
At international level, he is a member of the Allianz SE Advisory Board, of the Aspen Institute Executive Committee, of the Harvard Business School Advisory Board and of the Trilateral Commission. In Italy, he sits on the Board of Directors of Allianz SpA, Brembo SpA, Buzzi Unicem SpA. From May 2004 to May 2012 he was Vice President for Education of Confindustria.
In June 2007 he was appointed Cavaliere del Lavoro of the Italian Republic and in March 2009 he was presented with a honoris causa degree in management engineering by Milan Politecnico. In 2010 he received from the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, the 2009 Leonardo Award for his contribution to enhancing Italy’s international standing in steel-making, energy and infrastructure.
Gianfelice Rocca graduated cum laude in Physics at University of Milan and got a PMD at Harvard Business School.
GB Member: 2012 - 2016
Born October 1947. A Dutch national, appointed as Non-executive Director of Shell Company with effect from July 2009. Previously he was Chief Executive since October 2004.
He was appointed President of Royal Dutch Petroleum Company in 2000, having been a Managing Director since 1997. He was a Director of Shell Canada Limited from 2003 until 2005. He was named Chief Executive in 2004 and led Shell through major change, simplifying governance and organization, while clarifying accountabilities. In 2009 and 2010 Jeroen was Vice-Chairman of a group of experts who advised for a new Strategic Concept for NATO. He was World President of the Society of Chemical Industry from 2002 to 2004.
From 2000 to 2004 he served as a supervisory board member of The Dutch Central Bank. He is Advisor to Oman since 2009. He chaired ‘Platform Beta Techniek’, a governmental institute promoting education in science and technology from 2009 to 2011. He was Vice-Chairman and Senior Independent Director of Unilever (which includes Unilever N.V. and Unilever plc) to May 2011. Nowadays Jeroen is Chairman of the Supervisory Boards of Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. and of ING Group. He also has various roles in several foundations and charities.
Former Representative GB Members
Jorma LAMMASNIEMI
Representative GB Member: 2010 - 2014
Professor Lammasniemi obtained his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Oulu, Finland in 1983. He has been working since 1972 in various research and research management positions at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, a globally networked multitechnological contract research organization and one of the three founding members of the Helsinki node of the EIT ICT labs. Between 1986 and 1991 Prof. Lammasniemi was professor and director of Electronics research laboratory and from 1992 to 1993 director of the newly founded Optoelectronics research laboratory. Between 1994 and 2005 he was the director of the Electronics research Institute of VTT covering four research fields: Advanced interactive systems, Embedded software, Optoelectronics and Telecommunication systems. From 2006 to 2010 he was Executive Vice President Strategic Research of VTT, with full responsibility for VTT’s research strategy and research programmes, including VTT’s participation in EU research programmes and Finnish national research programmes.
Jorma Lammasniemi is a member of the Technology Academy of Finland.
Representative GB Member: 2010 - 2014
Christine Patte obtained her Masters in Organisational sociology and systems strategy analysis from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Paris, after completing a degree in Mathematics at Paris VII. Ms Patte started her career as a research assistant at the statistical secondary analysis department of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), following which she has held various posts at EDF, interspersed with three years as a Business Sector desk officer at the European Commission (DG Environment / Unit Communication and Civil Society). From 1983 to 1995 Ms Patte was a Research Engineer on Social Sciences for EDF R&D. Between 1996 and 1999 she was a Researcher and Assistant Consultant on Management & Occupational Safety issues for EDF, from 2003 – 2005 she first became involved in EDF R&D’s European Projects as advisor and project manager. Ms Patte has been overall responsible for EDF R&D’s European Projects’ Coordination since 2008. Ms Patte has been very involved in European networks, creating two “European Business Awards in sustainable development” events, acting as the Chairperson of the European Business Network, DG Environment between 2000 and 2002, being a member of Women in Sciences and Technology 1 and 2, and contributing to the EC expert group on ’structuring initiatives to further develop inter-sector mobility’ in 2006. She has been a member of the Eurelectric Research Working Group since 2008 and has been part of the Association of Research Managers and Administrators (EARMA) since 2007. Ms Patte is closely involved with both KIC InnoEnergy and Climate KIC.
Ms Patte is Coordinating the European Projects of the European Development Fund's R&D since 2008.
Representative GB Member: 2013 - 2014
Katherine Richardson is a professor in biological oceanography at the University of Copenhagen and leader of the Sustainability Science Centre (www.sustainability.ku.dk). She was Chairman of the Danish Commission on Climate Change Policy which reported in 2010 and presented a roadmap for how Denmark can become independent of fossil fuels by 2050. She is a lead author on the book Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and co-authored with Stefan Rahmstorf of Our Threatened Oceans (2009). She is a principle investigator in the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate (www.macroecology.ku.dk) where her research focuses on the importance of biological processes in the ocean for the uptake of CO2 from the atmosphere and how ocean biology, including diversity, contributes to ocean function in the Earth System. She is active both as a member in and/or chairperson for a number of national and international research committee / advisory boards. She was Vice President of European Science Foundation from 2001-2008 and Chairman of the Earth System Science Evaluation Panel for European Research Council Starting Grants from 2008-2010. She has published over 100 scientific papers and book chapters.
Representative GB Member: 2010 - 2014
Dr Alfons Sauquet obtained his doctorate from Columbia University and has completed an MBA at ESADE Business School. His academic interests focus on: Learning, Knowledge and Innovation Management. He has researched and published regularly on these topics and has become a principal researcher and founder of the research group GRACO. He has been guest speaker at different forums such as the AACSB Dean’s conference, the Association for Human Resource Management in International Organizations and UNESCO. He has lectured, among others, at HEC, Paris; Copenhagen Business School; Wharton School of Business, USA. Before being appointed the Dean of the ESADE Business School, he served as Director of University Programmes and Vice-Dean of Research and Knowledge.
Dr Sauquet is currently the Dean of ESADE Business School, Member of the Board of the European Academy for Business in Society (EABIS), the Innovation Board of Science Business, the Board of Directors of the GMAC, the EQUIS Committee of the European Foundation for Management Development and the Board of ESADECreapolis (creativity park). He is Chairman of the interfaculty group in organizational behaviour of the Community of European Management Schools.
Representative GB Member: 2010 - 2012
Professor Lord Nicholas Stern's first degree was in Mathematics from Cambridge University, and his doctorate in Economics is from Oxford. Subsequently Lord Stern has taught and researched in many places, including Oxford and Warwick Universities, London School of Economics, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Ecole Polytechnique and the Collège de France in Paris, the Indian Statistical Institute in Bangalore and Delhi, and the People’s University of China in Beijing. From 1994-1999 he was Chief Economist and Special Counsellor to the President at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, then Chief Economist and Senior Vice President at the World Bank, 2000-03. From 2003-05 he was Second Permanent Secretary to HM Treasury and also Head of the Government Economic Service, and Director of Policy and Research for the Commission for Africa, 2004-05. From 2005-07, he was adviser to the UK Government on the Economics of Climate Change and Development and Head of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, which was published in 2006. Lord Stern has been knighted for his services to economics and was appointed to the House of Lords as a cross-bench peer in 2007.
Currently, Prof. Lord Nicholas Stern is IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government at the London School of Economics, Chairman of the Grantham Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, and he heads LSE's India Observatory within the Asia Research Centre.
Representative GB Member: 2014 - 2016
Dr Jean-François Abramatic’s career has been shared between research and industry in the area of Information & Communications Technology. He started his career as a research scientist in differential games (Ecole des Mines de Paris 1972-1974) and image processing (IRIA 1974-1983). He received his PhD from University Paris VI in 1980. After managing a research and development programme (1984-1988) aimed at designing scientific workstations, he became chairman and CEO of a start up company selling graphics terminals (1988-1991) which merged with a US partner (1992). In 1993, he returned to Inria as Director of Development and Industrial Relations (1993-1996). Among various development partnerships, he launched the European host of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in 1995. In 1996, he moved to MIT as Chairman of W3C (1996-2001). He then joined ILOG as Vice President of Research and Development and became Chief Product Officer in 2004. After the acquisition of ILOG by IBM in 2008, he became Director of ILOG Research and Development within IBM Software Group. In 2011, he moved to IBM headquarters as Director Development Productivity & Innovation in the Enterprise Transformation division. He retired from IBM in 2014 and returned to Inria in the Transfer & Innovation division as Research Director.
Representative GB Member: 2014 - 2016
Lykke Friis, PhD, is Prorector for Education at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She is former Minister of Climate & Energy and Minister for Gender Equality. She has published extensively on matters of the EU, European politics and foreign policy and she is frequently used as an expert analyst by Danish TV.
Lykke Friis has held close to 20 honorary offices, including Member of the EU Reflection group appointed by the European Council. She presently serves on the International Crisis Group and the European Council of Foreign Relations as well as on the boards of three major Danish companies: The Velux Group, Vestas Wind Systems A/S, and The Rockwool Foundation. Moreover, she is member of the Trilateral Commission and is chairman of the Danish Foreign Policy Society.
Representative GB Member: 2014 - 2016
Since 2011 Hans Hubschneider works as a consultant in the traffic, transportation and energy business. Hans Hubschneider was born in 1951, has a degree in computer science from the University of Karlsruhe (Germany), and holds a PhD in transportation sciences. In 1979, he founded PTV AG, Karlsruhe, which he led from 1981 to 2011 as CEO. PTV AG is the international market leader in software products for the design and optimization of mobility systems, employing roughly 600 staff worldwide. In 2011 Hans started a new engagement in the domain of renewable energies. He represents the start-up company AVA-CO2 (Switzerland) in external affairs, supports EIT InnoEnergy, and is a member of the German think tank “BDI Internet der Energie”.