Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management

Having started his career as a consultant, Bruno Wattenbergh has been for 20 years an expert in entrepreneurship and SMEs. He has been engaged in developing structures dedicated to the creation of enterprises and, in particular, the Brussels Enterprise Agency, which he founded in 2003 and manages this day. Otherwise, he is also the President of the Brussels Guarantee Fund whose mission is to warrant bank loans to SMEs. He’s best known for sharing his vast knowledge and experiences by giving lectures and classes on the subject of strategy and entrepreneurship at various universities.

Chiara Franzoni (Ph.D.) is Associate Professor in the School of Management of the MIP Graduate School of Business- Politecnico di Milano. Prior to joining Politecnico di Milano in 2010, she has worked at the Intellectual Property Finance institute (Turin, Italy), and conducted research at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies (Atlanta, USA) and at the National Research Council of Italy. She also serves in the advisory board and executive committee of several companies in the energy and textile industry, as a family-business member.

Franco Peracchi is the Director of Masters Programs in Economics and a Professor of the Practice at Georgetown University. He is also a Fellow of the Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF) in Rome, Italy. After receiving a MSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics from the LSE, and a PhD in Economics from Princeton University, he taught at UCLA, NYU, Universidad Carlos III and the University of Rome Tor Vergata. His research interests include econometrics, labor and health economics, and the economics of social security and pensions.

Jeroen Kerkhof is the founder and director of VAR Strategies, a financial consultancy and analytics firm. In addition he is the Academic director of the Advanced Master in Quantitative Finance at Solvay Brussels School. Jeroen has over 16 years of experience in interest rate, inflation, property, hybrid derivatives and counterparty risk valuations. His former roles include Global Head of Analytics at Jefferies, Head of Non-Linear Interest Rates at Danske Bank, Senior Interest Rate quant at Lehman Brothers and European Head of Quantitative Fixed Income Research at Morgan Stanley.

As C-Level international Marketing and Strategy professional, Laurent Bouty brings more than 20 years of international experience in Marketing, Sales, Strategy and Leadership. He has a broad Marketing experience (from Marketing Strategy to Communication) including latest trends like analytics, social networks and mobile gained in Telecommunication, Advertising and Financial sector. Laurent has a strong marketing execution orientation in highly complex industries through team development and best practices implementation.

Martine holds a MBA and a PhD in physical sciences. She has over 25 years of professional experience, including 15 spent developing business analytics teams within large organizations from different industries. She is Professor of Management Practice at Solvay Brussels School. Passionate about developing talent and organizations in business analytics, she is also ICF professional certified coach, facilitator & trainer.

Micael Castanheira is a senior research fellow with the Belgian National Science Foundation. He works at ECARES and is a professor at Solvay, where he also teaches microeconomics and political economics. His main research topics include the political economics of collective decisions, and of reforms. Micael is a contributor to leading scientific journals, such as Econometrica, The Journal of the European Economic Association, The Economic Journal, Games and Economic Behavior, International Economic Review, International Tax and Public Finance and the Journal of Public Economics.

Olivier Witmeur is Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (Université Libre de Bruxelles – ULB). He mainly teaches Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Finance and Business Planning to graduate and post-graduate students, entrepreneurs, investors and consultants. He is also Deputy Dean for the Executive Education activities of the School. Beside his activities for the school, Olivier is an active Board member and strategic advisor in multiple growth-oriented entrepreneurial ventures.

Pierre Francotte is a member of the College of Resolution of banks, within the National Central Bank of Belgium. He has been also an independent Board member of Belfius Bank (formerly named Dexia Bank Belgium) and is a Senior Advisor at Kreab Gavin Anderson. He was CEO of Euroclear group from 2000 until 2010, after having held several senior positions in the company since 1993. Prior to this, he was an Assistant General Counsel at the International Monetary Fund, where he worked for over 10 years. He was Chairman of the ECMI-CEPS Task Force on MiFID Review in 2011-12.