Europe INNOVA Cluster Mapping
EU-INNOVA-C-MAP

High-Level Advisory Group on clusters

 

Senator Pierre LAFFITTE, the founder of Sophia Antipolis and the President of the Sophia Antipolis Foundation undertook his studies at the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris. He then started his career in geology as Director of the Bureau de recherches géologiques, géophysiques et minières and President of the Fondation des industries minières, , minerals et métallurgiques. Then focussing his activities around higher education, he became the Director of the Ecole des Mines de Paris, also taking on the role of as President of the Conférence des Grandes Ecoles. Later in 1969 Pierre Laffitte collaborated with a group of scientists, economists and elected members of the Alpes-Maritimes, the Association Sophia Antipolis, with the aim to promote an international city of wisdom based around science and technology, also named Sophia Antipolis. In 1985 Pierre Laffitte began his political career, elected as Senator, and currently Senator of the Alpes-Maritimes, and Vice-President of the Commission of Cultural Affairs. Among his other functions, Senator Laffitte is President of the Franco-German Association for Science and Technology, member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, member of the Board of France 5—a French broadcaster, and is also Doctor Honoris Causa of the Open University, UK, and of the Colorado School of Mines; Officier de la Légion d'Honneur et de l'Ordre du Mérite.

 

Mr. Esko AHO, born in 1954, has had a long and distinguished career serving Finnish society. He held the post of Prime Minister of Finland from 1991 to 1995. After the 2000 presidential campaign, Aho joined Harvard University for one year as a lecturer, and following his retirement from the Finnish Parliament, he worked as a private consultant. Mr. Aho was appointed President of the Finnish National Fund for Research and Development (Sitra) as of 1 July 2004. Most recently, Mr. Aho chaired a group of experts on European innovation policy, which submitted its report to the European Commission in January 2006.

 

Mr Antoni SUBIRA, born in Mataró (Spain) in 1940. Dr. Ind. Eng. Polytechnic University of Catalonia. Master of Sciences in Industrial Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor at IESE (University of Navarra). MP (Parliament of Catalonia from 1980 to 2002. Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism in the Catalan Government from 1989 to 2002. Chairman of the Advisory Board of TCI. Member of Boards of Directors of several firms. Member of the group that produced the report “Creating an Innovative Europe” under the Chairmanship of Mr. Esko Aho.

 

Mr. Lubos LUKASIK is Director of the Company Competitiveness Division at CzechInvest, the national Business Development and Investment Agency for the Czech Republic. With a staff of 100, this division is responsible for design and delivery of SME support programmes throughout the country. These programmes aim to support competitiveness and innovation among SME’s through mechanisms that develop both infrastructure such as technology parks and incubators as well as providing tailored support to individual companies. Lubos has also been responsible for the development and implementation of the Czech governments Cluster strategy. Since 2004 he has worked at promoting clusters and managing the Klastry programme funded through the Ministry of Industry and Trade. To date over 1000 individuals from the public and private sector have received training and support through the programme, and over 30 clusters are at different stages of development in the Czech Republic. In terms of activity they range from the traditional strengths of the Czech Republic such as engineering to new areas such as Nanotechnology and Biotechnology.
Lubos has an MBA from DePaul University Chicago and an MSc from the Civil Engineering Faculty of Brno Technical University.

 

Mr. Gerard MONKS is responsible for developing competitiveness policy, advising the Minister on evolving competitiveness topics and influencing the national competitiveness agenda.

He manages the Secretariat to the Enterprise Advisory Group. This comprises Secretaries General of the Department of the Prime Minister and six major economic Departments as well as a number of business representatives. The Group was set up to advise the Minister on enterprise and business policies.

He recently served in the Department of Foreign Affairs with the Secretariat of the North/South Ministerial Council – a Ministerial body to give effect to aspects of the peace process in Northern Ireland. There he was responsible for cross border business activities and EU funding programmes.

 

Mr. Aaron STERN
Program Director, Israel-France Industrial R&D (2004-), Coordinator of IRC-Israel (1998-), Consultant to MATIMOP, Israeli Industry Center for R&D on European R&D programs(1996-1998), Retired from Israel Aircraft Industries Last position : Deputy Vice President (February 1996), Managing Director, BATS, S.A. Angleur Belgium. Bats is a High-Tech Company specialized in Advanced Signal and Image Processing Techniques (1992 - 1995), Deputy Vice President Corporate Marketing, Israel Aircraft Ind. (1985 -1992), Various Marketing Positions up to Director of Marketing of Elta Electronics Industries (1973-1985), Various Engineering positions up to Head of Department (1958 - 1973). Education : B. Sc. E.E, Graduated Cum Laude from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology (1958), M. Sc. Electrical Engineering, from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn New York, N.Y.(1964). Languages : Hebrew ; English; French; Spanish; Rumanian; Hungarian

 

Mr. Sandro SANDRI was born in Verona (Italy) on February 18, 1954; married with two daughters; graduated as electrical engineer at the University of Bologna (Italy) in 1979; worked as substantive examiner since January 7, 1980 until October 31, 1987 at the European Patent Office; established in November 1987 the IP Firm Europatent-Euromark Srl, based in Verona, Italy. The firm files and prosecutes patent applications worldwide.
2002-2005 Chairman of Veneto Innovazione Spa, the innovation agency of the Region Veneto
2005-2006 Regional Councilman of the Region Veneto

 

Mr. Olof SANDBERG is a senior advisor with the ministry of Enterprise and Energy in the unit responsible for IT and R&D. His main responsibility is research and innovation policy both nationally and on a European level. He holds a masters degree in aeronautical engineering from Royal Institute of Technology as well as a degree in Ocean engineering from UC Berkeley and a masters of public administration from University of Uppsala. Mr Sandberg is a member of CREST (Scientific and Technical Research Committee) since 2001 and has been involved in the EU Framework Programme for R&D since 1992. At present he is responsible in the ministry for the restructuring of the Swedish Industrial Research Institute Sector. In his spare time he is a passionate jogger (New York maraton 2003) enjoys horseback riding and cooking.

 

Mr. Jacques EVRARD - General Manager of the International Relations Department at the Brussels Enterprise Agency, he has been manager and co-ordinator of the Brussels Innovation Relay Centre project (Brussels IRC). Since 1995, he is also SME and Innovation (5th and 6th EU R&D Framework Programme) National Contact Point for Belgium. Among his duties he is responsible for the attraction of Foreign Direct Investments for the Brussels Capital Region.
He is a member of the management committee of the Brussels Enterprise Agency.
He is also EU expert, as a member of the Management Committee for the EU Innovation & SME programme (EU 5th RTD Framework programme) and the Research and Innovation Programme (6th RTD Framework programme). He graduated from the Solvay Business School of the ULB (Université Libre de Bruxelles) and has also 15 years of past experience in enterprise environment as SME general Manager and development manager for a large Belgian multinational. Accessorily he his teaching SME strategy at a Brussels based business school.
Since end of 2005 he is the President of EURADA. (European Association of regional development agencies).

Mr. Jean Paul MINGASSON
Education:
• Faculté de Droit de Paris-Assas
• Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris
• Ecole Nationale d'Administration - Paris
Career:
1969-1982 : Administrator - Treasury department
1973-1976 : Financial attaché - French Embassy, Bonn (Germany)
1980-1981 : Financial Counsellor - Permanent Representation of France to the European Communities
Since 1982 Seconded to the European Commission
1982-1987 : Director for Monetary Matters (Economic and Financial Affairs DG)
1987-1989 : Deputy Director-General: Economic and Monetary Matters (Economic and Financial Affairs DG)
1989-2002 : Director-General, Budget (Budget DG)
2002-2004 : Director-General Enterprise (Enterprise DG)
2004-2006 : Conseiller Général auprès de la confédération des entreprises européennes (UNICE)
- Conseil auprès du cabinet FIDAL

 

Mr. Lieven DANNEELS was born in Ypres Belgium, on the 15th of January 1964.
Ingénieur Civile Université de Louvain (KUL)
Post-Graduat en finance Vlekho
Post-Graduat en gestion d’entreprise KUL
Administrateur Délégué Televic S.A. Izegem (Belgique) www.televic.com
President of WTV (télévision régionale Flandre Occidentale)
Membre du comité d’administration de la Chambre de Commerce Flandre Occidentale (VOKA)
Membre du comité ICT Agoria (fédération de l’ industrie technologique Belge)

 

Cluster mapping High Level Advisory Group Pro Inno Europe Representatives (in charge of coordinating 50 regions)

 

 

Ms Gerlinde POCHHACKER, born in Linz/Austria in 1967, studied in Linz, Paris and Strassburg and graduated 1996 in economics at the Johannes Kepler University of Linz.

After working in exports, marketing and public relations, she joined the Upper Austrian Technology- and Marketing Company (TMG) in Linz in 1996. From 1998 to 2005 she was responsible for setting up and managing the Upper Austrian cluster-initiatives in the fields of automotive, drive-technology, plastics, wood, health-technology and mechatronics.

Since October 2003 she has been responsible for the development of the regional innovation strategy “Innovative Upper Austria 2010”, a programme with a volume of € 600 Mio.

In December 2005 she was appointed managing director of TMG and is now
responsible for the development and implementation of innovation, research and technology strategies and programmes and for the management of the innovation and research affiliates in the TMG group (400 employees, € 60 mio. turnover), such as Upper Austrian Research (UAR) and Clusterland Upper Austria (8 clusters and networks with 1.500 participating companies).

Furthermore Ms. Pöchhacker is a member of several supervisory boards and steering committees and is currently active in different strategic groups at the national Austrian level and the European Commission level.

Mr. Jens Erik LUND - Coordinator (Nordic Innovation Centre) of the BSR InnoNet and Special Advisor to the Director-General (VINNOVA) in the field of innovation and competitiveness in Baltic Sea Region.

Holding a MA in Psychology from University of Copenhagen and in Business Administration from INSEAD, for more than 30 years Mr. Lund has had managerial positions in private and public organisations as well as done consultancy to a large number of public and business organisations in the field of public-private cooperation.

Before joining VINNOVA and the Nordic Innovation Centre, for OECD he established the LEED Trento Centre for Local Economic Development. Previously, he served as the inaugural director for the Copenhagen Centre established by the Danish Government as an international institute for public-private partnerships.

Representatives from the Europe INNOVA cluster projects

 

Prof. Örjan SOLVELL has been active at the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE) for 25 years, and was Director for the Institute for International Business (IIB) between 1994-2002. Since 2004 he is Dean for the MBA program at SSE (www.sse.edu/mba), and Director for the Center for Strategy and Competitiveness (www.sse.edu/csc).

Professor Sölvell received his PhD from the Stockholm School of Economics, and has also studied at George Washington University and the Harvard Business School (HBS).

Since the mid-1980s Professor Sölvell has worked closely with Professor Michael E. Porter at HBS, studying international competitiveness and clusters in various nations and regions (Sweden, USA, the Middle East). He has held visiting positions at universities in Korea, Japan, and USA.

 

Dr. Christian KETELS is a member of the Harvard Business School faculty at Professor Michael E. Porter’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness. He holds a PhD (Econ) from the London School of Economics and further degrees from the Kiel Institute for World Economics and Cologne University. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm School of Economics and Executive Director of the foundation “Clusters and Competitiveness,” a not-for-profit incorporated in Barcelona, Spain. Dr. Ketels has led cluster and competitiveness projects in many parts of the world, is a member of economic advisory groups in different countries, has written widely on economic policy issues, and has been a frequent speaker on competitiveness and strategy in Europe, North America, and Asia. He lives with his wife and twin sons in Stockholm, Sweden and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 

Ms Marie TSUJITA STEPHENSON joined the Center for Strategy and Competitiveness at the Stockholm School of Economics (CSC) in September 2006 as administrator to assist Professor Örjan Sölvell and Dr Christian Ketels on their EU project on the identification and analysis of clusters and innovation policy in Europe, the Europe INNOVA Cluster-Mapping project. She also manages the CSC office.

Ms Tsujita Stephenson has been at the Stockholm School of Economics since 1994, most recently at the European Institute of Japanese Studies as project manager responsible for seminars and conferences; she has also copyedited many of their academic publications.

 

Mrs Roselyne KOSKAS is the director of the Fondation Sophia Antipolis, with 35 years’ experience. She was an economic journalist and an international reporter until 1985, and an advisor to Senator Pierre Laffitte.
Mrs. Koskas’ activities at Sophia Antipolis are varied in their nature: scientific and cultural animation of the science park. The clusters are at the heart of FSA’s activities, as well as the organisation of many seminars and colloquia, and the generation of knowledge on national and European clusters.

 

Dr. Laurent SOULIER is a senior economist expert, specialised in innovation policy, territorial development and SMEs support. Laurent has 17 years of complex project management experience. He has coordinated and/or participated to more than 100 analytical studies related to regional innovation strategies definition; new innovation policies and mechanisms supporting innovation and research; as well as the creation of science parks. He holds a PHD in Management & Economics and a MBA.
He is currently working for the Fondation Sophia Antipolis as Director of international relations and European affairs. He is also responsible of the ELITE network, who seeks to group influential individuals willing to support initiatives, which place Research & Innovation at the focal point of national and European policies.
Previously, he was a self-employed Project Director and an Innovation & Research Policy Adviser on projects supported by the European Commission on behalf of inno-group, a German consultancy company specialised in innovation and exploitation of research and Kista Science City AB the company in charge of managing the eponymous Science Park in Stockholm (Sophia Antipolis & Stockholm, 6 years). He worked with the European Commission as a principal administrator (DG Enterprise, Luxemburg, 3 years), as a consultant for ECOTEC Research & Consulting (Birmingham and Brussels, 4 years) and as a lecturer at Aston University (Birmingham, 3 years).

 

Mr. Emiliano DUCH is the founder and President of COMPETITIVENESS (www.competitiveness.com), a pioneer and leading consulting firm specialized in developing regions by fostering the competitiveness of its clusters. COMPETITIVENESS was created in 1994 as a follow up to work done under the leadership of Professor Michael E. Porter, from Harvard University, and now operates with more than 25 consultants in Europe and Latin America.

Emiliano has acted as advisor to Public Administration Institutions and Governments all over the world, including different Regions of Spain, UK, Italy, France, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Argentina, Colombia, Thailand, as well as for multilateral institutions like the European Union, the United Nations, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. Emiliano has currently been directing the Study on the "Entrepreneurial innovation in the new Member States: challenges and issues at stake for the development of clusters of innovative firms", funded by the EU Commission’s DG Enterprise and Industry’s Innovation Unit, which has involved the mapping of clusters in the 10 new member states of the EU and the assessment of cluster and innovation policies carried out by national and regional governments.

Emiliano is as well founder and Vice-Chairman of THE COMPETITIVENESS INSITUTE(www.competitiveness.org), a non-profit organisation, created by a group of cluster development professionals and academics from around the world, with the mission "to improve living standards and local competitiveness of regions across the world by enhancing cluster-based competitiveness and development initiatives". TCI is an active network of more than 700 members of 60 different nationalities, including some international organisations as UNIDO and the OECD.
Emiliano has a Master in Public Administration (MPA) from Harvard University, an MBA from the Harvard Business School and is originally an architect from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Barcelona.
His working languages are English, Spanish, French and Italian

 

Senior consultant, Mrs Miia TIAINEN-PAQUAUX has acquired working experience during more than 10 years both in business and product development, business intelligence and customer relationship marketing. Among other things, her work has included assistance in international trade relationships, event organization, and public relations. Previous to economic development consulting, she has been working in various projects with the same objective: fostering innovation in SME’s and networking clusters. She has acquired experience in such sectors as: mobile telecommunications, sports and leisure, higher education and professional training, office equipments, bulk and paper.
Being an MSc. in Business Administration with a specialization in International Marketing from the University of Lappeenranta (Finland), she also has two French University Degrees: one in Electronic Commerce from the University of Burgundy and the other in Business Administration form the University of Jean Moulin Lyon III.
Of Finnish nationality, English, French and Finnish are her working languages.

 

 

Mr. Harald FURRE is president of Oxford Research in Norway, a Scandinavian based consultancy Company working within the fields of innovation with a special focus on cluster development. Mr. Furre is also president of “The European Network for Social and Economic Research - ENSR”, a Network of independent research and consultancy organisations in 32 European Countries.
Mr. Furre is educated economist from the Norwegian School of Business Administration. He has attended Executive Education Programmes at London Business School and Harvard Business School. Before starting Oxford Research in Norway, Mr. Furre was managing director of Agder Research, a Norwegian Research Institute.
Harald Furre has been working with business development, triple-helix-based development processes and cluster development studies and analysis for many years. Recently he has been responsible for an Ex-ante evaluation and a baseline study of the Norwegian Centre of Expertise-programme and evaluation the cluster-based programme ARENA. He is advisor to the Norwegian Innovation Agency on different aspects and to the Norwegian Ministry for Rural and Business Development in the field of Innovation. Mr. Furre is also experienced in working with European projects in different fields. Mr. Furre is member of the “Competitiveness Institute”, a global organisation of cluster development professionals and academics.

 

Cluster mapping EC Officials

Mrs Françoise LE BAIL, Deputy Director General of DG Enterprise & Industry.
Françoise Le Bail, lawyer by training and a European civil servant by career, started in the European Commission’s External Relations Directorate-General dealing with textiles negotiations and ASEAN countries.

She then served as spokesperson for External Relations Commissioner Willy De Clercq and as a cabinet member and Deputy Chief of Staff for Commissioner Christiane Scrivener, who was responsible for taxation and customs.

Françoise Le Bail returned to External Relations and subsequently joined the Directorate-General for Trade where she was nominated Director in charge of general affairs and of bilateral trade relations with Russia, CIS countries, the Balkans.

In 2004, Françoise Le Bail was appointed European Commission Chief Spokesperson.

She took up her post as Deputy Director General and SME Envoy at DG Enterprise and Industry in January 2006.

 

Dr. Reinhard BÜSCHER – European Commission, was born in 1952 in Lower Saxony in Germany; he holds bachelor degree and Ph.D. in Economics. Before joining the EC in 1989, he worked at the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Germany for nine years.

In the European Commission, he has been working in different areas, such as a Member of the Cabinet of Bangemann, a special Adviser for Industrial Aspects of the Information Society, Head of Unit for Standardization, Head of Unit for Industrial Aspects of Electronic Commerce, Head of Unit for E-Business, ICT industries and services and since April 2004, Head of Unit for Innovation Policy Development.
Dr Büscher is married since 1972 and has one daughter. He is a passionate mountaineer and a global traveller.

 

Dr. Nikos PANTALOS, after having finished his post-graduate studies in France, worked for 5 years in the private sector. He was responsible for R&D activities and the exploitation of research results in the development department of a telecommunications