Competence in Foresight

Gonzalo Figuera (ES)

Gonzalo Figuera Díez-Picazo, SM in Technology and Policy (MIT), Engineer École Centrale Paris, Industrial Engineer UPM (Madrid), is an experienced business leader, consultant and entrepreneur, specialized in innovation-based organizations and digital transformation.

Currently, he works as Innovation Director at Innogate to Europe, a company specialised in managing international projects. He has over 20 years of previous experience working for large corporations and engineering companies (Telefonica R&D, INECO), large academic institutions (MIT, UPM), consulting companies (Cluster Consulting, now Oliver Wyman), and technology-based start-ups (N2S-GAMESA Group).

His fields of specialty include ICT (information and communication technologies), software, IoT (internet of things), automation, infrastructures, smart cities, energy and energy efficiency, renewables, bioenergy, cleantech, sustainable transport, electric vehicle, infrastructures and sustainability. He teaches courses on technology and innovation management, entrepreneurship, energy and energy efficiency, and acts as editor and contributor to publications, lectures and seminars related to his work.

Carlos Herreros (ES)

Carlos Herreros has more than 30 years of experience consulting to businesses in different industries and sizes. He has been working in coaching with top level executives to help them in their thinking of strategy and to develop their level of consciousness to cope with the growing complexity of their jobs.

His understanding of strategy is evolutionary in the sense that what it ultimately should pursue is the survival of the organization. Therefore it is probably the most important task of leaders and executives.

He is also interested in learning and teaching the history of management.

He considers himself an expert on neuroscience applied to management and to creative and innovative processes that require grit, self-awareness, flow and resilience; neuroscience provides us with resources and tools for improvement in all the four areas.

Luis Delgado (ES)

Luis Delgado has a Ph.D. in Physics (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) and a Diploma in Planning and Administration of Business (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid). He is Executive Advisor at the General Secretariat of Universities in the Spanish Ministry of Education. He has a long experience working in Higher Education, Research and Innovation as well as in Planning and Management and on policy making at national and international level, for more than 30 years as:

Materials’ Researcher (CIEMAT, Spain),
Managing Director of Technological Centre (Madrid Institute of Technology)
Director of Planning and Management of Public Research Organization (IGME, 1993- 2002))
Deputy Director General of International Organisms and Programmes (2002 – 2007)
Coordinator of the Unit Universities and Researchers. DG Research and Technological Development. European Commission (2007 – 2009) in charge of the Modernisation Agenda for European Universities.
Deputy Director General of Modernization and Internationalization of Universities (Ministry of Education, 2009 – 2011).

He has represented Spain in in different international research and HE committees, programmes and organisms: BFUG, OECD – IMHE, Council of Europe; European Commission, the European University Institute, etc.

He is author or co-author of more than 150 papers on scientific journals, conferences, seminars and workshops on higher education, research, innovation, technology transfer, employability, management, international cooperation, etc.

Jennifer Cassingena Harper (MT)

Jennifer Cassingena Harper has been engaged with the Malta Council for Science and Technology since 1989 in various capacities. Until 2011, she was the Director of Policy, Strategy, FP7 and International with core responsibility for the National Research and Innovation Strategy and Foresight and links with the European Union. She currently retains a part-time consultancy role with the Council. Dr Harper is active at European and international level in the area of foresight and research and innovation policy with a particular focus on the EU’s research programme in the role of expert/advisor, reviewer and observer. She has been a member of a number of EU DG Research High Level Expert Groups as chair and rapporteur. Until recently (end of 2016), she was a member of the EU DG Research Expert Group on Strategic Foresight for R&I Policy in Horizon 2020′ (SFRI). She is a graduate of the London School of Economics and the University of Malta. Her current research interests include the strategic use of foresight to address disruption and engineer transition, the evaluation of foresight impacts, and skills foresight; and use of foresight to advance smart specialisation and R&I policies in small economies. She has published a number of books, articles and papers, co-editing The Handbook on Technology Foresight in 2009. In Malta, she is a Board member of the National Commission for Further and Higher Education.