Since July 2009, Kurt is the Secretary-General of the League of European Research Universities (LERU), an association of twenty-one leading research-intensive universities (Oxford, Cambridge, Leiden, Leuven, Heidelberg, etc). Before joining LERU, he was the chief legal advisor (2004-2007) and the chief of staff (2007-2009) of the Flemish Minister for Public Works, Energy, Environment and Nature. He is also a professor of law (however on parttime leave since 2007) at the University of Leuven, the university where he studied law (1984-1989), obtained his PhD in Law (1989-1995) and spent (until now) his whole academic career.
Furthermore, he is an honorary professor of law at the University of Malta and the University of Dundee, was awarded the Hou-De Honorary Chair at the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, and has been a visiting professor of law at the Universities of London, Sydney and Singapore. Kurt published extensively in the field of EU Environmental, Energy and Climate Change Law, and is the editor of several leading bookseries and journals in that field. Finally, he chairs the Board of Directors of the Flemish Energy Regulator (VREG), is chair of the Flemish Environmental Damages Commission, co-chair of the Malta Legal Forum on Adaptation to Climate Change, and is on the board of a number of profit (MRBB, AIF) and non-profit (I-Cleantech) organisations in Belgium.
Ken Guy is the Director of Wise Guys Ltd., a company he launched in 2000 to conduct innovation policy research and provide advice to innovation policymakers and administrators. In 1989, he founded Technopolis Ltd., an innovation policy consultancy that, by the time of his decision to leave and sell the company in January 2000, had grown to be a leader in its field. Ken is prominent in evaluation and assessment circles. Building on early work in the 1970s in the fields of risk assessment and environmental monitoring, and on the evaluation of collaborative R&D programmes during his time at SPRU in the 1980s, in the 1990s he established evaluation as a core competence of the Technopolis group of companies.
Göran Roos is chairing the Value Add and Industrial Growth Sub-Committee of the Economic Development Board in Adelaide; He is a member of the Council for Flinders University and also a Stretton Fellow appointed by the City of Playford at University of Adelaide; Adjunct Professor at ECIC, University of Adelaide, South Australia; Australia; Adjunct Professor at University of Technology Sydney Business School, Australia; and Adjunct Associate Professor in the College of Business, Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Göran is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) as well as of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA).
Dr. Charles Wessner currently teaches Global Innovation Policy at Georgetown University where he acts as a powerful advocate of effective innovation policies. Previously, he served for two decades as a National Academies Scholar where he founded and directed of the National Academy of Sciences’ Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Program. He is recognized nationally and internationally for his expertise on innovation policy, including public-private partnerships, entrepreneurship, early-stage financing for new firms, 21st century manufacturing, cybersecurity, and the special needs and benefits of high-technology industry. As an outgrowth of his work with the U.S. government, he advises technology agencies, universities, and government ministries, including the Prime Ministers of countries in Europe and Asia. In addition, he cooperates closely with international organizations and lectures at major universities in the U.S. and abroad. The overarching goal of his work is to develop a better understanding of how we can bring new technologies forward to address global challenges in health, climate, energy, water, infrastructure, and security. Reflecting his commitment to international cooperation, he was recently named an Officer of the Order of Merit by the President of France.
