About

After graduating from his Master’s Degree in Management from the Louvain School of Management in Belgium, Arnaud started his career in 1994 with Procter&Gamble, first in marketing in Belgium then at the European Headquarter where he was in charge of the logistic systems for EMEA.

At the end of 1998 he moved to Luxembourg and joined Cargolux where he held several management positions in the IT division, with the mission to facilitate the implementation of the business strategy leveraging the power of IT.

Arnaud was then part of the core team founding CHAMP Cargosystems in 2004, originally a spin-off of the IT of Cargolux, and joined the Executive Committee later the same year.

His first responsibility was Vice-President Enterprise Services primarily in charge of the Cargolux IT outsourcing contract. Back then he shaped and implemented a complete IT as a Service for Cargolux.

In 2010 he became Vice-President Customer Services responsible for all customers of CHAMP Cargosystems worldwide where he introduced a new customer service model.

As from 2012 Arnaud was Vice-President Global Solutions Delivery, in charge of the delivery of the entire portfolio of air cargo IT solutions. His responsibility, while based in Luxembourg, spanned from the America’s to Japan.

In 2015, Arnaud was chosen to be the next CEO of CHAMP www.champ.aero

As CEO, Arnaud lead 500 colleagues located in 7 offices worldwide over 5 continents and built the company to be the leading provider of SaaS software solutions for the Air Cargo Industry with more than 54% market share and 80% digital market share worldwide.

In January 2021, Arnaud has joined the team of Luxinnovation as Director of the Digital Innovation Hub.

Gauthier holds an engineering degree in Computer Science and worked for more than 15 years in Data Management for the finance sector. He joined the Ministry of the Economy as project leader on projects related to digital technologies and cybersecurity. He was recently involved in the redaction of a Data Governance in the context of data exchange platforms. Gauthier joined GAIA-X as political counterpart and is currently the ad-interim coordinator of our national hub.

• Polyvalent profile: Research & Innovation project development and management, aeronautic engineer, innovation management.

• Multidisciplinary Experience in research, innovation, industry and university.

• International multilingual experience (French, English, Italian, Nederland), possibility and willingness to learn another language (German).

• Excellent analytical and concept visualization skills – complexity seizing and representation skills.

• Events/training organization and planning skills – strategy, development and presentation skills.

+20Y experience in senior management positions in international and national environments focusing on  Information & Communication Technology (ICT), Quality Management & Process Transformation, accompanied with practical experience in Industry, Manufacturing, Automation, Logistics & Distribution, as well as in the Construction Industry.

Profound knowledge of today´s IT landscape and strong believer in digitalization, automation and innovation as well as agile methodologies and quality programs.  Insights into ICT market, latest tech trends and into the Luxemburg IT partner ecosystem covering today’s IT infrastructure and security aspects as well as software development and leveraging corporate solutions such as ERP, CRM, HCM, BI, APS, OT and their integration

Ralf has more than twenty years of business experience in technical consulting and IT in various industries, with a strong focus on innovation topics. He served as Group CIO for a 3000 people consulting company,  Chief Technologist for digital transformation topics, program manager serving incumbents and airlines amongst others. Today, Ralf is Digital Acceleration Lead at Telindus, where he is working on future technologies and innovation topics and is member of the Luxembourgish coordination team of the Gaia-X project.

He holds a master in Engineering from RWTH Aachen and loves to run innovation workshops.

Engineer by education, IT manager by experience, innovator by heart.

Marco Walentiny holds a master's degree in economics. During the past 32 years, he has held various responsibilities within the Ministry of the Economy, in particular in the area of ​​research and innovation policy. He is an expert in the development of national strategies and the assessment of the technical and financial feasibility of research and innovation projects of private companies. Currently he is the Director of Financing and State Aid, and in this role is responsible for validating the assessment of most of the requests for financial aid submitted by private companies to the Minister of the Economy. He has been a member of expert and evaluation committees for national, European and international organizations and is a member of the boards of public bodies and private companies. For 14 years, he chaired the management board of the national innovation agency, Luxinnovation.

Sara Bouchon is currently Head of Market Intelligence at Luxinnovation, the innovation and research agency in Luxembourg, she joined in 2015. She holds a PhD in Geography. She started her carrier at the European Commission Joint Research Center, before becoming CEO of Risk Governance Solutions, a consultancy company she co-founded. She is involved in the EUROCC project to set up the Luxembourgish HPC National Competence Center, with a focus on mapping the competences.

Since May 2018, Sasha Baillie is the CEO of Luxinnovation, the Luxembourg national innovation agency. She is also a member of the Coordination Committee of the Ministry of the Economy, which she joined in 2014 as Deputy Chief of Staff and Diplomatic Advisor of the Deputy Prime Minister, following her 15-year career as a Luxembourg diplomat, which included foreign postings in Brussels and Moscow. Within the Ministry of the Economy, Sasha Baillie ran the initiative to reform Luxembourg's economic promotion that led to the creation in June 2016 of the Luxembourg Trade and Investment Board. She also co-founded and chaired the Luxembourg Nation Branding Committee until 2019 and steered the work that led to the creation in 2015 of LuxGovSat (a joint venture between the Luxembourg Government and SES) where she served as Chair of the Board.

Sebastien WIERTZ has more than 25 years of experience in engineering, information technology in the steel industry. Passionate about innovation and knowledge management, he has authored several articles on information overload, business process optimisation, knowledge management, and social networking inside corporates.

Today, his primary role is to mentor innovative start-ups in the #InduTech (industrial technologies) sectors and develop their entrepreneurial business activities. Sebastien is responsible for managing Paul Wurth InCub, the business incubator & accelerator of Paul Wurth, which is dedicated to supporting these young companies through industry knowledge, engineering expertise, and the global industrial network of Paul Wurth and its partners.

Sri Kolla works as Doctoral Researcher at University of Luxembourg in Department of Engineering. His research interests includes Lean manufacturing, learning factories, industry 4.0, and digitalization. Sri works with the project PRODPILOT (https://prodpilot.eu/fr/) with the aim of improving productivity potential in Small and Medium Size Enterprises in Grande Region using lean and industry 4.0 tools and methods.

Yannick  has an educational background in Business Management. He has more than 25 years of experience in the industry sector especially inside Sales-Operations-Finance functions.

He is currently working at Morgan Advanced Materials which is active in the machining of carbon parts for mechanical systems used in advanced sectors such as petrochemicals, aeronautics and energy. The Reliability on quality and speed on service are key  elements to differentiate our-selves from our competitors. Trough the management of the Luxembourg & UK operation sites  he had the opportunity to lead continuous improvement projects using the 4.0 Industry concepts. These projects were focused on the sales & production process optimization involving an efficient use of the data & incorporating the digitalization tools.  Ultimate goal is to make the work of the team easier and provide customers a reliable & performing service!

Cristian is a change maker and an innovator with strong storytelling abilities that inspires growth mindset; a passionate Senior Executive from the Chemical/Insurance/FMCG/Banking/Telecommunications industry. He has focused on the connection between IT and successful business outcomes, both with bringing top-line growth as well as cost reduction programs. Cristian served as technology thought-leader & adviser, implementing technologies like artificial intelligence, robotic process automation or IoT (internet of things) to generate high business value. As a certified business designer and international keynote speaker, he helped companies to transform business ideas into viable digital business models. Lead globally Innovation, M&A, integration and separation programs. He crafted procurement and vendor strategies that allowed to achieve multimillion EUR savings.

Francisco Melo works as an Advisor on European R&D and Innovation Support at Luxinnovation, where he is mostly in charge of Horizon Europe’s Cluster 4 “Digital, Industry and Space” (with a focus on Industry). Francisco has previously served as a Senior International Consultant & Project Manager at Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovacao (SPI) where he has concentrated his efforts on national and international projects in areas such as the development and implementation of local and regional strategies for development and competitiveness, urban regeneration, territorial marketing, socioeconomic development, mobility and environmental sustainability, energy, among others. Regarding Horizon 2020 / Green Deal / Horizon Europe he has been involved in several proposals and projects in a wide variety of topics, namely those on the topic of Smart Cities and Communities. Francisco holds a degree and master’s degree in International Relations for the University of Minho (Braga, Portugal).

Intelligentsia Consultants are the coordinator of the EU funded FIT-4-NMP project. Luxinnovation is also a consortium partner in the project. FIT-4-NMP provides a free service to help promising organisations (SMEs, MNEs, HEIs, PROs) from underrepresented regions – including Luxembourg – to join Horizon Europe proposals focused on nanotechnologies, advanced materials or new manufacturing processes (NMP). If you represent such a Luxembourgish organisation and you are interested in our support, then please feel welcome to contact us via the FIT-4-NMP website (www.fit-4-nmp.eu).

Holger Voos is a full Professor at the University of Luxembourg and head of the Automation & Robotics Research Group in the SnT, the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust. He has more than 20 years of experience in mobile robotics, both in industry and academia. His research group is active in many areas of robotics, such as drones, robotics in industry 4.0, autonomous driving or even space robotics. This presentation is about a research collaboration between his group and the company Stugalux, a construction company in Luxembourg, in the area of mobile robotics in construction industry.

Mark is the Innovation Lean Sigma Manager at Avery Dennison in Rodange Luxembourg. He has over 20 years experience in operations/engineering in the USA, France and Luxembourg, and has further spent the last 10 years or so on lean sigma, strategy development and deployment, and innovation for the Luxembourg site as well as other European sites within Avery Dennison.

His current focus is applying lean sigma improvement techniques to processes, as well as to promote innovation here in Luxembourg through the application of technology, systems connectivity, and data analytics. The two themes that will be discussed in the presentation, Intra-logistics (AGV and automated warehouse) and real time production tracking (MARS) are in direct relation to their innovation program.

Roberto is the IT Manager at Ampacet.  He is in charge of the Regional IT Departament and he is responsible for the strategic projects in EMEA.

He is currently leading the implementation of new digital solutions for the Ampacet  new plant in Italy.  It is a POC (proof-of-concept) that will be replicated in Dudelange next year.  The main goal of the project is to modernize/digitize the entire flow of materials from the receiving until the shipping.

Roberto has more than 20 years of experience in corporate positions as well as in consulting firms.  Additionally, he works as a University Professor in the subject of Technology Management.

Beyond a long period as a CIO for a South American company, he worked in different positions related to program and project management.

He is PMI and Scrum certified.  He participated in the implementation of different ERP, CRM and BI solutions since 2001.

Roberto defines himself as passionate about technology and he enjoys finding the best way to satisfy and empower the business strategy.

Robert considers networking is crucial to share knowledge and to build an useful ecosystem for vendors and users.  He likes to offer mentoring as well as he appreciates to learn from his colleagues.

Emmanuelle KIPPER joined Luxinnovation in 2018, first as part of the team in charge of startups before joining the SME team.

 With a solid background in law (notary graduate, DEA European Compared Law), complemented by a dozen years of experience in the field as a manager of small business units, then more briefly as business developer for a research laboratory, and holding an E-MBA in Innovation Management, she is aware of the problems faced by companies and the challenges of innovation.

Sustainable development is also a theme that is close to her heart (she has had the opportunity to implement eco-sustainable certification procedures during his past experience).

She addresses the issue of digitalisation of companies through the implementation of the Fit 4 Digital and Fit 4 Digital Packages programmes.

Custom designers, builders & manufacturers of special OEM machinery and OEM robotic solution.

We specialize in providing Turn-Key Automated Solutions.

Soudoplast SARL, a company specializing in industrial plastic welding. In perpetual creation and on the strength of our experience, we implement innovative products, both technically and in terms of their characteristics, at the service of industry, communities, ... We love challenges, which is why we cater to all your special requests, whether in the creation, construction, renovation, repair, improvement or modification of existing systems. In addition to specific equipment for welding small and very large plates and pipes, we are able to machine parts up to a surface of 6m x 2.5m in order to adapt to your specificity and to put implement your project. Large piping, tanks, soil protection, we bring your plastic projects to life, we provide unique solutions to your complex sealing, welding, corrosion problems, etc. Listening to your needs, we carry out quality work, tailor-made and durable over time . Our products are 100% recyclable, food certified, with an incomparable lifespan in aggressive environments!

Stephan has over 20 years’ experience in Kaizen and Lean Manufacturing as well as general business management. His focus is on process analysis and optimization as well as on the implementation of production planning systems in manufacturing companies, ranging from small family-owned craft businesses to large process industry companies. Stephan has a degree in mechanical engineering and is fluent in German, French, English and Spanish.

Sven has a degree in mechanical engineering and has enjoyed business management training at leading institutes. He is a certified independent director of INSEAD. Sven has gained technical, commercial and management experience in Europe, Asia and North America in a variety of large industrial companies and segments. In 2007 Sven founded TrAxxion with Mark Notschaele to provide non-nonsense hands on consulting. Today TrAxxion has evolved into a group of 20 senior experts and mainly works in the areas of strategy, project management, lean, digitalisation and corporate governance with a focus on the greater region of Luxembourg.

Experienced in Sustainable Development and Business Management, Charles-Albert FLORENTIN, has a rich experience in the fields of waste recycling, water treatment, energy and agriculture.

He joined Luxinnovation 5 years ago as Cleantech Cluster Manager.

Fedor Antonov is the CEO and co-founder of Anisoprint, a company that developed a solution for manufacturing of a new generation of composite materials . Founded in April 20 15 by a team of composite material science experts, the company helps engineers and manufacturers around the world to produce optimized and complex shape composite material parts with high mechanical characteristics and tailorable properties.

Prior to founding Anisoprint in 2015, Fedor had been working as an engineer and chief engineer at tech companies since 2007. In 2013, he gained the position of a research scientist at Skolkovo science and technology complex. Since 2009, he has been a research scientist at the Institute of Mechanics of Moscow State University.

Fedor earned his PhD degree in Mechanics of deformable solids 2011 at Moscow State University. He is an author of 16 scientific publications and 5 patents.

Public Administration in Belgium (2 years, 2011-2013)

Province of Luxembourg, Mobility department

Academic Research at Uni.lu (2013 – 2017)

PhD on transport, mobility behaviour, mode choice modelling

Start-up in Smart Mobility (2017 – 2020)

Co-founder and managing director of Movesion Luxembourg

Consultant (2021)

European projects, missions with World Bank, EIB, etc.

Michel has a background in mechanical engineering. He is now business developer specialist at Ceratizit. The Business Development, Mergers & Acquisitions department of the CERATIZIT Group, focuses on gaining in-depth knowledge of their markets and identifying opportunities to increase their revenue and global market share. They analyse and assess markets with a regional and industry-oriented focus. Additionally, they provide forecasts for their business and support the Group's digitalisation initiatives. They also closely monitor new technology trends, new business models, future technologies and competitors to develop the strategic planning for the Group and find new opportunities for future business. Finally, they look for opportunities for strategic mergers and acquisitions that can support the inorganic growth of the company.

Thierry GIROT started his career as a researcher in the field of ceramic-metal composites. He then moved to a position of Materials Specialist in the Public Research Centre Gabriel Lippmann. In 2015, he joined the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology as senior partnership officer, specifically in charge of space and manufacturing technologies in the Materials Research and Technology (MRT) department. In this position, he set up research projects in cooperation with industrial partners in a wide range of frameworks at national and international level, in particular ESA.

Since 2020, Thierry GIROT is a technology manager in the MRT department of LIST. In this framework, he coordinates the department’s technology roadmap focused on “Low Carbon Footprint / Sustainable Materials and Processes”. This RDI line covers R&D activities ranging from the synthesis of polymers to the manufacturing of composites parts, up to the prototype scale, via industry-relevant manufacturing processes.