Speakers

Laurence Slangen is Business Relations Manager for the SPI Agency (Liège Region), and a representative of the SPoW (Science Parks of Wallonia) network.

Email: Laurence.SLANGEN@spi.be

Michela RITONDO is a senior tax official of the Federal Public Service Finance.
She has a Master degree in Economics of the “Université de Mons” and a Certificate of Public Management at the Solvay Business School of the “Université Libre de Bruxelles”.

She is currently working as an international tax expert at the International Investments Department. In that status she also represents the Belgian FPS Finance in different consultative bodies at the federal and regional level that are dealing with inbound investments and takes an active part in different Belgian economic missions abroad.

Before joining this service, she was the founding head of the Transfer Pricing Audit Unit, which enabled her to specialize in the fiscal treatment of cross border transactions within multinational enterprises.
The International Investments Department is in charge of attracting foreign investors to realize new investments in Belgium and to choose this country for their European projects.

Mrs RITONDO assumes an important role in explaining the Belgian tax incentives and guiding the foreign investors in their dealings with the tax authorities.

Email: michela.ritondo@minfin.fed.be 

Maxime Couvreur is the Trade and Investment Counsellor of the Embassy of Belgium – AWEX.

Email: m.couvreur@awex-wallonia.com

Erik Falvey is the Senior Director and Business Development manager Europe for IDDI (Institute for Drug Development International).
Founded in 1991, IDDI provides biostatistical and eClinical services for clinical research and is recognized as a worldwide leader in the field of advanced clinical trial design, randomization (RTSM), data management (EDC) and biostatistical analyses.

Email: erik.falvey@iddi.com

Régis César is a scientific advisor for the Department of Research & Innovation of the Walloon administration.

Email: regis.cesar@spw.wallonie.be

Benoit Tas is the CEO of Neuropath, a Belgian company that he created in 2016 in collaboration with a researcher based in Vermont.
NeuroPath builds a digital platform to connect the daily living people suffering from neurodegenerative diseases with the interdisciplinary team of care providers and clinicians.

The real-world data collection and proprietary software create insights to better understand patients’ motor and non-motor symptoms and to adapt the care path accordingly for an improved quality of life at a lower healthcare cost.

Dr. Lieven Janssens is the President and CEO of Kaneka Eurogentec S.A., a biotechnology company in the field of genomics and proteomics as well as a trusted US FDA inspected Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) for the bio-production of pharmaceutical vaccines and medicines. He joined Eurogentec in 2010 and served first as Chief Business Officer and consequently until 2018 as Executive Vice President. 

Lieven Janssens also holds the position of CEO at Eurogentec North America and at Anaspec, a peptide producing US company (Fremont California), part of Eurogentec group. Driven by his passion for biotechnology, he is an active board member of Essenscia Wallonia (Belgian association of pharma and chemical industries).

Before becoming Eurogentec’s President, Lieven Janssens served at several roles for Kaneka Pharma Europe N.V. from General Manager to Vice-President, leading the business development of pharmaceutical intermediates for the pharma Industry.  

Lieven Janssens is a graduate of the Ghent University with a Bioengineer degree and Ph.D. He also earned a Business Administration degree from EHSAL Brussels.

Damien Diop is the Head of Membership Development of BioWin – Health Cluster (Belgium). He joined the organization in 2016 and has developed and implemented the strategy to attract and retain, as members, the actors of the Walloon Health and Life Sciences ecosystem. Currently he is also very  active in the development of a sustainable model for the cluster's activities.

Before this role, Damien worked for different organizations both private or non-gouvernmental notably in the humanitarian sector for the Red Cross. Damien holds a master's degree in Public Health.