CONFIRMED SPEAKERS' BIO'S
KEYNOTES SPEAKERS
Paul Martinelli |Past- President of John Maxwell Team
Topic| Entrepreunarial Mind-set shifter
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Paul Martinelli is an internationally acclaimed speaker, trainer, mentor, and coach who truly believes that if you can dream it, you can do it.
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While many people know Paul as President of the John Maxwell Team, what they may not know is that he is a high school dropout who overcame a stuttering disability to share the stage with some of the biggest names in leadership and personal development - names such as John C. Maxwell, Seth Godin, Jack Canfield, Wayne Dyer, Brian Tracy, Denis Waitley, Zig Ziglar, Les Brown, Nick Vujicic and Mark Victor Hansen.
Paul was raised by a single mother in a Pittsburgh lower class family.
In the late 1980’s, with just $200.00, a used vacuum, and a dream, he founded a small commercial cleaning company in South Florida.
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He combined smart sales tactics with personal development teachings and propelled his business to unbelievable heights. Just 15 years later, he sold his commercial cleaning company to pursue his passion and purpose of teaching people how to achieve success in their own lives.
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His awareness and ability to apply the success strategies and principles that he was learning and sharing with others led to Paul’s success in life and business, including building 5 multi-million dollar companies.
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Paul Martinelli may not have a wall of diplomas but you can’t argue with his PHD in results. Having worked his way up from mop bucket to millionaire, Paul has practiced and proven what he preaches.
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Anne-Catherine Trinon| CEO ACT- ALTAVIA
Topic| Building the collective Intelligence
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Anne-Catherine Trinon is a belgian entrepreneur who founded ACT*, a communication agency in 1997 at the age of 28.
In 2006, she has launched a process of collective intelligence in her company. In 2015, she has sold her company to Altavia Group and merged her teams with the Altavia existing teams in Belgium, applying participative management methodologies.
Anne-Catherine Trinon is very active in the entrepreneurial sector in Belgium (Reseau Entreprendre and APM).
She is the author of a book “Avant, j’étais un patron de m*rde”, Comment le management participatif a transformé ma vie et celle de mon entreprise, Editions l’attitude des Héros, Collection Vision d’entreprise, 2019.
Anne-Catherine has a master degree in translation and in management and is a certified coach “coach & Team” since 2011.
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Olivier Willocx |CEO of BECI| Chamber of Commerce of Brussels
|Panel Debate
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Olivier Willocx has been the Managing Director of the Brussels Chamber of Commerce and Industry since 2000, and in 2007 he merged with the Union des Entreprises de Bruxelles, giving life to a new organisation: BECI (Brussels Enterprises Commerce and Industry).
A graduate of Solvay Brussels School of Economics, he also obtained a Master's degree in European Law from the University of Amsterdam. From 1995 to 1997, he was Advisor to the Cabinet of Hervé Hasquin, Minister for Planning of the Brussels-Capital Region. Between 1999 and 2000, he was responsible for the renovation of the Atomium. From 2006 to 2010, he was a social judge at the Labour Court. On 20 September 2012, he became President of the Economic and Social Council of the Brussels-Capital Region.
Olivier Willocx is a director of F.R.S. - FNRS, IZEO and Sprout to be Brussels, and is a member of the management committees of Brussels Formation, Hub.brussels and ABLCC - Arab-Belgian-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce.
His participation in the Economic and Social Council of the Brussels-Capital CBCE Region gives him his dedication to helping the Brussels government prepare its economic and social action programme.
Olivier has been active at the Chamber of Commerce for 20 years - Beci he has succeeded in combining his core business with a strong involvement in the fields of training, education and support for young people and job seekers. It has also been at the root of projects such as "Sprout to be Brussels" and more recently 30/30/30 for the climate.
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Hassania Franceschi - El Youssfi (ORGANISER)
Topic| Everything can be improved | Executive Director John Maxwell Team
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Hassania Franceschi - El Youssfi is a change agent, coach, trainer and speaker. She believes that everything can be improved, an adept of innovation, relies on collective intelligence to make the team grow. As a specialist in leadership, she supports leaders to fully occupy their position, combining their personal/professional development and the development of their team to achieve their objectives.
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Hassania is a Doctor of science (1999) and a certified coach (2010, Vincent Lenhardt School). She has occupied senior positions in management in the energy and mining sector before becoming a professional coach. She is owner of Talentec Coaching since 2008 and dedicated to providing seminars, conferences, individual and team coaching to support leaders in their personal and professional growth with methods that have already proven their worth in responding to an ever-changing world.
Hassania is an Executive Director of the John Maxwell Team.
She has been instrumental in the design of a diagnostic tool in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team, “Pitch Partner” and was, from 2014 to 2015, President of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council "EMCC Belgium" under the aegis of EMCC International based in London.
Thomas Van Eeckhout | CEO EASI
Topic| Happiness and performance
EASI voted "Entreprise De L'Année 2019"- HR Pioneer Award
Today Thomas Van Eeckhout is CEO at EASI where he started his career in 2007 as a Sales Representative. Over the years, he acted as an account manager, executive account manager, and sales director. In 2015, he became part of the executive management.
EASI is a very value-driven company and for a number of years Thomas has been giving keynotes about the participative business model and the EASI values. More specific, which basic values and needs lead to happy employees and how they contribute to the success of a company. Today, one out of four employees is a shareholder at EASI.
This year, EASI also celebrates its 20th anniversary with some great achievements. We were voted Entreprise De L’Année, we received the HR Pioneer Award and for the fifth time in a row, we received the award for Best Workplace in the category for companies with less than 500 employees.
EASI’s turnover has increased by 16% compared to last year and compared with 2013, EASI has already achieved a growth of 61%. We opened two new offices this year, putting the counter on 7 offices in Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
Michel Halet | CEO Partena Professional
Topic| Collaborative Governance Model
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Michel Halet is a top-manager, member of the board of directors of several organizations, renowned for his great skills related to strategy and change management. In 2009, he entered Partena Professionals as Chief Finance & Strategy Officer and became deputy CEO in 2014. In this position, he is currently working to better tailor the expectations of Partena’s customers in a more efficient and autonomous organization. His multidisciplinary team, directly responsible to customers, is self-directed from internally clarified roles with operational objectives based on the generally agreed priorities.
Rik Vera |keynote speaker
Topic| The day after tomorrow
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Rik Vera has had 25 years of successful career at C-level in sales, marketing and general management positions in large international manufacturing companies. He has always been interested in combining good old management knowledge with the latest technological and digital tools to outrun competition, focusing on customers rather than products or competition. He has always been a game changer. A leader. Not a follower of rules.
Since 2010, Rik inspires businesses to act upon their Day After Tomorrow as a frequently asked keynote speaker and successful workshop facilitator. When markets speed up, organisations, governments and their managers have to think about their "Day After Tomorrow"and take the first steps to get there tomorrow.
Donella Fields,RN
Transformational Leadership
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Born and raised in England, Donella coaches Businesses and Entrepreneurs Internationally, guiding her clients through the debilitating fear of stepping outside of their comfort zone to achieve success by helping them realize their true potential.
Donella is a Business Coach, Keynote Speaker, Teacher and Trainer, Certified by the John Maxwell Team, and a proud member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council UK. She brings Executive Leadership training, Accountability, Focus and Clarity of Vision to her diverse clientele.
At the age of 19, fate dealt her a hand, nearly costing Donella her life. Suffering life-threatening injuries that would forever change her perspective. Through this journey, she became a Registered Nurse and Forensic Nurse Examiner specializing in Emergency and Forensic Nursing, quickly becoming the Charge Nurse of a 50 bed Level II Trauma Center in Virginia. Proving our inner strength and potential are truly infinite.
Donella has been an Entrepreneur for nearly thirty years, owning businesses in the Talent, Fashion, E-Commerce, Home Inspection, Business Management, and Coaching industries. She is the CEO and Founder of TEAM International, Inc., an International Coaching and Keynote Speaking company located in the US. Her clients range from small business to million dollar companies. She has coached clients in England, Belgium, Australia, Canada, and The United States.
Jesse Segers, Prof. Dr.|Dean of SIOO
|Panel Debate
Jesse Segers is the Dean of the independent interuniversity institute, called SIOO, specialized in post university education on change management, consulting and leadership in the Netherlands. He is Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Exeter, UK.
He teaches leadership and develops leaders at executive levels. He is also a visiting faculty member at the Stichting Bedrijfskunde, Netherlands and visiting professor at HEC Liège, Belgium. He serves in several board member functions.
He has published 3 books, and more than 100 papers in both top academic journals as well as practitioners’ journals. He held hundreds of academic or business presentations around the globe for (inter)national organizations, and is mentioned regularly in the media. His research interests is linked to how individuals, leaders, teams, and organizations can change. Specific attention is given to leadership and middle managers.
He is the former Associate Dean of Education & Master Programs, and Co-director of the Expertise Centre on Leadership, and Academic Director of the Masterclass Leadership for Advanced Leadership at the Antwerp Management School, Belgium. He is a former visiting professor of the Northern Illinois University, USA, the University of Calgary, Canada, and AOG School of Management, the Netherlands.
He received his Ph.D. in Applied Economics from the University of Antwerpen in Belgium. He has a Master in industrial psychology from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and studied two years of gestalt therapy and 1 year of gestalt counseling. He is a member of the Academy of Management, and the International Leadership Association.
In 2013 he was elected as a distinguished practitioner by the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology.
Suyin Aerts
Moderator of the day
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After a career as a professional ballet dancer and a job as an actress for Belgian Television and some years in the Fashion Industry, Suyin Aerts decided to continue her a-typical walk of life with her partner by joining him in his company X-Treme.
She combines her professional life as a female entrepreneur with a freelance career as multilingual presenter and journalist for television (Kanaal Z/Canal Z) and moderator on events.
With a master’s degree in industrial business policy, different Marketing classes and a degree in International Trade at the International Chamber of Commerce, Suyin stays eager to keep on broadening her vision and knowledge, grow and staying creative and innovative.
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Her motto: ” to get the right answers it is essential to ask the right questions”.