Microsoft Innovation Center Brussels

To support Boostcamp participants we’re putting together a new team of outstanding experts. And, there are quite a few familiar names on it.

As a MIC Boostcamp Brussels participant, during the three Expert Days you’ll get personal attention from 12 of them in 1½ session each! You will be able to ask them questions about your business, reach into their impressive personal networks, and get them to share the tips and the tricks of their various professions.

These are just some of the names of the experts joining the Expert Days for MIC Boostcamp Brussels 2.

Ben Piquard http://be.linkedin.com/in/benpiquard is Director of all Microsoft Innovation Centers across Belgium. He has an enormous and diverse experience in the software industry. Over the past 20 years he has exercised different functions and responsibilities: consulting, sales, pre-sales and business development for companies such as Business Objects, Siebel, PeopleSoft and SAS before joining Microsoft a few years ago. His encyclopedic knowledge of software-based business models is second to none, and his vast network of industry contacts will be a huge asset for the moment you’ll need to verify the assumptions that go into your business model.

Baudouin Urbain http://be.linkedin.com/in/baudouinurbain started his career in 1994 at IBM, where he worked for 6 years in various sales roles: Direct Marketing, Tele-Sales and Account Management. In 1999, he joined SAP, the worldwide leader of ERP and vertical industry software solutions. First as Global Account Manager for various industries (Telco, Logistics Services providers, Media, Utilities,….), then as Sales manager for the Public Sector, Healthcare and Education. Baudouin joined Microsoft in 2008 as Director for Public Sector, Healthcare and Education (70% growth of the business in 4 years). At Microsoft, he’s combining B2B business (Software & Cloud solutions) with staying close to key innovations in the consumer space (Gaming, Mobile devices, and natural user interface).

Boris Lemaire http://be.linkedin.com/in/borislemaire was part of one of Belgium’s most exciting startup stories in recent history – Proximus – as the company went from 0 employees in 1994 to 2300 in 2007.

At Proximus, Boris was responsible for specific markets in all areas: from strategy to operational plan, from marketing to product management, and of course the budget. He created operational and business plans, built product roadmaps and communication. He – above all – made choices: huge as resources were, they still had limits – and so did the market. Of course he managed products and did (a lot) of internal communication – and at the end of the day, his key responsibility was people.

Boye Hartmann’s http://be.linkedin.com/in/boyehartmann LinkedIn profile reads like a novel (and is almost as long). He’s a Danish entrepreneur, business angel and board member of a very, very large number of companies. In these three roles he’s helping start ups across Europe with their business development and financing initiatives. As a web innovation expert, he’s also up to speed on all that’s new and cool in web technology.

At age 25, Bruno Delepierre http://be.linkedin.com/in/bdelepierre started Adforce, a digital business agency, all alone, bootstrapped but with a passion. Four years later, his team of 14 members are working for well known national and international brands in countries across the globe. Bruno brings a unique mix to the table: not only does he have a law and two business master degrees but he has also faced and lived through all challenges involved in starting a company from scratch.

David Hernie http://be.linkedin.com/in/dhernie is IT Evangelist at Microsoft Belux. For well over 15 years David has worked in a variety of technical roles, predominantly in the mobile space. He started as a system engineer and worked his way up to CTO of Vision IT Group Mobility before joining Microsoft in 2009.

Dirk Stevens http://be.linkedin.com/in/wonder4u is the Co-Founder & CEO of Wondergraphs. He is inspired by software’s ability to change and improve the way we work, live and do business. As a software developer his main interests are data (data management, data analysis, decision modeling, reporting and visualization) and user experience design. He is an entrepreneur with experience in all aspects of business from finance, operations, human resources to product development and sales.

If you can describe your business and its processes and Dirk can pin-point strategic or tactical opportunities to improve its processes with software, define a vision and help you turn that vision into reality.

Dominique Siplet http://be.linkedin.com/pub/dominique-siplet/3/159/178 has held a variety of marketing, sales and management positions. She started her career in the pharmaceutical industry with ICI and then in FMCG, working for The Walt Disney Company and The Coca-Cola Company in Europe and in the US. She then moved on to marketing and sales interim management and consulting assignments for The House of Marketing, mostly in the ICT and professional services industries. She later joined PartenaHR as head of Strategy and Business Development, a position she held until December 2009 when she started her own management consulting practice. She’s also Program Director at IFL - Stockholm Scholl of Economics.

Erik Laurijssen be.linkedin.com/in/eriklaurijssen is a technology entrepreneur with a proven track record of turning vision into business results. For more than 20 years he’s been passionate about building great software products and developing and executing worldwide go to market strategies. After having led large multi-disciplinary teams in international companies he co-founded and attracted funding for 2 technology companies with a focus on cloud-based marketing solutions. He is currently dividing his time between advising tech start-ups and bootstrapping a new innovative venture focused on storytelling with data.

Ghislaine Bovy http://www.linkedin.com/in/ghislainebovy has been a freelance consultant in Marketing & Communications for the past 15 years after a series of full-time positions in Marketing & Communications. Her roles ranged from Branding strategies to event management, and she’s an exceptional operational marketer. She developed an expertise in online marketing including content management. She also is a start-up promoter, ready to coach and mentor entrepreneurs. Creativity, passion and hard work are the core of her career but she is also a circumnavigator. Her Blog http://ghislainebovy.wordpress.com/ and her website http://www.minuit.net/ tell her circumnavigation story.

Gilbert West http://be.linkedin.com/in/blueclock is a web-developer-turned-web-entrepreneur who has seen more than his fair share of startup presentations. He enjoys getting complex technical ideas over to a non-technical audience and will help you pick the most appropriate features to highlight to your audience whether it’s a potential customer, partner or an investor.

Patrice Roulive http://be.linkedin.com/in/roulive is a co-Founder & COO of Telemis, a Medical Imaging company with a mission to extend human life. Telemis has 50 employees and is active in Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates. Patrice started at Telemis as VP of R&D. He then moved to France to manage the local acquired company and develop it into a major player inthe French Healthcare market. Returning to Belgium he become COO of Telemis, being responsible for Sales, Services and R&D operations in all countries. Patrice is the founder of the Passionate People community and regularly mentors entrepreneurs through Microsoft Boostcamp, westartup or Mind&Market events.

Sidsel Graae http://be.linkedin.com/pub/sidsel-graae/0/26b/630 has worked with international business development across numerous countries. Sidsel came to Brussels in 1997 and after a MBA at Solvay and a entrepreneurship course she started up a management consultancy company in London. In the past 6 years Sidsel built up a headhunting company with a consultative approach to headhunting where she combined her management consultancy experience with the human resource business. As a career coach Sidsel support people in changing their career hereunder to start up their own business. Sidsel is passionate about the people aspects in any business success.

Tjorven Denorme http://be.linkedin.com/in/tjorvendenorme has over 10 years of sales experience in B2B environment. After working for The Man for a few years and building up a 50-people business unit in Gent, he started his own company, eMenKa with 2 colleagues. eMenKa is now 4 years young, has a team of 30 IT people, and has customers among Fortune 500 companies (and a few SMEs of course).