Our Experts

Emilien Watelet Chairman, Enterprise Europe Network

In 2012, Emilien Watelet was elected Chair of a sector group dedicated to Aeronautics and Space and enlarged the focus to dual-use technologies and defense. He manages today a group of 30 European regions active in Aerospace and/or defense and works in close collaboration with EDA and DG Grow. He joined a Business Innovation Center and became coach for startups in 2008. In the same time he worked for the European program Enterprise Europe Network where he became a member of the sector group dedicated to Aeronautics and Space.

Declan Wylde Finance Director, Transport Infrastructure, Ireland

Transport Infrastructure Ireland was formed in 2015 when the agencies responsible for national roads and for light rail came together. Previously Declan Wylde worked in the group responsible for the planning, approvals and implementation of the Dublin Light Rail System which opened in 2004. In the early 1990’s, he worked with Du Pont de Nemour Finance and subsequently with Irish Rail in their operations and infrastructure groups. Declan Wylde attended the Business Graduate Trinity College Dublin and additionally obtained a professional accounting qualification.

Bénédict Wauters Deputy Director for Innovation, Evaluation and Methodology, ESF Agency Flanders

Bénédict Wauters is an expert in project/programme/strategy/policy development and evaluation as well as organisational development. He has been dealing with EU structural funds for many years and working at the ESF Agency Flanders since 2007. As the agency’s Deputy Director, his responsibilities include the evaluation of the ESF Programme as well as strategy, innovation and methodology. He has acquired his considerable expertise through fifteen years of experience in the public sector (both inside the European Commission and the Flemish government) as well as the business sector. As coordinator of the EU-wide Community of Practice on Results Based Management and Author of the “Sourcebook on Results Based Management in the European Structural Funds”, Bénédict Wauters gathered extensive expertise in this field. He is also a lecturer at several universities and business schools in various European cities.

Urszula Wójcik Chief Expert on Technical Assistance in Public Administration, Public Adminstration, Poland

Urszula Wójcik is responsible for programming technical assistance as well as for assessing and selecting projects for co-financing. She has dealt with technical assistance for three consecutive programming periods – starting from financial perspective 2004-2006 – and has been involved in eligibility assessment and evaluation process as well as coordination of technical assistance support for increasing the capacity of public administration, beneficiaries and partners in Poland. Before, she was employed by the ministry dealing with the European Funds. Urszula Wójcik gained her initial experience with working for public administration in the Civil Service Office. She is deeply interested in practical application of Simplified Cost Options.

Matthias Will Director of Organisational Development, DG HR, European Commission

Matthias Will is Director for Organisational Development in the Directorate-General for HR and Security of the European Commission. Matthias has worked in several policy areas and had a leading role in major administrative reforms in the Commission. He strives to make the Commission a more collaborative, agile and engaging institution. One current challenge is HR modernisation and digital transformation.

Martin Wimmer Chief Digital Officer, Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany

Martin Wimmer has extensive experience in both the public and the private sectors. Since 2019, he has been acting as the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) in the Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in Germany. In this role, he represents the BMU with the core message "Green IT" at the Conference of the federal IT officers in Germany, which, as the responsible steering committee, decides on the operational issues of information technology and administrative digitization of the federal government. Previously, he held the position of Chief of Staff for the Mayor's Office of Frankfurt am Main. Before joining the Mayor's Office, he worked as Global Head of Communications at Siemens and as Global Head of Internal and Digital Communications at Ratiopharm.

Mark Wilson Head of Data Governance, Handelsbanken

Mark Wilson has spent the last 17 years working with data quality and data governance in Handelsbanken, having been with the organization since 1989. He joined the group in the financial control division and has previously occupied positions in performance reporting, risk, middle office, and project management. His first foray into data quality and validation came through heading up the BI and CRM functions in the capital markets division of Handelsbanken in Stockholm, and he is now based in the UK. His central role requires him to engage all levels of the organization to improve the understanding of the importance of data management and embedding data Governance throughout the UK Retail Bank. Having established and headed up the UK data quality department, and a data steward network throughout the UK organization, Mark is now heading up UK data governance.

Dr. Johannes Winter Managing Director, Lernende Systeme – Germany’s Artificial Intelligence Platform

Dr Johannes Winter is the Managing Director of “Lernende Systeme – Germany’s Artificial Intelligence Platform” and Head of Technology at acatech – National Academy of Science and Engineering. Previously he was the Head of Economic & Science Relations and Personal Assistant to Professor Henning Kagermann, the father of Industrie 4.0. Johannes Winter holds a Ph.D. in regional economics from the University of Cologne and has served as a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences and Economics in Munich. Johannes does research in Digitalization (Artificial Intelligence, Industry 4.0, Smart Services), Economics, Economic Geography, and Industrial Organization. His prior work experience includes positions in the automotive Industry, consulting as well as academic research.