| jury |
After the selection of the finalists, these nominees will be coached to pitch their idea, prototype or concept. The Jury consists of innovation experts, academics and representatives of government. They all have an excellent understanding of the drone economy.
Omar Mohout Professor of Entrepreneurship at Antwerp Management School |
Omar Mohout is a former technology entrepreneur currently active as Growth Engineer at Sirris. Mohout is a widely published technology author, C-level advisor to high growth startups as well as Fortune 500 companies and Professor of Entrepreneurship at Antwerp Management School. He is author of 'Pricing Strategies for Startups', ‘The Belgian startup landscape’ and the popular 'Startup Master Class series'. A contributing author to the ‘100 Days Digital Marketing Plan’ and ‘The Future of Business’ books. Mohout is a columnist for Data News, Bloovi and StartUs; Co-chair of the Circle Of Growth, Organizer of the Growth Hacking Meetup, Co-founder of the #BeTech Community and Member of the Board of Directors at Startups.be. He is also a mentor at Founder Institute, IdeaLabs, Startathlon, Virtuology Academy, Flanders DC and Belgium Ambassador at World Startup Report. Mohout is a keynote speaker and panelist on technology, marketing, entrepreneurship and innovation topics at leading conferences. |
Bernard Janssen Head of Professional Banking Retail Lending ING Bank |
Bernard Janssen is Head of Professional Banking Retail Lending within ING Zone East. He is very passionate about the professional segment and really driven in supporting start-ups with time-to-market banking and beyond banking solutions. He is one of the leading people in the innovation approach within ING with a heart for people & new technology. Bernard is a driving force in the ING Business Bankers architecture to SME and all innovative ventures. As a former Business Manager development Commercial Banking he excelled in collaboration and team work. He was one of the driving PLATO-godfathers within ING. He started his career at Arthur Andersen in 1996 as a consultant. |
Dirk Lievens Chief matchmaker start it @kbc |
Dirk is Chief Matchmaker and mentor at start it @KBC, an incubator that supports early-stage entrepreneurship in Belgium. Dirk has his roots in investment banking, innovation management and business development. He is an out-of-the-box banker with a no-nonsense mentality. Dirk is passionate about intra/entrepreneurship, (tech) start-ups, crowdfunding, SME financing and open innovation through collaboration. In his role as innovation manager within KBC Group, he co-founded Bolero Crowdfunding. Dirk is a visiting lecturer about how to get funded as a start-up/SME, and more specific about crowdfunding. |
Peter Dedrij business development droneport |
Peter has his roots in engineering but, over the years, has become an experienced strategic marketing and business development professional. For 10 years he has been working for Microsoft in different sales and marketing management roles. Peter was also director of the Microsoft Innovation Center Flanders where his passion for people, new technology, disruptive business models and StartUps was sparked. Recently Peter has been appointed business development manager DronePort in Sint-Truiden where he is firing up an ecosystem that promotes innovation and entrepreneurship to support the development of this interesting new technology. So, if you are into tech driven innovation and entrepreneurship, he is the guy to talk to! |
Carine Lucas AGORIA Centre of innovation |
Carine Lucas has a broad background in software engineering and ICT-driven innovation in a wide range of domains (healthcare, media, manufacturing, smart cities, ...). As an advisor at IWT (now Agency for Innovation & Entrepreneurship) she evaluated and followed hundreds of research and innovation projects conducted by companies (start-ups, SME's, large and international companies), universities and research organisations. As a team lead of the ICT & Mechatronics group at IWT she developed a broad view of the domain. Within Agoria she is a member of the Centre of Expertise Innovation, where she advises ICT companies on their innovation approach. |
Johan Nijs innovatie centrum |
Received the Electrical Engineering University degree in 1977, the PhD degree in Applied Sciences in 1982 and the degree of Master of Business Administration in 1994, all from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. He worked respectively at Philips (Belgium), K.U.Leuven (Belgium), I.B.M. Thomas J. Watson Research Center (NY, USA), the Interuniversity Micro-Electronics Center (IMEC) in Leuven, Belgium and Photovoltech (solar cell manufacturer) in Tienen, Belgium, which he fully joined in January 2003 as General Manager until March 2011. Since April 2011 until September 2014 he has been acting as an independent consultant for several companies a.o. in energy and micro-electronics. Since October 2014 he joined the Innovatiecentrum Limburg vzw, Hasselt, Belgium as clusteradvisor. His task there is broad-spectrum and is to help especially SME’s in the Limburg province of Belgium to collaborate in a complementary and innovative way in order to improve their business. |
May 10 2016 @ DroneConvention 2016 the nominees will have their closing pitch in front of an audience of 500 professionals and the Jury will thereafter announce the "Drone Hero 2016" !
| the criteria of the jury |
The Drone Hero surprised the jury with outstanding achievements in the field of creativity, innovation and business opportunity:
Your valorization is promising
Your business opportunities are great
Your innovation spirit is proven
Your proposal is unique and an expression of your creativity
You will be an international hero
Your valorization is promising
Your business opportunities are great
Your innovation spirit is proven
Your proposal is unique and an expression of your creativity
You will be an international hero
