2022 edition

Dr. Jessica Clement is a post-doctoral researcher at the Smart City Institute of the HEC Liège School of Management, where she studies public policies and strategies for smart cities and sustainable urban transitions, as well as the development of collaborative ecosystems in smart cities.

She holds a PhD in Economics (with a focus on institutional political economy) from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and previously held a postdoctoral position at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), where she collaborated with the International Resource Panel (IRP) to contribute to reports on natural resource management and extractive industries governance. She also helped organise the World Resources Forum (WRF) 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Before obtaining her PhD, Jessica completed the Master 1 in Economics (PSME) and the Master 2 in Applied Economics at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. She also holds a Bachelor's degree from McGill University (Canada).

Zakaria Oulad is a local councillor in charge of the Agadir Smart City project in Agadir-MAROC. He is also an experienced entrepreneur and senior consultant with a solid international experience in Strategy, Governance, Digitalisation and Business Development. He has worked for Accenture and Deloitte in Belgium and Australia before becoming an entrepreneur and then a politician. Zakaria holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from HELB and a Master's degree in Management from ULB. He is married and has four children.

Trained as a bioengineer and management engineer, the first 10 years of Amandine Caprasse's professional career focused primarily on project management in different sectors (associative, private, public) and different geographical areas (Western Europe and West Africa).
She entered the "Smart City" theme as a consultant for the City of Wavre to set up a digital portal in 2018. She was then hired by the City of Wavre at the end of 2019 as a TSP referent and was responsible for setting up a portfolio management and project management process. Finally, at the end of 2021, an overhaul of the organisation chart enabled her to take over the reins of the "Strategy and Attractiveness" division. Composed of 8 departments (support and business), the division deals with various Smart City themes: sustainable development, organisational strategy, portfolio and project management, the user experience and citizen participation.

Amélie Debroux has a degree in human resources management and a complementary diploma in public administration (2005). She was successively Secretary of the CPAS of Hélécine (2008), Secretary of the CPAS of Hannut (2010), and in 2013 became Director General of the City of Hannut (16,800 inhabitants).
Passionate about local government, she is keen to make her municipality shine through innovative projects. As a 2018 alumni of the SCI Smart Cities management course, she is aware of the importance of being agile in order to find solutions that will provide a better service to citizens by integrating all stakeholders.

Récemment, la ville de Hannut a remporté plusieurs prix avec son projet d'application Ride & Buy : En octobre, elle a remporté le prix « Smart Commune 2022 » dans le cadre du concours Digital Wallonia Awards - Territoire intelligent et connecté mais aussi le prix "App Champ of the Year 2022" remis par Feweb. Elle s’est vu également décerner en avril dernier le Prix Ardent 2022 des communes pour son application.

Recently, the city of Hannut has won several awards with its Ride & Buy application project: In October, it won the "Smart Commune 2022" award in the Digital Wallonia Awards - Smart and Connected Territory competition and also the "App Champ of the Year 2022" award from Feweb. In April, it was also awarded the Ardent 2022 Prize for municipalities for its application.

Within the Foresight and Territorial Intelligence Unit of the AdN (Digital Agency), Isabelle covers various themes such as smart mobility, smart energy, smart commerce, e-tourism, e-health but also territorial open data, hoping to see the completion of data deposits that will allow to feed future digital twins in Wallonia. It is also working to develop and coordinate a real collaborative governance in Wallonia in this area, particularly with referents such as the Smart City Institute, so that supply and demand can be brought together. With more than 25 years of experience, it supports the various local and supralocal authorities in the various stages of their digital transformation, while enabling the emergence of an ecosystem of local service providers and interoperable smart city solutions. At the origin of the dedicated calls for projects, it works to replicate the subsidised projects throughout the territory, to obtain territorial platforms and to increase the application micro-services offered to our citizens.

Thomas Froehlicher has been General Director of Rennes School of Business since 1 January 2018. He is a regular speaker on international accreditation panels for business schools (AACSB and EQUIS). He is also Vice-President of the Conférence des Grandes Ecoles, in charge of the International Commission.  
He previously worked as General Director and Dean of Kedge Business School, HEC Liège, and ICN Business School, and as General Delegate of ARTEM Nancy. He has been an ordinary professor of strategic management at the University of Lorraine since 2001 (currently on leave).

 Wilfried Niessen has been active in lecturing and business management for 30 years. He set up four companies in the fields of information technology for management (ERP), advising and accountancy-taxation. He is a chartered accountant and tax specialist. For many years, he has combined solid practical experience and lecturing through various publications (Comprenez votre comptable, Versta uw boekhouder, Tableau de Bord et business plan, etc.) and high-level training in public companies and institutions. His areas of expertise are accountancy, business simulations, finance for non-financial managers, IT for management and the setting up of businesses. He is a consultant and trainer for businesses. The last 10 years, his professional focus has been the Business School. He has taught at ESCA, Shenzhen University, Fachhochschule Würzburg. He is member of the Advisory Board of Hohenheim University. Since 2011, he is member of the Board of Director of HEC Liège, first as Academic Director for Strategic Development, then Interim Dean, Director of EXED, First Vice-Dean and now Dean and Director General since 2017.