2007 Best Innovator Award Ceremony

On the evening of Wednesday October 24, the main hall of Brussels’ historic Tour & Taxis building was transformed into an awards auditorium as over 200 Belgian business leaders arrived to celebrate the best in innovation.

A.T. Kearney Partner Laurent Dumarest and Manager Philip Visser hosted the evening, which Laurent began by providing some background to the event, describing the selection criteria and explaining today’s key challenges for superior innovation management.

After a lively panel discussion with representatives from all five nominated companies and closing remarks by Gilles Samyn, Chairman of the Solvay Business School Alumni Association, Armand De Decker – Chairman of the Belgian Senate – took the stage to hand over the awards.

Erwin Danis, PreMedia Director of Roularta Publishing, Pierre Dewitte, Director Research, Technology & Development of Solvay Specialty Polymers and Miguel del Marmol, CEO of Total Belgium were first presented with a certificate on their position as finalists in this year’s competition. Then Thierry Van Landegem, VP Research & Innovation of Alcatel-Lucent Bell was invited to receive the trophy for Laureate in Innovation Strategy and Processes. Finally Jean Stéphenne, CEO of GSK Biologicals received the trophy for Winner of the Best Innovator Award Belgium 2007.

The presentation of the awards was followed by short presentations from the laureate and winner as they described their innovation processes in more detail. Laurent Dumarest then closed the formal portion of the evening by inviting all the guests to mingle with the finalists during a walking dinner that lasted late into the evening.