The Governing Board is the EIT's principal governing body, entrusted with the strategic leadership of the Institute and the overall direction of operational activities implemented by the EIT main office in Budapest. It is independent in its decision-making and responsible for the selection, evaluation, and support of the EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities.
Below you will find the current members of the EIT Governing Board along with their declaration of interests and confidentiality undertaking (which might be unavailable in the case that the member is newly appointed and the declaration is still being finalised).
Executive Committee
The Executive Committee supports the activities of the Governing Board by overseeing the implementation of its strategic decisions. It consists of the EIT Governing Board Chairperson and three members of the EIT Governing Board.
European Commission Observer
In accordance with the EIT Regulation, the European Commission appoints an observer to take part in the meetings of the Governing Board and of the Executive Committee.
Chairperson of the EIT Governing Board & Executive Committee
Stefan DOBREV
Current position: Global Head of Plant Based at the Emmi Group
Stefan brings extensive experience at the intersection of strategy and technology, notably innovation management, establishing open innovation ecosystems and maximizing the impact of R&D and investment. This builds on a 25-year career in business, venture finance and consulting, focused on helping business leverage science and technology for commercial success.
He was previously Vice President of the Board of MassChallenge Switzerland, which he co-founded, Global Head of Innovation Partnerships for the Nestlé Group, Head of Group Strategy and Business Development at Theo Müller Group and Director at L.E.K. Consulting. As an entrepreneur, he was founder and managing director of Plantopia and advisor and board member for a number of other start-ups. Stefan currently serves as a Global Head of Plant-Based for the Emmi Group. Born in Sofia, Stefan holds a degree in economics from the University of Oxford.
Term of office: 2022-2026
Annual Declaration of Interests and Independence
Members of the EIT Governing Board & Executive Committee
Jan FIGEL
Ján Figeľ served as the first Slovak EU Commissioner (2004-9) responsible for Education, Training Culture and Youth policy. Under leadership of the EC President J.M. Barroso he was responsible for initiation and adoption of the Regulation (EC) No 294/2008 establishing the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. He was a Chief Negotiator in the accession process of Slovakia to the EU. In the national politics he served as Vice-President and Member of the Parliament, Deputy Prime Minister and State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In recent years Ján Figeľ was the first ever Special Envoy for Promotion Freedom of Religion or Belief outside the European Union (2016-19). As a tireless advocate of human dignity he was the key initiator of the Declaration on Human Dignity for Everyone Everywhere (2018). With his personal diplomacy and institutional backing he helped to release prisoners of conscience in Pakistan, Cuba, Iran and Sudan.
Term of office: 2021-2025
Annual Declaration of Interests and Independence
Janis GREVINS
Current position: Director of Riga Business School at Riga Technical University
Janis Grevins is an academic executive with a strong focus on institutional development, technology implementation and business linkages. He has been the Director of Riga Business School at Riga Technical University since April 2003. He also serves as the independent member on the Supervisory Board of Tet Ltd., Latvia. Between 1998 and 2003 he studied for his MBA and PhD degrees, and worked as a project coordinator at the School of Management of the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, USA. His research was devoted to the analysis of the effects of modern communications on project management performance.
The strong academic training combined with broad international management experience has allowed Mr. Grevins to provide leadership for international institutional development initiatives and implementations for several national strategy projects linked to technology adoption.
Term of office: 2021-2025
Annual Declaration of Interests and Independence
Silvia LENAERTS
Current position: Rector Magnificus of Eindhoven University of Technology
Silvia Lenaerts is a real innovator. She is a founder in industry as well as in academia. She wants to create impact by connecting people, growing together. In 2023, she was appointed as Rector Magnificus of the Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE). Previously serving as Vice-rector Valorisation & Development, she founded Antwerp Valorisation & Development (AVD) as a separate business unit within the Universiteit Antwerpen. By installing three multidisciplinary open innovation hubs that break down the silo mentality through intense collaboration between researchers, businesspeople, entrepreneurs, investors, citizens and policymakers, more impact can be created. An open innovation culture with respect for and recognition of each other's individual strengths, knowledge and competences is key.
In industry she founded a company on gas sensors and worked as lead assessor for management systems. She is board member in three companies and organizations. Already in her young years, she was pioneering as she was the first chemist to do her PhD at IMEC.
Term of office: 2022-2026
Annual Declaration of Interests and Independence
Razvan NICOLESCU
Current position: Member of Supervisory Board, OMV Petrom
Razvan Nicolescu previously served as the Romanian Minister of Energy and the Chairman of the European Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators. He also used to be a partner of Deloitte responsible for energy and climate change practice in Central Europe and an associate professor of the Romanian Academy for the Economic Studies. He serves in several corporate boards, including being a Member of OMV Petrom’s Supervisory Board, a company he led as a Director between 2008 and 2014. He began his professional career as an energy researcher with a strong academic background. He is a reputable European expert on energy and climate change issues, having significant experience in bringing innovation, the academic community and business leaders to effectively work together. In 2021 he funded a European energy and climate think tank.
He has a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Polytechnical University of Bucharest and an MBA degree from the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management. In addition, he has graduated from executive programmes at Stanford Business School. He is member of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Term of office: 2021-2025
Annual Declaration of Interests and Independence
Members of the EIT Governing Board
Mark Boris ANDRIJANIC
Current position: Vice President of Kumo.AI, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council
Mark Boris Andrijanič is the Vice President of Kumo.AI, a California-based deep learning venture backed by Sequoia Capital. He also serves as a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, focusing on AI governance and transatlantic tech diplomacy.
In 2021 and 2022, he served as Slovenia’s first-ever Minister of Digital Transformation. During Slovenia’s EU presidency in 2021, he led negotiations on the Digital Services Act (DSA) and other European tech regulations. In 2022, Ukraine's President Zelenskyy awarded him the Peace Prize for supporting Ukraine's digital resilience.
Before entering public office, Mark Boris headed Uber’s public policy in Central & Eastern Europe. He was also a Visiting Fellow at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies in Brussels, where he focused on the EU’s digital and economic policies. Before coming to Brussels, he advised the Government of Sierra Leone on economic and transparency reforms.
Mark Boris is a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum and a former David D. Rockefeller Fellow at the Trilateral Commission. He received a law degree from the University of Ljubljana and a Master's in public policy from the University of Oxford, where he also serves on the Alumni Board.
Term of office: 2022-2026
Annual Declaration of Interests and Independence
Heinrich ARNOLD
Current position: Board member - Atreus, Bekaert S.A., Connected Living gGmbH, Max Planck Institute,
Heinrich Arnold is a top manager, investor, and board member always acting on the innovation transformation of Europe. From 2016 to 2019, he has been CEO of Detecon, the largest technology consultancy from Germany. Before, he was in charge of corporate R&D of Deutsche Telekom/ T-Mobile with locations in Israel, Germany, and Silicon Valley for over a decade. That made him youngest head of R&D of a German Top 20 company. He has contributed significantly to the emergence of the Berlin and Israel innovation ecosystems.
Arnold acts on several advisory boards in the high-tech industry and policy including Davidson Capital, Germany’s first venture debt provider. He started his career at Mercer Management Consulting (now Oliver Wyman) and co-founded the first Sino-German Biotech start-up Bicoll. Arnold holds a MSc from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in technology management. He is honorary professor of Engineering of Digital Transformation at TU Berlin.
Term of office: 2022-2026
Annual Declaration of Interests and Independence
Anne BORG
Current position: Professor of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Prof. Anne Borg has been Rector at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) since 2019. She is Professor in condensed matter physics. Her research areas include surface physics applying scanning probe microscopy and photoelectron spectroscopy. In 2018 Professor Anne Borg was awarded an Honorary Doctorate at Lund University. During the period from 2017 to 2023, she was chairing the Scientific Advisory Committee of MAX IV Laboratory.
Prof. Borg has over the years served on a large number of scientific committees, among others in the European Science Foundation Materials Science and Engineering Expert Committee (MatSEEC). She served as chair of the Board of the European Universities Network Enhance between 2020 and 2023.
During her academic career, Prof. Borg has been strongly engaged in educational matters, both as vice dean and vice rector of education. She has, in particular, worked on the development of study programs in natural sciences and engineering.
Term of office: 2024-2028
Annual Declaration of Interests and Independence
Dariusz JEMIELNIAK
Current position: Vice-President of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Board Member of the Wikimedia Foundation
Dariusz Jemielniak is a Full Professor and Head of Management in Networked and Digital Environments (MINDS) department, Kozminski University, and a faculty associate at Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University. He is Vice President of the Polish Academy of Sciences. His recent books include Strategizing AI in Business and Education (2023, Cambridge University Press, with A. Przegalinska), Collaborative Society (2020, MIT Press, with A. Przegalinska), Thick Big Data (2020, Oxford University Press), Common Knowledge? An Ethnography of Wikipedia (2014, Stanford University Press).
He is also a practitioner: he has served on the Board of Trustees of Wikimedia Foundation since 2015 where he chaired the HR committee and the governance committee, as well as a vice-chair on the Board of Trustees of Escola S.A., a joint stock mobile apps company. He co-founded 2 successful edtech startups, ling.pl and instaling.pl.
Term of office: 2024-2028
Annual Declaration of Interests and Independence
Nora KHALDI
Current position: Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nuritas
Dr. Nora Khaldi is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nuritas, and a member of the world economic forum of young global leaders. Since 2023, she is also a member of the Forbes Business Council. She has a unique interdisciplinary background in Mathematics, Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology. Dr. Khaldi is disrupting the status quo of health and wellbeing by integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to extract peptides from natural sources for the development of active ingredients to address a broad range of consumer health areas such as metabolic and cognitive health,. Since launching in 2014, Nuritas has grown rapidly and boasts well-known funders and support from the EU Horizon 2020 and the European Investment Bank, among others, raising over EUR 60 million to date.
Dr. Khaldi has won numerous awards and in 2017 was named Woman of the Decade in Business and Leadership at the Women Economic Forum (WEF) European Union Event. In 2019 she was inducted into the Young Global Leaders Forum. She continues to lead the Nuritas team in their goal of reaching billions of people with their lifechanging ingredients, working with global leaders such as Nestle, BASF and Givaudan to achieve this.
Term of office: 2021-2025
Annual Declaration of Interests and Independence
Kyriacos KOKKINOS
Current position: Founder and CEO of Business Insights Consulting Ltd
Kyriacos Kokkinos is former Minister for Research, Innovation (R&I) and Digital Policy of the Republic of Cyprus. He previously served as the National Chief Scientist for R&I of the Republic, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the R&I Foundation and Member of the National Board of Research & Innovation. He is a distinguished professional with more than 30 years of experience in Executive Management, Technology and Business Consulting, served in senior executive roles in global corporations such as IBM Europe (Executive Director & Partner) and PwC.
He also served on the Board of Directors of many organisations, and is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions for professional excellence and lifetime achievements. He holds MSc and BSc in Electrical Engineering from NJIT, USA, and a Corporate Executive MBA in Strategic Management from Henley Management College, UK.
Term of office: 2024-2028
Annual Declaration of Interests and Independence
Anna LINDÉN
Current position: Chairperson of the Board of Innofactor, Vice-Chair of the Board of Åbo Akademi University
Experienced Chairman of the Board of Directors and Member of the Board of Innofactor Plc. and Åbo Akademi University, Ms. Lindén has an extensive background in global business leadership and information technology. She worked as e.g. COO at Nokia managing global operations across 10+ business lines in a global multi-billion business group and as EVP with full P&L responsibility for sales and operations on the management team of a listed company.
Ms. Lindén has strong know-how in the management of multi-national companies as well as in taking technology changes into account in business. She succeeded in leading growth and large-scale transformation programs as well as successfully managing innovation creation utilizing local ecosystems in global networks of R&D centres. An avid supporter of education and research, Ms. Lindén has cooperated with the academic world as a business leader and now serves as Vice Chair of a multi-faculty university.
Term of office: 2024-2028
Annual Declaration of Interests and Independence
Michel MARITON
Current position: Vice-President for Economic Development, Université Paris-Saclay
An alumnus of ENS Paris-Saclay, Michel started his scientific career at the "Laboratoire des Signaux Systèmes", a laboratory of CNRS, Supelec and Paris University. After a visiting period at the University of California San Diego, he joined MATRA (now AIRBUS) and headed its Image and Signal Processing Laboratory, working on earth observations, command & control, intelligence and guidance programs, becoming Vice-President for the Ground Receiving Stations business unit.
He then switched to medium-sized deep tech companies, developing international markets and integrating multicultural teams, first as President and CEO of HORIBA Jobin Yvon, a spectroscopic instrumentation leader, then as COO of SURYS, a specialist in holographic authentication and security, and lately as COO of AMPLITUDE Laser, the ultrafast laser pioneer. He presently serves as a Vice President of Université Paris-Saclay.
Term of office: 2024-2026
Annual Declaration of Interests and Independence
Pia SANDVIK
Current position: CEO of Technology Industries of Sweden
Associate professor Pia Sandvik was the CEO of Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE) between 2016 and 2023. In 2023, she was appointed as CEO of Technology Industries of Sweden, the Association of Swedish Engineering Industries. Sandvik has a doctorate degree in quality technology from Linköping University and has been in executive and leading positions in academia, industry, and the public sector for over 20 years. Ms Sandvik was Vice-Chancellor of Luleå University of Technology, and CEO of a financial company in banking and insurance. In 2015-2016, Ms. Sandvik was one of four members in the Advisory Board to the Prime Minister regarding the Swedish Strategy for Smart Industry.
She has a wide experience as chairman and board member in both public and private sector. She used to serve as Chairman of the board of KTH Royal Institute of Technology between 2020 and 2023. Additionally, she is currently board member of Företagspartner Almi, which offers financing, venture capital and business development services, and of the limited tech company Prevas. She is fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA).
Term of office: 2022-2026
Annual Declaration of Interests and Independence
Inga SKISAKER
Current position: CEO and Chairwoman of Swedbank in Lithuania
Inga Skisaker is CEO and Chairwoman of Swedbank in Lithuania. She is also a member of Supervisory Council of Swedbank Investment Management Company in Lithuania. She has 21 years’ experience as Senior Executive from different industries. Her previous roles include CEO of RIMI Lithuania, Head of Nordea Bank in the Baltic Countries. She also held senior positions in Nordea Group in the Nordics. Inga is experienced in leading cross-cultural teams across Nordic and Baltic regions. Led turnaround, change and cultural transformations of different businesses through new creating and implementing new business strategy. Experienced in M&A (deals up to 578 million euro) with pre- and post-merger integration. Has worked as NED on a listed Telecom company Telia in Lithuania, Dairy company Rokiskio Suris , and Baltic Management Institute. Inga holds BA degree in English Philology and Literature from Vilnius University. She also has MBA from Vilnius University.
Term of office: 2022-2026
Annual Declaration of Interests and Independence
European Commission Observer
Mr Normunds Popens, Deputy Director-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture in the European Commission
Responsibilities of the EIT Governing Board as outlined in the EIT Regulation can be consulted here.
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