Meet the Team

fast growing internet access provider. He was later promoted Executive Vice-President of Belgacom, responsible for the Consumer and Business Solutions business unit.

In 2004, Philippe joined the cable company Telenet as Executive Vice-President in charge of the residential clients division, where he supervised the launch of digital television and mobile telephony services.

In 2007, Philippe decided to become independent and brought his expertise as a consultant on strategic matters to several clients across different industries. He also decided to spend more time with startups, a passion which found it’s roots back in his Apple days, when he had co-founded a startup to develop a mobile assistant for doctors. Over the last few years, he has been involved as an investor and board member of several young companies, and is a regular coach in the NEST’up acceleration program.

More recently, Philippe has followed a 2 years coaching program at the Leading & Coaching Academy, and is a co-founder of Lean Studio where his skills and experience of startups and established organisations come together to help large companies innovate like startups.

belgian leader. Author of several books, columnist and speaker, Benoit played an important role in the development of Internet in Belgium and launched several ventures in the field of digital marketing and technology.

In 2005, DAD merged with the LBi international AB group, undisputed European leader in digital marketing and technology. In 2008, Benoit took over the role of CVO to assist LBi and large national and international corporations in the development of successful digital strategies.

Next to LBi, Benoit started to focus on helping companies - from startups to large multi-national companies - to unlock the potential of the digital (r)evolution and explore disruptive innovation. As a Lean Startup practitioner, coach and mentor for several startup accelerator programs and intrapreneurship programs, Benoit has helped hundreds of teams on their journey to innovative startup creation.

Co-Founder of Lean Studio, Benoit serves also as board member of several companies and organisations in Belgium.

Knowledge Plaza in 2007, which has achieved a leading position in the area of corporate knowledge management and enjoys a strong international growth.

In 2012, he surrounded himself with seasoned businessmen to create Fostering Ideas, whose mission is to accompany innovative projects from the initial idea until first market introduction. When he noticed a wide gap between what entrepreneurs need and existing initiatives can deliver, the idea of the NEST’up startup acceleration program came to him. In the meantime, other initiatives have resulted in a wide ecosystem, including the Lean Fund which brings seed capital to promising entrepreneurs and the Creative Spark which hosts many startups in a creative environment.

Olivier is a co-founder of Lean Studio, in which he helps organisations to uncover disruptive opportunities and adapt their culture to innovate and become agile like startups.

Creative Wallonia Engine (the new name for Fostering Ideas) and Lean Studio are the organisational conduits for Olivier’s tremendous level of energy and passion for entrepreneurship and creativity.

Toon olds a "commercial engineering degree" from Solvay Business School at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and was awarded "ICT manager SME of the year 2002" by the Belgian Datanews jury. He has followed the Virtualization industry for over a decade as the publisher of Virtualization.com. Toon splits his time between entrepreneur and coach roles, while trying to keep focus on the development of his ventures. Interested in early-stage startups as well as companies “on the bubble”.

Specialties: SME directorships, ICT project management, coaching, strategy consulting, innovation projects & ventures, publisher (running blogs and broadcasting video coverage) & big data. Experience in technology, insurance, government, data brokerage and construction industry.

In 2003, Laurent started his entrepreneurial experience by co-founding a web development studio. He delivered web solutions for industrial manufacturers, lawyers, medical, and public services.

Since 2005, Laurent operated as a freelance consultant providing mentoring, project management, web marketing, starters coaching, and crisis management to small & medium organizations in various sectors.

In 2006 Laurent co-founded and acted as CTO of vinogusto.com, an online wine guide, and move on to Bluesquare.org in 2012, providing online tools for managing low income countries aid program financing.

Over the years, Laurent has had the opportunity to develop a deep foreign professional experience, bringing him from the US, to Eastern Europe (Poland, Romania), Asia (India, Vietnam, Laos) and Africa (Cameroon, Benin, Senegal, Burundi, Rwanda, and Chad).

He serves as a board member in several startups, reflecting on good organization governance, based on positive human relationships, respect, and balanced interests.

Recently, Laurent followed a training in Neuro Linguistic Programming, and in “constellations archétypales & symboliques”, believing that a personal development path expand the professional acuteness and brings real value to organizations.

Laurent took part as a coach in the NEST’up acceleration program since its first iteration. Going through the Lean Startup Process is a repeated stimulating, powerful and joyful experience that Laurent experienced across several other formats, such as NEST’in (1 or 2 week pre-acceleration program), and Startech (Lean Startup practical course for engineering students).

Jean-Baptiste likes to share his hands-on experience of the Lean Startup methodology. He has actively coached innovative companies like Odoo or MyMicroInvest on there online marketing strategy, as well as entrepreneurs through programs such as NEST’up and Solvay Entrepreneur.

Today, Jean-Baptiste is regularly engaged with Lean Studio where he applies his technical background and entrepreneurial mindset in support of innovation programs within large organisations.

In 2011 Marc became a freelance lead software developer and Agile coach. He had the opportunity to speak at several Agile and technical conferences (such as the european XP conference and the ALE conference or Fosdem) as well as organizing the first Agile tour Brussels and creating local technical and Agile communities (Agile Belgium, RubyBurgers, …). As a freelance, Marc worked for several startups on both short and long term missions. This led Marc to catch up with the Lean Startup movement. During those years, Marc got involved in the creation of Nest’Kids, an entrepreneurship for kids summer camp, and then spent 18 months in Texas where he got involved in several startup incubators as a technical coach and mentor.

Since he returned to Belgium in 2014, Marc has been coaching entrepreneurs during the NEST'up acceleration program and has been an invited professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain, being in charge of a project closing the bachelor program of computer engineering students. Marc is also one of the three founders of Spin42, an IT consultancy company that also incubates startups with IT technical challenges.

Marc joined Lean Studio in 2015 and has been involved as a coach in various innovation programs.

In 2009, she followed a program in Entrepreneurship at Solvay Entrepreneurs and founded Clover, an ethically-minded clothing company. Since then, she has gained significant expertise in entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems. Catherine spent 3 years coaching startups and spin-offs in the healthcare and greentech industries at i-Tech Incubator. Later she joined impulse.brussels to coach innovative startups. In the meantime, she has attended several trainings on business model innovation and Lean Startup.

Today, Catherine helps entrepreneurs and established companies to design and implement winning business models. She also gives trainings on innovation, entrepreneurship and Business Model Innovation, both as a freelancer and as a teaching assistant at Solvay Business School. Finally, she is an expert for the European Commission to evaluate innovative projects. She recently joined the Lean Studio team to help established organisations innovate like startups.

In 1999, she joined ING as Account Manager in the Corporate Banking Department in Brussels where she managed a portfolio of a hundred SME’s, understanding their financing needs and supporting their development.

She started with ex-IBMers a Venture Capital Fund before joining, in 2002, the Sofina Group, ending-up as Senior Investment Manager and CFO of the Group. Sophie has a large experience in strategic analysis, management assessment and investment, as a long term partner alongside entrepreneurs.

Since 2004, she has been involved as board member in several companies of all sizes, from university spin-off funds to large quoted companies.

In 2015, Sophie decided to become independent and brought her expertise to support business development and entrepreneurship with a focus on organisation and people development. She has also decided to spend more time with startups, which found it’s roots back to the Venture Capital time and has been involved as a coach in the NEST’up acceleration program. She is collaborating with Lean Studio to help large companies innovate like startups.

To enhance her business skills and support her passion for people development, Sophie followed a 2 years Coaching program at the Leading & Coaching Academy and a Solution Focus Coaching program at Il Faro.