Michael Maes is an engineering leader with extensive experience in AI governance and software engineering. They have held various senior roles at Collibra since 2015, including Senior Engineering Manager and Director of Software Engineering, while leading teams in data engineering and data science. Michael has also served as Head of Engineering at Deepnote and is currently the Vice President of Engineering at AppTweak. Their academic background includes a PhD in Elementary Particle Physics from Vrije Universiteit Brussel, where they analyzed data from the Large Hadron Collider. Michael's earlier experience includes a summer internship at CERN and a role as a researcher in big data at Bisnode Belgium.