Léopold Demiddeleer

Dr. Demiddeleer holds a PhD in Physical Chemistry from Brussels University (ULB) and served from 2000 to 2011 as Senior Executive Vice President for Future Businesses and Corporate Venturing of Solvay, S.A., a Belgian pharmaceutical and chemical group with a global reach. He joined Solvay in 1981. Starting in catalyst research, he successively lead different R&D entities of the group – polyethylene, high performance materials, global polyolefin’s research – before being appointed New Business Development Director in 2000. From 2004 to 2011, he held the Solvay seat at the Advisory Boards of three Venture Funds (Pangaea II, Canada – Conduit Ventures Ltd, UK – KAM, Korea) and was an active Board member of a start-up in the field of printed electronics (Plextronics – Pittsburgh, USA) and of Solvicore (Hanau, Germany), a JV between Umicore and Solvay for the development of Fuel Cells Materials.

He is Honorary President of EIRMA (European Industrial Research Management Association) where he served, from 2008 to 2013 as President of the Governing Board. From 2009 to 2014, he joined the Advisory Boards of Georgia Tech (Atlanta, USA), CEA-PFNC (Grenoble, France), and the Manchester Business School (UK). In 2009, Dr. Demiddeleer was appointed member of the Belgian Royal Academy for the Section Technology and Society. He currently teaches “Industrial Chemical Innovation“ at Brussels University, works with Georgia Tech as a Director for Development in Europe and Chairs the Board of McPhy Energy (Grenoble, France).