The Board of Advisors of TCI

Antoni Subirà, Chairman of The Competitiveness Institute's Board of Advisors and Catalonia's former minister of industry, have been invited by European Commissioner for Science and Research Janez Potocnik to join a group that will identify priority actions for the EU to boost its investment in research.

Dr. Tea Petrin is currently the ambassador of Slovenia to the Netherlands and at present is initiating meetings between the Dutch cluster on life science and the Slovenian cluster on biotechnology and pharmacy, with the aim of developing cooperation ties between the two.

Dr. Bert Twaalfhoven newly joined our Board of Advisors - he is founder of the European Foundation for Entrepreneurship Research (EFER). He holds a Bachelor in Science from Fordham University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In 1993, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Fordham University.

Dr. Hansen is one of the pioneers of cluster-based economic development, and continues to create new ways to stimulate private-sector development and public-private collaboration in different economic and cultural contexts around the world. His speciality is advising and motivating regional leaders in the design and execution of large-scale economic change efforts that focus on action and implementation.

Emiliano Duch is one of the Founders and has been President of The Competitiveness Institute - he still forms part of the Board of Advisors and is very active in the developments and the events of TCI.

Ifor Ffowcs-Williams is founder and past president of The Competitiveness Institute. He is Chief Executive of Cluster Navigators Ltd in Wellington, New Zealand.

Mr. Per Eriksson is the first Director General of VINNOVA, the Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems that was founded 2001.

Sergio Arzeni is the Director of the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs and Local Development since July 2004. He continues to head the OECD Programme on Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED).

Hubert Schmitz is Professor at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex, UK. He is a Development Economist with 25 years of experience in research, teaching and advisory work.

Professor Michael Best is professor emeritus and a director of the Center for Industrial Competitiveness at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. He is also senior associate in industrial organization at the Judge Business School, Cambridge University.