Koenraad Debackere
Prof. Dr. Ir. Koenraad Debackere is the chairman of i-propeller and the general manager of K.U.Leuven.
He obtained his Ph.D. in Management with an ICM-fellowship at the University of Gent after stays as an ICM-fellow and an ICRMOT research assistant at MIT Sloan School of Management. He was a Fulbright-Hays post-doctoral fellow at MIT in 1991-1992.
In 1995 he became professor at K.U.Leuven where he teaches Technology and Innovation Management. In 1993, 1995 and 1997 he has won Best Research Paper Awards from the American Academy of Management and the Decision Sciences Institute. He has also been an invited professor in the area of Innovation Management in various academic MBA programs (Manchester Business School, Insead, Milano Politechnico, Tilburg University, Chalmers University). He has been a promotor and recipient of various research grants by IWT (Flanders), FWO (Belgium & Flanders), DWTC (Belgium), EC (European Commission). He is promoter of the Steunpunt O&O Statistieken of the Flemish government at K.U.Leuven.
He is also actively engaged in technology transfer activity as managing director of K.U. Leuven Research & Development and Chairman of the Gemma Frisius Fonds (the venture fund) of the K.U.Leuven. He is the co-founder and chairman of Leuven.Inc, the innovation network of Leuven high-tech entrepreneurs. He is a board member of IWT-Vlaanderen, the Flemish government agency that supports science and technology development in Flemish industry.