ECTA ANNUAL MEETING 2023

Annika Kroon:

Annika Kroon is head of the Maritime Transport and Logistics Unit in the Directorate General for Mobility and Transport in the European Commission. The unit deals with sustainable maritime policies, maritime markets and international maritime agreements, but also with digital and sustainable intermodal freight transport and logistics. Annika is an economist with Master’s degrees in Cybernetics in Economy and International Finance, having devoted last 13 years to transport policy. In her earlier assignments in the European Commission, she was involved in setting up the impact assessment framework for new policies.

Jan Fransoo:

Jan Fransoo is Professor of Operations and Logistics Management in the School of Economics and Management at Tilburg University. He is also a visiting professor at Eindhoven University of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Fransoo’s current research studies decision-making in global logistics chains and retailing. Fransoo regularly collaborates in research and consulting with large corporations, technology start-ups, national and regional governments, and intergovernmental organizations. He has held leadership positions at Eindhoven University of Technology and Kuehne Logistics University, and was a co-founder of the Netherlands National Logistics Institute Dinalog.

Stefan Siegemund:

Stefan Siegemund has been responsible for Business Development New Energies at VTG since May 2022. Before joining VTG, Mr Siegemund was Head of Alternative Energy Sources and Mobility at the German Energy Agency (dena). He also spent several years managing projects at the interface between renewable energies and logistics in the Ministry of Economics of the State of Brandenburg and in the Transport Logistics Research Group at the Technical University of Wildau.

Joost Naessens:

Joost Naessens is the Transport & Logistics Director at Cefic, the European Chemical industry Council, in Brussels since 2019. 
In this role, he is advocating for the chemical sector at the European authorities and giving guidance to Cefic´s members in the areas of transport & logistics safety, sustainability and digitalization.
He holds a master’s degree in chemical engineering and has 25+ years of experience in project management, production and supply chain management, transport and site logistics management at BASF Antwerpen.

William Garcia: 

Before joining Cefic, he was Global Director in charge of operational excellence at LyondellBasell (LBI), leading the manufacturing management processes integration and auditing initiative. He has a strong experience in general manufacturing management and leading large organizations through re-engineering.
As part of his role for Cefic, Mr. Garcia leads the industry federation’s safety, health, environment, Responsible Care and logistics strategies and shapes its political agenda.
Recently, he was also appointed as Vice-Chairman of the Business@OECD (BIAC) Energy and Environment Policy Committee.

Luca Senis: 

Luca has more than 20 years of experience in Logistics and Supply chain. He started his career at Dow in 2007. Before joining Dow, he had several roles in the Logistics Industry, mainly focusing on Maritime Logistics and International Freight Forwarding. After Luca fulfilled different roles in the supply chain in the Netherlands and North America, he moved back to Terneuzen in 2016 where he joined Dow Logistics Team with the role of International Trade Operation Director for Europe. Since May 2022, Luca has accepted the position of Road and Intermodal Logistics Director for Europe. In this role, Luca is responsible for the management of the daily operations in Europe with accountability to ensuring safe, and sustainable road operations for Dow.

Kirsti Gjertsen:

Kirsti Gjertsen graduated as Master Applied Economic Sciences (2014) and Advanced Master in Maritime Sciences (2015) at the University of Antwerp, Belgium.
After graduation she started working at MSC Belgium, where she had the opportunity to work at different departments, mainly with commercial focus, such as Import Far East, Cross Trades and Reefer. In 2021 she joined Port of Antwerp-Bruges as Key Accountmanager Shippers and Forwarders. Her focus domains are chemicals, plastics, automotive and soft commodities.

Patrick Meersmans:

Patrick Meersmans has more than 20 years of experience in Supply Chain, IT development and Logistics. He joined SABIC in Europe back in 2005, starting in Supply Chain Planning.
In his current role, he is responsible for SABIC’s global Supply Chain Center of Excellence, Global Supply Chain projects as well as Supply Chain EHSS.

Frank Kuijpers:

Frank Kuijpers has over 36 years of international business experience in Engineering, Licensing, Manufacturing, Business, and Strategy, having worked in a number of different countries, including the Netherlands, United States of America, Belgium, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Frank has held senior executive positions since 2000. Currently he is an Executive Advisor at SABIC.
Frank took up his current position of Executive Advisor in September 2023.