The CTO of the Year Europe award 2019 was presented at Orgalim’s ‘Reinventing Europe’s Industrial Leadership’ event on 12 November, with ABB’s Amina Hamidi-Calvo securing the title in the Large Enterprises category and Faktion’s Joeri Van Steen triumphing in the SME category. The award was created to pay tribute to the work of the Chief Technology Officers that foster a culture of innovation and make technology work for Europe.
But what exactly does a CTO do? How do they drive business development within their own companies, while fostering the innovation that can help address some of society’s biggest challenges? And what role does the EU policy framework play in how they approach these tasks?
A feature published this week in Euractiv takes a closer look at these questions, profiling the two winners of the CTO of the Year award and examining how CTOs lead their teams to transform lightbulb inspiration into real-world solutions across sectors.
Presenting the CTO of the Year Europe award 2019 – from left to right: Ernst Lutz, EIRMA President; Anne-Christine Ayed, AOC Innovation President, Former EVP of Research & Innovation, Tarkett; Pekka Koponen, Secretary of the Jury, Founder and Chairman of Spinverse; winner in the Large Enterprises category Amina Hamidi-Calvo, CTO of ABB Electrification; winner in the SME category, Joeri van Steen, CTO at Faktion; Tomas Hedenborg, Senior Adviser to the Board at Fastems and Chairman of the Jury; Rada Rodriguez, Member of the Management Board of Schneider Electric GmbH and Orgalim President; Malte Lohan, Director General at Orgalim – Europe’s Technology Industries.