Speaker Biographies

Morning Exhibition Speakers

Afternoon Debate Speakers

Derk Oldenburg

Head, Dutch Permenant Representation to the EU

Born on 25 October 1958, Derk Oldenburg grew up in the Achterhoek region of Gelderland, in the towns of Winterswijk, Doetinchem and Gendringen. After completing his secondary education in Doetinchem in 1977, he studied Scandinavian languages and literature at the University of Utrecht, graduating in 1983. Between 1983 and 1985 he was a reserve officer in the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps. After that he was employed by Logion, a provider of marine services and logistic support to Van Gend and Loos/Nedlloyd. Between 1985 and 1986 he worked as an adviser and commodity manager in Sudan, where he helped to organise the supply of World Food Programme emergency aid to victims of floods and drought in his capacity as regional manager for the Northern Region. In January 1987 he returned to the Netherlands to train as a diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He went on to hold the following posts at the Ministry: policy officer in the European Integration Department (1988-1990), second secretary at the Dutch embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka (1990-1992), adviser in the personnel department (1992-1996), personal assistant to the Director-General for Political Affairs during the Dutch EU Presidency (1996-1997) and Common Foreign and Security Policy counsellor at the Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels (1997-2001). From summer 2001 to spring 2002 he was seconded to the Belgian foreign ministry to provide assistance during the Belgian EU Presidency, with emphasis on institutional issues, the EU’s external relations and the programme set up by the EU in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

From spring 2001 to the end of summer 2006 he was Deputy Director of the European Integration Department, his main tasks being the coordination of Dutch EU policy (secretary of the Coordinating Committee) and the organisation of the Dutch EU Presidency in the latter half of 2004. The main issues facing that Presidency were the EU’s recent enlargement (ten new member states joined the Union on 1 May 2004), opening negotiations with Turkey on its possible accession, institutional developments (the Constitutional Convention proposed in the Laeken Declaration), talks on the financial perspectives for 2007-2013 and, in the Justice and Home Affairs field, the establishment of the Hague Programme. At the same time he also held the post of secretary of the joint committee on managing EU affairs (the van Voorst tot Voorst Committee) and drafted the committee’s report on the coordination of EU policy. He also drafted the government’s response to the Council of State’s advisory opinion on the consequences of EU membership for the Netherlands.
Since August 2006 Derk Oldenburg has been deputy ambassador in Berlin. He also works part time as a lecturer in European Studies at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the University of Maastricht.

Brian Simpson

MEP, European Parliament

Brian was first elected to the European Parliament in June 1989 and is presently the Chairman of the Parliaments’ Transport and Tourism Committee. He comes from Golborne near Wigan and represents his home region the North West of England in the Parliament for 18 years, Brian was the spokesperson for the Socialist Group on Transport before being made Chair in 2009. He is also a Member of the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee, where he acts as Labour Party Spokesman; and the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with Australia and New Zealand. Married to Linda, he has 3 grown up children and lives in Great Sankey, Warrington. His list of hobbies are, most sports, but in particular, Rugby League; Heritage Railways and Military History. Brian is particularly well read on the American Civil War. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Vice President of the Heritage Railways Association and holds various offices with a number of local community groups and animal welfare groups.

Keith Taylor

Member, European Parliament

Keith Taylor MEP is a member of the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament, representing the South East of England region. Keith is a member of the Parliament's Transport and Tourism Committee, International Trade Committee and the Petitions Committee. He also sits on the delegation to Afghanistan and the Palestine delegation. Keith is Vice President of the UK’s Local Government Association Group in the European Parliament.

Before becoming an MEP, Keith was a Green Party Councillor for St Peter’s & North Laine ward in Brighton and Hove, England, for 11 years, having been elected in 1999. Keith was also a Principal Speaker for the Green Party of England & Wales between 2004 and 2006, before the party adopted a single leader structure.

Jack Oortwijn

Editor-in-chief, BikeEurope

After graduating for a masters degree in retail marketing, Jack Oortwijn started his career at the Dutch Toyota and Suzuki importer in the communication department. As he was (and still is) an avid motorcyclist and through his contacts at the Suzuki importer he was asked to join the editorial staff of a motorcyclist magazine in 1979. This was also his start in journalism. From the motorcycle magazine he switched to the Dutch bike dealer magazine ‘Tweewieler’ where he was editor-in-chief for about ten years. In 1996 Jack Oortwijn initiated the international trade publication for the bicycle industry called Bike Europe which since that start is now in its 15th year of publication. Since then it has developed into one of the leading trade journals for the bike industry. Per January 1, 2011 Jack Oortwijn is again heading the editorial staff of Tweewieler. He is also still editor-in-chief of Bike Europe.

Erik Oddershede

President, ETRA

Erik Oddershede has been in the bicycle business for more than 40 years. After graduating for a master’s degree in sales and marketing he became an independent bicycle dealer and owned three bicycle shops in 19 years. In that period he started two bicycle buying groups in Denmark which to-day are the leading retailers in the bicycle business.

In 1988 he became sales manager in Yamaha Motor Denmark which was a Danish bicycle, moped and motorcycle supplier owned by Yamaha. In 1992 he changed job and became sales director for Smith & Co., which at that time was the largest bicycle producer in Denmark.

In 1996 he became managing director for Danske Cykelhandlere (Danish Twowheel Retailers Association). At the same time he became editor in chief for the Danish trade magazine Cykelbranchen. Erik Oddershede has among other things implemented a certification for bicycle shops, which has raised the competence of the bicycle dealers. He is one of the founders of the Cycling Embassy of Denmark.

He is one of the founders of ETRA (European Twowheel Retailers Association) and has been member of the committee from the beginning. He has also functioned as vice president and is to-day president for ETRA.

Malcolm Harbour

MEP, European Parliament

Malcolm Harbour was elected to the European Parliament in June 1999, and re-elected in June 2004 and 2009. He is one of 2 Conservative members representing the West Midlands Region of the UK. He is Chairman of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee and is a Member of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group. He is Vice-Chairman of the Parliament's Science and Technology Options Assessment Panel (STOA) and a Member of the Inter-Parliamentary Delegation to Japan. Malcolm Harbour takes a special interest in the EU single market, industry, science and technology policy. He is Chairman of the European Manufacturing Forum, the Ceramics Industry Forum and the Conservative Technology Forum. He is a Governor of the European Internet Foundation. He has been the lead MEP (rapporteur) for major legislation on Telecoms, the Single Market and Motor Vehicle standards. Since 2005, he has served on the CARS 21 High Level Group, a Europe-wide initiative to boost the automotive industry. He was named as a top 50 European of 2006 for his key role in broking agreement on the Services Directive. In May 2006, he was named the UK’s most Small Business Friendly UK Parliamentarian by members of the Forum of Private Business. In September 2010, he was voted Internal Market MEP of the Year. Before his election to the Parliament, Malcolm Harbour spent 32 years in the motor industry, as an engineer, a senior commercial executive, a consultant and a researcher. He began his motor industry career in the BMC Longbridge Plant as an Austin Engineering Apprentice in 1967. Malcolm Harbour was born in February 1947. He was educated at Bedford School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in Engineering, and at the University of Aston where he gained a Diploma in Management Studies. He received an Honorary DSc from Aston in 2008.

Saïd El Khadraoui

Member, European Parliament

Education:
• September 1987- June 1992
Graduate Secundary Education (Latin-Mathematics) – Sint-Pieterscollege, Leuven
• September 1992 – June 1997
Graduate Modern History – Dissertation: “De rol van de BSP in de heroprichting van de Socialistische Internationale in 1951 (1945-1951)”(“The influence exerted by the Belgian Socialist Party on the Socialist International in 1951 (1945-1951)”). Promoter: Prof. E. Lamberts.
• September 1997 – June 1998
Complementary education International Relations (KULeuven/Institut d’Etudes Politiques – Paris)

Professional experience:
• August 1998 – September 1998:
Assistant to the Cabinet of the Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Interior L.Tobback
• September 1998 – July 1999:
Advisor to the Cabinet of the Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Interior L. Van den Bossche
• July 1999 – October 1999:
Attaché to the Cabinet of the Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Budget J. Vande Lanotte
• October 1999 – January 4th 2001:
Embassy-attaché for the Department of Foreign Affairs (on mission to the Belgian Representation for the United Nations in New York, from January 28th 2000 to December 20th 2000).
• January 4th 2001-September 22nd 2003:
Civil servant for the Department of Foreign Affairs on political leave – Elderman for Culture, Education, Integration, Foreign Aid & Student Affairs for the city of Leuven. (since 1995 councillor for the city of Leuven)
• June 5th 2003 – October 7th 2003:
Member of the Chamber of Representatives
• October 7th 2003 – until now :
Member of the European Parliament
Member of the Committee on Transport and tourism
Coordinator for the S&D Group
Member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs
Vice president of the Delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries.

Others:
Member of the National party Bureau sp.a, since 2003
Leader of the socialist group in the city council of Leuven, since 2006
International secretary sp.a, since 2007

Inés Ayala Sender

Member, European Parliament

Member of consultative committees on equality, migration, the environment within the ETUC, ICFTU and TUAC. Expert before the European Economic and Social Committee on combating exclusion (1990-1994).

National expert in the Directorate-General for the Environment, European Commission (1995-1997).

European Socialist Party Policy Adviser on various EP committees and delegations (1997-2004).

Deputy Director-General responsible for European programmes, Fundescoop Adviser to the National Institute of Social Security and IMSERSO (1990-1994); Chairwoman of the Spanish Economic and Social Committee Working Party on the White Paper on Industry (1990-1995).

Graduate in Spanish and English (Saragossa, 1975-1982). Studied Law (Saragossa, 1994-1995); postgraduate studies in sustainable development (ULB, 1995-1997).

Heide Rühle

Member, European Parliament

Heide Rühle was first elected to the European Parliament in 1999. She is currently a member of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection and a substitute member of the Committee on Regional Development. Over the last 25 years, she held different positions within the Green party both on the regional and the national level.

Among her main points of interest are questions concerning public procurement, services of general interest and consumer protection.

Heide Rühle was born in Heilbronn on 5th November 1948. She now lives in Stuttgart.
(picture source: European Parliament)

Toine Manders

MEP, European Parliamant

Toine Manders was born in 1956 in Brabant (NL). With an athenaeum diploma he studied at the Academy for Visual Arts. He worked as an industrial designer and part-time teacher in arts.

After a motorbike accident he was obliged to retrain. He decided to study law and specialised in intellectual property rights and personal injury damages.

Toine Manders is in the Internal Market Committee, the Legal Affairs Committee and in the delegations for India and ACP-countries. He has been involved in crucial dossiers like the services directive, environmental liability, gas and electricity, mutual recognition, consumer rights etc. and has worked on the creation of a Community patent for years.

He is the inventor of the TV-programme 'Hallo Europa' and was elected 'Most influential MEP on Internal Market' in 2008.

Sander Cohen

Deputy Head of Mission, Netherlands Embassy in Belgium

Education:
1984: Gymnasium A
1990: University Erasmus Rotterdam : Political Science
1992: Johns Hopkins University, School for Advanced International Studies

1994: Taken up office at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs

1994 – 1997: Policy Advisor Department Integration Europe, The Hague

1997 – 2000: Second Secretary Permanent Representation of The Netherlands at UN, Geneva

2001 – 2003: Advisory Board to the Cabinet of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR), Geneva, - Deputy Director Political Affairs

2003 – 2006: Head Division Judicial Affairs, Department Integration Europe, The Hague

2006 – 2010: Head of Cabinet of the Dutch Minister for European Affairs
June 2010: Deputy Ambassador, Embassy of The Netherlands in Brussels

Klaus Bondam

Director, Danish Cultural Centre in Brussels

Klaus Bondam is 47 years old and originally trained as an actor. He successfully played the german toastmaster in the well-known Danish Dogma movie ‘Festen’. He has also been the manager of two major theaters in Copenhagen and the vice-president of The Danish Actors association.

From January 2002, Klaus Bondam was elected to the City Council in Copenhagen, Denmark. Between 2006 and 2009 he was the Mayor for Technical and Environmental administration and got known as 'The Bicycle Mayor'. In 2010 he changed office and became Mayor for the Eployment and Integrations administration. Klaus Bondam has been a member of a number of boards and been involved in different kinds of organisations on national and European level. He has been the chairman of Eurocities Mobility-forum (2007-2008) and of their Climate working-group (2009). Klaus left politics and moved to Brussels in January 201 when he was appointed director of The Danish Cultural Institute/Benelux. See www.bondam.dk or www.dkibenelux.org.

Michael Meschik, Dipl.-Ing.Dr.

Senior lecturer and researcher, Institute for Transport Studies , University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna

Michael Meschik studied Civil Engineering and Water Management at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (Bodenkultur) in Vienna. Since 1986 he has worked at the Institute for Transport Studies (Department of Landscape, Spatial and Infrastructure Sciences) as a senior lecturer and researcher.

His fields of research and teaching are non-motorised traffic, mobility research, mobility projects in rural regions, sustainability and environmental impact assessment, public transport, traffic safety, design of roads and their environments, as well as highway engineering. In non-motorised traffic the focus of his work is on bicycle traffic, also in connection with pedestrian traffic and public transport. 2008 he published a planning guide for bicycle traffic (“Planungshandbuch Radverkehr”). For a list of his publications and research work, visit this homepage:
http://www.rali.boku.ac.at/2650.html and click the button “Forschung”

Daniela Rosca

Head of Unit: Clean Transport and Sustainable Urban Mobility, European Commission

Daniela Rosca has bachelor degrees in Economics-Marketing and in Political Sciences – European Community Law from the University in Bucharest. She has a master degree in Public Policies in Europe from the Institute of Political Sciences, Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg. She worked in the private sector for the French Company Rhone Poulenc – currently Bayer and in the diplomatic field for the French Embassy in Romania – the Cultural and Cooperation Service. Since 2000 she has been working with the European Commission at its Delegation in Romania and since 2007 the Representation in Romania. She was mainly responsible for media relations and communication. In December 2010 she joined the Directorate General for Mobility and Transport. She is Head of the Clean Transport and Sustainable Urban Mobility Unit since 1st of July 2011.

Michael Cramer

MEP, European Parliament

Michael Cramer was born June 16, 1949 in Gevelsberg (Germany). From 1989-2004 he was a member of the Berlin city parliament and served as spokesman for transportation issues for The Greens in Berlin. Since his election to the European Parliament in July 2004, Michael Cramer has continued this role on a European level as speaker for the Greens in the committee on transport and tourism (TRAN). As a Member of the European Parliament for The Greens, he initiated the project "Iron Curtain Trail", which transferred the concept of experiencing history by bike from the 160-km long "Berlin Wall Trail" to the European level. The "Iron Curtain Trail" now leads on more than 7 000 km through 20 countries along the length of the former Iron Curtain. The project is supported by the EU as a model for sustainable tourism.

Remco Ruiter

Managing Director, Pro Velo (Bike Experience)

Remco Ruiter (36) is Managing Director of Pro Velo Brussels, a non-profit organization that offers authorities, companies, schools and individuals a range of services to promote daily cycling.

Roelof Wittink

Director, Dutch Cycling Embassy

Roelof Wittink is director of the Dutch Cycling Embassy, a public private partnership to support international cooperation on cycling. Roelof Wittink is a specialist on traffic behaviour who built up expertise on road safety and planning for the integration of cycling in transport. The Dutch Cycling Embassy has the aim to join forces between public and private partners to help bring Dutch bicycle products, services and cycling knowledge on the market abroad and in the international arena for sustainable transport. He received the 2010 Award for Cycling promotion from the Danish Cycling Embassy.

Bruno De Lille

Secretary of State of the Brussels Capital Region, Brussels Capital Region

Bruno De Lille (1973) is a politician for the Green! Party. He is Secretary of State of the Brussels Capital Region, a Flemish Community board member and councilor in the city of Brussels. As Secretary of State he is in charge of Mobility, Civil Service, Equal Opportunity and Administrative Simplification. As a board member of the Flemish Community Commission (VGC)he is in charge of Culture, Youth, Sport and Civil Service.

Stewart Kellett

British Cycling Recreation Director, British Cycling

Biography to appear here shortly...

Willem Prinsen

Managing Director, TNT Express Benelux

Willem Prinsen (50) is since january 2011 Managing Director of TNT Express
Benelux. Prinsen is working at TNT Express since 1991. In 2007 he was
appointed as director Global Account Management. In this role Willem was
responsible for the relationship and performance of the company's top 100
strategic multinationals. Prior to this role, Willem served in various
General Management and Sales & Marketing positions within TNT Express, both
at global divisional head-office and country level. He joined TNT in 1991.
Willem has been working in the express industry over twenty years and holds
a BA in commercial business economics. He is married with 3 children and
enjoys football, golf and discovering the world with his family.

Hans Voerknecht

Coordinator, ThinkBike Workshop

Hans Voerknecht was born on April 26th 1959 in Zaandam, the Netherlands. After studying econometrics, he started a career at the province of South-Holland in 1986 in the field of environment. When he changed in 2001 to the province of North-Holland, he got involved in mobility management.
He was the project leader of the €10 mln INTERREG-project OPTIMUM2 on mobility management. He was also the project leader of the vastly successful project on accessibility of the beaches in North-Holland and he was also the leader of the working group that invented the so called point system for applying mobility management for companies, which still might become included in the Dutch Law.

In 2008 he started working for the Dutch Transport Knowledge Resource Centre (KpVV). He was the manager of the international branch of Fietsberaad (the Dutch expertise centre on cycle experience) until 1 september 2011 and played an important role in establishing the Dutch Cycling Embassy. His primary objectives in disseminating Dutch experience abroad is that bicycling is a everyday means of transport for everybody and that perceived safety in creating bicycle facilities is more important than objective safety. He has a large network in large cities all over the world, in scientific circles, consultancy and cycling advocacy.

Hans is also working on a project involving better integration of the bike and public transport, because he believes that the combination of bike and public transport is (or should be) faster than car transport in more than 70% of the trips (in rush hour).

Hans thinks the Dutch themselves don’t realise the advantage they got with a transport system which offers such a high quality of bicycle facilities, and has such a huge trip share of the bike. He believes that the bicycle trip share can still increase significantly, especially for short trips and in combination with public transport.

Hans is married and father of three (young) sons.

Irma Juskenaite

Head of Public Relations Division, Vilnius City Municipality

Irma Juskenaite is Head of Public Relations Divison at Vilnius Municipality. Prior to joining the Municipality, she was Press Officer at Invest Lithuania for 3 years. Ms Juskenaite has also worked for the Asia-Europe Foundation in Singapore, a non-pro¬fit organisation in the programme development industry; as a Journalist for Lithuanian National TV; and a Press Officer at the Lithuanian Youth Council. Juskenaite holds a master’s degree in international communication.

Ton Daggers

Owner, International Bicycle Consulting

Ton Daggers is owner of IBC cycling consultancy and has worked for more than 20 years in cycling promotion programs mostly in Latin American and European cities. Ton has an academic degree in Social Geography and Anthropology and made his hobby his work. Cycling promotion in all his aspects is the red line of his activities. IBC is partner in the projects GoPedelec for promotion of electric bicycles, Cyclelogistics for promotion of cargo on bikesin transport of last mile logistics in cities, and in Mobile 2020 a project to support European cities in developing cycling policies as part of their transport policy. Ton Daggers is also task manager for Non Motorized Transport for Cities for Mobility. Ton is member of the board of directors of the MOVILIZATION foundation. Ton has given lectures and training courses in Asia, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, and several European countries.

Peter Staelens

Project Officer Mobility, Eurocities

Peter Staelens is Project Officer for Mobility at EUROCITIES, a network of major European cities bringing together the local governments of more than 140 large cities in over 30 European countries. He is responsible for implementing projects in the field of mobility management, urban transport innovation and travel awareness, this in close cooperation with the members of the EUROCITIES Mobility Forum. He has also coordinated the European Mobility Week campaign and is involved in a number of CIVITAS support actions.

Joel Mulligan

Representative, Danish Cycling Embassy

Joel Mulligan is Product Market Manager of Urban Cycling Solutions at VEKSØ, a Danish company focused of providing products, services, and consulting aimed at enriching livable cities. VEKSØ is a founding member of the Cycling Embassy of Denmark. The Cycling Embassy of Denmark is a comprehensive network of private companies, local authorities and non-governmental organizations working together to promote cycling and communicate cycling solutions and know-how. The mission of the Cycling Embassy of Denmark is to encourage cycling all over the world.