Bernhard ADRIAENSENS

Mr Adriaensens has been the Managing Director of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) for the last eight years, after an extensive career in international marketing and general management. His career encompassed multinational companies in Europe, North America and Japan, since he has worked with Kleber, Hoover, Krups, Philips, Electrolux and Mitsubishi Motors among others.

In 1992 Mr Adriaensens published a book on "Marketing and Total Quality". He is a visiting Professor in Marketing at the University of Mons-Hainaut and a senior lecturer in Business Studies at the University of Brussels.

Before joining the WFA, which comprises national advertisers associations in 46 countries worldwide, Mr Adriaensens was for 12 years a Board Member of the Belgian Advertisers Association, the last 3 years as Chairman.

J. Morgan CALLAGY, Managing Director, Veronis Suhler Stevenson, UK

Mr. Callagy, who graduated from Georgetown University in Washington D.C., joined Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS) in 1996. VSS manages its private equity funds and its advisory activities from offices in New York and London. It is focused exclusively on the media, communications and information industries.

Mr. Callagy was involved in VSS Fund II's acquisition of Yellow Book USA and subsequent disposal to British Telecom in 1999 and he moved to London when VSS set up an office there in April 2000. Since then he has played leading roles in each of VSS Fund III's joint investments with 3i in the European directories sector. It acquired Fonecta from the Finnish company Sonera; Telefoongids from the Dutch operator KPN and quite recently Verizon's European directory portfolio, comprising operations in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Gibraltar.

Clifford Chance is a leading international law firm, with offices in London, Paris and Tokyo. Mr Elverston has worked in all three and is now based in London. He specialises in advising on issues relating to the internet and on-line services, as well as on broadcasting and telecommunications matters. He has advised on the establishment of e-commerce services and on a wide range of e-business issues. These include security, use of personal data, compliance with data protection laws, liability issues related to Internet based services and the preparation of terms and conditions of use.

After obtaining a degree in Applied Economic Sciences from Antwerp University, Toon Lowette has been in the media business for over 27 years. He started as a journalist at De Krant in 1975, then later was the economics editor at Knack Magazine, the leading Flemish news weekly. For nine years up to 1991 he was with the De Standaard newspaper group, where he created and managed the electronic information delivery department, Editel.

In July 1991 he created his own GRID Electronic Publishing Consultancy in Brussels, which has enjoyed a wide client base.

He has worked as an expert on several EU Commission programmes, including the ESPRIT projects, and also for the Belgian Department of Justice and the telecom regulatory body BIPT. His telecom clients include Belgacom, KPN Netherlands and Portugal Telecom, whilst he has advised BBL, Dexia, Fortis and the Associazione Bancaria Italiana among other banks.

In publishing, Mr Lowette has been adviser to Financieel Economische Tijd, Lannoo, Reuters and, for many years, to EADP's annual European Electronic Directory conference.

Professor Picard is the director of the Media Management and Transformation Centre at the Jönköping International Business School in Sweden. He is one of the world's leading specialists in media economics and management.

His research focuses on economic structures of media markets; demand for media products and services; the business models and strategies of media operations; productivity and financial performance of media firms; and government policies affecting media economics. His research has covered newspapers, advertising, broadcasting and the new media. He is the author of sixteen books covering these fields and is the founding editor of the Journal of Media Economics, which he guided for ten years.

Professor Picard has been on the staff or been a visiting professor at universities in Finland, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and the USA; and he has carried out research contracts for a wide range of organisations, including the EU Commission, the World Intellectual Property Organisation and the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), to mention only a few.

Fons TROMPENAARS,

Professor Trompenaars has been the Managing Director of the Centre for International Business Studies since 1989. He is a visiting professor for the International MBA Programme at the Erasmus University - Rotterdam School of Management. Above all, Fons Trompenaars is an expert in the field of cultural diversity in business and lectures widely on the subject.

His ideas are founded on practical experience, having handled the operations of the Royal Dutch Shell Group in nine different countries. He is the author of the book "Riding the Waves of Culture - Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business".

Professor Erik VAN VOOREN,

Through his Direct Marketing Institute, Erik Van Vooren initially focused on the organization of different kinds of marketing training seminars. Nowadays his clients more frequently ask him to provide them with staff motivating speeches and these have been integrated in the day-to-day business of the Institute.

Erik Van Vooren is also a guest professor at the De Vlerick School of Management, Belgium, the Bayerische Akademie der Werbung, Germany and the Instituto de Marketing Directo, Spain.

Before founding his own Institute in 1988, Professor Van Vooren had business experience in banking, publishing and advertising.

  Yvo VOLMAN, European Commission, Brussels

Mr Volman has been a European Commission official since 1998. He works in the Directorate General for Information Policy. He is currently occupied with public sector information and, in particular, strategic issues related to digital content.

For ten years before that he was a policy advisor in the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, first in the area of International Technology Policy and later in the field of Industrial and Technological Policy Planning. Mr Volman has a Ph.D in European Law, obtained after seven years of study at the Universities of Strasbourg, Amsterdam and Florence.