A young business leader who is passionate about sustainable innovations, Dr.ir. Inge Schildermans is the SVP Energy Transition at Bekaert, a world market and technology leader in innovative materials and energy transition solutions. A mother of two young daughters, her mission is to contribute to a clean-energy future by accelerating the introduction of highly advanced technologies across the complete value chain of energy transition (generation, transmission and in end-applications-in-use).Her business unit has the ambition to shape the way we live and move – safe, smart and sustainable. It manufactures sustainable solutions that are crucial for making the energy transition a global success. This includes key components for green hydrogen production (Currento), for energy production from renewable sources and building blocks of the green energy infrastructure of the future.In her 20 years at Bekaert, she held a number of senior positions, ranging from Technology and Innovation Management to Operational & Country management in Eastern Europe (Slovakia). She returned to Belgium in 2019 to take up the previous role of VP in Fiber Technologies. In 2023, she was promoted to lead the company’s energy transition business unit. Additionally, Inge Schildermans is a board member of Hyve, a consortium of Belgian industry and research players that invests in innovative solutions for the production of green hydrogen and aims to contribute to a cost-efficient and sustainable production of hydrogen at gigawatt level. She is also a Board Member of Pajarito Powder, a hydrogen and fuel cell catalyst maker.A Chemical Engineer by training, Inge holds a PhD in Applied BioSciences and is fluent in English, Flemish and proficient in French and German.