Vincenzo Spiezia (PhD in Economics) is Head of the Indicators and Statistics Unit in the Directorate of Public Governance and Territorial Development of the OECD.
His current professional activities focus on the analysis of regional comparative advantages and the assessment of policies for regional competitiveness.
Before joining the OECD, he was Research Economist at the International Labour Office in Geneva, where he contributed to several studies about the economic effects of globalisation. He is author of various publications in books and international journals about innovation and employment.
Dr Michael Kitson
Michael Kitson is Director of the National Competitiveness Network at the Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI) and Co-Director of the Programme on Regional Innovation (CMI) Michael Kitson is a co-editor of the Cambridge Journal of Economics. He has been an expert witness for the House of Lords enquiry into globalisation.
Session I: Blueprint on Regional Innovation Benchmarking
Dr Luis Iurcovich
Economist, actually Coordinator of The SME Observatory (Lazio- Italy),specialised in local development and macro financial aspects. Over 29 years of experience in the fields of formation, planning, appraisal and feasibility studies of public and private investments for institutional organisationsWorld Bank, EU- European Union, FAO, UNDO, Italian Co-operation and private clients in the following countries: Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, El Salvador, Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Kenya, Nicaragua, Niger, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Russia, Spain, Ukraine, USA, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam
Dr Luis Iurcovich
Coordinator of The SME Observatory
Filas Finanziaria Laziale di sviluppo
FILAS S.p.A. Via A. Farnese, 3
I-00192 Roma, Italy
Tel:
Fax: 112
Alasdair Reid
Alasdair Reid directs the Technopolis office in Brussels. He has fifteen years of experience in policy research and in providing advice to the European Commission services, national and regional authorities. His work has supported agencies and partnerships active in the fields of regional economic development, innovation and enterprise policies. He has worked in the private sector and spent three years as a researcher on regional innovation policies at the University of Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium) before supporting the EU (DG REGIO) funded programme of regional innovation strategies from 1996 to 1998. He then led a series of multi-country evaluation and innovation related studies notably in the new Member States.
Since 2004, he has been managing the European Innovation TrendChart's policy monitoring network. Current projects include a prospective study for the European Commission (DG REGIO) for the development of future
2007-13 EU Structural (regional) Funds actions in the fields of innovation and knowledge; contribution to the major DG Enterprise funded project looking at sectoral innovation systems in Europe (notably eco-innovation) as part of the Europe Innova initiative; and a study on the impact of mergers on innovation. He has published widely on innovation policy in both books and journals. Alasdair holds economic degrees from Heriot-Watt (Edinburgh) and UCL (Belgium). He is fluently bilingual (English and French) and speaks some Spanish.
Alasdair Reid
Director,Technopolis, Belgoum Avenue de Tervuren, 12
B-1040 Brussels
Belgium
