Board of Directors
Ank De Wilde
Ank De Wilde is the chair of Itinera’s Board. A driven entrepreneur, she has extensive expertise and a track record in sustainable innovation and value creation, for both individuals, businesses, and society. Ank co-founded and served as the CEO of Absolem, a mission-driven high-tech engineering company that she led and successfully scaled, achieving successes through her entrepreneurship and thought leadership. In 2023, she sold her share in the company.
Ank strongly believes in connecting people, organizations, and the environment, challenging traditional paradigms of entrepreneurship, growth, and collaboration. Her experiences with poverty in her youth laid the foundation for her fascination with social systemic thinking, the driving force behind her entrepreneurship and a catalyst for her personal and professional development. She is committed to finding levers for positive growth: collaboration between visible and invisible actors and structures, civil society, and the business sector.
With her commitment to sustainable development, she strengthens Itinera as a board member, positioning it as the leading think tank that encourages policymakers to accelerate the urgent and necessary evolution towards a better Belgium.
Alexander D'Hooghe
Alexander D'Hooghe is member of Itinera’s Board. He is an associate professor at MIT and founding partner of ORG Permanent Modernity, a design agency and think tank based in Brussels and New York that operates internationally in the urban planning and architecture space. Alexander has published internationally, notably with 'the Liberal Monument' (Princeton, Fall 2010) and recent papers in journals in Germany, Israel, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, the US, etc.
Alexander D'Hooghe is the former director of the MIT Centre For Advanced Urbanism (CAU), which focuses on the large-scale, complex urban issues of our time. D'Hooghe earned his doctorate in 2007 from the Berlage Institute at T.U. Delft. Before that, he earned a Master in Urban Design from Harvard in 2001, and a Master in Architectural Engineering from the University of Leuven in 1996. He has worked with industry leaders like Rem Koolhaas and Marcel Smets.
Siham Rahmuni
Siham is an ambitious young entrepreneur working towards sustainable innovation in every arena. She is guided by her keen sense of social responsibility and inclusion. As a mentor and bridge builder, she inspires those around her to broaden their horizons beyond their own perspective.
Siham graduated with a bachelor's degree in tax accountancy and then started as a financial assistant at a company whose international expansion was in full swing. After just a year, she was named department head, and two years later, she was responsible for the global financial side of the company. After a stopover in France as interim CFO, she joined real estate service provider Quares, where she progressed from financial manager to Finance and HR director and finally CEO. As a member of the Board of Directors, she helps chart the company's strategic course.
Nicolas Saverys
Nicolas Saverys is the executive chairman of EXMAR. Until April 2020, he was CEO of EXMAR, a shipping company specialising in the maritime transport and transformation of LNG, LPG, anhydrous ammonia and petrochemical gases.
He has been involved in the family business since he graduated from Ghent University in 1980 with a degree in Economics. He developed EXMAR from a small subsidiary of a shipyard in the early 1980s to its current position as one of the leading independent gas tanker shipping companies.
Nicolas Saverys was president of the Royal Belgian Shipowners' Association for almost 20 years and then the driving force behind the successful revival of the Belgian registry, leading to a forgrowth of the national fleet. He is also chairman of the Benelux Committee of Bureau Veritas and a director of Bexco.
Karel Vinck
Karel Vinck is an éminence grise of our entrepreneurial world with a career at Eternit, Bekaert, Umicore and Sibelco, among others. He was a seasoned crisis manager as top executive of NMBS, and later chairman of BAM (Oosterweelverbinding).
Karel Vinck is honorary chairman of VOKA and was chairman of the Flemish Advisory Board for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (VARIO) for ten years. He is also the author of Ouverture sur le monde, De weg naar doorbraak and De kracht van een crisis.