Closing speech

Bertrand DEROME
_{MANAGING DIRECTOR OF THE WORLD DESIGN ORGANIZATION}

Bertrand is a not-for-profit organization manager and sustainable design advisor with more than 20 years experience. He is a lecturer who eagerly advocates for design’s social, environmental and economic impacts, for the betterment of the world. After graduating from the School of Design at Université de Montréal, he practiced design in a studio, as well as in a manufacturing company.

He joined the Institute for Product Development as the Sustainable Design Advisor and became the general manager of the Institute in 2012, where he developed private and public partnerships, both locally and internationally, helping organizations improve their innovation practices. He has also served as President of the Quebec Association of Industrial Designers (ADIQ) in Montreal (Canada) and participates as an advisor on many public and sectoral committees and juries.

Bruno CASSETTE
_{MANAGING DIRECTOR
OF EUROPEAN METROPOLIS
OF LILLE}

Bruno CASSETTE began his career at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1991 as an official in the Press Office, then as adviser on European issues to the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly. In 1995, he became Secretary general of the group of small and medium-sized municipalities at the Communauté Urbaine de Lille before joining, in 2000, the Delegation for Territorial Development and Regional Actions (DATAR) as responsible for the Information society, innovation and research.

In 2003, he joined the European Commission in the Directorate-General for Information Society and Media as Lisbon Policy Officer. He was subsequently appointed Chief of staff to the President of the Lower Normandy Regional Council (2006), before returning in 2008 at European level to the Directorate General for Regional Policy of the European Commission as Administrator of the Committee of coordination of Structural and Cohesion funds.

Chief of staff of the Prefect of Charente-Maritime in 2012, then Secretary general of the Prefecture of Lot-et-Garonne, he joined in 2014, the Communauté Urbaine de Lille became in 2015, Métropole Européenne de Lille, of which he has been the Director General of Services.

Srini SRINIVASAN
_{PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD DESIGN ORGANIZATION}

Presently, Srini is the President of WDO (World Design Organization, formerly Icsid), working with its global members to promote design for a better world.

He is the Chairman & CEO of LUMIUM DESIGN, Inc., a Silicon Valley based, world class, award-winning product Design Company that has developed 300+ products in the Consumer Electronics, Medical, Industrial Goods, Security and Surveillance domains. Lumium has design studios in Santa Clara, (USA), Ahmedabad, Kochi & Mumbai (India) and in Tokyo, Japan to execute creative design projects for global clients.

Srini is an Adjunct Professor of Industrial Design at Tongji College of Design & Innovation, Shanghai and also a member of its International Advisory Board. He is on the Advisory Board of Indus Design School, Indus University; and Wellingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, Mumbai, India. In his role as Advisory Board member, Srini helps and mentors technology start-ups as well as educational institutes.

Dubravka ŠUICA
_{VICE PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION IN CHARGE OF DEMOCRACY AND DEMOGRAPHY}

Since December 2019, Dubravka Šuica is Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Democracy and Demography.

Mrs Šuica a Croatian politician from the city of Dubrovnik, where she served as its first female mayor and was awarded the 2006 World Mayor Award. Dubravka Šuica entered politics in the 1990s as a Member of the Croatian Democratic Union and served as a Member of the Croatian Parliament and Vice-Chair of the EU Integration Committee. Between 2004 and 2009 she was a Board Member of the Union of the Association of Towns and Municipalities of the Republic of Croatia. During ten years she was President of the Croatian Delegation to the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

From 2013 to 2019 Dubravka Šuica served as a Member of the European Parliament. In June 2019, Šuica was elected as first Vice-Chair of EPP Group in the European Parliament.