Mario Grotz, Director General for Research, Intellectual Property and New Technologies at the Ministry of the Economy, has been named new Board Chair at the Annual General Meeting of Luxinnovation on 28 March 2018. He replaces Raymond Schadeck who, having arrived at the end of his mandate, did not wish to stand for a new mandate period.
Since taking up the role as Board Chair in 2018, Mr Schadeck has put in place a new efficient organisational structure in close collaboration with Jean-Paul Schuler who was appointed CEO in September 2013. Mr Schuler has also decided to leave his function as CEO as of 1 April 2018.
“I have enormously appreciated the work accomplished by Raymond Schadeck and Jean-Paul Schuler to transform the agency and successfully develop new services for companies,” said Vice Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy Étienne Schneider. “In addition, the agency has taken up new missions in the field of international prospection and the promotion of Luxembourg. Additional financial and human resources will now allow Luxinnovation and its new management team to tackle future challenges with confidence.”
“Having taken over the missions of Luxembourg for Business, we also support, through our business developers and market intelligence service, all the international prospection and promotion efforts deployed by the Ministry of the Economy,” said Jean-Paul Schuler, who has decided to focus on new, personal challenges. “The increased span of Luxinnovation’s missions has resulted in a doubling of the staff, from 35 to 70 people. This has led to an internal reorganisation that made Luxinnovation even more modern, efficient and closer to companies.”
Luxinnovation has largely exceeded the objectives set up in its performance contract for 2014-2017. During this time, 62 SMEs participated in the performance programmes Fit 4 Innovation, Fit 4 Circularity and Fit 4 Growth managed by Luxinnovation. The Fit 4 Start programme, launched in 2015, attracted over 600 applications from more than 30 countries. 25 ICT start-ups participated in the first 5 editions and 17 graduated with success. The Luxembourg Cluster Initiative continued its positive development with the creation of two new clusters in 2017: Wood and Creative Industries. Luxinnovation is now managing seven clusters, including AutoMobility, BioHealth, EcoInnovation, ICT and Materials & Manufacturing.
Mr Schadeck was the Luxinnovation Board Chair for six years, having replaced Marco Walentiny of the Ministry of the Economy. “I thank the whole Luxinnovation team for its unfailing support and would like to express my warmest wishes for success to the new management team,” he said. “I’m proud that the agency has evolved in such a positive direction during my mandate as Board Chair and I’m convinced that this will provide a robust foundation for continuing to boost innovation in Luxembourg in the years to come.”
Mr Grotz is in charge of the Directorate General for Research, Intellectual Property and New Technologies since 2012. He is board member of several entities, including Creos Luxembourg S.A. of which he is the president.
The successor of Jean-Paul Schuler will be announced in the coming weeks.