Laura Lecci The New CEO ad Interim of EBN, the European Business and Innovation Centre Network

Laura Lecci has been appointed as the new CEO ad Interim of EBN, the European Business and Innovation Centre Network, during its Annual General Meeting last week. 

EBN is an established not-for-profit international association of EU|BICs, incubators, innovation centers, clusters, and other intermediaries who help innovative startups and SMEs develop their innovative businesses. EBN has 180 members mostly from public-private partnerships with a local economic development remit, in more than 40 countries in and out of Europe. To date, EBN members have created thousands of new businesses and tens of thousands of new skilled and sustainable jobs.

“It is with a great sense of responsibility and honor that I welcome to be the CEO ad Interim of EBN, the first time for a woman to be offered the role. I feel very grateful for the trust shown by the Board of Directors and the support I have already received from my colleagues and from the members. EBN members have shown incredible strength and spirit of initiative in fighting these strange times that we are all facing and in bringing innovation at the top of the policymakers’ agenda. Supporting our members to deliver always better services for European entrepreneurs, to increase opportunities for peer learning, and to make EBN voice heard by the most important European innovation stakeholders are my milestones for the months to come” Laura Lecci.

Laura Lecci is an M.A. graduate from the University of Trieste (Italy) in International and Diplomatic Relations, in 2011 she obtained a diploma in Cooperation and International Development at ISPI (Institute for International Politics Studies). She held several positions before joining EBN, at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation Department and then in the Brussels liaison office of ENEA, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development. In May 2012, she started working in EBN as Project Manager and in February 2019 took further responsibilities becoming the COO.

Laura succeeds Javier Echarri who has been EBN CEO for the past three years. The board thanked Javier for his strong commitment during his mandate on helping EBN and the Members Organizations to support innovative startups in Europe and beyond.

“We are grateful to the work done by Javier during his three year’s mandate and we would like to wish him all the best in his continuation. We are convinced that appointing Laura to the position of CEO ad Interim is the right choice as she knows EBN very well and has proven her commitment during the past year in a managerial position. We are looking forward to continuing to work with her and achieve the priorities that the organization just set last week” David Uhlir, EBN president.

Photo Source: https://ebn.eu/