Professor Chris Peeters, Ph.D. is the President and Executive Director of Policy Research Corporation. He obtained his master's degree in applied economics in 1982 and his Ph.D. in 1990, both summa cum laude. He lectures in Government Policy and Transport Economics at the University of Antwerp and provides consultancy services to companies and authorities inside and outside Europe. Professor Peeters is the author or co-author of over 30 books and a considerable number of articles on strategy and policy.

Professor Peeters is an internationally recognised expert on strategic decision processes and policy advice. He specialises in the analysis of the added value of companies, industrial sectors and large-scale investment projects. He has great expertise in drafting and preparing corporate strategies and government programmes, taking into account the feasibility of the implementation in institutional and business terms.

Professor Peeters has won several prizes for his academic research, such as the Eric Sasse maritime prize, the Belgian Institute of Public Administration prize, the "Prix Gutt" awarded by the GUTT Foundation and the Merlot-Leclercq Prize in Public Economics. In 2000, Professor Peeters received the Maritime Person of the Year Award from the European Association of Propeller Clubs for his valuable contribution to the development and implementation of the new shipping policy in the Netherlands and its positive effects on the European Commission policy.

Frank Hendrickx is a partner at Policy Research Corporation and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the Rotterdam office. He obtained his degree in commercial engineering summa cum laude from the University of Antwerp. Mr Hendrickx has extensive domestic and foreign experience in the fields of policy advice, guidance for change strategies for authorities and companies, strategy drafting and the auditing and restructuring of organisations. Mr Hendrickx is the (co-) author of several books and articles in the aforementioned fields.

Jan Colpaert is a partner at Policy Research Corporation and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the Antwerp office.He holds a degree in commercial engineering from the University of Antwerp (magna cum laude), a postgraduate degree in financial management from the Free University of Brussels (VUB) (magna cum laude), and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management (Northwestern University, Chicago) (with honours). Prior to joining Policy Research, he was a research assistant at the Centre for Business Management of the VUB and a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Paris and Brussels. As Project Manager, he managed various major projects for BCG for clients active in the financial, telecom and energy sectors and various industries. He specialises in organisational issues and change projects, chiefly for private clients (industry, the media, etc.). Jan Colpaert is also in charge of the day-to-day management of NetN3 NV, the consulting subsidiary of Policy Research, which specialises in operational and process improvements and efficiency increases (cost cuts).

Gustaaf De Monie is Senior Director at Policy Research. After having obtained his degree in Applied Economics from the University of Antwerp in 1965, he began his professional career managing a leading Antwerp terminal operator. In 1970 he joined the port section of UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) where he was responsible for research, training and project management. In 1983 he was appointed APEC Director (Antwerp Port Engineering and Consulting) and in 1989 he established himself as an independent port expert. He is now active as an internationally recognised consultant for the Le Havre Port Institute and as Senior Director at Policy Research Corporation. His main qualifications include his extensive experience in the field of project management, practical know-how in port operations, a considerable number of publications on port management and operation, the organisation of numerous training programmes, the implementation of port development and reorganisation projects and his role as a consultant to several governments and global port operators.

Dr. Harry Webers is Senior Director at Policy Research and a member of the International Scientific Committee. In 1992, Dr. Webers graduated as an econometrician from the Catholic University Brabant in Tilburg, magna cum laude. He also conducted four years of doctoral research in the field of free market and strategy at the CentER Graduate School of Economics. In June 1996 he received his doctorate after the public defence of his dissertation entitled ‘Competition in Spatial Location Models’. Prior to this, he had already obtained his diploma, magna cum laude, from the Network of General and Quantitative Economics. Since 1996 he has been active as a top-level strategy consultant, in particular for the Dutch and Belgian market. He generally works on politically sensitive files in which the combination of content and process is crucial. Creating a platform for dialogue and a common knowledge base is always a central point of departure. He has substantial expertise regarding the interaction between strategic and policy decisions (and the interface between government and the business community) in a wide range of sectors.

MSc. Tom Moester is Director at Policy Research Corporation. Mr. Moester holds degrees in economics and business economics from the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Before he joined Policy Research Corporation he worked in the privatization section of the Dutch ministry of Finance. Mr. Moester has experience and expertise on the crossing between the public and the private sector and was involved in complex restructuring processes and privatizations from the public side. Topics covered are sales processes of state participations, complex organisational and financial restructuring processes, public private partnerships, capital market transactions, mergers and acquisitions, legal and structuring issues, incorporations and policy aspects of privatizations in different sectors. At Policy Research Mr. Moester advised the Dutch as well as foreign government bodies on policy evaluation, policy optimisation and implementation, organisational restructuring, public private partnerships and concessioning. The majority of the projects in which Mr. Moester has been involved concern strategic problems and policy issues in the field of transport economics. His key qualifications include broad experience in the economic appraisal of transport infrastructure projects, strategic positioning and institutional issues.

Tom Thijssens is Director at Policy Research. He obtained his degree in commercial engineering from the University of Antwerp (cum laude) and subsequently studied business management at the Sorbonne. Prior to joining Policy Research in 1999 he worked at the University of Antwerp for a year as a research assistant. Tom Thijssens has built up considerable expertise in a wide range of sectors such as media and film, energy and transport. He also has considerable experience in reorganising companies (market and process analyses, drafting business plans).

Policy Research also works with a team of expert consultants, all of whom have university degrees. These carefully selected economists and engineers are jointly responsible for the analyses, the field research and the drafting of strategic policy recommendations. Their training, wide-ranging experience, creativity, attention to detail and enthusiasm ensure that the client's expectations are always exceeded.