Anne Goldberg brings new perspectives to the Strategic Advisory Council

“It is an honour for me and an opportunity to bring my contribution to what Europe is doing. With the move towards higher technology readiness levels, I am excited to be able bringing the viewpoint of industry into the Graphene Flagship,” says Mrs Goldberg. She has been working for the Belgian chemical company Solvay since 1990 and has extensive experience in material science and in the management of technological innovation projects.

“There are methodologies and key questions to ask in order to evaluate whether a new technology is worth investing in or not. We know that there is a huge gap between the technology push to arrive on the market and its implementation and commercialisation. I think that the Graphene Flagship has good prospects to succeed owing to its wide range of applications. All in all, it is important to have a balanced portfolio, in order to mitigate risk, as it is usually considered that the level of success of breakthrough innovation projects is around 10-20%, and can be doubled sometimes with appropriate methodologies. This helps also to focus progressively on a few well selected priorities.”

Anne Goldberg first came into contact with graphene ten years ago when she was responsible for setting up and managing Solvay's corporate R&D programme on nanotechnologies (NT), including graphene as a strategic area. Due to changes in the company strategy as well as to the fact that NT are enabling technologies, this activity has been partially integrated into other innovation programs.

“I consider my seat at the Strategic Advisory Board as an opportunity to monitor possible new connections between Solvay and the Graphene Flagship, though I have first to increase my understanding about the running activities.” says Anne Goldberg who will attend the first meeting of the Strategic Advisory Council in January 2018.  

Biography – Anne Goldberg

Anne Goldberg graduated in Physics from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. Her professional career started in 1986 in the Laboratory of Hydraulic Research in Belgium.

She integrated Solvay in 1990 as a researcher, where her first field of responsibility was to set-up testing methodologies to evaluate the solid properties of polymers. 

In 1998, she moved to Solvay Polyolefins business being in charge of expertise on relationships between molecular structure and solid-state properties.

In 2002, she moved back to Corporate research, in charge of deploying at Group-level Knowledge Management methodologies dedicated to technological innovation.

In 2008, Anne set-up the corporate R&D program on Nanotechnology, that she developed and managed during the next 5 years.

All over the 2000', she also led the organisation of Solvay Science for Innovation internal conferences & managed the related hub of scientists, active throughout the Solvay group.  
In 2013, she moved to the position of New Innovation Platform Director, in charge of identifying new breakthrough innovation areas to be investigated beyond the perimeter of the Group.

Early 2017 after having managed portfolio of R&D projects during 15 years, Anne moved back to her basics in the Science and Technology department, in charge of setting up a roadmap for damage and failure in composites and polymers. Anne Goldberg has got various certifications, is an active member of various boards and industrial advising committees, and is registered as company expert for the European Commission.