Navigating a Greener Tomorrow
Our Mission and Team
Volta27
Guillaume Bregentzer
ENERGY & FINANCE
Nicolas de Cordes
BUSINESS DESIGN & IMPACTS
Florence Piers de Raveschoot
INSTITUTIONAL RELATIONS
Country Management Director at ENGIE. Banking and energy infrastructure strategy across the Americas and Europe.
"Cultural mix is the recipe for innovation."
Co-Founder of OPALImpact.tech (Data & AI for Climate), and additivecompanion.com (3D printing). Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins, MADI 5.0.
"Cappuccini are the true fuel of innovation."
Team Leader at the European Commission. Extensive experience in event organisation, coalition building and inclusion initiatives.
Katya Degrieck
MEDIA & GOVERNANCE
Olivia Verhaege
ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
Laurent Warlop
ENGINEERING & ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Director at Google, Northern Europe, Israel, Middle East and Africa. Non-Executive Director for 20 years. Advisory board of iconichouses.org.
"The best partnerships — like the best architecture — are built to last."
Belgian architect based in Brussels. Practice blends contemporary transformation with heritage renovation, creating spaces of elegance and sustainability.
"True beauty lies in the balance between heritage and future."
Serial entrepreneur and electro-mechanical engineer. Ventures in electric mobility, wooden architecture and sustainable building physics.
We are a diverse group of experienced professionals from Italy, Belgium, and Ireland — united by a passion for innovation, sustainability, and Italy's extraordinary heritage.
Faye de Cordes
AI ETHICS & CULTURE
Computational anthropologist currently focusing on policy and ethical standards for AI alignment. Experienced researcher with a passion for cultural heritage.
Volta27 is a non profit initiative established to honor the legacy of Alessandro Volta through Innovation challenges for inland waterways.
Based between Brussels and Lake Como, the project serves as a catalyst for sustainable progress, bridging the gap between world-class academic research and industrial application. By uniting leading European universities, industrial partners, and navigation institutions , Volta27 champions design-led interventions into clean energy innovation, systems thinking, and advanced waterborne navigation. Through a curated circuit of design and engineering challenges, research symposia, and public exhibitions, Volta27 activates Lake Como as a functional laboratory for industry 5.0 for the future of vessels and services for sustainable navigation and life on inland waterways.
Leveraging the learnings and momentum of the 2027 projects, we aim to support the set-up of a longer term European Innovation initiative, leveraging collaborative Design, Engineering, and Business Modeling to "implement the future of Navigation for inland waters" to the benefits of society and the planet.