Karen Boers is the co-founder & Managing Director of Startups.be, the owner & CEO of Boers & Peusens BVBA, as well as Board member & CEO of European Startup Network.

She has 14 years of extensive experience in community development and the design and implementation of large marketing campaigns (incl. conferences and mass events). She headed the marketing team at iMinds (formerly IBBT) for eight years, putting the software innovation institute on the European map and on the radar of many innovation actors across the world.

Ms Boers has expanded the Startups.be network into the most comprehensive organisation at national level representing the Belgian startup ecosystem, including 75+ incubators, accelerators, investors, communities & public agencies. Within 18 months of launch, the organisation reached out to 30.000+ online visitors, 3.000+ entrepreneurs that engaged actively and repeatedly and 1.000+ event attendees.

 Startups.be is now a recognized center of expertise on startups and startup communities, with a fast growing European and worldwide network of partners, providing soft landing opportunities, sharing of best practices and a growing interest in startups as the engine for our future knowledge economy across the regions.