Koen Vanthournout received his Master degree in Electrical Engineering (1999) from the Groep T Hogeschool of Leuven, Belgium, and his Master degree in Artificial Intelligence (2000) from K.U. Leuven, Belgium. He obtained a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from K.U. Leuven in 2006. In 2020 he obtained the Postgraduate Certificate School of Thinking from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. From 2006 to 2009, he worked as a senior embedded software engineer for Icos Visions Systems/KLA-Tencor, after which he joined VITO, the Flemish Institute for Technological Research, and EnergyVille. In 2017, he co-founded ENION, a service provider for custom battery systems for SME’s, after which he returned to VITO and EnergyVille. Since then, he worked on data-driven decision tools for distribution system operators, with a focus on the low voltage grid. Based on this technology, he is now preparing a spin-off, Orion Grid Technologies, to be founded start 2026. He will join Orion as CEO and co-founder.