Who we are

AI-native.
Humans first.

Our global business is led by a world-class team of innovators, strategists, and technologists, bridging strategy, commercial specialization, and technology. With a wide range of domain expertise and lived experience, we drive transformative growth for our clients.

Philippe De Ridder BOI
Philippe De Ridder
CEO & AI Speaker
Philippe is a serial entrepreneur, advisor, and keynote speaker at the intersection of AI and strategy. He founded and leads BOI, and is also the CEO of AUTONOMOUS, the world's largest summit for AI innovators. Drawing over 10,000 people twice per year at the summit, he engages with thousands of leaders globally, shaping discussions on AI innovation. His thinking is frequently featured in prominent outlets like Fast Company, HBR, Bloomberg Business, and Forbes. As an advisor to many Fortune 500 companies, guest lecturer at business schools, and keynote speaker, he guides people and companies on how to become leaders in AI.
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Amir Ouki
Managing Director, Applied AI & Technology
Amir leads BOI’s global team of product strategists, designers, and engineers in designing and building AI technology that transforms roles, functions, and businesses. Amir loves to solve complex real world challenges that have an immediate impact, and is especially focused on KPI-led software that drives growth and innovation across the top and bottom line. He can often be found (objectively) evaluating and assessing new technologies that could benefit our clients and has launched products with Anthropic, Apple, Netflix, Palantir, Google, Twitch, Bank of America, and others.
Laura Stevens
Laura Stevens PhD
Managing Director of Data & AI
Laura Stevens, PhD, is the Managing Director of Data & AI, bringing a unique blend of strategic vision, analytical expertise, and leadership acumen. With a background in neuropsychology, business consulting, organizational transformation, and HR, she has successfully navigated a career spanning academia, consulting, and industry leadership. Laura has led large-scale Data & AI teams covering data science, machine learning, data engineering, governance, and visualization, driving business impact through data-driven innovation. She is passionate about fostering high-performing teams and leveraging AI to transform organizations while maintaining a strong commitment to excellence.
Geoff Gibbins
Geoff Gibbins
Managing Director, AI Strategy and Innovation
For more than 15 years, Geoff has worked at the intersection of strategy, emerging technology and innovation and now leads our Americas team to lead AI strategy and build innovative AI-powered solutions. Geoff brings equal amounts of optimism and skepticism to every problem - and there’s nothing he loves more than a new problem to solve. Over the years, he has built and launched new products and businesses in consumer goods, financial services and wellness.
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Nick Bogaert
Partner & COO
Nick lives to solve complex challenges and works to make sure we deliver against our audacious goals. He is passionate about unifying emerging tech, design and strategy to grow businesses and improve people’s lives, and has led projects for Roche, Takeda, Johnson & Johnson, GSK, Ferring ING, TD Bank, Rabobank, Engie, EDF, GE, Siemens Energy, and others. He’s leading our work in launching scalable AI technology, building the world’s first AI-native retail model, and re-imagining business models for the world’s most ambitious businesses.
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Jo McKinney
Chief Growth Officer
Perpetually bored with the status quo, Jo thrives at the forefront of transformation. After a successful tenure as CEO and CSO of a U.S. brand consultancy/ad agency —Jo redirected her passion and expertise to the strategic application of AI across business functions, with a special focus on marketing, advertising, insight, and innovation. Throughout her career, she has worked with diverse and leading global brands and at BOI, is partnering with business leaders to create novel strategies, and an AI-native mindset, to drive growth
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Arne Van Balen
Partner, Innovation
Arne’s curiosity to understand people, places, and businesses has shaped his global perspective and collaborative approach. With over 10 years of experience as a global partner at BOI (Board of Innovation), Arne has built innovation strategies for leading organizations worldwide. He led the innovation transformation of ING Bank across 10+ countries, driving internal and external venturing successes such as VAKT, Komgo, and Cobase, all valued at over €50M today. Arne’s ability to blend data-driven insights with people-first thinking has helped deliver impact with leading brands, including Roche and GE Healthcare.
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Signe Damgaard
Head of Global Marketing
Signe is a seasoned marketing strategist with an MSc in International Marketing, specializing in brand positioning, lead generation, and content-driven growth. With a sharp eye for market trends and a passion for strategic knowledge sharing, she drives our marketing and brand efforts, ensuring that we cut through the noise, connect with our audience, and share bold perspectives. Signe is also at the helm of AUTONOMOUS, the world’s largest summit for AI Innovators, which yearly brings together more than 25,000 AI Innovators.
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Aquene MacPolin
Global Head of People & Operations
With deep experience ensuring the operational success of consulting and technology businesses, Aquene has the rare expertise required to forge multidisciplinary teams that thrive in solving previously unsolvable problems. As our Head of People and Operations, she has built a world-class team that is known for its ability to identify transformative opportunities and build the enterprise-level technology to make those opportunities real. In a competitive AI talent market, Aquene leads an organizational culture that ensures that BOI continually attracts and retains the exceptional level of strategic and engineering talent that it is known for.
Vincent Pirenne
Vincent Pirenne
Global Partner & Head of AI Strategy (EMEA)
Vincent is a senior leader in AI strategy and business transformation, helping Fortune 500 organizations unlock the full potential of artificial intelligence. As a Global Partner at Board of Innovation, he specializes in shaping AI-driven growth strategies for consumer goods, retail, and technology leaders across the USA and Europe. His expertise lies at the intersection of AI, business strategy, and enterprise transformation, helping senior executives navigate AI adoption and scale AI-driven decision-making. He’s focussed on helping organizations build future-ready AI strategies that deliver real business outcomes.
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BOI Team
Applied Humans
A pack of designers, strategists, creators and engineers with a full set of capabilities to reimagine how businesses grow.

AI Strategy
Board

Our AI Strategy Board works with us on client engagements to ensure that we are pushing the boundaries of strategy within the realms of what is possible, ethical and scalable. 

The AI Strategy Board brings a wealth of expertise spanning business and academia – bringing practical expertise on what it takes to successfully deploy AI in your organization.

Dimitris Bountolos
Dimitris Bountolos
Chief Information and Innovation Officer
Dimitris Bountolos is a visionary C-level executive with over two decades of experience driving growth and success for organizations in various industries. As Chief Information & Innovation Officer for Ferrovial, he leads the company's efforts to adopt innovative technologies and sustainable practices for continued growth and diversification across the energy, mobility, construction, airport, and concession domains.
Gianni Giacomelli
Gianni Giacomelli
Collective Intelligence Advisor
Building on a long career including C-level positions in large, stockmarket-listed firms in tech and professional services and collaboration with world-leading academics, Gianni now focuses solely on reimagining work through AI and digital technology - organizations, services, and processes, together with perhaps the most critical element: people’s abilities. From innovation to operations, from the front to the back office, through an approach derived from his MIT work on Collective Intelligence - as an organizational design principle, augmented by AI and other digital technologies. He also works as a senior advisor with Goldman Sachs Value Accelerator and the Boston Consulting Group.
Reid Blackman
Reid Blackman, Ph.D.
Leading AI Ethicist
Reid Blackman is the noted author of the book, “Ethical Machines,” published with Harvard Business Review. He works with major corporations to operationalize AI ethics, develop AI policies, identify ethical and regulatory risks and lead AI training programs. He has advised the Canadian government on their federal AI regulations, served as a member of EY’s External AI Advisory Board, and was an external Senior Advisor to the Deloitte AI Institute.
Ivana Nikolik
Ivana Nikolik
AI Advisor
Ivana Nikolik has been recognized as a 40 Under 40 Top Business Leader in Europe, Forbes Business Council Executive Member, Forbes Fellow under 30, Global Leader of the New Era, and a G:100 Country Chair of Netherlands for IT Services and Innovations. As a vocal advocate for women in technology and AI, she serves as a Global Ambassador and Mentor for Women in Tech and Women in AI in the Netherlands, on a mission to empower the next generation of leaders while driving change in industries powered by AI, automation and digital transformation.