Our Mission

Activities we carry out

We promote science, research and innovation. Our mission is to strengthen and accelerate the pan-European quantum technology industry’s competitiveness and economic growth and to bolster value creation across the content. Being THE voice of the European Quantum Tech Industry, QuIC acts as a catalyst for the establishment of the European premiership and excellence in Quantum Technologies on the global stage.

These are some of the activities we carry out:

  • Develop and coordinate strategic goals and roadmaps for research, development, innovation and deployment of European Quantum Technologies, and supporting their implementation;

  • Cooperate with the European institutions and other stakeholders;

  • Foster industrial growth and competitiveness of Europe;

  • Establish a collaborative hub and a vibrant ecosystem for Quantum Technologies industry;

  • Position QT products and services as key enablers for addressing Europe’s societal and environmental challenges;

  • Engage in pre-standardisation activities, and collaborate with standardisation bodies;

  • Develop IP strategies to enable a competitive European Quantum Technologies industry;

  • Determinate education & skills workforce needs and professional profiles.

Business Actors

QuIC members

We operate as a collaborative hub throughout Europe to build a strong, vibrant ecosystem between the business actors such as SMEs, large corporations, investors and leading research and technology organisations. Our members come from all European states and associated countries

The Membership is open to any legal entity with quantum-related Research & Development and/or commercial activities, and with their headquarters (controlling entity/body) in the European Member States, the UK and the Candidate States and Associated Countries of the EU.

See all members

Download the list with all members

The list is updated to the most recent Governing Board (21 October 2024)

Our Team

QuIC Central Team

The executive team carries out the day-to-day activities of QuIC

Thierry Botter
Executive Director

Dr. Thierry Botter is Executive Director of the European Quantum Industry Consortium (QuIC). He joined the association from Airbus where he was deputy-Chief of the Central Research & Technology (CRT) organization and head of Airbus Blue Sky, a research department within CRT dedicated to emerging, transformative technologies. He also served as a member of the first strategic advisory board for the European Commission’s Quantum Technologies Flagship. Dr. Botter holds a PhD in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, and Master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Mattia Giardini
Project and Operations Manager

Mattia Giardini has coordinated several quantum technologies projects for the universities of Ulm, Kassel and Berlin. He has a master in International relations from the University of Padua.

Lyudmila Korunovska
Communication and Administration Specialist

Lyudmila Korunovska is a Communication and Administration Specialist at the European Quantum Industry Consortium (QuIC).
She has previously served as a Policy Officer Blue Book Trainee at the European Committee of the Regions while most recently, she also completed a Digital Marketing and Strategic Communication Course at Brainster Academy, whereby she contributed to a project for the United Nations North Macedonia.
She holds a Master’s degree in European Politics and International Relations from Maastricht University (The Netherlands) and a Bachelor’s degree in Politics and International Relations from the University of Strathclyde (United Kingdom).

Joe Spencer
Quantum Business Lead

Following completion of a PhD in the area of quantum optics and nanoscience, Joe joined the UK Civil service in the area of Radar research and development, where he was critically involved in Dstl’s quantum technology programme, managing the technical output and understanding the defence implications of quantum tech in the defence space. Following a secondment at NPL working on the Cs Fountain and developing an automated frequency shifter for the primary standard, Joe became more interested in clocks and applications of clocks for PNT. Recognising there is a gap between fundamental physics and the systems integration of quantum technology for end-user applications, Joe joined QinetiQ on a systems integration project of a laser weapon system. This gave him domain knowledge in the area of systems engineering and requirements capture for defence customers. He now utilises those skills of holistic thinking and systems engineering to support the adoption of quantum technology in end-user focused applications.

Eva Tomic
Admin and Event Manager

Passionate for events and tradeshows she worked previously for Messe München GmbH in the Business Development Department for 5 years.. Her main tasks were the further developing of existing tradeshows. Best example was the establishment of World of QUANTUM as an add-on for the LASER World of Photonics tradeshow.

Before that she was working for Hamamatsu Photonics Deutschland GmbH as Marketing and Event Specialist for 11 years and gained so experience in the field of optoelectronic products.

David Morcuende
Network Manager

David Morcuende is a dynamic innovator and expert in emerging technologies, with extensive experience in quantum computing and AI. Currently serving as the Network Manager for the European Quantum Industry Consortium (QuIC), he coordinates cross-functional teams and engages with stakeholders to advance quantum technology initiatives. David’s career includes roles such as R&D Director at Imeureka, AI Product Developer at BBVA Next, and founder of SingularBot and Galeristik.

He holds a Computer Science and Engineering degree from UC3M and an MBA from ENYD business school. David has contributed significantly to the open-source quantum computing community, co-authoring tutorials and developing tools like the Qiskit to Braket provider. His creative projects include quantum-generated fractal art and the development of Morcu-bot, an entertainment chatbot. David’s work exemplifies his commitment to lifelong learning, innovation, and the seamless integration of technology into practical and imaginative applications.

Irina Rambaldi
Executive Assistant

Irina Rambaldi is the Executive Assistant at the European Quantum Industry Consortium (QuIC).
Irina has an international background, she worked in different countries over Europe and South America, supporting multinational enterprises.
During her tenure, she has acquired customer service and project management skills, together with C-level Executive support experience.
She has most recently worked at ESA- European Space Agency (Netherlands) as one of the Navigation department Assistants, supporting the administration of Launch Campaigns and assisting the Head of Space Segment.

QuIC Leadership

Meet our founders.

Laure Le Bars
President QuIC - SAP Technology & Innovation.

Laure Le Bars is a Research Project Director at SAP Technology & Innovation. She coordinates a Quantum Computing @SAP initiative. She is president of the newly founded association European Quantum Industry Consortium (QuIC). She is also co-lead of the Quantum Computing Industry Group (DACH).
She is working on several projects like Big Data Value Association www.bdva.eu (Board of Directors and Vice-President; BDV PPP CSA project manager), and Smart Data Innovation Lab (www.sdil.de deputy coordinator until 2016), EIT Digital (principal of staff, office of the CEO; SAP project coordinator) or Academy Cube. She is also involved in the French-German cooperation on Digital Economy.

Before that, she set up SAP Labs Canada and was the Managing Director of the lab since its inception in 1997 until 2008. In parallel, she conducted an analysis for a lab in Central & East Europe in 2004, established the lab in Budapest and was the Managing Director of SAP Labs Hungary until 2007. She won in 2007 the Stevie Award for Women in Business in category “Best executive–non-services-under 2500 employees”; and was nominated in category “Best Canadian Executive”.

She was sitting on the Industrial Advisory Board of SWEBOK (Software Engineering Body of Knowledge www.swebok.org), a joint initiative of IEEE Computer Society and UQAM to achieve international consensus on the body of knowledge in software engineering.

Laure Le Bars holds degrees in Mathematics, Computer Science and Economics from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Informatique pour l’Industrie et l’Entreprise, Groupe Centrale, Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, in France. Her thesis dealt with Operation Research for Artificial Intelligence at GERAD (Groupe d’Études et de Recherche en Analyse des Décisions) in Montréal, Canada.

Enrique Lizaso
Treasurer - Multiverse Computing

Mathematician. PhD. Professor at the University of Vic. Professor of Finance, UAB. IT Specialist. Medical doctor. MBA from IESE Business School. More than 20 years in the financial industry. Ex-CEO of Unnim Bank. Quantitative analyst. Founder of startups in Blockchain and International Health. President of the Quantum for Quants commission (of the Quantum World Association). Mechatronics Engineering Professor.

Thomas Strohm
Vice President - Robert Bosch GmbH

Dr. Thomas Strohm received his PhD in 1999 at the MPI for Solid State Research in Stuttgart where he did theoretical work on high-temperature superconductors in Prof. Cardona’s group.
Thereafter, he joined the Corporate Research division of Robert Bosch GmbH. For more than 10 years, he worked in SW engineering research and as a System and SW architect. Thomas also conducted research and development in the telecommunications domain and a technology that allows a secure key establishment between two wireless communication nodes by using the reciprocity property of the electromagnetic communication channel – a technology which has a lot in common with quantum key distribution.
In 2013, he started scouting quantum cryptography and, later, quantum computing and contributed to building up the research activities on quantum technologies at Bosch. Currently, Thomas is Chief Expert for Quantum Technologies at Bosch. Bosch has research and development activities in quantum sensing, quantum computing applications, and quantum random number generators.

Thomas contributes to two EU-funded projects of the Quantum Flagship initiative, the Flagship’s Coordination and Support Action (QFlag) and QRANGE, a project to develop Quantum Random Number Generators (QRNG).
In 2020, together with Prof. Tommaso Calarco, he built up the European Quantum Industry Consortium (QuIC), where he acts now as a vice president, work group leader and contributor to several work groups. Thomas is also part of the steering committee of QUTAC, the German Quantum Technology and Applications Consortium and also a contributor to work groups on quantum computing use cases there.

QuIC Governing Board

The Governing Board, which is elected by the voting members of the QuIC, is in charge of taking strategic decisions for the association.

Martin Knufinke
Eviden

He has joined Eviden in 2014 and is working in the fields of Quantum Computing and High Performance Computing (HPC) for manufacturing. He received his PhD in experimental physics on superconducting quantum circuits and numerical simulations from the University of Tübingen. He is active in multiple groups on national and European level. With his expertise both from the perspective of industrial applications as well as from academic research he is focusing on practical implementations of quantum systems and real-world advantages of quantum solutions.

Simone Capeleto
Thinkquantum

is Co-founder and CEO of ThinkQuantum Srl, startup providing quantum solutions for cyber security, such as fiber, free-space, satellite QKD platforms and high-end QRNG devices. Thanks to a solid engineering and physics background (TLC Engineer with a PhD in Space Science & Technology, University of Padua) he earned experience in R&D, Project Management and Standardization domains, thereafter he developed in Business Transformation, Strategy and General Management.

Araceli Venegas-Gomez
Qureca

Dr. Araceli Venegas-Gomez worked for Airbus in Germany and France as an aerospace engineer, before falling in love with quantum mechanics. She then decided to follow her passion, and moved to Scotland to pursue a PhD in quantum simulation at the University of Strathclyde. Araceli identified the need to bridge the gap between businesses and academia, as well as to raise the quantum awareness to the general public. Continuing her work on outreach advocating quantum technologies, she was named the “quantum ambassador”, after winning the Optical Society Milton and Rosalind Chang Pivoting fellowship in 2019. The same year Araceli founded her own company called QURECA (Quantum Resources and Careers).

Jan Goetz
IQM

Jan is a quantum physicist and co-founding CEO of IQM, building next-generation quantum computers. Jan did his doctorate on superconducting quantum circuits at the Technical University of Munich and worked as a Marie Curie Fellow in Helsinki at Aalto University, where he holds the title of docent. Capital magazine selected him as one of the 40 under 40 in Germany and he received the prestigious entrepreneurship award from the KAUTE Foundation.

Robert Harrison
Sonnenberg Harrison

Robert Harrison is a founding partner of SONNENBERG HARRISON. Robert Harrison has been working in the field of intellectual property since 1990. He is a registered German, French and European patent and trademark attorney. His work focuses on the fields of semiconductors, chemical engineering, computer science, photonics, telecommunications, microtechnology and biophysics.

Ronald Holzwarth
Menlo Systems

Ronald Holzwarth, studied physics at the University of Tübingen and at the University of Oregon. After completing his German “Diplom” in physics in Tübingen, he went to the University of Munich to join T. Hänsch, who was the advisor of the doctoral degree he obtained in 2001. Afterwards, he founded Menlo Systems GmbH, of which he is the manager, with T. Hänsch and M. Mei. In addition, he is a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics.

Olivier Tonneau
Quantonation

A graduate from ESSEC business school, Olivier is partner at Quantonation, VC fund dedicated to Quantum Technologies. Previous experiences include 10 years as management consultant at Kearney, before joining French entrepreneur Charles Beigbeder as deputy CEO at his holding company, Gravitation.
Olivier is a board member at Multiverse Computing, Qnami, KETS Quantum Security, EvolutionQ, QC Design, Kipu Quantum & Cryptonext Security. 

Wilhelm Kaenders
Toptica

Wilhelm is a founder of TOPTICA Photonics AG, starting the company from scientific background in 1998 and growing it to today more than 400 people in Germany, US, Japan and China. Developing diode- and fiber-based laser technology including complex system and solution integration, the company is a key enabler for neutral and charged atom based quantum applications. It also serves biophtonics and materials non-destructive testing markets. TOPTICA has a tradition of close collaboration with academic and industrial research, and is involved in all 4 pillars of the EU Quantum Flagship .

Wilhelm has a diploma from Bonn University and Imperial College London, concluded his PhD in cold atom physics at the Institute of Quantum Optics in Hannover under Prof. D. Meschede, where he developed tunable diode laser technology for laser cooling of atoms. He is a Fellow of OSA and SPIE, and the Presider of the Industrial Advisory Board to LASER World of Photonics München. In 2016, his work has been recognized by the Leibinger Innovation Award and in 2017 by the OSA Foreman Award

Sophie Muller, PhD
Thales

As Director of Collaborative R&T Studies, Sophie Muller is currently part of Thales Technical Directorate and responsible for coordinating European R&T activities. From her background as Engineer and PhD, she started a 30 years diversified and challenging industrial journey in Thales regarding both occupied functions and technical environments. As QuIC GB Member, she is highly motivated to support and develop the Association and all its stakeholders in an effective and sustainable way.

Manfred Rieck
DB Systel

Manfred Rieck has been with DB Systel since 2013 and taken on the leadership of the quantum computing research group, in which the industrial suitability of the technology is examined. He worked internationally for IBM Germany, including as EMEA responsible for the Project Management Center of Excellence, as well as for BASF in a managerial position. He holds an MBA from the University of Reading, UK and is a qualified computer scientist at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University of Bonn.

Tanya Suarez
Bluspecs

Founder of IoT Tribe, bringing startups and corporates together to do business in the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and Immersive Technologies. She co-founded BluSpecs, an innovation agency that helps companies stay relevant through customer-centred digital strategies and disruptive innovation. she is a Member of the Board responsible for Comms & Development at the Alliance for Internet of Things Innovation and a World Economic Forum Digital Leader.

Statutes

QuIC statutes is publicly available for anyone to consult.
Please notice that, since QuIC is constituted under German law, the official version of the statute is the German one. To facilitate non-German speakers, we make a non-legally binding English copy available to everyone as well.