Publicea wants to build long term partnerships with its clients.
Transparency is essential for us.
We have the necessary skills and experience to make the difference for your business.
Learn more about our team.
Both seasoned public affairs professionals, Freek and Philippe started discussions to join forces in the summer of 2023, resulting in the creation of Publicea in November 2023.
Freek Couttenier, founder and managing partner
Freek obtained a law degree at K.U. Leuven (1997), a DES droit européen at Université catholique de Louvain (1998) and followed additional programs on digital leadership (Vlerick Business School) and digital marketing analytics (MIT Sloan online).
Freek started his career at the Brussels bar specialising in financial and economic law, and was later policy advisor at political think tank CEPESS and in Belgian parliament where he focused on the committee for industry, economy, telecommunication and financial affairs. For over 15 years he served as advisor and general advisor of Agoria, Belgiums largest employers' organisation representing technology industry. There he advised both small, medium sized as well as large multinational companies. He was also at the birth of several cluster organisations, in the field of renewable energy and advanced materials. Freek was also a board member of the Flemish Aerospace Group and the Strategic Materials Initiative.
In 2019 Freek founded Huduma, providing grant management and governmental affairs services to clients in the technology and manufacturing industry. Since 2021, Freek is also supporting EV Belgium, the association of the EV ecosystem in Belgium, in policy matters.
Freek has over 20 years of experience in various policy and public affairs functions in the technology, manufacturing and materials, aerospace and defence, energy and mobility industry.
Main expertise areas:
- industrial strategy
- internal market, competition and state aid
- innovation
- digital policy
- energy
- transport and mobility
- security and safety
- press relations
- stakeholder relations
contact:
✉︎ freek.couttenier@publicea.be
📞 +32 (0) 496 87 45 06
Philippe Putman, founder and managing partner
Philippe studied law at K.U.Leuven and Stellenbosch University (South Africa) and started his career working for the Flemish government.
After a couple of years and after having worked at the Belgian Energy Regulator (CREG), he moved on to the private sector, creating and managing the Regulatory and Public Affairs department for the second largest energy provider in Belgium (Luminus).
In 2008, he created his own consultancy company and provided public affairs services to a number of other (renewable) energy providers.
His international career started when he was asked to join the Turkstream Gas Pipeline project, one of the largest infrastructure projects in the world, as an EU lobbyist and later as a permitting coordinator.
His latest assignment was at Carmeuse, an international lime producer, where he helped establishing Carmeuse’s sustainability journey and its decarbonisation strategy. He also managed press relations, stakeholder relations and represented the company towards European national authorities, EU officials and the diplomatic world.
Philippe has over 20 years of experience and has established an important network in and profound knowledge of the energy and mining sector and the heavy industry.
Main expertise areas:
- climate
- energy
- Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage
- environmental policy
- sustainability
- general industrial policy
- press relations
- stakeholder relations
- permitting
contact:
✉︎ philippe.putman@publicea.be
📞 +32 (0) 497 59 36 24
Caroline de Meester, associate partner
Caroline obtained a M.A. in International Relations at ULB and Export Management at ICHEC, and is currently following a CARE (Comprehensive Accounting in Respect of Ecology) methodology training at the CERCES.
She started her career in the international trade in the chemical & scrap sectors (Africa, middle east, China & Europe). Then she moved to European Commission where she was managing framework contracts for PHARE countries (pre-accession process). She pursued her passion for EU affairs & entrepreneurship at BECI where she was director of the EU department & Public Affairs.
Realising that sustainability has to be at the core of the strategy of the company as a lever for improved competitiveness she founded EBPA consulting, providing consulting services in public Affairs, EU regulations and sustainability in the sectors of Industry, food, chemical, building and transport, for over 12 years. She worked with Bureau Veritas CODDE (exclusive representation in Belgium) on eco-design, labels, environmental communication and life cycle analysis. For BGLife, Caroline has developed a traceability app for communicating socio-environmental indicators from the producer to the consumer in the food sector. For Circular Building, she set up a sustainability & CSR strategy, and developed decarbonisation strategies & impact measurements mainly for the building sector.
Caroline has always been at the forefront of innovation and has spent most of her career supporting organizations on competitiveness issues as well as the analysis and influence of policies at regional, national and European level, for over 20 years. She has a broad network in government, EU institutions, professional organizations (…)
Main expertise areas:
- sustainability
- climate & environmental policies
- public affairs
- internal market & competitivity
contact:
✉︎ caroline.demeester@publicea.be
Dirk Van Evercooren, associate partner
Dirk (°1966) holds a degree in general economic sciences from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
He started his career in the world of social dialogue, developing skills in stakeholder engagement, education and negotiations.
After about 11 years, he realized it was time to focus and followed his passion for the energy sector. He worked for more than 18 years for VREG, the Flemish Regulator of the Electricity and Gas Market, where he held the position of Director of Markets.
This position also allowed him to take the role of President of the Association of Issuing Bodies (AIB) and that of Chair, later Co-chair, of the Customer Empowerment Work Stream within CEER, the Council of European Energy Regulators. He was actively involved in many policy discussions with national and European decision makers in those roles and co-authored many papers in that period.
From November 2020 to February 2024, he was general director at Organisatie Duurzame Energie Vlaanderen, the sector federation for the renewable and sustainable energy sector in Flanders/Belgium.
He is also Chair of the Board at the International Tracking Standards Federation I-TRACK and member of the Klimaatraad at stad Antwerpen.
As a spokesman for various organisations, he has a broad experience with the media and served as a speaker at various national and international conferences.
In February 2024, he decided to contribute to a more people-environmentally and climate-friendly world as an independent advisor. He is delighted to join Publicea as Associate Partner.
Main expertise areas:
- energy transition
- renewable energy
- electricity markets and regulation
- stakeholder engagement
- press relations
contact:
✉︎ info@publicea.be
