Koen Vanthournout

Koen Vanthournout is co-founder and CEO of Orion Grid Technologies, a 2026 spin-off of VITO, KU Leuven, and EnergyVille that develops data-driven decision tools for distribution system operators, with a particular focus on the low-voltage grid. Prior to founding Orion, Koen spent more than a decade at VITO (the Flemish Institute for Technological Research) and EnergyVille, where he led the research that became Orion's technology base. In 2017, he co-founded ENION, a provider of custom battery systems for SMEs, before returning to VITO and EnergyVille to continue his work on low-voltage grid digitalisation. Earlier in his career, from 2006 to 2009, he worked as a senior embedded software engineer at ICOS Vision Systems / KLA-Tencor. Koen holds a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering (1999) from Group T – International University College Leuven, a Master's degree in Artificial Intelligence (2000) from KU Leuven, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from KU Leuven (2006). In 2020, he completed a Postgraduate Certificate in School of Thinking at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).