He did his studies at Kaiserslautern University, Germany where he achieved a Master of Science in Civil Engineering (Dipl.-Ing.) in 1999. During his studies, he dealt mainly with Geotechnics, Construction Project Management and Infrastructure planning. Ernst completed an internship with Bauer Special Foundations , where he was active as quality engineer on different jobsites in Germany (Munich Airport) and France (Paris Airport & Nimes). For his diploma works, he temporarily joined the design office at Bauer Foundations. The task was to compare different calculation programs for anchored walls.

Ernst is fluent in 4 languages, namely German, English, French and Spanish and has elementary knowledge in Portuguese and Russian.

In 2002, Ernst joined ArcelorMittal Sheet Piling as Technical Manager for Germany and Austria. Since then, he pursued several activities within the sheet pile division ArcelorMittal group, including market development and project management in north & South America and Africa. Being an international expert on the topic of pile driving, he was active in major construction projects like the Panama Canal Expansion, LLX project in Brazil and the Neom-Oxagon Port in Saudi Arabia. Permanent contact to designers, project owners, public authorities and construction companies are an important part of his work.

Since 2021 Ernst took additional responsibilities in the quality department of the ArcelorMittal sheet pile mill of Belval.

Besides, Ernst is member of the board of DFI Europe and he is giving regular lectures on the use of sheet piling at Karlsruhe University and other public and private education institutions.

Patrick IJnsen, Beng, MBA, IEng, is a geotechnical engineer with over 24 years of experience in deep foundation piling and sheet pile application, design, testing and monitoring.

He is a member of the executive board of Van ‘t Hek Groep in the Netherlands and a board member of DFI Europe.

Furthermore, IJnsen remains a member of multiple CEN working and task groups for Eurocode revisions. He is also vice chairman of the Royal Netherlands Society for Engineer’s board for its geoscience department

François Fohl is fluent in 4 languages, namely Luxemburgish, German, French and English and has elementary proficiency in Portuguese.

He did his studies in Aachen, Germany where he achieved a Master of Science in Civil Engineering and Business Administration in 2022. On the engineering side, he dealt mainly with Geotechnics, Project Management and Energy-efficient Buildings during his studies. Concentrations on the business side were mainly on Corporate Development and Strategy. During his studies, François completed an internship with Paul Wurth Geprolux, where he was active as project manager on the jobsite for the new building of the European Parliament in Luxembourg-City.

In 2022, François joined ArcelorMittal Sheet Piling as an Environmental Specialist. In the Technical-Marketing team he pursued several activities. Being the internal and external expert on his topics, he was active in business development and responsible for the Environmental Product Declarations of sheet piling products. Contact to customers, project owners, public authorities and even ministerial levels played an important role.

In 2024 François moved on to a Technical Sales Position for the French market, still for ArcelorMittal Sheet Piling.

Besides, François is MC member of COST action CircularB, that aims to develop a common approach for a circularity rating tool (KPIs), based on best practices of circular economy.

As a principal geotechnical engineer, Hossein Ahmadi is specialized in dynamic pile testing with Master level certification in both PDCA/PDI and FQA examination systems.

He has more than 20 years’ experience in providing high level pile testing, analysis, and training services to the clients from Australia, New Zealand, Türkiye, Norway, Italy, Greece, India, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Oman.

Thanks to his multicultural career, Hossein has a noble understanding of various pile acceptance practices in different countries.

He is the founder and manager of Pile QA, a global consulting group, based in Melbourne and Ankara.

Civil Engineer, authorized for designing and site management by Polish Chamber of Civil Engineers in 2017.

From 2014 working as a geotechnical designer and site manager in Menard, soil improvement company - part of global consortium Vinci, as a member of Soletanche-Freyssinet Group.

From 2018 is a person dedicated by Menard to develop Menard's technologies to countries of Eastern Europe: she opened the Menard's branches in Czech (2020) and Slovakia (2021), from 2023 she is a person responsible for developing Menard's solution to Romanian construction market. Right now she is coordinating the process of opening the SRL in Romania.

Started his career as a Geotechnical Engineer in Vilnius, Lithuania, where he gained experience in the field as well as in the design office working on energy generation projects: wind and nuclear energy.

Later he moved to Luxembourg to obtain a doctoral degree in the field of Soil Dynamics. After the graduation, joined ArcelorMittal Sheet Piling team, where over more than 5 years gained experience in infrastructure projects like sea ports, railways, etc. all over the world.

In 2021 Darius founded a geotechnical constultancy GeoMint, headquatered in Luxembourg and active across Europe. Darius holds a PhD in Engineering Sciences from University of Luxembourg as well as an MBA from Luxembourg School of Business.

Started career in 2011 in Bucharest after graduation, since 2014 he joined GEOSOND SA team as geotechnical engineer. In the first phase at GEOSOND SA he supervised the geotechnical site investigation and prepare geotechnical reports, following the position of technical director and after CEO of the company.

The professional activity carried out had a continuous period of specialization of geological, geotechnical and hydrogeological site investigation, as well as for development and application of special technologies regarding the micropiles, achorages and injection.

Started 2005 with diploma thesis “Aspects of use TITAN micropiles in permafrost” for Friedr. Ischebeck GmbH. After graduating in the same year, I worked for the Ischebeck head office in Germany for 18 years as a geotechnical engineer in sales in the export department.

Since July 2023, I have moved within the company and now head the product management and application technology department for geotechnics. My main area of ​​responsibility is the research and development of new products, applications and technologies in the field of geotechnics. I am also involved in to strategic development, education and support of the Ischebeck Group's sales force worldwide.

Iulia Prodan is a University Lecturer at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (TUCN) in Romania. She defended her Ph.D. in Geotechnical Engineering in 2012 at the same institution, followed by a post-doctoral research position at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland.

Her primary research focus is on energy geostructures, a technology that transforms structural elements that interact with the soil into heat exchangers, playing a key role in sustainable infrastructure development. Iulia is currently involved in several European projects centered on energy geostructures and their integration into the built environment to promote energy efficiency and importance of local renewable energy sources.

In 2023 she was awarded a 2.6 mil. Eur EIC Transition Horizon 2020 grant, for developing biocementation technology aimed at addressing soil stability challenges in real environment. Balancing academia with entrepreneurship, Iulia is also the Co-Founder of Expert Proiect, a company specializing in civil and geotechnical engineering consulting and design. Through GreenTAGS by Expert Proiect she has introduced energy geostructures to the Romanian market leading the way in designing, implementing, and monitoring these sustainable solutions.