Sasha Baillie, former CEO of Luxinnovation
Please introduce yourself to our members so they know your background, career history and areas of interest.
After nearly 7 years as CEO of Luxembourg’s innovation agency, Luxinnovation, I took on from 1st March 2025 a new role at the Royal Court after I have been designated by His Royal Highness the Grand Duke and the Government as Maréchale of the Royal Court.
As Luxinnovation’s CEO since May 2018, I have carried out a full-fledged strategic realignment and restructuring of the Agency.
Before this, after a 15-year career as a Luxembourg diplomat, which included postings in Brussels and Moscow as deputy head of mission, a posting as non-resident Ambassador to Serbia, and the functions of Deputy Secretary General and Director of European affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I joined the Ministry of Economy in 2014 as deputy chief of staff of the Deputy Prime Minister. In this role, I carried out a reform Luxembourg’s economic promotion process that led to the creation, in June 2016, of the Luxembourg Trade and Investment Board.
During my period in the Economy cabinet office, I also steered the work that led to the creation, in 2015, of LuxGovSat, a public-private joint venture company between the Luxembourg Government and SES which provides governmental SATCOM services for security and defence with its own satellite. I was Chair of the LuxGovSat Board until 2020.
I also co-founded and chaired the Luxembourg Nation Branding Committee from 2012-2019 which created a national branding with the slogan “Let’s make it happen”.
What are the principle philosophical beliefs and values which guide your decision-making?
I believe in a balanced approach that values people and their individual skills and personalities, that fosters close public-private collaboration and mutual understanding, an approach that is hands-on and pragmatic, observing and understanding the environment before acting. I strongly value continuous learning and improvement at all levels. And finally, I attach great importance to strategic planning with a clear understanding of long-term and relevant goals.
What have been the one or two most significant challenges you have faced during your career and how have you handled them?
Assuming a diplomatic posting as deputy head of mission in Moscow in 2006 and dealing with challenging political and business cases whilst learning the Russian language from scratch and raising two young children in Moscow.
Taking on the job as CEO of Luxembourg’s innovation agency to bring strategic alignment of the agency with the government’s economic and innovation objectives for the country.
Please introduce our members to Luxinnovation so they understand the Luxinnovation scope of mission and extent of resources.
Since it came into existence in 1984, Luxinnovation’s mission has been to help Luxembourg-based companies develop or adopt innovative technologies across many sectors such as materials and manufacturing, automotive, health tech, clean tech etc., help them get access to national and European funding and facilitate collaborations and partnerships with other companies, research or the public sector.
With a staff of nearly 100 persons, comprising mostly innovation and funding advisors and sectoral and technology experts, Luxinnovation is driver of innovation within our country, that listens to the needs of companies and steers them in the right direction to turn their innovative projects into reality.
Luxinnovation is a public-private partnership. Its stakeholders are the Ministries of Economy, Research and Foreign affairs, on the public side, and the Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber of Crafts and the Federation of Industry, representing the private sector.
What are the principle challenges you and your Luxinnovation team have faced during your tenure and how have you managed them?
In a world of constant change and uncertainty, where we are facing tremendous challenges due to climate change, geopolitical upheaval, political polarization, far-reaching technological advances with implications that we have difficulties to fully apprehend, the role of an innovation agency has become even more critical to our society, our economy and to the companies we are there to support.
For us to be able to address the needs of companies and our economy in an ever more challenging environment, we have also had to adapt and ensure that we are set up in a manner that allows us to carry our mission with confidence and serenity. We need to ensure that the different types of innovation services we offer meet the varying needs of different types of companies.
Hence, we embarked upon a transformation process nearly two years ago after having listened to the companies we serve, to our stakeholders and partners, and to the people within Luxinnovation. This has enabled us to put in place key processes, procedures and tools to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our organisation, in line with our strategic objectives.
With hindsight, is there anything you would have done differently?
I would have liked to have taken more time to meet with many more companies myself and learn more directly about their projects and the challenges they are facing. Fortunately, I have been able to rely on a team of business advisors who are well connected to the companies to ensure that we provide them with the services they require. But I would have certainly enjoyed and benefitted from spending more time directly with the women and men running Luxembourg’s outstanding companies.
Going forward, what are the plans for Luxinnovation and which changes in mission parameters or resources do you foresee and recommend?
Our transformation process is almost complete: the broad outlines of our organisation are in place and new talents have joined us or will join us to bring the skills we need to carry out our mission.
I am pleased that Mario Grotz will take over from me as of 1 March. For the past seven years, he has chaired the Management Board of Luxinnovation and is therefore already very familiar with the functioning of the agency. He has a very deep knowledge of the innovation ecosystem and has been a valuable support throughout our transformation process.
In 2025, the current 4-year performance contract with its stakeholders, which defines the objectives to be reached and the activities to be carried out by Luxinnovation, comes to an end.
We have already embarked upon a strategic reflection with our stakeholders to prepare the next 4-year performance contract, addressing the ongoing and new challenges within the innovation ecosystem, and I am confident Luxinnovation will be able to pursue its mission with efficiency and coherence to support companies and the economy on their innovation journeys.