Session Speakers 2026
Session 4
João Martins – Technical marketing and environmental specialist at ArcelorMittal
João Martins is a civil engineer specialised in geotechnics, with a Master’s degree from the University of Liège in Belgium. He started his professional career in a technical inspection office in Luxembourg in 1996 and moved to ARBED (now ArcelorMittal) in 1999. He spent a few years in the technical department of the sheet piling department assisting customers with designs, worked a few years in the US as an expat, and returned to Luxembourg to lead the technical and marketing department. His main task in the last years has been to promote sustainable steel sheet pile solutions. In collaboration with the R&D departments and external experts, he led several life cycle assessments of sheet pile structures and was involved in the elaboration of Environmental Product Declarations.
Session 4
Sakshi Singh – Concrete Specialist at ABT B.V.
Sakshi Singh is a Concrete Specialist at ABT B.V., with her expertise in sustainable materials. During her studies she worked with Groningen Gemeente to develop alkali-activated concrete for the quay walls, this motivated her to work towards sustainable construction. Now at ABT, she focuses not only on materials but on optimizing the entire construction lifecycle from raw material to end-of-life and also recycling of material.
Session 1
Maurice Bottiau – General Manager of Franki Foundations
Maurice is:
President of the Deep Foundations Institute Europe, and past Trustee of the DFI.
Immediate past-Chairman of the Belgian Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering.
Chairman of ETC3 of the ISSMGE: European Technical Committee 3 on Deep Foundations, since 2006.
Past-President of the European Federation of Foundation Contractors (EFFC), period 2009-2011.
Past-President of the Belgian Federation of Foundation Contractors (ABEF) period 2007-2011.
Author of more than 50 papers, lectures and keynotes on Foundation Engineering.
More than 30 years of experience in the Design and execution of piling, diaphragm walls and soil improvement.
Session 1
Marcel Bielefeld – Managing partner of Allnamics Geotechnical & Pile Testing Experts
Marcel Bielefeld is managing partner of Allnamics Geotechnical & Pile Testing Experts, where he covers projects worldwide. Educated at the universities of Delft and Rotterdam, Bielefeld started his working carrier in the development of pile testing methods and equipment at TNO Building and Construction Research in The Netherlands.
With the later experience of being the director of a foundation consultancy and a foundation contractor, as well as managing director of a precast concrete production firm, Bielefeld joined Allnamics, working as an independent all-round geotechnical consultant with special knowledge about pile testing and monitoring.
Bielefeld is the author of many technical papers regarding pile testing methods, and the inspection and re-use of existing foundations. Bielefeld is a member of the DFI Testing and Evaluation Committee and Chairman of the 11th International Conference on Stress Wave Theory and Design and Testing Methods for Deep Foundations.
Anastasia Poliacik – Senior Geotechnical Engineer with WSP Canada
She has 16 years of experience working on a variety of transportation and infrastructure projects throughout Ontario, Canada. Her project experience includes preliminary and detail design of various foundation elements associated with bridge rehabilitation and reconstruction, road widening and highway interchange reconstruction. Her areas of expertise include geological site characterize, design of shallow and deep foundations for bridges and retaining walls, settlement and stability assessments for retaining walls and roadway embankments, geotechnical assessment for trenchless installation of sewers, watermains, and culverts, geotechnical design of stormwater management ponds, and assessment of foundation reuse.
Ingo Hylla – Hylla
Dr. Hylla claims to save as much CO2 every day as a car with a combustion engine would emit if it drove around the world once.
He studied and earned his doctorate at the Technical University of Berlin and has held different positions relevant to the construction
industry during his career. He has been running his own engineering and software development office for 10 years.