Ton van Lierop works as business editor and news coordinator for the Flemish public broadcaster VRT in Brussels, where he previously acted as newsmanager and editor/reporter for the late television news. Before joining VRT he was spokesman for the European Commission, working for Vice-President and Industry Commissioner Günter Verheugen and Regional Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn.

From 1996 until 2006 he was senior correspondent and Brussels bureau chief of the Dutch newswire ANP. Before joining ANP in Amsterdam in 1994 as business correspondent, he worked for various regional dailies and regional radio in Arnhem, Eindhoven and Maastricht in the Netherlands. As a Dutch national, he has been living in Brussels since 1996 and is vice-president of the JournalismFund.eu, a charity assisting journalists in projects for investigative and in depth journalism.

Ton will serve as the master of ceremony at the conference.