Brussels Wins, Belgium Wins: with Laurent Hublet, Brussels Minister for Employment, Economy, and Digital Economy

Laurent Hublet spent six years building BeCentral to fix Brussels' talent gap from the outside. Six weeks ago, Brussels called him to fix it from the inside.

Laurent is now Brussels' Minister for Economy & Employment, three years into a mandate he had one hour to accept. He built BeCentral into one of Belgium's most-cited tech campuses, advised Alexander De Croo on Digital Belgium, and jumped from consultancy at Roland Berger straight into standing up a government with no team and no budget.

🔹 Brussels wants its activity rate at 70% by 2030, up from 65%, and private investment is the lever.
🔹 Cyber and AI are in his ministry's title on purpose: Brussels is a top-five global power center and the country's service hub.
🔹 WAT, a new initiative from entrepreneur Thibault Elzière, is bringing international founders to Brussels.
🔹 His flywheel argument: trust plus early wins compounds into collective success, the same logic BeCentral ran on, now at government scale.
🔹 AI already runs parts of the employment office's back office. The actual policy choices stay human, on purpose.

The regions aren't competing for the same win. That's the whole point.

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Conversations with the founders, investors, and operators driving Belgium’s startup scene,
Exploring the ideas, stories, and strategies that accelerate the ecosystem flywheel 🚀.

**ROBIN:** I think the last time we met, you were not a minister. Now you are a minister. What happened in between the two times that we've met?

**LAURENT:** Indeed, I was working for Roland Berger, a major European consultancy. And I got a phone call on a Friday, the 13th of February, asking me if I wanted to become the Minister for Economy and Employment in Brussels. I had an hour to give an answer, and after thinking about it, I said yes.

**ROBIN:** What happened during that hour? Did you have to talk to some people? Was it really just reflection?

**LAURENT:** Well, I was in a call with a client, so I had to manage that situation, and then I called my wife — she was with my kids — and we decided jointly. It was a family decision.

**ROBIN:** Great, so congratulations on the appointment. But I can imagine it's a bit of a jump into the dark in many ways. You didn't have a team yet, you had to learn the responsibilities in record time. How long has it been?

**LAURENT:** It's been almost six weeks.

**ROBIN:** Almost six weeks. Feels like—

**LAURENT:** Six years.

**ROBIN:** I can imagine. But what has it been like — a steep learning curve, or did you jump right in and get to work?

**LAURENT:** It was very fast, because as you might have heard, there was no government in Brussels for more than a year and a half, and no budget ready. So when this government was formed, it was pretty quickly around the budget — that was voted last Friday in parliament. We only had five weeks to install the government, hire the teams, and do the full budgetary process, which usually takes two to three months. We had to do it in five weeks with no team. It was very intense. I had to hire a lot of people — the good news is I got a lot of strong talent interested, but we had to onboard quite a number of people, some with political experience, some without. There's a lot to do in Brussels right now, so it's been a very busy start.

**ROBIN:** There's a lot to do is an understatement — a lot of catching up, I'd guess, given how long it went without a government, and the budget just approved. So what are your priorities as Minister of Employment and Economy?

**LAURENT:** My priority is that I want Brussels to win. Brussels represents about a fifth of Belgium's GDP, and it's by far the largest employment market in the country. If Brussels does well, the whole country does well — and if Brussels struggles, which is the case right now, the whole country feels it. Our number one priority is getting more people into the job market. Right now our activity rate is about 65%. We want to bring it to 70% by 2030. To do that we need to boost investment — Brussels needs more private investment. We also want to boost the digital economy and the social and SME landscape, which matters a lot in a city: construction, restaurants, bars. They're having a very hard time right now. Just to give you a figure — March 2025 was a record year for bankruptcies here, especially in construction and restaurants and bars. So there's a lot of work to do.

**ROBIN:** You mentioned the title includes employment, economy, and digital economy — is that really a separate part, or does it overlap? Does it also mean a different approach for digital versus the general economy?

**LAURENT:** We wanted this as part of the title to show it's a priority. There are important steps for us to grow the digital economy here, especially around cyber — Brussels is a main center of political decision-making, one of the five largest power centers in the world, so cyber defense matters a lot here. But also AI — it's transforming many industries, especially services, and Brussels being the main service hub in Belgium, the AI transformation will have a major impact on the job market and economy here. We need to accompany that change. The two are obviously linked.

**ROBIN:** Sure. I'm also hearing a lot about GovTech, or regtech — that seems to be picking up momentum. Where do you see Brussels taking a position there?

**LAURENT:** Our ecosystem is evolving nicely. We just had news of a second unicorn based in Brussels a few days ago. A number of our scale-ups have recently raised funds — GoVocal, for example, an important player in citizen participation and engagement, GovTech in a way. We're also home to itsme, and to Collibra, which is a very important data player. As a government we need to make sure our ecosystem can blossom — I'm not going to be the one creating the companies, but we need the conditions right, so we're attractive for entrepreneurs, help them grow, find customers, especially around government. We have a lot of large customers here in Belgium, and it's the same for our more traditional tech players — we're home to Proximus and a number of others with important cybersecurity activities. Part of my job is making sure they can grow too.

**ROBIN:** Do you think Brussels can serve as a landing pad for digital scalers from other countries expanding here?

**LAURENT:** Yes, we're already attracting international entrepreneurs — from all over Europe, but especially a strong French entrepreneur community, very engaged in how our ecosystem develops. Thibault Elzière, for example, recently announced a major project close to our university — the initiative is called WAT, aimed at being a home for foreign entrepreneurs. I think we should lean into this because Brussels is the most diverse city in the democratic world — 180 different languages. We're used to working in a multicultural, multilingual environment, a lot of people speak good English, and there's talent here from all over the world. We have a lot to offer companies who want to make their home here.

**ROBIN:** Taking a step back — the first time we met, you were still part of the cabinet of then Vice Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. Out of that momentum came BeCentral, which you co-founded and led as CEO for a long time. Back then the focus was getting people back to work, educated, re-skilled, upskilled — that was core to BeCentral. Now you're taking that to another level as Minister of Employment. What lessons from BeCentral are you applying in this new role?

**LAURENT:** I was an entrepreneur for six years, a great adventure. There are lessons, but I'm humble — policymaking isn't the same as entrepreneurship, there are more stakeholders and a different purpose. As a policymaker it's important to be obsessed with focus — why are we doing this, are we doing the right thing, are we investing public money in the right tools, are we having the right impact? That drives me today. What I learned at BeCentral is that you can grow an ecosystem by bringing different people and entities together — public and private organizations need to work together. I think the US sometimes does a better job than Europe at bringing public and private together — government buying from startups, startups really listening to what governments need, because that often differs from private companies. Same for large and small companies — an ecosystem is robust when different players work together, and it's a virtuous circle: if there's trust and you build initial success, you build on it toward collective success — the flywheel. I think today there's a real burning platform around this, because the world is changing. I grew up in a world where democracy and the rule of law were somehow a given in the West, and we're realizing that might not hold in the future. We have to fight for these values — not economic values, civic values. And I think Europe, especially the capital of Europe, is the right place to fight that battle — both economic and civic.

**ROBIN:** This may be a naive question — as a Brussels government minister, can you also influence policymaking at the Belgian or European level? Do you intend to expand your impact there too?

**LAURENT:** I was surprised myself — in my first week as minister, I represented Belgium in the European Council, because for matters related to industry and economy, it's the regions in charge, rotating between Flanders, Brussels, and Wallonia. This semester it's Brussels' turn to represent Belgium in the European Industry Council, so yes, direct impact there. At the federal level too — I've already had meetings with my federal colleague. We're a complex country, we have to work well together. For example, I've talked with the Minister of Health about supporting people on long-term sick leave to return to the job market. We're also in contact with the federal government on investment in Brussels, because we want to be smart about it — the idea is to bring back activity that left Belgium and Europe, not to compete with Wallonia or Flanders. If Brussels wins, Flanders and Wallonia win too.

**ROBIN:** A different question — a couple of days ago, Syndicate One hosted a meetup at Collibra's offices at Tour & Taxis, bringing together entrepreneurs building AI-native companies — how AI is transforming how products are built and distributed. Now that you're in government, what's the impact of AI on your daily work, and what do you see as Minister of Employment from a government perspective?

**LAURENT:** I think it's both massive and not so massive, and I'll explain why. A number of public services are being transformed by AI, and there's an appetite from people working in these services to use more AI agents to improve things for customers or users. I've talked with people at the Brussels employment office who said, please bring us an AI assistant, we'll do a better job. Same in hospitals — Belgium is ahead of the curve on AI in hospitals, and there's real appetite there too, from doctors and nurses, because they see the immediate benefit — more time with patients, less time on encoding information. At the same time, for policymaking itself, the tough discussions — the choices we make — remain a very human process, and it's important to keep it that way. The important societal choices in government shouldn't be governed by AI; they should come from discussion and compromise among human beings. So it's about using AI where it makes sense, and making sure core decision-making stays human.

**ROBIN:** Makes a lot of sense. Do you use AI in your personal day-to-day life?

**LAURENT:** Yeah, I do.

**ROBIN:** Let's hope it becomes a catalyst where it's needed, but stays human-centric where it's needed, as you say. Maybe a final question — you've launched into the political sphere almost overnight. Does that mean the rest of your career is in politics, or do you see yourself returning to entrepreneurship or consultancy at some point?

**LAURENT:** I don't know. I have a three-year mandate now — shorter than usual, because it took so long to form the government. I'll do my best — I have 1,200 days to deliver impact. My focus is making the best of those 1,200 days, and then we'll see. Three years is a long time. But right now my priority is doing the best I can for my city, Brussels.

**ROBIN:** Fantastic — we both love Brussels, Syndicate One loves Brussels, we'd love nothing more than to see it blossom and create an environment where entrepreneurs can thrive. Maybe a final, final question — it's only been six weeks, but what was the biggest thing that surprised you about being a minister that you didn't expect?

**LAURENT:** What fascinates me is the number of people I've talked to, and that there are no simple answers — you understand, especially in dense cities like Brussels, that issues are often complex, but that shouldn't be an excuse not to bring solutions. I'm really surprised by the energy and willingness people have to build a better collective. As a policymaker, we should be a catalyst for that energy to bring solutions.

**ROBIN:** Well, I hope the optimism and energy stays with you — I think Brussels needs it and deserves it. Thank you very much, Laurent, for your time.

**LAURENT:** Thank you, Robin. And best of luck.