Julien Heylen

Based in Brussels, I am the Project Executive on the EU-Africa Business Forum (EABF) Facility, a project managed by Landell Mills in partnership with GFA and Adam Smith International. The EABF Facility aims to strengthen EU-Africa trade and investment relations, mobilising the European private sector to invest in Africa in line with the EU’s Global Gateway initiative. It also supports the capacity-building of European Business Support Organisations (BSOs) in Africa.

In my role, I act as a liaison between the client; Landell Mills; the project’s consultant team; and key stakeholders such as EU Delegations, BSOs, trade promotion organisations, development finance institutions, and related EU-funded programmes.

My responsibilities include:

• Supporting day-to-day project delivery – coordinating input from consultants, scheduling external meetings, and sharing key documents.
• Ensuring timely reporting to the client, including the preparation of six-monthly progress reports by the EABF team under the direction of the Team Leader.
• Resource management – processing invoices, managing timesheet submissions, and tracking the use of man-days and incidental budget.
• Reviewing documents such as Terms of References, mission requests, and concept notes to ensure proper formatting and contractual accuracy.
• Scheduling and reporting on meetings with stakeholders, including EU Delegations, BSOs, and EU-funded programmes, as well as bi-weekly coordination calls with the client.

I usually start by reviewing my to-do list and scanning my inbox for urgent matters or updates to help prioritise my tasks. This could involve submitting mission requests, processing invoices, following up on internal and external communications, or setting up meetings with stakeholders. Every other day, we hold a coordination call with our Team Leader and experts to align on priorities, flag challenges and delegate accordingly.

Externally, our team regularly liaises with EU Delegations to discuss upcoming Business Forums and identify areas where the Facility can provide support. In parallel, I help coordinate our bi-weekly calls with the client which involves preparing summary reports and tracking follow-up actions for the team.

In between meetings and external consultations, I focus on the administrative aspects of project delivery to ensure smooth implementation and progress across all components.

I was hired during the inception phase of the EABF Facility, to work exclusively on this project. Being involved from the onset in a project of such scale (€14.6 million) has been interesting, as I gradually got to see our Terms of Reference being translated into strategic engagement laid out by our Team Leader, through continuous consultation with the client.

Given the project’s alignment with both my geographical interest in EU-Africa relations and thematic interest in private sector engagement through the Global Gateway initiative, it’s a project I’m fully invested in. I’m proud to dedicate my full attention to such a significant initiative.

Project coordination is key, particularly task and time management. With multiple components and stakeholders involved, it's essential to maintain a clear overview of both short- and long-term priorities.

This requires balancing quick responses to client or stakeholder requests with longer-term planning and ensuring deadlines are met. Effective communication and collaboration are crucial, as deliverables are rarely produced by just one consultant. Coordinating team efforts and managing workload distribution is critical to delivering efficiently and on time. Ultimately, success depends on strong teamwork.

Before joining Landell Mills, I worked as Programme Assistant for Global Europe at Friends of Europe, a Brussels-based think tank. Although the scale and nature of work differed, the role gave me valuable experience in organising EU-focused events, which translated well into my position at Landell Mills.

At Friends of Europe, I contributed to the organisation of two major events: the Europe-China Forum, marking 20 years of EU-China trade relations and exploring the EU’s de-risking strategy; and the Global Europe Summit, which focused on green infrastructure and sustainable development. Both themes tie into key aspects of the Global Gateway initiative.

Through these experiences, I developed skills in stakeholder coordination, roundtable curation, and logistics for high-level EU events. I also learned the value of data collection and database management for event outreach, an essential part of our work at the EABF Facility today.

What I enjoy most about working at Landell Mills is the variety of collaboration across teams, locations and areas of expertise.

On one hand, I work closely with our global team of consultants based across Brussels, Mauritius, India, Albania, Nigeria, Rwanda and beyond. Together, we coordinate our efforts with the European Commission and project stakeholders. Our meetings range from online calls to in-person sessions at the Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) or the EABF/Landell Mills office in Brussels. Our consultants are highly committed and go the extra mile to deliver on complex tasks and tight deadlines, which makes collaboration all the more rewarding.

I also enjoy working with colleagues across Landell Mills, primarily based at our head office in Trowbridge. The guidance of our Project Director; regular coordination with the markets, enterprise and trade (MET) team; and the ongoing support from our finance team have been vital in helping me settle into this role.

Working on a project spanning Europe and sub-Saharan Africa has given me the opportunity to support several EU Business Forums on the ground. In 2025, this took me to Zimbabwe and Zambia for bilateral forums, and to Angola for the continental AU–EU Business Forum (AEBF).

A standout moment was attending the Zambia–EU Lobito Corridor Business Forum in Lusaka, held ahead of the regional AEBF 2025 and marked by its strong political relevance. During this event, I was in charge of managing a team of enumerators for data collection, supporting the development of a pipeline of concrete investment projects, and enabling follow-up with participants after the forum.

Seeing first-hand how our work translates into meaningful exchanges continues to deepen my understanding of business-to-business and business-to-finance matchmaking in practice.