Lieven Vermaele was born in Gent, Belgium in 1975. He obtained his "Master of Science in Engineering" from the University of Gent, and pursued several post-graduate studies. He worked for VRT for six years, mainly developing strategies for implementation of new technologies. He was in charge of the renegotiation with the Flemish Government of VRT's management contract for 2006-2011. He left VRT in September 2006 to work for Alcatel-Lucent, again dealing with strategic issues. On 1 September 2007, he took up his position as Technical Director of European Broadcasting Union (EBU). He is Chairman of the ETSI/EBU/CENELEC Joint Technical Committee, which is responsible for setting European standards for broadcasting systems.