Meet the team behind Sapience

Sapience is a spin-off from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) with the clear mission to help companies and organizations understand and predict the behavior of consumers, employees, and citizens.


We use innovative psychological and neuroscientific tools to provide world-class research, consultancy, and training.


Our many years of business and academic experience enable us to understand the specific issues our clients are dealing with and tailor our advice precisely and pragmatically.


Discover our team below.

Davide Rigoni

Davide co-founded Sapience in 2019, and is now Managing Partner. He previously worked as Senior Consultant at neuromarketing startup Impulse Research and at Profacts, a full-service market research agency, for two years.


He obtained a PhD in Cognitive Sciences at the University of Padova, Italy, and conducted neuroscientific research on human decision-making at Aix-Marseille University, France, and at Ghent University, Belgium. He is currently Visiting Professor of Consumer Behavior at the University of Padova, Italy, and has teached Neuromarketing and Market Research at the Hult International Business School in London, UK.

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Timothy Desmet

Timothy obtained a PhD in Cognitive Psychology at Ghent University, Belgium and has worked for two years at the Brain and Cognitive Sciences department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, US and one year at the Psychology department of Michigan State University (MSU). In 2006 he founded Profacts, a Belgian full-service market research company that solves marketing and management problems through quantitative and qualitative market research. He is also member of ESOMAR.


Timothy is the co-founder of Headstart and Sapience.

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Michiel Crommelinck

In 2017, Michiel co-founded Officient, an HR platform for SMEs – and later became CEO. The company grew quickly, gaining over 20,000 customers in four years, and was acquired by Exact in 2020. Before that, he worked as an Innovation Partner at HR provider Securex for four years. Michiel is also an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Vlerick Entrepreneurship Academy – where he combines his scientific background with his practical experience to support other business leaders. His expertise is on the crossroads between entrepreneurship, HR, psychology and technology.


Michiel is co-founder of Headstart and Director at Sapience.

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Tim Geleyn

Tim has gathered over 10 years in research experience. He holds a Ph.D. in Dutch Linguistics and worked for over 5 years at Profacts, a market research agency.


Tim joined Sapience in 2022 as a Senior Consultant.

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