Founded in Vienna, Austria in 2013, East meets West (EMW) is a network of LGBTI professionals from Western & mainly Eastern Europe, allowing the exchange of ideas, share best practices and get mutual inspiration to improve the situation of LGBTI men and women in the different countries. EMW Business pushes the development of local LGBTI business by driving initiatives and offering services:
To maximize the EMW impact we built the cooperation with external partners like local Chambers of Commerce, Embassies and Diplomatic Economical Missions and EU Institutions. At the same time we are proud to be already an affiliate member of the NGLCC .
Human interaction with our network is one of the basic EMW principles. In this sense, the Annual East meets West Forum is a major event. It brings together the EMW network and interested supporters & outsiders, to discuss LGBT topics, present ideas, realizations and future plans. We create there an environment for efficient networking. The 2 first Forums were held in Prague, Czech Republic. The successful last Forum took place in Vienna:
Ludo Swinnen is a Flemish Belgian, born in 1956 near Antwerp. He holds a Law Degree from the University of Leuven (BE) and an EMBA in Finance from the University of New York. After building up his professional career in the insurance business in Belgium, he left in 1998 his home country to become active in the financial world in CZ, SK, RO and Germany, to finally arrive in Vienna, Austria and work there for an international Austrian banking group. He is member of agpro (Austrian Gay Professionals) and Auditor for EGMA (EU). Ludo lives with his partner Yves in Vienna and Nice.
Pavel, born in 1977 in The Czech Republic, holds a Business degree from the Anglo-American University (AAU) of Prague. His career in financial industry began in the Czech Republic. In 2004, he joined an international bank and through various OPS/IT positions he gained an extensive knowledge of Contact Centers in Central and Eastern Europe. He recently joined the fascinating area of Digital Banking. Pavel lives with his husband Laco in Vienna and in Prague.
East meets West Forum (EMW) - Gemeinnütziger Verein zur Förderung von Micro LGBT Geschäftsinitiativen in Österreich und Zentral- und Osteuropa. ZVR-Zahl: 231608652 (Landespolizeidirektion Wien). DVR: 0003506. Bankverbindung: DE22 5123 0800 6530 1274 27, BIC: WIREDEMM. Vorstand: Ludo A.F. Swinnen, Pavel Šubrt.