Jury

Sebastian Reddeker is from Paderborn in Germany.

He has been working in Luxembourg since 2007. After his studies in Romance languages, media sciences and economics in Paderborn and Le Mans, he completed a PhD at the University of Luxembourg on advertising communication in a multicultural space.

From 2011 to 2018, he worked at the Luxembourg Trade Confederation (clc), first as project manager for the Luxembourg programme, the trade centre for the Greater Region, then as division manager for Villes & Commerce as part of the PRO Commerce Pact, supported by the government.

From 2018, Sebastian Reddeker worked as Content & Innovation Manager at Luxembourg for Tourism, Luxembourg’s national tourism marketing agency, before officially taking over general management of the agency in October that same year.   

Michel Reckinger studied at ETH Zurich. He is a mechanical engineer and a graduate in business management.

In 1993, he joined the family business, Reckinger Alfred SA, a company specialising in heating, sanitary, ventilation and air-conditioning installations since 1911.

He took over the management of the company in 2001, which today employs more than 330 people.

Since 1995, he has been a committee member of the Federation of Sanitary and Air-Conditioning Installers (FIESC), renamed the Federation of Technical Engineering (FGT) in 2019.

In January 2021, Michel Reckinger was elected president of UEL, the Luxembourg Employers’ Association.

In July 2021, he was elected vice-president of the Federation of Craftsmen, after having been its president for 6 years.

Léa Linster studied law after obtaining her baccalaureate.

In 1982, on the death of her father, she took over his inn in Frisange, which she called “Léa Linster”. She obtained her master’s degree and then trained under Paul Bocuse, Joël Robuchon, Frédy Girardet and Eckart Witzigmann.

In 1987, her restaurant received a Michelin star for the first time, which it has held continuously for more than 30 years.

In 1989, she won the Bocuse d’Or cooking competition – to date the only woman in the world to do so. That same year, a career in television began for Léa Linster after she appeared on Alfred Biolek’s cookery show.

In 2019, she passed the company on to her son Louis. To this day, the restaurant still has a Michelin star under his management.

In addition to her television appearances, Léa Linster is also active on the public scene as the author of numerous cookbooks but also as an ambassador for food quality.

Carlo Thelen holds a master’s degree in economics from the Catholic University of Louvain.
In 1996, he joined the Chamber of Commerce, where he successively held the positions of economic advisor, director of economic affairs, director of international affairs and Chief Economist.

He became a member of the Management Committee in August 2003 and was then appointed Chief Executive Officer in January 2014.

Carlo Thelen also runs a noted expert blog in which he takes an informed look at the country’s major socio-economic themes.

The Director General of the Chamber of Commerce takes part in visits and economic missions abroad, during which he regularly showcases the strengths of the Luxembourg economy and its companies.

Mady Lutgen acquired her first radio experience as a teenager at Lycée Weeltzer. She began her media career with RTL Radio Lëtzebuerg at the age of 18 and has since then worked on all stations in the Luxembourg media world.

In 2019, Mady founded the first Luxembourgish online magazine for women, called madi.lu.