Oana Bogdan founded the award-winning Brussels-based practice Bogdan & Van Broeck in 2007, reconfigured as &bogdan in 2022, which stands for cooperation and promotes the “follow me, I’m right behind you” type of leadership. Bogdan questions the architect’s traditional role, believing that the profession’s skills can be used to navigate the complexity of many areas of life. Embracing this ability to translate to other contexts, she took on roles such as Secretary of State for Cultural Heritage in the Romanian Government, which assumed leadership of the country in 2016, Chairwoman of the Expert Committee in Charge of Brussels Region Building Code’s Reform (2021-2022) and of the Netherlands Creative Industries Fund Committee for Architecture (since 2023).