Professional Experience
iChoosr 2023 - 2024
iChoosr is a international company with a mission to accelerate the energy transition. We do this by organising group buying projects for sustainable products such as renewable energy contracts, solar panels, energy storage solutions and heat pumps. We are present in the Netherlands, Belgium, UK, USA, Poland and Japan.
• Head of Information Technology (CTO role)
Jan '23 - Jan '24
Lead the change from a project to product based approach, by transforming the engineering department (+20 engineers in 4 locations and 3 countries).
  • Rebuild cross-functional teams to support the product based approach.
  • Set engineering principles to guide autonomous teams with their decisions.
  • Build a product strategy and aligned the engineering/technology strategy to it.
  • Defined engineering career paths and guarded staff happiness.
  • Changed engineering culture from a start-up to a scale-up mentality.
Centomedia 2021 - 2022
One of the largest Belgian digital signage companies, providing Screen Communication as a Service. Merged with Digitopia and now serving +25K digital touchpoints in 6 countries.
• COO/CTO
Jun '21 - Jul '22
Direct company’s cultural & technological aspects and operations as well as maintain and upgrade SAAS digital signage content management system. Deliver training and guidance to software development teams aiming to enhance product quality. Liaise with support team to determine user’s requirements and resolve concerns by providing robust solutions. Support product development teams to improve overall workflow and achieve organisational objectives.
  • Overhauled strategy to become more profitable.
  • Cultivated pro-activity, excellence & focus on customer satisfaction.
  • Identified and halted all non-profitable products and services.
  • Increased 58% customer satisfaction by improving company's overall working structure.
  • Introduced and adopted value-driven approaches instead of opportunity-driven approaches.
  • Introduced new technologies, strengthening commercial proposition.
  • Support merger Centomedia in Digitopia Group (25.000+ digital touch points in 6 countries).
amfori 2013 - 2021
amfori is the leading global business association for open and sustainable trade and brings together over 2,500 retailers, importers, brands and associations from more than 40 countries.
• Director Technology (CIO role)
Dec '13 - Apr '21
Developed global digital web-based platform and ecosystem for sustainability initiatives by using SAAS model. Led system development process from planning to successful execution within stringent timelines and budgetary constraints. Designed and created required building blocks for digital transformation. Defined technology stacks, IT architecture, and roll-out in application landscape. Coordinated with board regarding digital transformation and status of Technology Department. Identified and implemented innovative techniques to improve overall program efficacy.
  • Participated actively defining mission, vision of organisation and established matching Digital Strategy.
  • Delivered data warehouse, making Business Intelligence possible and unlock data for members.
  • Pioneered machine-learning efforts based upon audit data.
  • Established data governance protocols and deployed GDPR along with data privacy legislation worldwide.
  • Initiated ISO-27001 efforts
  • Enabled 2700+ members to lead and monitor 27K+ global producers in close collaboration with 30+ auditing, training, and consultancy companies.
  • Participated actively in large international and cross-organisational initiatives, to move our agenda forward.
  • Worked together, and negotiated with CIOs/IT directors of large retailers and brands to integrate data.
IPG Group 2005 - 2013
Belgian Contact center serving numerous local and international clients from IPG Group offices and customer sites with +1,300 staff and ~150 back office employees.
• Business Support Manager (CIO role)
Jan '12 - Oct '12
Managed departmental budget in collaboration with senior management and stakeholders. Devised and implemented strategic plans to increase customer outreach and achieve set targets. Led operations management team and represented business support before CEO. Administered start-up of new contact center in Morocco, implemented ICT strategies to globalize ICT infrastructure. Coordinated seamless move of contact center to different geographical locations.
  • Reformed department with introduction of ITIL to reduce backlog infrastructure issues.
  • Launched Business Intelligence Department
  • Secured €2.5M worth of contract while executing PCI-DSS compliancy to process credit card payments.
  • Slashed 7% annual license cost by re-negotiating varied license contracts on basis of pay-as-you-use model.
  • Established and deployed Information Security (ISO-2700x), securing major contracts in banking and insurance sectors.
  • Technical start-up of new contact center in Morocco, adaptation ICT strategy to internationalization.
  • Orchestrated seamless move of a contact center to a different location with zero downtime for service.
• Program Manager
Aug '08 - Nov '13
Devised and led execution of Project Management Office strategy. Trained, coached, led team of project managers. PMO providing pre-sales support, RFP responses, business analysis, design of technical and operational solutions for unique customer requirements. Maintained up-to-date on, advised on, and leveraged contact center technologies such as ICT systems, telephony systems, and software. Architected many business solutions. Prepared RFIs and RRPs to acquire new systems including subsequent supplier negotiation, implementation, customization and integration. Managed, evaluated, and continually optimized processes. Coached novice peers on management skills and preformed as deputy to Vice-President Business Support (Technology Department).
  • Created strong competitive distinction and customer loyalty, pioneering best-in-class PMO including strategy, plan, comprehensive structure, and hand-picking high calibre staff; achieves top ratings on customer satisfaction surveys, 97% on-time delivery, and eliminated monthly penalties paid to key customer from +€20K to €0.
  • Optimized cost-benefit ratio of PMO; developing close customer-focused collaboration with Sales, sales procedures and checklists, service catalogue, and redesigning contracts with Legal.
  • Transformed Business Support into value- and margin-generating department, enabling 1st visibility into setup costs, uncovering lack of payment of all setup costs, and introducing setup budget in client contracts.
  • Established IPG’s leading market reputation as reliable and ethical company, best at following all regulations in telecom market, and preferred partner to major customers.
• Software Development Manager
Jan '05 - Jul '08
Coached, trained, managed, and actively participated in 12-person team building and implementing Windows- and web-based contact center tools to support operations, and reduce projects’ time-to-market. Designed enterprise software architecture. Held accountability for all applications used in contact center. Coordinated with Sales and Operations to gather requirements. Collaborated with suppliers and ICT to realize projects.
  • Transitioned Software Development from menial function into key differentiator of IPG among competitors, advocating and successfully generating consensus on value of future software development.
  • Accelerated building of contact center tools, serving as primary architect, designing modular architecture with numerous reliable components able to be quickly assembled and meet customer demands.
  • Provided operational staff with real-time reporting on all metrics needed from Avaya Dialing System, building front-end, designing high-performance system, integrating into database, and creating web-based front-end, generated interest from vendor Avaya in purchasing the scripting and real-time reporting solution to be integrated in their commercial product. ROI within 2 years.
Cognita 2001 - 2004
Software development company renowned for database-driven websites, and specialising in niche market implementing call-avoidance solution; partnered with Canadian M-Tech, and US SupportSoft.
• Chief Technology Officer
Aug '01 - Dec '04
Served as Co-Owner, Partner, and member of Board. Led all aspects of technology, including strategy, operations, software development, project management, technical pre-sales, and ICT infrastructure (website hosting farm). Managed account with primary customer, UPC.
  • Established company as sole partner for SupportSoft within Europe in +1.5M installations on customer PC’s including major customers such as Belgacom, Chello/UPC, KPN, Tiscali and Telefonica.
  • Revolutionized SupportSoft product for European market, introducing multiple innovations and improvements including making product self-updating, multi-lingual, and capable of handling multiple hardware configurations; adopted by main product which involved close coordination with primary development team in the USA.
  • Expedited time-to-market, while maximizing quality, transitioning in Agile development, dev-ops, and building test lab to enable testing on diverse versions of OS in multiple languages for a product mainly distributed on CD-ROM.
  • Streamlined installation of software at customer sites, authoring detailed step-by-step handbook for deployment and testing; subsequently automated +80% of installation via adaptable installation scripts.
ISES International 2000 - 2001
One of the largest providers of training, advice and guidance in the areas of project management, process management, information management and ICT for business. ISES helps their customers with the development of skills, process improvement and implementation of changes.
• Consultant
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Apr '00 - Jul '01
Consultant/Trainer for Software Development Methodologies and Project Management.
Origin 1992 - 2000
International information technology services company. Serving a global client base, it delivers hi-tech transactional services, consulting and technology services, systems integration and managed services.
• Component & Tool Factory Manager
Nov '99 - Mar '00
Startup of a new division to reduce the duplicate work and knowledge transfer regarding components & tools. Inventory of existing work available, setting up standards, procedures; setting up communication & information sharing; coordination with The Netherlands.
• Trainer for ISES International
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Sep '99 - Mar '00
Helping out our sister company on the Belgian market for a number of IT Trainings.
• Team Manager Microsoft Technologies
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Feb '97 - Dec '99
Besides working on projects, also responsible for the training & coaching of newbies in Microsoft technology. Setting up a training & coaching program. Integrate novice staff into different projects.
• QA Manager - Lead Consultant
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Nov '96 - Aug '98
SPOC for the 'Global Material Database' and the 'Support Reference Database' team. Final Responsibility & Accountability for the quality of delivered products towards the Global Users Acceptance group.
• Lead Developer - Project Manager
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Jan '95 - Feb '96
International cross-cultural project, working at the limits of Visual Basic with a lot of low-level windows API calls for the graphical system. Requirements capturing from across the world, functional & technical design, leading development.
• Analyst-Programmer
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Sep '92 - Dec '94
Specialized in 4GL languages and C.
Comelog Benelux, Brussels 1990 - 1992
Small European IT Service provider.
• Analyst-Programmer
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Specialized in 4GL languages and C.
• Analyst-Programmer
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Development Human Resource Management System.