Nov 2019 – Aug 2022 · 2 yrs 9 mos

• Teaching a new MBA course on Entrepreneurship.
• Key content: The ABCs of Innovation, Business funding and building the habits of a successful Entrepreneur

Sep 2019 – Jul 2023 · 3 yrs 10 mos · Greater Lille Metropolitan Area

• 2 Roles
• Current- Role: Partner management for the Foresight, Innovation & Transformation Chair
• Past -Role Innovation professor: some say Innovation is an Art. Others say Innovation is a Science. I believe successful Innovation is practice based. It is a practice that can be taught and learned.
• The course content is based on my new book CYCLES - a scientifically proven method to build your odds of Innovation success today, and habits to ensure your success in the future.

Jan 2017 – Sep 2018 · 1 yr 8 mos · Ghent Metropolitan Area

• Industrialized IoT solutions
• Smartends is dedicated to helping start-ups and larger companies build industrialized sensor solutions. Industrialized = Low cost and reliable solutions. Our low price can often be the difference between a viable and a non-viable business.
• Responsible for all aspects of business development
• Led 2 key projects: 1/. smart garbage management 2/. a solution to extend GSM phone batteries 3-5 times

Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 · 1 yr · Brussels Metropolitan Area

• IBA is the world leader in Proton therapy. Led the company's digital transformation. Re-launched Global Marketing at IBA(International), building web traffic and sales leads by over 200% in 10 months

Jun 2015 – Feb 2017 · 1 yr 8 mos · Leuven Belgium

• Sweetbee is an educational program for diabetics and an app for diabetics called Platemate. Platemate offers a unique visual way of showing the amounts of carbohydrates based on a “carbohydrate-unit”, and gives the complete nutritional composition of meals. This makes helps users better plan their insulin usage and manage their eating habits.
• My focus at Sweetbee is on building Platemate usage and business partnerships.

Jun 2014 – Dec 2015 · 1 yr 6 mos · Greater Nice Metropolitan Area

• European Innovation Academy is the world's most intense startup bootcamp. We bring together the brightest minds from all over the world to bring innovative products and services to market. Entrepreneurs are immersed in multicultural and interdisciplinary teams for a 3-week hackathon.
• My role: speaking and mentoring

Jun 2014 – Dec 2014 · 6 mos · Brussels Metropolitan Area

• The Founder Institute is the world’s largest entrepreneur training and start-up launch program, helping aspiring founders across the globe build enduring technology companies.
• My role: Led the Brussels Chapter, Teaching and Mentoring

Jan 2014 – Nov 2015 · 1 yr 10 mos · Brussels

• Some say Innovation is an Art. Others say Innovation is a Science. I believe successful Innovation is practice based. It is a practice that can be taught and learned. In this course, I taught the practice of Innovation.

Aug 2011 – Feb 2012 · 6 mos · Brussels

• Managed a team of 17. During six months we built sales by 23% vs previous 6 months and cut external budgets by 35%. (1.5 million) Expanded the company's use of social media, email marketing and built new business partnerships.

Sep 2010 – Aug 2022 · 11 yrs 11 mos · Belgium

• Independent management consultant providing business strategy, business analytics, business innovation consulting and interim management.
• Worked with over 50 companies fine-tuning and updating their Innovation Management programs
• Responsible for the set-up of “The Strategy Management Collaborative”, bringing together 5 consulting companies with close to 500 employees. Key tasks: Business modeling, creation of a knowledge center, expanding the partner base. (SMC)

Nov 2008 – Apr 2013 · 4 yrs 5 mos

• Created 24 new websites including 2 price comparison websites. (18procent.be and 18pourcent.be)
• Managed a team of 5 developers (2 Belgian and 3 Indian programmers), and 4 marketing/ sales people to set up the sites.
• Based on extensive SEO work these sites are ranked in the google top 5 for over 600 keywords.
• Set up strategic partnerships in the Internet, Energy and Insurance sectors.
• Built an extensive social network for the sites and an email contact list of 1.4 million addresses
• Left after setting up a partnership with 12lead BVBA to manage the sites. The comparison sites are on track to become a top 100 websites in Belgium by end 2011

Jan 2007 – Jan 2012 · 5 yrs

• I taught a course on product management and supervised 22 students doing their master's theses. As part of my work in Leuven I also did research on media integration and social media marketing. My course was the top-rated course in Economics 2 out of 3 years.

Sep 2004 – Feb 2008 · 3 yrs 5 mos

• After speaking at a change management seminar for the Postal Services, I created a new company to serve this industry.
• Provided strategic and business implementation consulting to: Deutsche Poste, Canada Post, USPS, La Poste (France), De Post (Belgium), Swiss Post, Posti (Finland), Sweden Post and Denmark Post. Results: USA: a new data development program and focus on mail relevancy, Canada: Creation of a new data subsidiary, Belgium: 4 new business programs which are projected to deliver € 40 million in bottom line results over the next 5 years.
• Set up joint ventures and business partnerships with Creativ Media (Slovenia Post), Ebiss and the Belgian Post.
• Created and managed the largest study ever run on what the Postal Services can do to build mail volumes. 62 postal services and 426 advertisers participated in the research.
• Created an electronic subscription newsletter to sell the services of the company. This newsletter had the largest reach of any industry newsletter on business development; it was distributed to over 700 senior postal officials in 72 countries.

Jan 2004 – Jan 2006 · 2 yrs

• Created the program Select Post. Also managed several programs to reduce the costs associated with mis-addressed mail.

Jan 1999 – Jan 2002 · 3 yrs

• Working with one business partner I led the creation of a new business concept, tested it with consumers, pre-sold the program to dozens of leading advertisers, and prepared a business plan which received €12.7 million in business funding from Royal Mail and TPG (October 1999).
• Led and managed one of the most successful business start-up in the UK direct marketing industry. Results within the first 18 months:
• Awareness: 91 % of top 300 advertisers, of the 91% aware, 94% of companies rated the program positively.
• Sales: 132 of the top 200 mailers in the UK were buying the data generated.
• Consumer participation: 17% of the UK population joined
• Results 2002: €6.0 million turnover, Cash Flow: €3.0 million
• Coached and supported the promotion of my business partner to Managing Director

Feb 1998 – May 1999 · 1 yr 3 mos

• Working with 2 people in Paris, I led the development of new consumer marketing program for the Jigsaw consortium (Unilever, Cadbury Schweppes and Kimberly Clark). We beat 9 established UK companies, and won one of the largest Direct Marketing contracts ever awarded in the UK. (Value £20 million). Using the funds from this contract I set up Consodata UK
• Grew the company within one year from 1 person to 27, from zero turnover to £2.8 million
• Creation and development of the Voilà, Best Brand and Consumer Choice programs. Voilà rolled out nationally: participating brands showed an average business of 22%, survey Participation rates: 3 times industry average.
• Creation of the on-line Consodata Data warehouse within 6 months.
• Long term strategic contracts: AOL, MBNA, Whitbread, IPC, Philips, Direct Line, & Lombard. Worth £ 4 million.
• Results 1999: £ 360,000 Profits

Jan 1995 – Jan 1999 · 4 yrs

• With an idea and a lot of energy I created a new business concept, and negotiated a joint venture agreement with the market leader in the sector. After a successful start-up, the program was boycotted by 2 leading retailers which reduced the number of clients from 24 to 0 in less than 2 weeks. Against what seemed impossible odds, negotiated a settlement with the retailers and successfully re-launched the program within 2 months. After 2 years of operations bought the leading competitive company to become market leader
• Set up the Sophie's Shopping Club program, the first national co-operative Direct Mail program for consumer products in Europe. (Winner of the 1993 Push Marketing Innovation Award).
• Built the lifestyle database with the highest market coverage and best update rate in Europe.
• Built an all-star client base with almost all the leading FMCG companies and 93 of the top 100 mailers.
• Program cited as European best practice by Procter & Gamble.
• Business results (1998): Turnover: $ 4.2 million, Profit of $.4 million
• Sold company to Wegener Direct Marketing

Jan 1989 – Jan 1992 · 3 yrs

• Recommended and executed a major brand re-launch for Dreft Dishwash (new copy, a price increase, a national direct coupon, in-store actions, and 500 M door to door samples). This re-launch helped build the brand’s market share by 18%.
• Recommended and implemented the first "Euro" laundry detergent package: "Eco-recharge”. Cost saving: $750,000 /yr.
• Managed the creation of new advertising for Ariel, Dreft and Dash.
• Managed a successful national sampling program distributing over 3,000,000 samples for Dash and Ariel Ultra