Experience

27 Years Experience!

Experience is the knowledge or mastery of an event or subject gained through involvement in or exposure to it.

IT manager

2023 - 2024

Freelance IT manager

  • Responsible for projects, development, and operations (4 FTE)
  • Consult stakeholders across the organization to identify business and technology needs and to optimize the use of information technology,
  • Overseeing departmental finances, including budgeting (CAPEX & OPEX) and forecasting,
  • Developing a future-oriented ICT vision,
  • Building and maintaining relationships with suppliers, external advisors and vendors,
  • Reporting to companies CFO,
  • Participate in Group level initiatives,
AG Digipolis

Project manager MTO & FIN

2023 - 2024

Freelance Project manager

Digipolis Antwerp is the specialized, strategic IT partner of the city of Antwerp group and the driving IT force behind its digital transformation and acceleration. We realize stable, secure, high-performance and future-oriented IT solutions and services that can meet every digital challenge of the city of Antwerp group, today and in the future.

  • MTO project:
    • Responsible for project management, coördination and budget related to MTO (Move To Orange) program,
    • Coordination of application review meetings,
    • Setup governance model,
    • Watch over the minimum application requirements model,
    • Media article

  • FIN project:
    • Member of the financial task force for Accounts Receivable (AR),
    • Reducing backlog,
    • Team coördination,
    • Reporting,
    • Creating structural solutions by implementing a governance model,
    • Contact with suppliers, partners, and internal stakeholders,
VMRI

IT manager

2023 - 2024

Freelance IT manager (part-time)

The Flemish Human Rights Institute (VMRI) has been in existence since March 2023. This is an independent institution that protects and promotes the human rights of citizens in Flanders. If someone feels that his or her human rights are being violated, they can report this to the VMRI

  • Start-up of a new division at the Flemish Government (VMRI)
  • Responsible for projects, development, and operations
  • Consult stakeholders across the organization to identify business and technology needs and to optimize the use of information technology,
  • Overseeing departmental finances, including budgeting (CAPEX & OPEX) and forecasting,
  • Developing a future-oriented ICT vision,
  • Building and maintaining relationships with suppliers, external advisors and vendors,
  • Leading change and transformation at the intersection between business and ICT,
  • Implement ITSM way of working
SOLVINT

Procurement Consultant ICT

2023

Freelance Procurement Consultant ICT (category buyer) for GzA (Healthcare) and IMEC (Technology)

Providing guidance, tactical support, and strategic advice to the entire organization on matters related to ICT procurement:
- Hard- & Software
- Licensing
- Outsourcing services & resources

Being compliant with the Public Procurement Legislation and internal rules and procedures related to procurement. Working together with cross-functional teams. Building partnerships with suppliers.

Cerba Research

Servicedesk Manager

2022 - 2023

Freelance Servicedesk Manager for Cerba Research. Cerba Research is your partner for integrated clinical laboratory and diagnostic solutions, you direct the course of your complex trial. 

  • Responsible for managing the servicedesk accross Cerba Research locations worldwide,
  • Responsible as a Project Manager for the renewal of the ITSM processes, policies and tooling,
  • Responsible for workplace managementn
  • Working together with suppliers and 3rd parties,
  • Coördinating with internal stakeholders across all Cerba Research locations,
VTTI

Cybersecurity Project Manager

2021 - 2023

Freelance Cybersecurity Project Manager for VTTI. VTTI is one of the world’s leading storage providers for energy and other essential products like chemicals. Located at major shipping crossroads and supply gateways, VTTI provides over 10 million cubic meters of storage capacity across five continents.

  • Responsible for rolling out a "state-of-the-art" OT-cybersecurity solution across all VTTI locations,
  • Responsible for executing a POC around predictive maintenance for OT systems,
  • Working together with suppliers and 3rd parties,
  • Coördinating with internal stakeholders across all VTTI locations,
Patronale Life n.v.

ICT manager

2021 - 2022

Freelance ICT manager (part-time) for Patronale life. Patronale Life is a small, smart life insurance company. We assist our clients in building their wealth. We offer insurance with guaranteed capital and interest (Tak 21 and Tak 26), as well as insurance-linked to funds (Tak 23). In doing so, we are supported by our fundamental values and unique assets. Our choice for and experience with real estate and fixed-income investments, for example. Or our well-thought-out cost and distribution policy.

  • Responsible for projects, development, and operations within Patronale life  (3 FTE),
  • Consult senior-level stakeholders across the entire organization to identify business and technology needs and to optimize the use of information technology,
  • Overseeing departmental finances, including budgeting (CAPEX & OPEX) and forecasting,
  • Developing a future-oriented ICT vision,
  • Building and maintaining relationships with external advisors and vendors,
  • Leading change and transformation at the intersection between business and ICT,
  • Improving ITSM way of working
Toyota Motors Europe (TME)

Infrastructure Project Manager

2021 - 2023

Freelance infrastructure project manager (part-time) for Toyota Motors Europe (TME). TME is the regional headquarters of Toyota in Europe. It covers R&D, Manufacturing, Marketing, Sales, and Corporate Functions.

Responsible for the following projects simultaneously:

  • Rollout of new CCTV camera's on 70.000m² land,
  • Rollout of new POS across TME sites,
  • Migration towards a new access control system,
  • Rollout of a new Building Management System (BMS) across TME sites in Belgium,
UZA

ITSM Coach

2021
Freelance ITSM coach (part-time) for UZA; Antwerp University Hospital is a university centre providing patient-friendly tertiary care, high-quality academic training and groundbreaking scientific research with an important international focus.
Due to the implementation of a new elektronic patient application (EPD), some internal teams needed to be trained on overall ITSM processes, such as:

 

  • Renewal of incident- and problem management procedures,
  • Defining and agreeing on new SLA's for IT support,
  • Disaster recovery procedures,
BESIX Infra Support n.v.

ICT consultant

2021
Working as a freelance ICT consultant for BESIX Infra support (BIS) which is the overall service organization for BESIX Infra, BESIX Connect, Van den Berg, Belasco, and others.
BESIX Infra is the leading knowledge-driven road construction contractor on the Flemish and Brussels market. Its operations focus on road construction, sewerage systems, environmental remediation, and the construction of public spaces.
Van den Berg has a wealth of experience in constructing cables and pipelines and offers its customers high-quality infrastructure solutions. These include cables and pipelines above and below the ground, horizontal directional drilling, high voltage and traction, networks and structured cabling systems, fiber-optic networks, signaling installations and monitoring systems, domestic connections, technical installations in tunnels, and traffic technology.

 

  • Delivering advice and support on support teams and infrastructure engineers.
  • Project management on projects, such as:
    • Integration of new acquired company and transformation to BESIX Infra Netherlands,
    • Rollout of new Document Management System,
    • Rollout of new track & trace system,
  • Consult senior-level stakeholders across the entire organization to identify business and technology needs and to optimize the use of information technology,
  • Developing a future-oriented ICT vision,
  • Building and maintaining relationships with external advisors and vendors,
Roularta Media Group n.v.

Chief Information Officer (CIO)

2020
Working as @interim CIO for Roularta Media Group (RMG). RMG is a Belgian multimedia group, market leader in the field of magazines (Dutch/French) (general news magazines, business magazines and sports weeklies, lifestyle magazines, medical and professional magazines), local media in Flanders (free local papers, Sunday papers, lifestyle magazines and internet marketing solutions) and business television.
Through Trends Business Information, Roularta houses all financial and marketing data of every Belgian company. Roularta organises events in the fields of business and lifestyle and develops a whole set of line extensions in support of its strong brands: books and magazine specials, voyages and design.

 

  • Responsible for projects, development and operations within Roularta Media Group (+70FTE),
  • Responsible for orchestrating RMG digital transformation strategy and execution,
  • Member of the management committee,
  • Consult senior-level stakeholders across the entire organization to identify business and technology needs and to optimize the use of information technology,
  • Overseeing departmental finances, including budgeting (CAPEX & OPEX) and forecasting,
  • Developing a future-oriented ICT vision,
  • Building and maintaining relationships with external advisors and vendors,
  • Leading change and transformation at the intersection between business and ICT,
BESIX Infra Support n.v.

ICT manager

2020
Working as freelance ICT manager for BESIX Infra support (BIS) which is the overall service organization for BESIX Infra, BESIX Van den Berg, Belasco, and others.
BESIX Infra is the leading knowledge-driven road construction contractor on the Flemish and Brussels market. Its operations focus on road construction, sewerage systems, environmental remediation, and construction of public spaces.
Van den Berg has a wealth of experience in constructing cables and pipelines and offers its customers high-quality infrastructure solutions. These include cables and pipelines above and below the ground, horizontal directional drilling, high voltage and traction, networks and structured cabling systems, fiber-optic networks, signaling installations and monitoring systems, domestic connections, technical installations in tunnels and traffic technology.

 

  • Leading the entire support-, developers & application support (10 FTE) team,
  • Guide and mentor the product teams to raise the collective expertise in an Agile way,
  • Leading change and transformation at the intersection between business and ICT,
  • Identifying and eliminating security vulnerabilities with strategic solutions that increase data security,
  • Manage governance structure and key contacts to ensure the appropriate vendor interaction takes place to support BIS day-to-day operations,
  • Consult senior-level stakeholders across the entire organization to identify business and technology needs and to optimize the use of information technology,
  • Overseeing departmental finances, including budgeting (CAPEX & OPEX) and forecasting,
  • Developing a future-oriented ICT vision,
  • Building and maintaining relationships with external advisors and vendors,
Carglass n.v.

Operational ICT manager

2017 - 2020

 

As freelance - interim operational ICT Manager - system and support - at Carglass I'm responsible for defining the strategy, structure and development of technical IT projects, support and service desk (RUN team - 13 fte).

Carglass has been founded in 1979 and leader of the car glass industry in Belgium, as part of the Belron group it has 42 service centers in Belgium, next to the European Distribution Center located in Hasselt. Recently they acquired Care carrosserie with 14 service centers in Belgium to become Carglass-carrosserie

- Leading the entire team of system & support in Belgium,
- Bringing the helpdesk to a more mature level by introducing ITIL best practices,
- Introducing Service Desk principles and increase CSI score,
- Helping to build the technical / infrastructural architecture of IT systems of the entire group,
- Negotiating contracts with suppliers / partners covering systems, infrastructure, network, servers & connectivity,
- Together with colleagues from the various business units defining the future of the technical infrastructure and draws scenarios to deploy them.
- Creating projects with possible scenarios, timing and budget.
- Provide the necessary communication between all project stakeholders, encourage the team and reporting regularly on progress.
- Ensure all the technical systems and the functioning of Carglass specific environment has been documented,
- Participate as a IT Project Manager in major, business transformation projects (EPONA rollout, HQ relocation, EDC relocation, etc.)

Stefaan Hermans:

"I worked with Tom for more than 2 years in our Carglass® IT department. Tom is our IT operations manager and finally responsible for our full infrastructure (including cloud solutions) and service desk for our three business units: Glass – Carrosserie and European Distribution Centre.
Needless to say that in a VUCA world, especially technology and (internal) customer expectations are rapidly changing. Tom has the competency to keep track in this VUCA world with his priorities and keeps the clear overview of all huge change programs. Strategically and tactically in a very pragmatic way. He’s really contributing and adding value in our long term IT & digital strategy!"

LBC Tank Terminals

Corporate ICT Infrastructure Mgr.

2010 - 2016
Working as a corporate Infrastructure manager for an international company, based in Belgium.
- Developing an infra architecture & roll out across the organization,
- Develop infrastructure standards and implement,
- Manage ICT infra for 16 offices worldwide,
- Ensure adequate IT security standards and tools in place,
- Develop service level agreements/ service metrics, KPIs,
- Develop business continuity and disaster recovery plans,
- Maintaining IT infrastructure budget,
- Establish relevant ITIL standards and processes,
- Build and maintain good supplier relationships,
- Conducts and oversees IT infrastructure budget,
- Identify technology trends & incorporate them into the IT Strategy,
- Manage both internal staff & several contractors over 3 continents,
- Member of the Technology Advisory Board,
- Information Security Management,

 

Samantha Suire:

    "Tom was a great asset to work with during the Migration Project for LBC Tank Terminal. He is very tech savy, detail oriented, and extremely good manager. Tom and I worked both internationally and US based for almost a year doing a very high level consolidation of co-location infrastructure, Communication consolidation, Disaster Recovery testing, and systems integration for a Corporate Wide IT Consolidation. He was a true charm to work with and a great asset of knowledge. I would highly recommend Tom for any project in the future."

 

AS Adventure n.v.

Group ICT Manager

2016 - 2017
As Group ICT Manager - system and support - at A.S. Adventure I was responsible for defining the strategy, structure and development of technical IT projects at group level.

 

A.S. Adventure is the European leader in outdoor retailing, offering multiple brands of products and services through various channels. A.S. Adventure Group has 197 stores spread across five European countries: A.S. Adventure in Belgium (45 stores), Luxembourg (3 stores) and France (2 stores) Beaver in Netherlands (38 stores) and Cycle & Outdoor Concepts Ltd. UK (110 stores).

- Analyzing together with the Group Business Analyst questions of the business and its impact on technical systems,
- Leading the entire team of system & support across Belgium, Holland, UK.
- Helping to build the technical / infrastructural architecture of IT systems of the entire group,
- Negotiating contracts with suppliers / partners covering systems, infrastructure, network, servers & connectivity,
- Together with colleagues from the various business units defining the future of the technical infrastructure and draws scenarios to deploy them.
- Creating projects with possible scenarios, timing and budget.
- Provide the necessary communication between all project stakeholders, encourage the team and reporting regularly on progress.
- Ensure all the technical systems and the functioning of the AS Adventure specific environment has been documented.

Jean Varela:

"During the time Tom worked with our team, He displayed excellent communication skills, coordinating and integrating both teams in the UK and Belgium commuting in a successful new POS system migration.
It was a great pleasure working with Tom."

Crossrail Group

Group ICT Manager

2007 - 2010
Group ICT-manager for Crossrail, based in Antwerp. Crossrail, a private railway company, which has its headquarters in Muttenz near Basel, has specialised in offering trans-Alpine services between Italy, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Crossrail AG has business centres in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland.

 

Hanspeter K. Schurter:

    "During my time at Crossrail as a Director, we merged with DLC, Dillen Le Jeune Cargo NV. One of the projects was to integrate and merge the IT tools, spread over 4 countries.Tom was responsible for the IT within DLC NV; soon I have noticed that Tom had the necessary skills and know-how to merge the systems and he was given the responsibility for the Groups IT. Under my leadership, Tom was also responsible for the complete outsourcing process of the new IT set-up of Crossrail; he has executed this task excellently. Tom is a responsible and trustworthy person, able to work under pressure. His behaviour towards suppliers was always professional and has therefore respresented Crossrail at its best in his field of operation. I can recommend Tom to any future employer."

 

Howrey LLP

Senior ICT Engineer (freelance)

2006 - 2007
Freelance senior IT engineer for the Brussels office of Howrey LLP.

 

Brian Conlon:

    "It was a pleasure working with Tom. While working under unreasonable distractions and pressures, he provided incredible service while displaying a professional and pleasant demeanor".

 

White & Case

ICT Service engineer

2001 - 2006
Service engineer for all EMEA offices of White & Case LLP, an American law firm, based in their Brussels offices. Responsible for ICT infrastructure 2nd line support and project support throughout all EU offices.
Johnson & Johnson

Messaging support team (a.i.)

1999 - 2001
Consultant for an EMEA - Global Messaging Support team at Johnson & Johnson in Beerse - Antwerp. Responsible for managing e-mail environment throughout all EMEA sites of J&J.