Customer & Sales Oriented CxO

P&L responsibility for the 'banking' division of Isabel (ca 18M€) including the 'open banking' solutions. Directly managing sales, marketing and product management and using pooled resources for development, customer support, etc. This was an 'entrepreneurial' role starting with a small team to take the technical solutions delivered to the shareholders, transform them into products that can be sold to banks all over Europe and establish Isabel as a (open) bank(ing) solution provider outside of Belgium. Reestablished a good relationship with the 4 biggest customers who are also the 4 shareholders in very difficult circumstances, brought a complex blockchain based KYB sharing project with the shareholders to a good end, rebuilt the marketing messages for PSD2 based open banking and launched the international marketing. Left Isabel in agreement with the CEO as the shareholders did not want to expand internationally while that was the main reason for the CEO to hire me.

Appointed as CEO by private equity fund Fortino Capital which acquired MobileXpense in December 2017. Transformed a group of people with a great product and a total lack of organization, structure, processes, and strategy into a smooth-running international SaaS scale-up with almost no employee attrition. Tripled the company revenue and size in 2 years by a mix of organic growth and international acquisitions (from 7M€ revenue in 2017 to an expected 21M€ revenue in 2020, from 60 to 170 FTE, while remaining EBITDA positive), all funded with the generated cashflow (except one acquisition, which required a capital increase). Initiated and executed three acquisitions (from due diligence to closing) and personally managed the integration.

Installed a strong company culture through leading by example as well as more formal HR processes in order to enable fast growth. Defined and launched a clear value proposition/positioning, set up the marketing team and brought the company from being an unknown provider to a 'Major Player' according to IDC. Created a new 'go to market' strategy, doubling the prices and switching from payments in arrears to upfront payments to massively boost the cash flow. Introduced clear operational processes with well-defined roles/responsibilities and moved to ITIL based operations to increase customer satisfaction and lower costs.

Most of the management team, including myself, left the company after a severe fall-out with the chairman on how to cope with the impact of the Covid crisis. Few months after the management team left, the chairman was asked to leave the investment fund.

Responsible for all sales across the three product segments for Benelux (~370M€ turnover, team of ~100 FTE in sales and presales in matrix org) and member of Benelux executive team. Driving the change as Worldline was transitioning from a 'country based' model to global matrix organization. Professionalizing sales by eg introduction of a CRM and account planning for major accounts. Installed 'customer focus' throughout the whole frontline, including support functions.

Successfully completed the divestment of Paysquare Belgium as imposed and followed up by the EU as part of the approval for the acquisition of Equens SE.

Created and lead the Business & Quality Office (~30 FTEs) for a newly created global division responsible for all maintenance activities worldwide at Alcatel-Lucent. Designed and realized a lean/six sigma based +15% global HC reduction (from 3500 FTE to 3000) in 6 months' time in parallel with an offshoring exercise to China/India.

Business unit manager with P&L responsibility for managed services and outsourcing in Belgium. Main focus was the KPN Group Belgium ('Base') outsourcing programme to roll out, operate and maintain a nation-wide 3G network. The business unit had +200 FTEs with a +40 Mio Euro yearly revenue and was heavily loss making when I took over. Achieved a turn-around of the project in 15 months.

Managing all financial, logistics and operational aspects of the broadband business in Northern Europe (+200 Mio Euro turnover). Responsible for sales in Central/Eastern Europe.

R&D of a VDSL chipset (analog/digital) and firmware in a 'virtual start-up' company. The project resulted in the first commercially available VDSL chipset and several worldwide patents (one on my name).