Patrick Wendelen, Managing Director Ki’ communications
In deze werkgroepen hanteren we het principe : ‘Ieder spreekt zijn eigen taal’. Het gaat dus om tweetalige (NL/FR) groepen, zowel voor de paneldiscussie zelf als voor de interactie met de zaal.
Gespreksgroep 1: Van Smart Technology naar Wisdom
Het integreren van technologie en digitalisering van de build environment en Facility Management rukt aan een verschroeiend tempo op. Echter, vaak zijn de doelstellingen van deze projecten niet helder omschreven. Technologie moet de organisatie en het management ondersteunen bij de processen en het nemen van de juiste beslissingen. Technologie moet bijdragen tot wisdom in de organisatie. Hoe kan dit? Hebben we daarvoor de juiste skills in het FM departement? Is IT hierin leidend of moet de Facility Manager dit organiseren?
Ludivine Bellot, GSK Vaccines (Fr) Belgium Lead – Transversal Business Excellence R&D
12 years ago, Ludivine began a career in Real Estate and Facility Management, after starting in production.
She took her first steps in the world of FMRE as a property manager for Cofinimmo, and joined the GSK group in 2010, where she was in charge of Facility Management Hard Services for sites in Belgium. In fact, this was the experience, combining strategic and operational management for a large international corporation, that gave her a taste for this profession. In 2013, she was entrusted with the management of the portfolio of real estate sites in Belgium and the associated services. This meant taking over the Real Estate & Workplace department, which enabled her to broaden her experience in the field. From 2016, she will also take over the master plan for the sites, whereby she will develop a 20-year strategic plan for Belgium.
For more than a year, she has been managing a department in charge of Business Transformation for R&D at GSK Vaccines. Specifically, she manages a pan-R&D Master Plan project for the Vaccines business unit.
Ludivine holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering in Automation (ECAM) and an MBA (Vlerick), and recently obtained a certificate from the MIT in digital transformation.
Her experience in Real Estate and Facilities for large sites with varied and complex activities means that she now sees challenges as opportunities, adopts holistic, innovative and pragmatic approaches, but above all has grasped the information potential behind the mass of data available to organisations.
Jan Claesen, AZ Sint Maarten Mechelen (Nl) Technisch Directeur
“Before being employed at AZ Sint-Maarten in Mechelen, I was a project and maintenance manager at Procter & Gamble in the European Technical Center in Strombeek-Bever. Next to the responsibility for the maintenance of HVAC and mechanical installations on site, I was also responsible for various technical and building projects for the R&D departments.
Since 2002, I have been working as a Technical manager at AZ St-Maarten, part of the Emmaüs-group. St-Maarten is a big regional hospital with 750 beds. My operational responsibilities, besides the building-related business, are managing and maintaining all technical installations, medical facilities and tools. I’m equally member of the board of directors.
During the 12-year period between ’06 and ’18, I was project leader for the realization of the new 105.000 m² hospital located on a 120.000 m² site. During this project, I had the final responsibility over construction, technics, loose medical and non-medical infrastructure as far as budget and planning were concerned.
Starting January 1st, 2020, I will have a coordinating responsibility for all building projects and sustainability technics within the Emmaüs Group.”
Vanaf 1 januari 2020 heb ik ook de coördinerende bevoegdheid op gebied van bouwprojecten en duurzaamheidstechnieken binnen de Emmaüs groep.
Patrick Sonveaux, OTAN – NATO (Fr) Head Infrastructure & Facilities Management
Patrick is working in Facility Management for over 20 years now. He started his career at Siemens where he became part of the team of the well known and reputed Roland De Coninck.
Afterwards he joined the teams of DB Associates/AOS as a consultant and became FM Consultant at the RTBF. Finally he joined NATO (OTAN) in 2011 where he is now running a team of 70 staff that is in charge of the management of the new NATO/OTAN site.
Guy Eeckhout graduated in chemistry and started his career in 1985 as a process & equipment engineer in microelectronics. In 1990, he became prevention advisor, environmental coordinator and manufacturing training manager. During this period, his first facility activities began to shape up. In 2001, he moved to the headquarters of Alcatel in Antwerp to look after FM, prevention and environment. He did this under the position general manager services and real estate. The construction, organization and the move to Kievitplein are noticeable accomplishments. In 2011, he started working for Barco where he had an immediate impact on the One Campus project in collaboration with The Cirkel, The Lab, The Pulse, The Engine and The Mail.
In 2018, Guy Eeckhout left Barco and started at Newmark Knight Frank to take on the position of Sr. Facility Manager at Dow Chemicals based in Terneuzen. One year later, Guy decided to unleash himself as a freelance Facility Manager known as GE.FMConsult Comm.V, where he is currently employed at Ceusters as Sr. Project Manager Buildings & Facility.
Gespreksgroep 2: FM van de toekomst zal onze planeet redden
De gebouwen zijn verantwoordelijk voor 50% van de CO2 uitstoot in Europa. Bovendien zijn het vaak grote energieverbruikers. Om onze planeet leefbaar te houden voor de toekomstige generaties, worden wetten gestemd en programma’s en projecten opgestart. De Faciilty Manager die vandaag een patrimonium beheert, zal in de uitvoering van deze initiatieven een belangrijke rol spelen. Hij/zij is immers verantwoordelijk voor een beheer op lange termijn. Indien zij hun rol opnemen in het duurzamen van un patrimonium, zullen zij bijdragen tot het redden van onze planeet. Echter, vaak is nog onduidelijk hoe ze dit moeten doen.
Stephanie Van Breedam, Futureproofed (Nl) Sustainability Coach
After graduating her Master of Laws, specialized in sustainable development and human rights, Stephanie started working at a training centre, affiliated to the UN where she specialized in translating the Sustainable Development Goals and human rights into a business context.
Her next stop was Sustainability Expert at the city of Leuven. After that and until this day, she works as a sustainability and SDG coach at Futureproofed. She strongly beliefs that the transition towards a low carbon economy entails several opportunities for organizations, such as increased revenues, lower risks and a better brand. Together with her team she supports companies to develop a futureproof sustainability strategy.
Stijn Van den Acker, DPG Media (Nl) Team Lead Facilities
Since the start of spring 2016, I am Facilities Lead at MEDIALAAN. Starting this year, MEDIALAAN and De Persgroep have merged into DPG Media. Thanks to this merge, we provide our services in Belgium to 1800 direct customers and 35 brands that are active in the entertainment, journalism, project management and online sectors.
As a facilities lead, I am – together with my team – responsible for the variety of facility services, property management, project management and prevention. Next to that, I have the lead over 4 facility coordinators and a prevention advisor. All other (operational) tasks are outsourced.
Facility Management in a media context can’t be compared to a regular work environment. The media sector changes at high speed which means we have to keep our focus on adapting at constant changes, which brings us challenges on a daily basis. Running this efficiently can only succeed if the backoffice works with thoroughly thought through processes and with partners that are able to adapt quickly.
Next to this, we provide support to 600 events per year where we give technical support (eg. Datacenters), crisis management and we make sure that every brand will be portrayed with its own characteristics but still in a way that they can easy collaborate with each other as a unity.
Our current focus is making sure that our colleagues get our full support executing their activities. This is paired with a focus upon hospitality, digitalization and efficiency.
My previous career … After my degree in Facility Management, I started as Real Estate Manager at the City of Leuven where I became Coordinator Facility Management after two years. After 5 years in a governmental environment I decided to make the shift to the private sector which finally brought me to Medialaan. I am member of Young IFMA since 2011 where I am Member of the Board since 2018. I was President of Young IFMA for 4 years. I took up this responsibility as I strongly believe in connecting people and exchanging expertise.
Frank Geets, Het Facilitair Bedrijf (Nl) Administrateur-Generaal
After working at FedEx, Base, Telenet and AZ Nikolaas (where he won the Facility Award), Frank Geets took up the function of Secretary General (Administrateur-Generaal) at the Flemish government agency, Het Facilitair Bedrijf, where he reports to with the Minister-President. He is responsible for the real estate of the Flemish government, Facility Management, communal ICT and the central Purchasing Office
The focus lays upon combining sustainability, integral accessibility, circularity and cradle-to-cradle principles with efficiency and cost-reduction, which has recently been proven with the realization of the biggest ‘passive’ office building in Belgium and a renovation project for 4500 staff, entirely according circular principles.
Henk Vincent, AZ Nikolaas Sint Niklaas (Nl) Directeur Masterplan Nieuwbouw
Henk graduated in Nursing, Master in Hospital Management, Formation, Hospital Hygiene, Vlerick Supply Chain Forum and became Facility Manager of the Year in 2014.
He became Program Director for the Masterplan AZ Sint Lucas Gent (1994-2003), the Masterplan and realization of the new hospital AZ Alma Eeklo (2004-2107) and the Masterplan for the new (to be) built hospital AZ Nikolaas Sint Niklaas (2017-2018)
He lives by the following belief: “Starting as a medical nurse and fueled with experiences as IFMA facility Director I try to optimize processes in hospitals through creative, future-oriented and sometimes even disruptive means. Innovating insights will lead to infrastructure that will make hospitals work in an optimal way. Our focus lays upon service, quality and safety for the patient.”
At this date, Chris Claessens is director at PMC Urban Connectivity and board member of GZA-ziekenhuizen, GZA Woon & Zorg and a member of the audit committee GZA.
He started his career at Atlas Copco, CM-hospitals Mechelen – currently known as Sint-Maarten- and Audit and Consultancy company Cooper & Lybrand (currently PWC), as Operational Director. Next to this he is equeally involved in different associations such as: Opera & Ballet Flanders, Ingenieursfonds VZW Music in St Paulus, …
Gespreksgroep 3: De nieuwe working environment bestaat niet
De werkomgeving is in bedrijven en openbare instellingen in de voorbije jaren sterk veranderd. Hierbij werd duidelijk dat de iedeale setting niet voor iedere medewerker identiek is. Daarom wordt ingezet op diversiteit en het beschikbaar stellen van verschillende werkplekken, zones en sferen voor de medewerkers. Bovendien bevindt zich een groot deel van de werkomgeving buiten de muren van de gebouwen van de organisatie. Co-working, thuiswerk, telewerk, lobbywerk en kantoorbussen zijn vandaag sterk in ontwikkeling. Dus wat is dan de “nieuwe working environmnet”. Bestaat hiervoor een definitie of is dit een containerbegrip geworden? Wat zal voor de organisatie van de toekomst en de medewerkers de “nieuwe working environment” betekenen? Moeten zij hier zelf in investeren?
From receptionist to management assistant, my work has always brought me into contact with Facility Management.
Now, in this more formal role of Facility Officer, I can demonstrate my organisational and management skills.
In today’s world, Facility Management has to embrace the new challenges of digital technology and increasing mobility. I want to be part of this evolution.
Loraine Beckers, BNP Parisbas Fortis (Nl) Program Director
Loraine Beckers graduated as a Civil Engineer-Architect at the Catholic University of Leuven. After spending her first years self-employed, she went on to spend over 10 years at BNP Paribas Real Estate. She started as a Project Manager and afterwards she become responsible for the teams Project Management’ and ‘Space Planning & Consulting’. In 2011, Loraine became head of a Project Management team inside Facility Management.
As a next step, in 2015, she became head of the entity ‘Design’ that was responsible for the building of the Warandeberg site.
Since September 2017, as a Program Director she manages the entire team that runs the construction of the new headquarters of BNP Paribas Fortis.
Guido started his career in the HR-sector where he changed -after various commercial positions- the narrative of an inert logistics service to a flexible facility organization over a 10-year period. In 3 years all of the 100 officers were restyled.
In 2000, he made the decision to go on as a freelancer. He offers his knowledge and experience to organizations that are looking to strengthen or optimize their FM departments.
This period has been successful, looking at his broad track record. He was involved in the transformation of the facility services of Barco and the expansion of AristA’s facility service. Since 2015, he supports Cronos Group on a facility level, focusing on real estate.
Next to this, Guido is a guest lecturer at Odisee college and he gives training courses at Syntra.
Raf Degens is CEO of Corda Campus in Hasselt. Since June 2016 he has been taking charge of the management and ongoing development of this exciting Campus, that has been profiling itself as the tech-campus in the Euregion. Corda Campus is an internationally renowned tech- and services campus based in the Euregion where a new work and living space is being constructed in a disruptive way. Through this point of view, the Campus works like a magnet towards innovative companies and institutions, with a healthy and well thought out mix of Start-ups, Scale-ups and Corporate companies. At this workplace, there are over 5000 people spread over 250 companies working towards the future.
Werner Donckers, Global Corporate Services at DXC – HPE – HP (Nl) Region Lead Continental Europe RE&F
Before joining HP as Finance & Operations Director BeLux in 2001 Werner held Regional CFO Roles at Scott Paper and Avery Dennison.
Werner was one of the architects of the first global single supplier contract for both Facility Management and Real Estate Portfolio Management at HP, rolling into Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP Enterprise Services and DXC Technology.
Werner leads today a team located across Europe. He manages and oversees e.g. the delivery of corporate and workplace services to employees and sites through service partners and suppliers, while maintaining financial accountability. Relationships with business leads are essential to align with business strategies and changing operational needs. Werner and his team also manage interaction with local business management, local councils, state and country governmental agencies, employee worker councils and industry organizations.
Werner is also President of the Board of Recupel ICT and holds a Master Degree in Applied Economics from the University of Antwerp and is a guest speaker at different High Schools.
Internationale gespreksgroep :
Moderatie : Lara Paemen, EMEA Director IFMA
Deze gespreksgroep is exclusief Engelstalig, inclusief de interactie met de zaal.
Ian Harfield, MEFMA (Middle East Facility Management Association), Dubai, UAE (Eng) Managing Director within the Engie Group Board member MEFMA
Ian Harfield, has more than 25 years’ experience managing and delivering services to commercial, research, healthcare, military, education, residential and industrial properties around the world.
Harfield moved to the UAE, Dubai in 2005, and as CEO of ENGIE Cofely, his primary expertise is an in-depth knowledge of all aspects of the Services business. Having worked and delivered services across a wide variety of locations and business types, he has a compounded and solid understanding of what has to be done to get the service right. He was responsible to building up the FM services entity from a team of 18 to 2,300 over the last 9 years, and is now leading a team covering the Middle East, India and Turkey to deliver the ENGIE Client Solutions model towards a zero carbon business model.
Marc Blasco Chabe CEO, Simbioe (Spain)
Susanne Balslev Nielsen Expert Facilities Management, Niras (Danmark) Professor Oslo Business School – Oslo Metropolitan University (Norway)
International capacity with many years of experience in strategic facilities management and sustainable development – in both theory and practice. Has particularly extensive experience in FM management, education and research. From 2019 Danish member of FM standardization committees (DS/CEN/ISO).
MSc and Ph.D. Susanne Balslev Nielsen is expertise director in Facilities Management (FM) in NIRAS, in the department of Client Consultancy, where she is working with strategy and analysis. She came to NIRAS in 2018 from a position as chief consultant in the Center for Real Estate, the Capital Region. Previously, Susanne Balslev Nielsen was associate professor at the Technical University of Denmark, specializing in sustainability in the build environment. In 2008-2017 she was the Deputy Head of the Center for Facilities Management, Realdania Research and was for several years the leader of the European FM research network in EuroFM. In 2014-19 she was external professor of FM at Oslo Business School (OsloMet) and she continues to bridge academia and practice in NIRAS. Over the years, her academic production consists of several textbook contributions and more than 100 articles.
Susanne helps clients with:
1. Strategy and planning
2. Documentation and analysis
3. Sustainable FM
4. Operation friendly building projects
5. Professional development through workshops, coaching, presentations, courses and network
