Employment history, prior to starting BuDeTec in 2004

From 1997 until 2004 Director, CCO, COO at Skyscan.

Director of a start-up company around high-technology products, Skyscan, www.skyscan.be. They develop, produce and market high-resolution 3D x-ray imaging instrumentation, Micro-CT, and are pioneers in that market. They were acquired by Bruker. The systems are used in research and development, mainly for biomedical research and small animal imaging, Material science and in the general microscopy, instrumentation market. I was hired by the investors to assist in starting up and managing the company.

My main responsibilities were in business development, sales and marketing and general management and included;
– reporting to the investors,
– producing the business plan,
– direct sales in Benelux and Scandinavia,
– defining the market and marketing strategies,
– establishment of a world-wide sales and service network,
– an important part of the general and operational management,
– coordinate the start-up of the company, including recruitment of staff,
Apart from the follow up and continuation of the above mentioned responsibilities, was also included,
– all external business contacts and
– managing the application and the work packages for Skyscan within various European and locally funded research projects.

Main achievements;
– Achieved an average yearly growth of more than 50%.
– Reached profitability 3 years after start-up with positive cash-flow,
– turnover of 4miljon Euro after 7 years,
– Skyscan became leader and benchmark in its market.

From 1995 till 1996 After sales manager.

After-sales manager for the USA and other English speaking territories for Van Hool, bus and coach manufacturer.
Responsibilities included:
– Communication with the importer in the US,
– Warranty processing, arranging of training sessions,
– Solving of the technical problems and implementation of product changes or improvements.
– An important role in the commercial process.

From 1991 till 1995 Manager local procurement.

Manager for the department in charge of local procurement and business development for European purchased spare parts and car accessories at Mazda Motor Parts Centre Europe (MPE) in the Marketing and Sales division.

Responsibilities included;
– the profitability and market studies
– negotiating with suppliers and distributors
– co-ordinating the development of the products
– introducing them in the distributor network and setting the pricing.
– strategy and the business plan as to European purchased spare parts.

Main achievements:
– Efforts contributed considerably to an increased competitiveness and market share for the original Mazda spare parts and accessories on the European Market.
– Locally Purchased volume doubled till approximately 60miljoin Euro.

From 1990 till 1991.

Analyst in the quality control department at General Motors Continental, now Opel Belgium.

Education

Masters in metals and materials science engineering from the Catholic University of Louvain (1983-1988).

A basic management and business administration program at the Leuven Vlerick Management School (postgraduate studies in Business Administration, 1994-1995).

Languages

Erik has Dutch as a mother tongue, is fluent in English, French and has excellent knowledge of German.