Geert obtained his master’s degree in electronic engineering from KU Leuven in 1997, he pursued his passion for micro-electronics by joining Alcatel’s ASIC design team.
His personal technical contributions and leadership in ASIC solutions for fiber and copper access products as well as network processors were a stepping stone towards his role as project leader in a series of successful engineering projects that led to a leading market position in broadband access.
Geert nurtured the start-up and fortification of the Alcatel-Lucent DSL Physical Layer team (i.e. twisted-pair broadband access technology), which evolved into the company and industry reference for broadband access product (r)evolutions. As R&D director of a Bell Laboratories venture, focused on real-time virtualised and hardware accelerated video processing, he explored his entrepreneurial nature. During the last five years, Geert managed the ASIC/hardware research team at Nokia Bell Labs, where he focused on groundbreaking, industry-relevant research for fixed and converged broadband innovations.
At a personal level, Geert gets energized by spending quality time with his family and friends, enjoying a good conversation over dinner and a glass of wine. In his spare time, you will find him at various music concerts, ranging from classical performances to rock concerts. But he most enjoys playing the piano, preferably together with like-minded musicians, for example to perform his favorite cello-piano chamber music.
The search for the new CEO was supported by Ment Associates – Antwerp, who conducted the search and did the initial assessments.