About
You can find out much more on my LinkedIn page, but here is some assorted background on me and some of the things that fascinate me. Contact me if you want to find out more.
Education
I studied Latin Sciences a very long time ago, followed by an unhealthy dosis in physics (my official degree is Master in Physics, Computational Physics) including a thesis about positrons with a title that seems to come straight from an Asimov SF novel. Over the years I've added to that various courses on computer related skills (networking, operating systems, languages, applications) both taught and self-taught and a number of language courses that gave me some understanding of Spanish and Japanese amongst others.
In 2000 I was lucky enough to be able to follow the "Effective Management Programme" at the Vlerick Leuven Ghent Management School. This programme featured a series of courses on both rational and emotional skills for managers.
Work
From 1996 to 2004 I worked at Enfocus Software in various positions; starting as a software developer, managing the software development and customer support groups and eventually as CEO of the company as a business unit under Artwork Systems.
In 2005 I co-founded Gradual Software where we acquired the Danish CaslonSoft and developed the Switch automation product. As COO of Gradual Software I was responsible for daily operations, marketing, sales in the North American region and human resources. In 2008, Gradual Software was acquired by EskoArtwork and the Switch product line was integrated with the Enfocus business unit in EskoArtwork. I became responsible for marketing and product management for the Enfocus business unit.
In 2010 I left EskoArtwork and joined Four Pees as CTO. In that capacity I'm responsible for evaluating new technology and managing the technical side of the projects we become involved in. Four Pees is an international distributor of solutions - mainly for the graphic arts market - and as such we come into contact with a wide range of questions and opportunities.
From 2010 I work as a consultant. While the majority of my time is currently spent at Four Pees, my interests are wider than graphic arts and a number of iOS apps are proof of the existence of life outside graphic arts :). Publigence, my company, specialises in anything that has to do with automation, process optimisation, clean user interface and user experience and whatever else I find interesting.
Penguins
I have a slight, but I don't believe dangerous, obsession with penguins. To the point where my daughter rolls her eyes and says: "pfff, it's always about penguins" to me. Where did that start? And why would I allow it to intrude on what is essentially a public, business website?
It all started while working for Enfocus; Enfocus developed preflight and editing technology for the graphic arts market. For one of the new versions of our flagship product, we developed a feature called Action Lists, that could perform automatic editing on PDF files; something like macros for Microsoft Word for example. As always we only delivered the final product about a day or two before the show we wanted to introduce it on and so it happened that we had working technology but no example Action Lists to ship with the application.
So during a beautiful week-end I found myself creating close to a hundred different examples to ship with the software. Many of them were easy and simple, but a few already demonstrated some of the power of the feature. And after about Action List number 90, I got rebellious and decided that I could have one Action List that was a little bit funny as well. So I looked for a free clip-art image that I liked and created an Action List called "Add penguin". That example Action List got added to the library of examples installed with PitStop Pro and as far as I know it still ships with the application today. You can even still download it from the Enfocus website.
I still find it funny when users ask "what's up with the penguins?" when they have browsed the library with examples. It's fun to see something you've created live on (and I feel that way about the application and the funny little penguin Action List!). There's a deeper sense to all of this too however. Of course it's silly to talk about penguins on a business website (It's also very smart as you're obviously reading this page and - who knows - you might have even visited my LinkedIn profile. Good marketing!).
The deeper lesson is that it's important to remember we're all humans. I am, you are, chance is your customers are as well. Humor should not detract from your ability to do business, but to have absolutely no crazy side to your personality? Come on... live a little! And to put an end to the rumors... yes, yes, I know I have more than one quirk. But you'll have to admit purple is just a very nice color and "It's not easy being green" is simply a nice song; even if it is sung by Kermit the Frog...
Privacy
This site has a way for you to contact me. It asks for minimal information from you, as I assume if you write me, I need to somehow respond. After I respond your information will live in my email app.
If at some point your brain deteriorates to the point that you don't know what you sent me, you can email me or use the contact form and I'll try to refresh your memory. If by that time I myself remember much of anything obviously. If you want to be removed, that sounds very permanent, but I will be happy to comply. Don't come complaining afterwards!
I do not share or sell (I wish!) your information. At worst, I might whisper it in the ear of some penguin. By sharing your information with me, you accept that such use of your information (whispering it in the ear of a penguin) is acceptable to you.
This site also uses cookies to track what you're looking at. We use Google Analytics for that and the data collected is completely anonymous. If you don't like cookies, don't use this site (and don't tell Cookie Monster!)