Founder André Knaepen will focus on the role of executive chairman of the board of directors of Cegeka
Stijn Bijnens is to replace André Knaepen as CEO of Cegeka as of early 2019. André Knaepen will focus fully on his role of executive chairman of the Board of Directors of Cegeka. The arrival of Stijn Bijnens is in line with the company’s growth strategy. André Knaepen: “Cegeka will continue to aspire an ambitious growth in the coming years and that is why we searched for a candidate who combines the right background, strong leadership and relevant experience. By bringing Stijn on board, we get a fully-fledged entrepreneur who is also familiar with the company. We are very pleased that he is prepared to take up the challenge with us.”
Stijn Bijnens will join Cegeka as CEO as of 1 January 2019. He has been the CEO of the Limburgse Reconversie Maatschappij (LRM) since 2008.
Cegeka founder André Knaepen, who now combines the role of CEO and chairman of the board, will focus fully on chairing Cegeka’s board. He will continue to play an active role in the development and further globalization of the company, while Stijn Bijnens focuses on charting the strategy and the day-to-day management of the European Group.
André Knaepen: “We recently celebrated our 25th anniversary and next week we will announce that we have registered growth for 14 years in a row. This is an excellent time to transfer the operational management.” And he continues: “It's no secret that we want to continue to grow and to further transform Cegeka into a significant European player. To lead rapid growth in the right direction, we have decided to seperate the roles of chairman and of CEO. We quickly decided on Stijn in our search. He has been a member of the board for years and I have come to appreciate him as a fully-fledged entrepreneur who knows what the work on the ground entails. I am certain that we will form a powerful and efficient duo.”
Stijn Bijnens: “I have spent 10 wonderful years at LRM. It has been a privilege to work with the staff and companies of LRM on a corporate landscape in Limburg with decidedly international ambitions. The step to Cegeka is the logical next step to this mission.” He continues: “I am looking forward to returning to the exciting world of ICT. Things are moving fast with innovations such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, the Internet of Things and much, much more. Turning these new technologies into applicable solutions for customers is quite a task. I consider Cegeka to be the ideal platform to expand these solutions on a European scale.”
Stijn Bijnens, ° Bilzen, 31/12/1968 serves as the CEO of LRM since 2008. He was a member of the board since 1999.
Stijn Bijnens received a Master’s of Science Degree in Computer Science from KU Leuven in 1991. From 1992 to 1995, he investigated network security and object oriented distributed systems as a Researcher at the Department of Computer Science at KU Leuven and at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. In May 1995, Stijn Bijnens and some colleagues founded Ubizen, a spin-off of the KU Leuven. Stijn became CEO: his research background was instrumental to Ubizen's growth and success. Ubizen merged into Cybertrust in 2004, where Stijn was Senior Vice President of Identity Management. Verizon Business acquired Cybertrust in 2007, where he became VP Security Solutions.
Since 2008, Stijn Bijnens serves as the CEO of LRM. He serves as Member of the Board at Cegeka NV and Punch Powertrain NV as well.
Awards
Stijn Bijnens was named ‘Manager of the Year’ in 1999 by Trends Magazine. He also received the ‘DataNews Award of Excellence’ for a Startup Company. In 2016 Stijn was named ‘Investor of the Year’ (Entrepreneur Awards of the Year 2016).