My life journey and the paths I have taken have formed who I am today and what I can offer to the world both professionally and as a person in general.
I was born in the early 1980s at the outskirts of Brussels surrounded by nature and animals. No wonder that I could not sit still and developed a close relationship to all that surrounded me: natural environment, dogs and horses and my friends and family. This is when my skills and abilities to lead and manage with care, empathy, and clarity of purpose have started to take shape.
Drawn to places with the possibility of close interaction with people and animals, and driven by the motivation to be able to take care of myself, I started working on weekends and during holidays in the hospitality business making it, eventually, all the way to a Michelin-start restaurant. When I was not working or studying, I was in the stables training or competing in horse jumping at a decentn level.
I got to meet, and deal with, the most interesting but also challenging people and characters from easy going to demanding and challenging. These interactions have taught me a great deal about effective communications, managing expectations, but also about the values of entrepreneurships. For a young adult coming from a family of entrepreneurs, I knew this was what I wanted to do: closely interact with people, put my own ideas in practice, and lead and manage; in other words become a successful people-oriented and service excellence-driven entrepreneur.
And so, I did. After first gaining experiences as an employee in various – big and small – companies and finishing my postgraduate degree in transport and logistics, I started making first steps towards becoming “my own boss.” As for most entrepreneurs, the beginnings were not without challenges and hick-ups, but for the stubborn person who I am, I pulled through and eventually sold my freight forwarding company to a bigger group where I took over its airfreight business as general manager.
ConsulsSmart still remains my flagship!
However, it was not just the strictly speaking professional experiences, which helped me improve my skills and abilities as leader, entrepreneur and consultant. As an animal lover and someone who has a special connection with animals, it was natural for me to want to go beyond competitive horse riding, and put this connection and skills to a good cause use. I first started training dogs in regular dog schools to later focus more specifically on the training of Search and Rescue dogs (SAR). With the experience I had gained, I decided to establish a SAR team (NGO), which was helping the police and other institutions for a number of years. Now, I am an external instructor for a SAR team in the Netherlands.
My other connection with nature is water. I am an avid diver, and also here i developed my skills to train people and share the experience. Since 2018 i am a recreational dive instructor, and in 2021 i became a technical dive instructor.
Finally, I could not have gotten to where I am without the support of my former employers, mentors, and coaches, who have helped me grow and develop into the businessman, leader and person I am today.
In all my activities and services that ConsultSMART offers and implements, I strive to do the same: help you and/or your company grow and develop into its full potential.
