Benoit Dewaele
CIO
Vandemoortele
Benoît Dewaele is the CIO for Vandemoortele Group, a B2B food manufacturer with two business units: frozen bakery and plant based food solutions. The focus within their digital roadmap is on customer experience, sustainability, operational excellence and security.
Learn more about leaders in the Benelux CIO community here.
Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.
I studied Civil Engineering & Mechanics, and held multiple roles before becoming CIO at Vandemoortele. First, I spent six years at Accenture, implementing Systems Applications and Products (SAP) for different companies and processes. Next, I served under multiple roles at Capsugel, including Supply Chain Engineer, Project Manager, and IT Director. Subsequently, I operated as an Application Manager for EMEA for five years at chocolate maker Barry Callebaut.
What is one of your guiding leadership principles?
Be passionate about what you do, take care of your people and have a can-do mentality. Mens sana in corpore sano.
With disruption being a key theme of the past few years, where do you see your role as a CIO going in the next 1-2 years?
In the past few years, it has become even more evident that the CIO needs to be a real business partner who enables people to deliver new ways of working, and who ensures that IT consists of a flexible group of people with can-do attitudes.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out in the role as a CIO?
Seek how to realize business value and customer experience. Listen and engage yourself with peers, employees and competitors. Care for your people since they make it possible to deliver value towards the business. Keep it simple and stupid instead of drowning people in technicalities.
Tell us 3 fun facts about yourself.
Always curious about new technology and people
Sport and après-sport enthusiast
Winners are not people that never fail but people that never quit
What is the value of participating in a professional community through Evanta?
Evanta is a great forum to network with peers. It enables you to extend your professional network, and exchange experiences and knowledge in an informal atmosphere.
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