The magazine Trends published a portrait of our Managing Director Benny in their column ‘The first 365 days’.
Read the full article below.
© 2019, Michaël Vandamme, Trends, All Rights Reserved.
The first 365 days of Benny Moonen (45)
“We have to evolve from generalist to specialist”
Immediately after finishing his studies as Engineer at KU Leuven, Benny Moonen started working for the former Siemens Atea in Herentals. He worked as a software engineer in the centre of research and development for mobile telephony. From 1999 he was part of the beginning of the worldwide Centre of Competence for mobile data communication and data applications of Siemens for 2G, 2.5G and 3G.
“As a solution architect, I was involved daily in the technology and customer service which became common in smartphones ten years later”, comments Benny. “At the end of 2003, I became product manager for the mobile instant messaging and chat services of Siemens for the world market. In 2007, I made the transfer to Devoteam, which happened in the context of an outsourcing. I was responsible for the start-up of the telephone and media business in Belgium, first as business development manager and later as sales manager. In 2012, I was named operational director of Devoteam Belgium.” About a year ago, he was appointed CEO.
If you look back at your first year as CEO, what is the first thing that comes to mind?
BENNY MOONEN. “The path that we have taken is unabatedly continued. We profile ourselves as the partner in the field of digital transformation and some interesting developments have happened regarding this domain. Our company had a real breakthrough on the Belgian market and our visibility has also increased consistently.”
What do you consider to be the biggest obstacles?
MOONEN. “I see two obstacles. The first one – for many recognisable – is finding the right people. Stakes are high. We need multi-disciplinary employees, people who also have enough soft skills. Finding and training these people is a continuous focus point. On a more organisational level, it is essential that we evolve from being a generalist to a specialist.”
How do you see the future?
MOONEN. “Last year, we grew by circa 13 per cent. We gained 20 fulltime equivalents, that could have been more but also less. We are actually right on schedule with our results. Now it’s a matter of consistently implementing the strategy that we are following. We have to keep growing, but we also need to avoid poaching on big offshore players’ territory.”
Do we have a content CEO in front of us?
MOONEN. “Definitely. I am also aware of the advantage of being active in a company for so many years. Some employees I have already known for 20 years. We have attracted a lot of extra people, which I consider as an important development. This proves that we can convince people to come work for us. At the end of the day, as a CEO you are always a kind of ambassador. What you do and the decisions you make as a CEO are more impactful than what you do as an operational director.”
Benny Moonen (45)
Is: CEO of Devoteam Belgium
Free time: wining & dining, supporter of Racing Genk, technology
