Advisory Board

Prior to founding FICS in 1989, Michel Akkermans held management positions with international banks, including Morgan Guaranty Trust and Continental Bank. In 1999, FICS, Edify and Vertical One merged with Security First Technologies and S1 Corporation was established, with Michel Akkermans as Chairman. In 2001, Michel Akkermans resigned from S1, in order to concentrate on investing in financial software ventures in co-operation with Gimv. In the same year, he founded Clear2Pay, an innovative e-finance company.

As a business angel and venture capitalist, he holds positions on the boards of various start-ups and later stage financial technology companies. Michel Akkermans holds a MSc in Electronic engineering and Computer sciences and a degree in Economics & Finance from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium).

Stijn Bijnens is an internationally recognized leader in the field of e-security, and a regular speaker for ITWorks and the Institute for International Research. As a researcher at the Department of Computer Science at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) and at Trinity College in Dublin (Ireland) from 1992 through 1995, Stijn Bijnens investigated network security and object oriented distributed systems.

His research background has been instrumental in the growth and success of Ubizen, the company he co-founded in 1995. Since 2007, Stijn Bijnens has been General Manager of Limburgse Reconversiemaatschappij (LRM). Stijn Bijnens has a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium).  

Gilbert J. Declerck, former president and CEO of IMEC, holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium). After spending a year at the IC laboratories at Stanford University, he joined Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 1974, where he became a professor in 1983.

In 1984, he moved to IMEC, where he became Vice President of the Advanced Semiconductor Processing Division. In 1998, he was appointed as Chief Operating Officer. Since June 1999, he has been serving as both president and CEO of the organization.

Until January 2009, Martin De Prycker was CEO of BARCO NV. From 1982 until 1996, he held various management positions in Alcatel. Between 1996 and 2000, he was President of Alcatel’s Internet Access Division, responsible for the development of the world leadership of Alcatel on ADSL and for the acquisition of Newbridge. He was appointed Chief Technology Officer of Alcatel and member of the Alcatel Telecom Executive Committee in February 2000.

Martin De Prycker holds a PhD in Computer Science and a MSc in Electrical Engineering from the university of Gent (Belgium), as well as an MBA from the University of Antwerp. He taught at Boston University from 1988 to 1992 and at the university of Gent from 1994 to 1999. In 1991, he wrote the first book on ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode).

Yves de Talhouët is CEO of HP France. As Vice-President, he is also responsible for HP’s business unit Technology Solutions. Yves de Talhouët previously held the position of CEO at Oracle France. Before that, he was a successful entrepreneur and founder of Devoteam.

Dr. Yossi Kofman has extensive experience in the communications and chip industry and has been involved in the formation of several high-tech companies. Yossi is currently the co-founder and CEO of bSolar, an Israeli company that develops and manufactures photovoltaic (PV), high efficiency, bifacial, silicon solar cells.

Yossi is also a co-founder of Siklu Communications, which develops a disruptive solution for the cellular backhaul network, and serves as the chairman of the advisory board. Prior to Siklu and bSolar, Yossi was the co-founder and co-CEO of Modem-Art, a company which developed a baseband chip for 3G, W-CDMA and HSPA, cellular handsets and was acquired in March 2005 by Agere Systems for EUR 145 million. Yossi also serves on the advisory board of several Israeli start-ups, including Oree (LED based lighting), and Valens (in home 5 play transmission over cat5/6 cables) as well as on the advisory board of Gimv, the largest Belgium VC company.

Yossi holds a D.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.

Jan Oosterveld is a professor of the IESE Business School in Barcelona and is a member of the board of several listed companies in the UK, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. In 2004 he retired as a member of the group management committee of Royal Philips Electronics, where he was responsible for corporate strategy, corporate alliances and the joint ventures with LGE. He was also CEO of Philips Asia Pacific.

Leonard H. Schrank was CEO of SWIFT from 1992 until 2007. He is President of the American Chamber of Commerce, Belgium, Director of the United Fund for Belgium, Member of the Board of Promethee, a Paris-based think tank, and Vice President of the MIT Club of Belgium.

In 1977, he joined Chase/Interactive Data Corporation, after Chase/IDC acquired the software company he co-founded with four partners from MIT. For ten years, he spearheaded Chase/IDC’s international activities. Leonard H. Schrank holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and an MSc in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin.

Richard Seibt is Chairman of the Open Source Business Foundation (OSBF). He has 30 years of international business experience in the IT industry, mainly in software and internet. Previously he was CEO of SuSE Linux AG, which he sold successfully to Novell, where he became President EMEA. Prior to that, he was a management board member at United Internet AG. He started his professional career at IBM where he held several management positions in Business Development and Sales and Marketing both in Germany and in other European countries. He is also board member of several, mainly European, software companies and acts as a business angel.

Since 2005, Marc Van Sande is Chief Technology Officer of Umicore, a leading Belgian materials technology group. In this position he looks after the development and implementation of the company’s long term strategy. He is responsible for the central Research department and the Venture Unit, which pilots the creation of new business units. Prior to this, he was Executive Vice-President of the Advanced Materials division and Vice-President of the Electro-Optic Materials business unit, both within Umicore. Earlier he held several other positions in research, marketing and production within the group.