The articles of association stipulate that the Board of Directors is composed of a minimum of three and a maximum of nine members, who are appointed by the general shareholders meeting for a maximum period of six years. The Board of Directors has to contain at least three independent directors.
The Board of Directors is currently composed of six members, namely: Eric Van Zele (Chairman of the Board of Directors), Raju Dandu, Nadia Verwilghen, Johan Michiels, Luc Boedt and Paul Matthijs.
Mr. Eric Van Zele currently serves as Chairman Crescent NV. He was recently appointed chairman of the E17 network of hospitals and of the Hermes decision committee of The Flemish agency for Innovation and entrepreneurship. He continues to serve as a director of Barco NV. Prior to his current mandates Eric served as president and CEO of Barco NV in Kortrijk from 2009 thru 2016. He served as CEO of Pauwels International (from 2004 thru 2008) and of Telindus nv (2000 thru 2003). Prior to that, he served as Vice President of Raychem Corporation in Menlo park, CA, USA and as Managing Director of Raychem nv in Leuven, Belgium. (1972 thru 1999). He was nominated “Manager of the Year in 2012” and “ICT Personality of 2013”. Eric holds a masters degree in electrical and mechanical engineering from the KUL in Leuven (1972) and postgraduate degrees in management from Stanford University (1992 CA, USA).
Mr. Raju S. Dandu is the Founder-Chairman of Danlaw Inc. USA. He is also the Managing Director of Danlaw Technologies India Ltd. He is responsible for strategic planning and corporate management of both companies. Prior to founding Danlaw Inc., he held positions at the University of Iowa hospitals, Ford Motor Company, Dana Corporation and worked as an independent consultant at General Motors. He holds a bachelors’ degree in electronics engineering from Kakinada, India, a masters in electronics from University of Iowa and an MBA from University of Detroit.
Nadia Verwilghen is a trilingual finance & strategy executive with +25 years of experience in international (listed & not listed) companies in biotech, digital/technology, network and industrial sectors. She supports companies in defining their strategy and driving effective execution, improving profitability and finance structures, corporate governance, financing (equity/debt), M&A transactions, international growth and transformation.
Johan Michiels is owner and director of Michiels Invest En Management (M.I.M.), Agents and Brokers in Banking Services.
In 1979, Luc Boedt started as study leader in the Soil Science department at the University of Ghent, and was responsible for several missions in Europe and overseas countries such as Indonesia, Mali, Congo and Senegal. In 1985, he became General Manager of OKOMU Oil Palm Cy, located in Nigeria, where he was mainly involved in feasibility studies for the development of oil palm and rubber. Over the years, he completed several more missions in the Far East, Africa and Brazil. From 1988, he became General Manager of; MICHELIN Ivory Coast (1988 – 1992), SOCFINCO Belgium (1992 – December 2011) and SOCFINCO FR S.A. Switzerland (since December 2011). In 2020 he was nominated as Chairman of Socfinaf. He will end this presidency in 2022 to take up the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Next to holding several non-executive advisory positions, Mr. Paul Matthijs is COO of Vlerick Business School. Prior to this, Paul Matthijs was CEO of Niko until 2019 and held several senior executive positions in R&D, product management and general management in the Medical Imaging and Entertainment division and the Retail and Advertising Venture of Barco. Mr. Matthijs’ career at Barco spanned over 30 years. He holds a Master’s degree in Electronic Engineering and an MBA from the Vlerick Business School.
