The Basics

• Secretary to a NATO ammunition depot commander while doing my mandatory military service – hated everything about it, except teaching my commander how to program inventory control programs on my Commodore 64 (…now dating myself).
• Marketing executive in many companies – including big ones like Agfa, a division of Bayer, medium ones like Stratus, and startups like eRoom, where I was the first VP of marketing and the CMO.
• Advisor to many startups – one of my passions; and the first investor in an alternative energy company that is now taking off – another one of my passions
• Schools: University of Gent, MSEE; Harvard University, CSS
• Over the years, consulting clients have included: Microsoft, American Century Funds, Loomis Sayles, eTrade, SolidWorks, Deloitte and Touche, Airwide, SupplyScape, and Longworth Venture Partners.

My slogans

• If it has been done before then there are probably many companies doing it much better than us – and with a lot more money.
• If it sounds complex and hard to understand, then you probably should stay away from it.
• I love to see what emerges from what may seem like chaos.
• Everyone should be a permanent student of their industry.

Things I care about

• My son’s future and that off all his contemporaries.
• Working with people who are way smarter than me – especially young ones.
• Marketing, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship. Also complexity theory, behavioral economics and sociology…
• Doing things differently.
• Religion (and not in the way you may think about).

Sites/communities I like

• Facebook (although getting tired of spammers)
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Any Excuse For a Drink
• Killington Ambassadors

3 things most people don’t know about me

• Earned an MSEE in Electronics with a thesis on multi-variable non-linear control systems – only to sell wines as an independent manufacturer’s rep as my first job.
• Came to the US with $2,000 and no command of the English language (could understand TV news, but not radio news) – bought my first clunker car (needed two quarts of oil to travel from the burbs to downtown Boston) within 4 days and moved in with two roommates within 5 days of landing in Boston. I recently found out that I still really suck at English-language Scrabble
• That I am still dreaming of getting my PhD before my son gets his.

My playlist favorites:

Old stuff I still love:

1. “Desperado”: Eagles
2. “Je L’Aime a Mourir”: Francis Cabrel (French)
3. “Ashes to Ashes”: David Bowie
4. “Jojo”: Jacques Brel (Belgian who wished he wasn’t)
5. “Waitin’ On A Sunny Day”: Bruce Springsteen
6. “Au Bout de Mes Reves”: Jean-Jacques Goldman (French)
7. “(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay”: Otis Reading
8. “Les Hommes Qui Passent”: Patricia Kaas (Belgian)
9. “I Cover the Waterfront”: John Lee Hooker (one of my all time favorite)
10. “Borderline”: Ry Cooder
11. “Hot Lips”: Stephane Grappelli
12. “Imagine”: John Lennon
13. “Special Star”: Mango Groove (South African band)

New stuff that I like (partially influenced by my son & nieces – and happy to be part of the first generation in history where we all like the same music):

1. “American Idiot”: Green Day
2. “Dance Me To the End Of Love”: Madeleine Peyroux
3. “Don’t Know Why”: Norah Jones
4. “Snow”: Red Hot Chili Peppers
5. “Strength of the World”: Avenged Sevenfold
6. “On Top”: The Killers
7. “Welcome to My Life”: Simple Plan
8. “So Long Goodbye”: Sum 41