A motivating and enjoyable journey at Alstom started in 1994
I joined Alstom as a Product Design Engineer in electronics and critical embedded software.
I radipdly had the opportunity to move to a Project Manager position for a major signalling project in Belgium. The regular contacts with the end customer and the possibility to be on the field where our products are deployed allowed me to learn a lot.
Through international projects I then add contacts with colleagues from other sites abroad. I then discovered how the mix of nationalities and cultures can be a source of great experiences and success.
My next carrer step was to become Solution Director, in charge of a range of products. This position includes defining the strategy (commercial / technical) and products roadmap to best serve the market needs and maximize Alstom offering competitiveness. It also integrates to responsibility of new solutions development (R&D) within the portfolio. I have been travelling a lot around the globe during this period. Again, it was the opportunity to build a lot of international connections.
I then moved to the Alstom Headquarters in Paris where I was in charge of R&D and Innovation for a whole product line worldwide.
After my return in Belgium I took the lead of a product development team made of 150 people.
I finally became Innovation Director for Belgium, my current position.
I am the Innovation Director for Belgium, based in Charleroi.
My main objective is to initiate and support initiatives that are a source of value creation for Alstom and our customers.
This can include new solutions to address customers needs or internal improvement actions that allow us to be more efficient or deliver our projects with a better quality.
Internally, anyone willing to participate can propose an innovation idea and develop it if confirmed as being a source of value creation.
This position also includes a wide range of external contacts and relationships : industrial partners, research centres, universities or incubators. Open innovation is part of Alstom DNA.
I personally have a lot of contacts with students from very diverse education areas. One of my goal is to allow them discovering rail mobility and its extremely attractive challenges.
Building the future of Railways in a multicultural environment
Alstom mission is to propose transport solutions on rails contributing to the decarbonization of the mobility worldwide.
I am happy to take part in this challenge and change (a bit) our future world. My motivation has been increasing since day 1 thanks to the multiple career path opportunities and the possibility to learn continuously.
The multicultural environment naturally offered by the group and even on a single site allows to mix point of views and create innovative solutions.
To travel on board of a train or along a railway line that you contributed to create is one of the best rewards you can get.
Find your own motivation. Make it grow through new opportunities.
Discover which is the role you would like to play in our community. You do not need to be 100% clear or sure from the beginning of your career. You will have multiple opportunities to find your own way.
I have been working at Alstom for more than 30 years and I am still able to grow my motivation through new challenges. The variety of career path opportunities both from a functional and / or from a geographical point of view allows any profile to meet his expectations.
We enjoy diversity as a mean to create a the best combination of skill and boost creativity.
I lead the creation of one of the most advanced innovation ecosystem
I dedicated a significant portion of my career at Alstom to Innovation.
It started with the deployment of an Innovation Management process that is the basis of the current process deployed and applied worldwide by a very large proportion of Alstom employees.
Later I lead the creation of a very advanced innovation ecosystem that accelerates the value creation process.
It includes a consortium of industrial partners that share forces to boost their innovation projects.
We also collaborate with universities to initiate research projects, create accelerated training course allowing to bridge some of the competency gaps we are facing and to make our railway sector more attractive for students and youngsters.
