I began my career in IT in 1998, mainly as a developer of BaanIV and later BaanERP, an ERP system. I took countless courses, learned a lot on my own, and quickly advanced to a role as analyst and lead developer. During that time, I worked closely with clients as a technical consultant and took on other tasks such as installation and configuration. Due to an acquisition and decreased interest in Baan, I shifted my focus to web and intranet development, reporting projects, and greenfield development with various technologies and programming languages. The learning never stopped, and I quickly picked up new things.

In 2003, I followed my mentor into a new adventure and became his first employee in a newly founded company. I was a jack of all trades, speaking with clients about their needs while installing servers. Soon, more staff joined, and it became clear we needed to implement more standards and procedures. Because I was good at dealing with people, I became their trusted person, just as I had been for clients. After building a small team of 5-6 people, I still did a lot of technical work myself and became a technical architect. I not only advised clients on ERP, but I also understood that IT was seen as a necessity to support business operations. I went far beyond my comfort zone and continued to learn new things every day, from technologies to improved soft skills in consultancy and handling business politics.

In 2009, the company was acquired again, and the team grew, with an increasingly international character. I was involved in Belgian and other European projects. My role as a team player and team leader became more important, and I quickly became the European technical architect lead. My task was to ensure a standardized approach and better collaboration between countries through knowledge sharing activities.

In 2014, I took on the role of Global Technical Architect Lead, becoming responsible for even larger regions. It wasn't easy to bring everyone together given the company's presence on all continents, but I succeeded and was appreciated for my leadership. I felt it was a team achievement and was proud of what we had accomplished together. During this period, I spent more and more time abroad, where I personally executed client projects as a technical architect and did quality assurance.

In 2017, by then, my mentor had moved on to another company, I followed him again and became CTO. In addition to everything I had already done, I became more involved in strategic decision-making. Project management, product management, project methodology, and the rise of Azure within the IT ecosystem became my main focus, alongside my unwavering passion for technology and my desire to work on projects myself.

In 2024, I decided to change course and leave the ERP world behind. By then, my mentor had retired, and the leadership team at the company I worked for no longer aligned with my direction. Time to move on. Following advice from former colleagues, I started as a freelancer. Since then, I've been mainly involved in data projects, working with Azure Synapse and Microsoft Fabric, but always with a broad perspective, different technologies, and multiple parties involved to get things done.

Throughout my career, I have always kept learning. I quickly realized that focus is important. There are so many things to learn that it’s impossible to follow everything. Even during my ERP period, I gradually moved away from hardcore X++ development and shifted more toward architectural roles. But hey, I had a great team doing the work for me, so that wasn't a problem—quite the opposite.

Recently, I’ve started diving into artificial intelligence, an interest I picked up at the end of 2023. Once again, self-study and hands-on. I decided to apply my knowledge in practice by developing my own product with the Microsoft stack. The idea was to use my full background and expertise to create a product that meets the highest standards of functionality, usability, security, and cost. I've now reached my first milestone and am about to launch the product. My goal is not to make a lot of money from it, but to prove to myself that I am capable of creating a product completely on my own. My target audience ranges from mid-sized companies to non-profit organizations, small initiatives, and even individuals looking for an easy way to collect their own data, whether structured or unstructured, and then ask questions about it in natural language. For companies, this could lead to a new form of self-service BI, while for individuals, questions like "Do we have insurance for that, and what do we need to do now?" can be answered relatively easily. It started as a small project, and given the fact that I only have time at night and on weekends, I’m quite proud of what I’ve achieved so far.

My apologies for the long story, but my motto has always been to be honest, open, complete, and transparent. Or as someone once said: be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those that matter don't mind.