On the 6th of December, Joachim Coens was elected national president of the Flemish political party CD&V in order to lead the party for the next three years. The responsibilities that come with this challenging political function were not reconcilable with his position as CEO at the port authority of Zeebrugge. For this reason he concluded his activities in the port. Vice-President Rik Goetinck was then appointed CEO ad interim.
The Board of Directors thus started the process to recruit a new CEO for the Port of Zeebrugge. Subsequently, an independent external office, Spencer Stuart, was appointed. A selection committee (chairman Dirk De fauw, director Karine Vandenberghe, CEO a.i. Rik Goetinck and the director of corporate affairs Chantal Orlans) got the task to, together with Spencer Stuart, carry out the search for the best candidate. This, to ultimately present the best candidate to the board of directors, preferably before the summer.
On the 2nd of July, the Board of Directors has decided, based on the advice given by Spencer Stuart and the selection committee, to appoint Tom Hautekiet as the new CEO of the Port of Zeebrugge. Tom Hautekiet was born and raised in West-Flanders. He is an industrial construction engineer, and has followed several management courses, at for instance INSEAD and CEDEP. Tom is a driven general director. He gained international experience at the West-Flemish multinational Bekaert, where he became Senior Vice President within the division ‘Building Products’. This division counts 700 employees spread all over the world.