My China Story

I lived in Shanghai and Beijing for 20 years as well as many years in San Francisco and Brussels.

This has given me a unique East-West view on how to read and deal with China - a country in transiion.

My personal experience of employing, partnering and competing with hundreds of Chinese innovators has provided me with examples to inspire business audiences all over the world to help decode China.

Today, I live with my wife and daughter in my hometown, the beautiful city of Gent in Belgium.

1988 - First China Love

During my studies Sinology at University of Gent in Belgium, I traveled in 1990 and 1992 on a shoestring for 4 months with a backpack through China. It was love at first sight and I knew back then China would one day become a globally leading economy. As such, I decided in 1992 to get an extra BA degree in Business Engineering at Business School of Solvay in Brussels to prepare myself fully for this incredible exciting adventure.

1996 - When China woke up

My first residence was in Beijing in 1996 as a student to study Chinese and later in 1999 to do an MBA from the
EU-China Junior Managers Training Program.
My professional career in China started in 1997 during the true awakening of the Chinese Dragon. The building of Three Gorges Dam, death of Deng Xiaoping, return of Hong Kong to China, China's entry in WTO, Beijing winning the Olympic Games bid. This was the best time for me in China. It was cheap to live & work, full of energy, very hopeful and everything was still possible.

2002 - From East to West

In the year 2000 I started working for the Alcatel Joint-Venture Shanghai Bell. Two years later I worked for an American MNC in Shanghai called Wind River Systems.
I soon got the taste of Silicon Valley and moved to San Francisco in 2002 as global product marketing manager. This got me passionate about the software industry, and short after the dot.com burst faded, I co-founded Polycore Software in the Bay Area in 2004.

2005 - China Startup Love

It may sound strange, but after many China years , Silicon Valley was not as exciting as I had hoped for. But the virus I got there as a first-time entrepreneur never left my body afterwards. I moved back to Shanghai in 2005 and for next 11 years built up my company, great teams and very many products ranging from R&D solutions for government & MNCs to building dozens of event applications for brands.
The last company I established in China - Letsface - won the award for the best Benelux startup of China in 2015.

2017 - Back to Europe

As a family we decided to move back for our daughter (then 14) to get the rest of her education in Belgium.
In hindsight, this decision was well timed as my company would surely not have survived the covid19 pandemic.
In 2017, I was commissioned to create Sinnolabs, a growth accelerator in Shanghai for Belgium innovative SMEs for which I sourced, selected and prepared companies for their China entry.

AI will rewrite every industry in the world.jpeg

2018 - A New Adventure

In 2018, I got discovered as an inspiring keynote speaker by Peter Hinssen, co-founder of nexxworks - an inspiration platform about the Day After Tomorrow.
That same year that I started writing my first book 'China's New Normal' which became a bestseller in the Benelux. This has launched my career as a professional speaker on Chinese innovation. In 2021 I wrote my second book 'Can We Trust China?' to share the China lens on how the world looks at China. As a speaker, author and advisor I deliver workshops , keynotes and guidance on China.
I am most passionate about the swift technology transformation in China and how to trust China more.

BIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION