EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

As a digital alchemist, I measure and blend strategy, technology, dreams, innovation, process, culture, and reality into one slightly shaken cocktail. I'm an expert in getting everyone on the same page, in painting a picture of the possible and the possibilities, in operational management, on digital commerce, on innovation, and on eliminating complexity where there's too much of it.

I am considered to be a savvy IT and operations leader with a record of teaming with stakeholders in support of common goals. I have an indelible reputation for delivering inventive business strategies and client-focused solutions that improve margins. Recognized for transforming global operation systems profitably and productively.

Broad experience building profitable start-up companies and divisions, emerging and growth business lines, complex deal transactions, optimized spend and cost reduction paired with effective pricing strategies, and streamlined operations. Mobilizes top-tier talent to create high performing cultures that consistently achieve in volatile markets.

Colleagues know me as a leader who is trusted by all levels of the organization, is a sought after resource with broad based skills and versatility, is a creator of innovative strategies, is a partner who has effectively teamed IT and business lines, and is fluent in French, English and Dutch, with good conversational ability in German

Experience has taught me that my professional value boils down to:

I don't care who gets the credit. I just want to win

I have been at the forefront of emerging technologies and innovation since probably before you were born

I am a multi-linguist of technology-driven business. I speak fluent geek, operations, marketer, sales, mentor and strategy. Because understanding causes fewer missteps, and missteps cost a fortune

I have Big Ideas

Lots of people have Big Ideas. Execution is what matters, and I do execution

I am the calm one

I am the one with a sense of humor

I run towards fires

Strategic Business Planning and Execution

Fiscal Accountability and P&L Management

Digital / Cognitive / Artificial Intelligence

Digital / cognitive technologies

Complex Change Management

Cross-Cultural Talent Training and Development

High Productivity with Collaborative Approachability

Large Client Relationship Management

Global Expertise in Europe, Asia and Africa

Risk Management and Performance Metrics

PROFESSIONAL HISTORY

IBM GLOBAL SERVICES 2016-

Practice Head, Digital Strategy - Supply Chain and Operations (Canada)

Leads high impact digital transformation, innovation and transformation / performance improvement engagements with financial services, oil and gas and transportation / hospitality clients. He is the Global Leader of Digital IBM in supply chain and procurement services and across all industry sectors in North America.

Practice Related:

$ 15MM in contracts signed in 2017; on track to triple revenue in 2018

Practice start-up: to 28 resources in 1 years’ time, 90% utilization rates

Cool Engagements:

Leveraging elements of artificial intelligence, helped an airline to commercialize its reservation system, by analyzing patterns, behavior, preferences and tailor those to flow-through opportunities, increasing net revenue by 12%

Digitizing a fast-food chain - launched an entirely new food-delivery app and website, recruited top digital talent to build a new digital unit from scratch, and created a standalone digital center of excellence that continues to iterate and innovate on its own today and is now the model for other markets to follow.

Launched a new mobile-banking app - In just 16 weeks, launched a new app that lets users send money to friends. Within a month of its release, it reached the number-one spot in the local Apple App Store and performed tens of thousands of transactions.

Less Cool but Highly Relevant Engagements:

Using robotics to process life insurance - After analyzing the experiences of teams at a life insurance company, we built a robotic-process-automation tool that automated numerous activities. It freed up employees’ time for other work, dropped policy conversion time by 50 percent, and lowered processing costs by more than 80 percent.

Agile transformation of the reservation system at a global hotel chain, which accelerated development velocity by 30 percent in 4 months.

Led the development of a new, consumer-facing mobile application for a start-up, backed by a major US insurance provider cutting in half the time it took to deploy the minimal viable product.

For another client, consolidated seven development groups across a large IT function and drove the adoption of agile practices. This reduced project-development cycles from 9 months to less than 3 and delivered $30 million in annual savings.

Developed a predictive maintenance schedule for a major airline, leveraging years’ worth of maintenance and performance data of particular jet engines, coupled with predictive scenario analysis, to reduce AOG incidents by 89%.

For Canada’s two major oil and gas companies, developed a contract management governance and process framework that complies with those companies’ governance and policy standards, imbedding smart contract capabilities where possible, reducing formal approval and review cycles from up to 48 to 4, and eliminating dynamic pricing capture errors by 100%.

NORTON ROSE FULBRIGHT (London, UK and Montreal, Canada) 2015-2016

Interim CIO – IT Transformation and Merger Integration

Global law Firm – 56 offices on 4 continents

Interim management of the CIO function in support of merger integration strategy

Reduced cost of service by 13.8% (ITO / BPO)

Consolidated 1700 applications to 225 globally

Reduced headcount by 21% globally

Implemented a 24x7 follow-the-sun IT support infrastructure for the global organization

Migrated and consolidated all data centers to low cost countries except those countries where legal data needs to reside in country only

Digitized the document repository environment and introduced artificial intelligence to conduct smart searches based on content, location, terms, conditions, precedent or case law.

EFFICIO CONSULTING (London, UK and Montreal, Canada) 2012-2015

Principal, Strategic Sourcing / Category Management / Spend Analytics / P2P / IT Enablement

UK based procurement pure-play advisory firm, focused on spend analytics and procurement transformation

Subject Matter Expert of IT categories (SW / HW / Network / Telephony / Data Centers / Services)

Subject Matter Expert in strategic sourcing category management, focus on Contingent Labor, Real Estate, Marketing, Legal Services, Contingent Services, lease, Fleet, IT Services and Hardware / Software categories

FRANCE TELECOM – ORANGE (Paris / Geneva / Cairo) 2006-2012

Senior Vice President, Supply Chain and Chief Procurement Officer (International)

A global telecommunications company with a diversified portfolio of activities. Euro 78B in annual revenue; 125,000 employees; $ 1.2 Billion innovation portfolio. Euro 5.8 Billion under management, managed from three low-cost country centers of excellence: Rio, Cairo and Vietnam. Circa 200 reports; 8 directors, 28 managers.

Increased spend under management from 56% to 94%

Decreased rogue spend by 78%

Decreased inventory carrying levels by 68% through effective demand management practices

Transformed and integrated supply chain, distribution and procurement functions, leading to a net 9% increase in free cash flow contribution

FRANCE TELECOM – ORANGE (Paris / Geneva) 2004-2006

Senior Vice President, Enterprise Management Office (IT Strategy and Innovation)

Executive leadership of 12 Innovation centers with an annual budget of Euro 1.2 Billion.

Negotiated and signed alliances with MIT, Stanford and INSEAD

Leveraged portfolio management to prioritize innovation priorities

Monetized Patents

Focused on emerging technologies – Smart Cities / Smart Harbors / Smart Airports / IoT / Cloud

A.T. KEARNEY (Dallas, Alexandria) 2000-2004

Principal, Operations, Supply Chain / Sourcing / IT Strategy

Introduced strategic sourcing as a competency to airlines (Air Asia / Quantas / British Airways)

Developed and implemented strategic sourcing competency at Rolls Royce (Aero) and CN Railways

Subject matter expert on pricing Strategies

Multiple engagement with focus on supply chain / operations strategy (demand management / inventory optimization / distribution management / risk management, supplier relationship and performance management)

Focus on innovation management within a portfolio management strategy context

DELOITTE, TOUCHE, TOHMATSU (New York) 1999-2000

Senior Manager, e-Factory

Evaluation of investment opportunities in Emerging technology start-ups

Created a portfolio of 8 start-up companies under the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu umbrella

Integrated start-up technology into the standard consulting portfolio (where applicable)

KPMG (Boston) 1998-1999

Manager – Airlines and Airports Practice (IT and Supply Chain Strategy)

AIR 2000 and CANADA 3000 AIRLINES (Manchester, UK and Toronto) 1987-1998

Director, Contracts and Service - (Air 2000 UK and Canada 3000 Airlines)

Chief Operating Officer - (Canada 3000 Airlines)

Global operations network; 38 B757 / A 319 / 320 / 330 / 340 fleet) – 84 destinations in North America / Asia and Europe. $ 1.6 Billion in revenue / 8.2% margins / 3,500 employees,

Profitable 10 years out of 11 years’ tenure

Grew operations from 2 aircraft to 54 in 8 years, thus establishing the world’s largest leisure airline

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Hotel and Restaurant Management – Hoger Technisch Instituut, Oostende, Belgium

General Education Courses, Queens College, University of Oxford

Master of Economics, Balliol College, University of Oxford

Negotiation Courses, Harvard University and Vantage Partners

ITIL Foundations / LEAN / Six Sigma Green Belt / CIPS / PMI / Design Thinking / Agile

PUBLICATIONS

The Pricing Game – How to Effectively Price for Optimal Results

Numerous Whitepapers on Digital Strategy and Outsourcing Strategy

Public Speaker on Supply Chain, Procurement Strategy and emerging technologies applicable to supply chain and procurement

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hanscasteels/detail/recent-activity/posts/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base%3BP8rR9BrURG60%2B3h87RdR%2FQ%3D%3D&licu=urn%3Ali%3Acontrol%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base-recent_activity_posts_all

ILLUSTRATIVE CONSULTING ENGAGEMENT PORTFOLIO

Digital Strategy

Architected a new content delivery mechanism for a traditional cableco, whereby signals are aggregated through a datacenter rather than a satellite farm; allowing worldwide content to be broadcast, increasing margins, and gaining visibility into viewers patterns, allowing for more personalized and targeted advertising, leading to 11% margin growth and 7% market share growth in a declining market share environment

Strategy and Growth

Developed growth-focused strategic market segmentation for precision-machined components manufacturer, based on worldwide assessment of customers’ perspectives and competitive positioning.

Led analysis of product-market strategy for global paint manufacturer-retailer. Identified opportunities to increase earnings significantly through distinctive channel strategies, store level performance improvement, and local market competitive planning.

Merger Integration

Redefined worldwide IT strategy for the merger of 2 global pharmaceutical companies, incorporating network reconfiguration, SKU rationalization, new performance systems, and identification of operational performance potential. Elevated value creation potential of merger by 50% – one of the most successful global mergers.

Operations-Performance Improvement

Developed new IT strategy for Canadian operations of global pharmaceutical company, including rationalization of production facilities and selective outsourcing to toll manufacturers, reducing operating costs 19%, improving order-to-delivery time 20+%, and reducing inventory per SKU 20-50%.

Led worldwide IT performance improvement program for specialty steel and machine components firm, including idea generation by 15,000 employees in 20+ facilities, reducing overhead costs 24% and operating costs 15% while improving quality and service 20-50%.

Supply Chain Improvement

Redesigned North American supply chain, including plant and distribution center networks, for leading manufacturer of consumer goods to enhance customer service, reduce split orders, and improve on-time delivery while reducing costs by 21%. Introduced lean manufacturing and continuous improvement in operations to enhance productivity, quality and service performance.

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