WASHINGTON: The Port of Antwerp has wished a fond farewell to long serving Port Authority CEO, Eddy Bruyninckx, who retired on December 31 2016 after 25 years of service. Eddy Bruyninckx has been succeeded by Jacques Vandermeiren, who officially took on his duties from the first day of 2017.
From 2001 to 2015, Jacques was CEO and President of the Executive Committee of the network operator Elia, a listed company, where he held various management positions and helped the operator grow and prosper. Before this, Jacques also enjoyed an 11 year period as the Senior Advisor of Strategy Direction for the energy company Electrabel. Vandermeiren has occupied various directorships with Febeg (Federation of Belgian Energy Companies) and the Federation of Belgian Enterprises. He is also co-founder of the Belgian sustainability platform The Shift, as well as co-investor in Qpinch, which generates energy from waste heat. In addition, Vandrmeiren is an investor in Uest, a company that markets the Zembro personal alarm. Vandermeiren also hold a role as director of the Vascobelo Group, an upmarket Belgian coffee brand that calls Antwerp its home port.
Vandermeiren graduated as Master of Laws, a qualification he later supplemented with a master’s in European Studies, a Middle Management course with the Vlerick Business School and an Advanced Management Programme with the INSEAD Business School. It will be interesting to see how the experienced Vandermeiren will take on this new role. This personnel change comes at a time of great growth for the Port of Antwerp, who closed 2016 with a record freight volume of more than 214 million tonnes of freight handled. The shipping container volume for its part has risen above 10 million TEU for the first time in the history of the port. Liquid bulk is also showing year-on-year expansion and with an estimated volume of just under 70 million tonnes it’s the second main foundation on which freight growth in Antwerp is based. In more related news, the Port of Antwerp recently announced major plans to boost trade with South Korea.
