If you were to ask Hans what he views as his primary driver, that would be building connections and removing gaps. When he joined Damen his mission was, and still is, changing the way the business views the role of, and works together with, IT. And that’s a two-way street in order to ensure that what the business requires to engineer and build state-of-the-art vessels, is translated into services and solutions IT can safely deliver and maintain.
Damen is a global player in the maritime sector, designing, building and servicing vessels ranging from superyacht, workboats and platform supply vessels to naval ships. You can imagine the diversity in business demands. To facilitate this, Hans has always been driving the strong connection between business and IT and using his knowledge of security by design and zero trust to ensure that whatever is delivered matches or surpasses the requirements.
He is a strong believer that only when you closely integrate those areas, you can make a difference, drive product improvement, unleash the power of data and analytics, and deliver new business models. He has been with the Damen Shipyards Group since 2008, helping to transform a traditional organisation with a globally dispersed landscape into a leader in the maritime space. Nowadays Damen is renowned for its vision on standardisation, sustainability and connected vessels. Damen’s Triton platform has received numerous awards. And its ambition is to become the best maritime solution provider there is.
Together with his team of architects they play a vital in role in this, all in close cooperation with the business. Hans is part of the management team of the global support organization and works closely with Aart Rupert, CIO of Damen, who was nominated as CIO of the year in 2020 in The Netherlands.
In his work prior to Damen, Hans held a senior management position in a large international construction company and was responsible for its global expansion. He brings over 30 years of IT experience to the table.