Eric Van Zele
Mr. Eric Van Zele started his career with Raychem in Belgium in 1972. After holding several key positions for the company he became Managing Director of Raychem NV (Leuven, Belgium). Later he moved to Silicon Valley where he served as Vice President for Raychem Corporation in Menlo Park, California, US.
In 2000 he returned to Belgium and served as President and CEO of Telindus NV. After that he served as President and CEO of Pauwels International NV.
From January 2009 to September 2016 he served as the CEO and President of Barco NV, a global leader in professional visualization and collaboration solutions. He helped Barco weather the crisis year 2009 and under his leadership the company broke through the one billion Euro sales barrier.
In 2012 Eric was elected “Manager of the Year”, a prestigious award that spotlights the best performing manager in Belgium. In the same year he was elected “ICT Personality of the year”.
Currently Eric serves as Chairman of the board of the Vandewiele Group; Reynaers Aluminium; the E17 Hospital Network and Option NV. He also serves as Chairman of the Hermes decision making committee of the Flemish Government.
He holds a master degree in electrical and mechanical engineering from the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) and postgraduate degrees in management from Stanford University (California, US).
Wim Roelandts
Mr. Wim Roelandts started his career with Hewlett Packard in Belgium in 1967. In 1975 Wim moved to Grenoble, France and in 1983 to the U.S. where he held several management positions for HP. He served as Senior Vice President in charge of HP’s Computer Systems Organization, with responsibility for HP’s worldwide computer systems business of about $6B.
In 1996 Wim became CEO of Xilinx and later also Chairman of the Board. Under his leadership the company’s revenue more than tripled to just under $2B, and market share in the programmable Logic Business increased from 30% to over 50%. During his tenure, Xilinx was nominated several times in the top ten of Fortune Magazine’s “100 best companies to work for”. Wim retired as CEO of Xilinx in January 2008, but remained Chairman of the Board until August 2009.
Currently Wim serves as board member of several start-ups and industry and charity organizations. He is board member and member of the compensation committee of eSilicon. He is board member of IMEC, a Belgian research organization; of the El Camino Hospital Foundation and of the Board of Trustees of Santa Clara University. He is the chairman of the advisory board of Engineering Pathways to Success at San Jose State University.
He holds a master degree in electronic engineering from the Rijkshogere Technische School in Anderlecht (Belgium).
Wim holds an honorary doctorate from Santa Clara University (California, US - 2004) and from the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium - 2009).