Team

Our team is composed of high level experts and senior executives from the maritime and transport sector with proven track record in e.g. shipping, (deep sea) ports authority and terminal operators, transport networks and industrial zones. In this way the team has collective experience in every aspect of the maritime industry including but not limited to containerized cargo, liquid and dry bulk, general cargo, RoRo and offshore oil and gas supply services.

After graduating from Antwerp nautical college in 1983, Gust spent 6 years at sea, mainly on board of chemical and clean product tankers, rising to the rank of Chief Officer.

In 1989, Gust joined Gamatex NV, an independent tank terminal in the port of Antwerp (owned by Van Ommeren Tank Terminals Rotterdam and Gatx Terminals Chicago), as Sales Manager and later on as Manager Sales. In 1996, after a period as Business Development manager at Van Ommeren Tank Terminals in Rotterdam, Gust joined Oiltanking in Belgium, being responsible for all commercial and business development activities in Belgium and France. In 2000, Gust was promoted to the position of Managing Director of Oiltanking Belgium & France and lead the acquisition and integration of what is now Oiltanking Stolthaven Antwerp as well as founding Oiltanking Terneuzen. In 2004, Gust moved to Oiltanking’s headquarters in Hamburg Germany as Group Managing Director for Oiltanking’s worldwide operations (today: 75 terminals in 23 countries with a combined capacity of 23 mio m³). Additionally in 2006, Gust joined the board of Marquard & Bahls AG (Oiltanking’s mother company: 2012 annual turnover 18 billion €, 8500 employees).

In 2011, Gust established himself as an independent consultant and has been working on a variety of port- and tank storage related projects in amongst others Germany, Spain, Nigeria, Malaysia and Canada.

Gust still serves as an independent Director at IndianOiltanking Ltd (Mumbai India), a joint venture between Indian Oil Corp. and Oiltanking. In the course of his career, Gust has gained extensive knowledge of not only liquid logistics and storage but has experienced based knowledge of a wide variety of management aspects in an international B-to-B environment, from contract negotiations to project management, JV negotiations and – operations, finance and HR as well as acquisitions and brown/green field projects.

Mr. Denys has more than 40 years of international experience in the various aspects of the maritime and dry bulk industry.

After finishing his studies at the Antwerp University as Master Applied Economic Sciences, specialty transport, Ludo started his career at ASE Europe, a steel trading company. After 2 years he decided to follow his drive and entered as commercial manager in the port industry at Société Générale des Minerais (SGM), a dry bulk terminal in the Port of Antwerp which later became Antwerp Bulk Terminal (ABT). Ludo was nominated Commercial Director since 1992 when ABT became part of the Sea-Invest Group. In 1996 he became General Manager and Member of the Board of ABT.

In 1999 Ludo was involved in the take-over by Sea-Invest of Saga Terminaux Portuaires (STP), 17 terminals in France, later renamed as Sea-Invest France (SIF), where he was member of the board. He was appointed as General Manager Dry Bulk Division of the Sea-Invest Group.

As from the year 1997 Ludo took part in the international expansion of Sea-Invest worldwide and he negotiated successful mergers and acquisitions.

In 2012, after his period at Sea-Invest, Ludo assumed Senior Consultant positions at United Bulk Terminals (Oiltanking Group) and HES International.

Thanks to the terminal investment projects, which Ludo searched and investigated during many years, he disposes of an in-depth experience about the development and management of port terminals & projects in Europe and worldwide (negotiations with Governmental and Port Authorities, supervisory board memberships, general management, business & commercial development, operational issues, labour systems, …).

Paul Goris (1966) has close to 30 years of experience in the port, bulk, inland waterway shipping, rail logistics and intermodal industry. He is active in several associations which are related to Antwerp, Rotterdam, European and global ports.

Paul started his career in 1990 with NS Cargo/Dutch Railways and Royal Nedlloyd Group where he developed intermodal connections throughout Europe. As Commercial Director of DB Schenker (the merger of NS Cargo with DB Schenker) he was responsible for all cargo traffic in dry bulk, liquid bulk, break bulk and intermodal.

In 2003 Paul joined the dry bulk terminal Europees Massagoed Overslagbedrijf , EMO (joint venture of Thyssen Krupp, Arcelor Mittal affiliate, Sea-invest and HES Beheer) as Commercial Director. Here he changed the total commercial approach of coal and iron ore stevedoring and created chain integration with hinterland transport by barge and rail. In 2009 he became General Manager of EMO’s shareholder Sea-invest where he was responsible for all dry bulk operations in the Ports of Antwerp and Ghent.

Late 2011 Paul established himself as independent Port and Logistics Consultant where he works for a broad portfolio of companies with Port and Logistics related projects, e.g. on behalf of Trafigura/Impala, HES International, International banks, Ports, Stevedoring, Intermodal and other companies. He also is active in the fields of renewable energy. With port projects in Angola, Mozambique, United States of America, South America and throughout Europe he is active in the field of Mergers & Acquisitions, Port and Terminal development and Business Development.

Paul is President of the Dutch Inland Waterway Branch organisation Centraal Bureau voor de Rijn- en Binnenvaart (CBRB), the European Barge Union (EBU) and the Inland Waterway Transport Platform (IWT).

He is Executive Director of the International Dry Bulk Terminals Group.

om Vermeiren is a senior management consultant with more than 25 yrs. of experience in supporting public and private decision makers with their choices that impact long-term value. He has developed a strong port industry expertise rendering advise to leading port companies around the world such as regulators, port authorities, logistic operators, developers and investors. He has worked on assignments across Europe, North America, Caribbean, Middle East, Africa and SE Asia.

Tom obtained his major in strategy and managerial economics and holds a PhD in Applied Economics (Commercial Engineering). He completed his PhD. about the importance of intermodal transport systems between competing ports.

Tom has been working in a dedicated team of port consultants at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He is a lecturer in economics at the VUB and teaches at the Brussels Academy of Diplomacy: International Investment Analysis and Plant Location & Development, and International Project finance.

Tom has strong quantitative skills blended with a strategic eye. He has completed more than 170 management studies in the field of:

• Market studies (traffic forecasting, value chain analysis, pricing, competitive benchmarking),
• Project Appraisal/Business Cases (terminal and port investments, inland terminals, location decisions, incentive applications),
• Regional Economic Development aimed at attracting new investment and logistic cargo flows,
• Hinterland Development aimed at competitive positioning and modal shift,
• Business Planning and reviews (ports, terminals, innovative logistic and ICT concepts,
• Port Governance Models (corporatisation, privatisation, new concession models),
• Transactions of ports and logistic assets (mergers, acquisitions, JV’s, participations),
• Location strategy & Site selection for international investment projects.

Dr. Walter Mondt has more than 35 years of experience in large and multi-disciplinary international environmental projects, both as project manager and environmental expert.

After completing his studies as civil engineer, Dr. Walter Mondt prepared his PhD in Hydrogeology (Civil Engineering Dpt at the University of Brussels) on the largest landfill of Belgium (i.e. Hooge Maey near Antwerp).

Dr. Walter Mondt founded in 1992 the international consulting and engineering company Ecorem nv, Belgium, which he has been heading as CEO from 1992 until 2018. Ecorem nv was operating as a recognized national (Flanders, Brussels and Walloon region) and international well-known environmental reference company, operating for IFI’s (EU, WB, ADB, etc.) and multinationals, mostly on large scale and strategic projects in Europe, West and Central Africa, South-East Asia, Middle East and Russia.

Since 2018 Dr. Walter Mondt is operating as an independent international environmental expert. His main skills are environmental safeguards, solid waste treatment (reuse, recycling, composting, incineration, waste-to-energy conversion and controlled landfilling) and depollution of contaminated materials, such as sediments and soils.

He developed particular skills in the management of waste studies following international standard procedures, and over time he invested much in an extensive network with local administrations of several countries and IFI’s.

Luc Calluy (1955) has over 40 years of operational, commercial as well as managerial experience in the field of shipping agency and forwarding, out of which nearly 20 years of experience in river authority and inland navigation consultancy for the Flemish Government.

Soon after the start of his maritime career in a leading shipping agency in the port of Antwerp, Luc was appointed as the commercial coordinator to align internal communications between the commercial, operational, administrative and financial departments of the agency.

In 1990 Luc was promoted to General Manager of Gellatly Shipping (now Inchcape Shipping Services) in Antwerp.

Following the foundation of EacBen Container Lines, Luc – on behalf of the shareholders amongst which Inchcape – set up EAC Transport Agencies in the port of Antwerp in 1991. He was General Manager for the agency until EacBen Container Lines was taken over by Maersk Line. After having liquidated the company, he set up (1993) NYK Line Antwerp Branch Office for the container services of the shipping line. He then became the General Manager for the Antwerp Office.

Early 1997 Luc became the General Manager for a waste management company in Antwerp, which he – on behalf of the shareholders – prepared for a take-over by what was then Biffa Waste Services.

Soon after that take over, Luc started his own consultancy company. In that capacity he re-organised a customs’ broker company, extensively advised a tug boat company on a strategic level about extending services.

From 2000 till 2018 Luc had the opportunity to work as Manager Business Development for a governmental inland waterway management company. In that capacity he successfully designed and implemented several subvention schemes for the inland navigation sector, contributed to the commercial success of the company in its capacity as a landlord.

Luc is also trained and qualified in disaster management. In that capacity he is acting as the main evaluator of EU Modular Exercises in the field of Humanitarian Aid.

Luc is a passionate professional whose primary aim is to ensure that he generates value added fo customers and contractors in order for them to be satisfied.

Wim Aertbeliën has more than 20 years of experience as nautical expert, pilot and harbour master.

After completing his Master degree Nautical Sciences at the Antwerp Maritime Academy in 2000, he worked for several years as Second Officer and later Chief Officer on the fleet of the international dredging company Jan de Nul.

In 2006 Wim became Pilot at the Pilot Station off the Belgian Coast and the River Scheldt. He is piloting since more than 14 years now the largest sea going vessels into the Port of Antwerp.

In 2014 Wim entered the international scene again and became Chief Pilot and lateron Harbour Master in the Port of Duqm. For more than four years he was responsible for the safe pilot and harbour operations at the newly built port of Duqm, where the largest US Navy vessels, dry bulk, tankers (including VLCC’s), container and general cargo vessels have been calling. As Chief Pilot he was in charge of the training and coaching of the Omani Pilots for whom he established also simulator sessions in Antwerp. After being promoted to Harbour Master, he realised the publication of the port rules and regulations, pilot handbook and various nautical procedures for the port of Duqm. He was coordinating the oil spill equipment of the Port, construction of new built pilot boats, implemented a new VTS System (hardware and software) including training of operators, …

In 2017 Wim established himself as independent nautical expert and has been involved in various international assignments amongst others in West-Africa and India whereby he has been assessing and auditing nautical and marine operations, navigability of rivers, lecturing Maritime Services and training (on site and on simulator) of local pilots and harbour teams.