Luk Laerenbergh

Background

About Luk Laerenbergh

I consider myself a generalist interested in a wide variety of topics. I prefer to work at the top of a company where I have this helicopter view and can contribute and have impact on different levels. As the secretary of the leadership team (and direct report tot he CEO), I assist the decision making process of the leaders of the organisation either by shaping, streamlining and perfecting the decision making process itself throughout the organisation or by making personal contributions to the discussion based on my own experience and knowledge both in my area of expertise (corporate governance) and in my general knowledge of the organisation and its needs. As the secretary of the board of directors, I am also responsible for the easy, straightforward, effective and efficient decision making process, in support of the board as a whole, of the president of the board and of each individual director. I love to translate the discussions and decisions into high quality minutes and in communication to the rest of the company, with regard of the delicate balance between confidentiality and transparancy. As a leader of a diverse team, I enjoy using our four leadership roles to make the team work (to dare, to coach, to realise, to inspire). The team of 40+ FTE’s is very diverse, and includes both unskilled labourers to do manual general logistics work as well as highly skilled porfessionals (governance expert, CSR officer, advisor to the CEO). It is a challenge to coach them all, to keep them inspired and to help them create their identity, as individual, as sub-team and as complete team. It is very rewarding to see it work! The Port of Antwerp-Bruges is a great organisation with an enormous impact on the well-being of the port community, its employees and companies and the entire Antwerp-Flemish region, its environment and its people. Its vision to be the first port that reconciles economy, climate and people is very inspiring, and even more so the actual first steps towards a more sustainable future (such as NextGen District, the hydrogen initiatives). Its values (connection, daring and simplicity) are very close to my own, and form a daily guideline to make decisions.