Thank you, Codit

Not a single day goes by that I am not in contact with products or services that are offered by customers of Codit. More than 200 talented co-workers are collaborating every day to help our customers in making the world an even better place. To each one of those co-workers and customers, present and past, I say "Thank you".

Because I decided to leave the company (end of this year) that has been part of me for almost two decades. As Christopher McCandless (Into the Wild), said: "The core of man's spirit comes from new experiences". And I feel it's time to go back to search for new experiences in coaching, advising, and investing in new ideas (and companies). That's where I feel I can make the biggest impact.

More than 17 years ago, I left my previous job to join this one-person company, named Codit. For just one reason. I met Bernard (Lenssens), founder of Codit, and I got inspired and ignited by his passion and drive for technology. Little did I know, back then, how that decision would be life-changing for me.?

From the start, I felt at home and always gave everything, and Codit always felt like the right place where I got the right possibilities. It all came naturally to invest all my time, passion, and focus in the building of the company. And putting the company on the European map as the leader in the Microsoft Integration space. We grew fast, but always with the people-first mindset. And we always attracted the right talent, because of our focus and recognition in the Microsoft community.

After I convinced Stijn (Degrieck) to join our company, we had the right combination of people. The entrepreneurship of Bernard, the organisational mindset of Stijn, and my technological insights seemed to be very powerful and were the foundation of Codit as it is today. A company focusing on quality, and putting the people central.

By building a strong and close relationship with Microsoft, we became a trusted advisor to many of the Redmond-based product groups. And that also allowed us to lead the way as the European early adopter on many trends, such as the move to Cloud (where we had our first cloud integration customer more than 10 years ago), API Management and the Internet of Things (being 1 of only 5 IoT Elite partners). And more recently, we added professional AI & ML services to our portfolio. I also have good memories of the many Microsoft MVPs that were part of our company. One of them was my brother Toon (Vanhoutte), who I really owe a lot to.

After the merger with Axon Olympus, Sean (MacGillavry) became instrumental in the growth of our international offices and our transformation to solutions. Being able to win some huge opportunities in countries where we were very young and small, created some of the best energy someone can experience.?

But most of all, everything was only made possible by the support and efforts of so many people that worked with us. During those past 20 years, I believe close to 500 people have been working with us, in different countries and at different times. And I always tried to take it as a priority to give opportunities to anyone working with our company, by focusing on those core values such as teamwork, quality, and respect. And seeing how people grew in our company, and how some of them took on new opportunities where they can shine after their Codit career, really makes me proud and thankful.?

I am happy to see Dirk (Luyckx) as my successor and I am convinced he has the right skills and mindset to lead Codit on the technology path.??We were co-workers on our first job and have crossed each other’s paths on many conferences, trainings and customer projects.??Seeing his experience in people management, I am assured he is best suited for the job.??Good luck to Dirk, and he knows I am always available to advise, wherever needed.

And now my time has come to say goodbye. To many friends and colleagues, to customers and partners.??You truly made the world a better place.?

Thank you