Kurt De Weirdt is branch manager of ACE in Ghent. He brings out the best in customers and employees. He prefers to work with the people behind the technology and always keeps a close eye on new engineering trends.
Can you tell us about your role as branch manager at ACE?
Kurt: My career at ACE started as an account manager, a purely commercial role. I worked in sales as an entry-level engineer, mainly in mechanical engineering and motion control, including sensors and safety systems. Although as a recent engineering graduate I had no immediate interest in detail engineering, I found sales engineering fascinating because of the contact with different companies and people. This eventually brought me to ACE, where I was able to do more of a "people job", where matching talent became more important than selling products. An important aspect of my role is finding and recruiting talented engineers. This was new to me when I started at ACE, but I picked it up quickly and now enjoy the people management aspect of my job immensely. My role at ACE revolves around combining technical knowledge with people skills, building strong customer relationships and continuing to innovate to improve and adapt our services to the changing market.
Can you give us an example of a project you worked on at ACE?
Kurt: One of the most memorable projects I worked on was the acquisition of Bruges-based NiniX Technologies last year. This was a game-changer for us as it allowed us to share and expand work. I was closely involved in the acquisition, together with the management we drew up a strategic plan and made the acquisition a reality. This project is one of the highlights of my career at ACE.
What projects can they wake you up for?
Kurt: What energises me in my work is the exploratory and investigative aspect, along with building relationships with people, both talent and clients. As long as I have these elements in my job, I am happy.
What are you most proud of?
Kurt: I am most proud of our work with clients where we have put an entire team of engineers to work with the client to develop in-house solutions. The trust these customers have in us is something I am immensely proud of. They even sometimes ask us to do technical testing for their mechanical people. Building this kind of relationship and gaining customers' trust gives me a lot of energy and satisfaction.
How do you see yourself evolving within ACE in the future?
Kurt: I see myself continuing to evolve within ACE by continuing to focus on business development and building relationships with new customers. I also read a lot about start-up companies and am always curious about new technology and innovation. This helps me to position ACE within the rapidly changing market. I am very interested in the evolutions in the market, such as AI and robotics technology. Integrating AI within robotics and mechanical engineering projects is an area where I see a lot of potential.
