Belgian dredging, environmental and marine engineering group Dredging, Environmental and Marine Engineering NV (DEME)'s Board of Directors announced that with effect from January 1, 2019 Luc Vandenbulcke will succeed Alain Bernard as the company’s CEO.
Bernard started working for the group in 1980 and has been CEO of DEME since 2006. Over the past 12 years he transformed the group from a purely dredging organization into a diversified marine engineering group with operations worldwide.
Under his leadership sales figures increased from €1.1 billion to €2.4 billion (2017), while DEME’s fleet became one of the most innovative and diverse in the industry.
Luc Vandenbulcke (KU Leuven, civil engineer) has worked at DEME Group for the past 21 years. He is the founder and CEO of GeoSea which, since its foundation in 2005, is one of the fastest growing and most successful activities of the DEME Group.
As a contractor of complex marine engineering projects, including offshore wind farms, GeoSea realized a turnover of €1.01 billion in 2017. Since 2011 Luc Vandenbulcke is also DEME’s Deputy COO and member of the management team.
From the beginning of next year Bernard will focus on his role of among others Director at DEME and its affiliated companies, Chairman of the Board of DEME Concessions SA and Global Sea Mineral Resources SA (GSR) with a view to further supporting the growth of the group.
Bernard said, “At barely two years before my retirement I wish to pass on the torch to the new generation, under the leadership of Luc Vandenbulcke. This will allow the organization to tackle the challenges and opportunities that are coming our way in due time and with the sense of entrepreneurship that characterizes our group. I will be dedicated to the DEME Group with the same passion as before, though I will now be able to focus primarily on several projects that are very dear to me.”
Vandenbulcke said, “Supported by 5,100 dedicated DEME employees I am more than ready to take on the challenges lying ahead of me as a CEO. Alain Bernard made DEME a diversified and innovative group. We will do everything to continue on the path he successfully opened up for us 12 years ago.”