“The number of girls in IT (both in college and professionally) is low, which is a shame given the scarcity of IT skills. I hold a degree in Applied Informatics, and when I was in college, 3 students out of 300 were female. I want women to understand that, as a woman, you are capable of doing anything you set your mind to – the only person that will hold you back is you.”
Kristel Demotte, Global VP Data Solutions at Cegeka
Kristel Demotte (born in 1982) is Global VP Data Solutions at Cegeka, one of Belgium’s largest independent IT integrators
Primed for a career in marine biology, Kristel ended up choosing IT instead, a domain where she was able to ‘dive’ into her other passion: Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
A self-made woman and mother of three, Kristel has created her own career path, taking on a wide variety of ICT roles in quick succession, mainly at Avanade (2003 til 2016), then at Cegeka (2016 up until today).
She knows what it means to be a developer, consultant, project manager, service delivery manager, presales and sales, unit manager, unit director and finally: Global VP.
Kristel combines the best of many worlds: she knows her tech, has a hands-on pragmatic approach and primes herself on a true servant leadership management style: people always come first.
“Be and live your true authentic self” is one of her key principles, and in this she leads by example, exhibiting an energetic passion for data that is inspiring and infectious, not just within her unit, but across the entire organization.
You can drop everything, but not the data project!
A conversation with Kristel Demotte about repurchase analytics, data fabric, CDO as an instructor and more.
AI is de toekomst, maar niet het walhalla
We gaan klanten geen AI-oplossing aanpraten, als daar geen sluitende business case voor is.
Kristel Demotte
ICT Woman of the Year 2022