The CEO is responsible for the daily management of the Company. The CEO is assisted by the executive management (Senior Leadership Team or "SLT"), of which he is the chairman, and that does not constitute a management committee within the meaning of article 7:104 (previously article 524bis) of the Belgian Code of Companies and Associations.
The Chief Executive Officer is authorized to legally bind the Company acting individually within the boundaries of daily management and for specific special powers that were granted to him by the board of directors. In addition, the board of directors has granted specific powers to certain individuals within the Telenet Group. The latest delegation of powers has been published in the Annexes of the Belgian Official Journal on April 26, 2022.
On April 1, 2013, Mr. John Porter was appointed as CEO of the Company. At present, two women are part of the SLT.
John Porter (1957)
Chief Executive Officer
John Porter (°1957) is the Chief Executive Officer of Telenet Group Holding NV, a Belgian public limited liability company. In this capacity, he is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Company, spanning over 2 million fixed and nearly 3 million mobile customers and accounting for EUR 2.4 billion of annualized revenue. Telenet’s track record of substantial innovation around the customer relationship has delivered some of the lowest churn and highest net promoter scores in the industry. Prior to joining Telenet in 2013, Mr. Porter served as the Chief Executive Officer of AUSTAR United Communications Ltd., at the time a Liberty Global subsidiary and an Australian public company that was a leading provider of subscription television and related products in regional Australia. He held this position until AUSTAR was acquired by Foxtel, a joint venture between News Corporation and Telstra, in May 2012. Mr. Porter led the growth of AUSTAR since inception, becoming its CEO at the time of its 1999 initial public offering. Previously, he served as the Chief Operating Officer for the Asia/Pacific region for a predecessor company of Liberty Global. From 1989 to 1994, Mr. Porter was President, Ohio Division, of Time Warner Communications. He started his career at Group W Broadcasting and Cable, as Director Government Relations before becoming General Manager of Westinghouse Cable Systems in Texas and Alabama. Mr Porter has a Bachelor of Arts from Kenyon College.
Dieter Nieuwdorp (1975)
EVP Residential & SOHO
As of May 1, 2014, Dieter Nieuwdorp (°1975) joined the SLT as Senior Vice President Strategy & Corporate Development. Besides the development of the general strategy of the company and the structuring of M&A transactions and other partnerships, his function also included the Project Portfolio Management Office and - since 2016 - the New Business Department. Since 2020 Dieter Nieuwdorp is responsible for Residential & SOHO Business. Mr. Nieuwdorp joined Telenet in 2007 as Corporate Counsel and Corporate Secretary and became VP Corporate Counsel & Insurance in 2010. He started his career as a lawyer with Loeff Claeys Verbeke (later Allen & Overy) in 1998. Mr. Nieuwdorp holds a Master of Law degree from KULeuven and a LL.M from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Luk Bruynseels
Chief Product & Technology Officer
Luk Bruynseels (°1981) has over 20 years of experience in the technology and telecom sector, first in his own startup in online marketing during his studies, later as consultant. Luk joined Telenet in 2009 with different roles in the Engineering department. From 2015 until 2017, he was the network M&A lead for the cable/mobile merger with BASE including responsibility upgrading the mobile network and for post-merger synergy realization. From 2018 Luk became VP Engineering, bringing fixed, tv and mobile together and transformed the department to work agile as of 2020. His scope was extended in 2021 with the connectivity product and customer journey design. Luk was also co-starter and sponsor of TADAAM, the Telenet digital Fixed Wireless Access service.
Luk Bruynseels studied Civil Engineering Electronics at KU Leuven and obtained a postgraduate Corporate Finance at KU Leuven. He is a father of two and enjoys sports (football, running, hiking, and snowboarding) and travelling
Ann Caluwaerts (1966)
EVP People, Brand & Corporate Affairs
Ann Caluwaerts (°1966), EVP People, Brand & Corporate Affairs , has got more than 20 years of experience in the international telecom and local media industry. Before she began working at Telenet, Ann gained experience at BT and Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products. Her expertise is mainly focused on strategic communications, regulatory affairs, strategy development, change management, marketing and wholesale. Ann graduated as civil engineer and followed different courses at (a.o.) Insead and the London Business School. She regularly speaks at conferences and academic organizations.
Erik Van den Enden (1978)
Chief Financial Officer
Erik Van den Enden (°1978) has over 15 years of financial experience in the fast-moving consumer goods (‘FMCG’) and telecom sector. He has a solid background in financial management and has in recent years held top positions in strategic and financial planning, controlling, treasury, and risk management. Erik worked for AB InBev as Vice President Finance Transformation and Carve-Outs. In this position, he led the global integration and transformation of SAB Miller’s financial processes in AB InBev and was responsible for the follow-up of the synergy programme following the acquisition of SAB Miller. Before that, Erik was the driving force for developing and implementing a new strategy for the European market for AB InBev, which led to a renewed increase in turnover from 2015 onwards.Prior to starting at AB InBev in 2007, Erik Van den Enden worked for three years at Telenet as Interconnect Manager and Product Manager of residential Internet and telephony.Erik Van den Enden studied Civil Engineering and Electronics at KU Leuven and has also obtained a master’s degree in General Management at Vlerick Management School. He has taken specialist training courses in business and finance at Insead and Wharton University.Erik Van den Enden is a father of two and enjoys travel, sports (skiing, tennis, and running), and classical music.
Benedikte Paulissen (1969)
EVP Customer Journey, Digital & Data
Benedikte Paulissen studied Applied Economics at the KU Leuven and obtained a post-graduate degree in European law at the UCL. She also worked for Flanders Technology International, a non-profit organization established by the Flemish government to promote technology, innovation and science. In 1998, she switched to Telenet and worked at the communication department and the marketing division to promote Telenet to the general public. In 2004, she was made responsible for all direct sales channels, including telesales and sales via indirect sales channels, including own shops, dealers and Telenet Centres. From 2011 she was also responsible for all customer service activities. The last couple of years she is driving the data & digital transformation and the customer centric experience. In 2019 she became responsible for the data, digital and the journey-teams. In this role she is engaging the company in managing the customer relationship and in creating a persistent focus on the customer. She is driving the organization to work together for the optimal customer experience delivery.
Micha Berger (1970)
Chief Technology Officer
Micha Berger (°1970) joined the Telenet Group in July 2013 and he leads the activities of the Engineering Department, the Service Assurance Group and Mobile Services as Chief Technology Officer ("CTO") since that time. As of July 1, 2013, he also joined Telenet’s SLT, reporting directly to the Company’s CEO. Since October 1, 2019, the Information Technology department was added to his responsibilities. Under his leadership the “The Big Net-works” program was launched which resulted in internet speeds of 1 gigabit per second throughout Flanders and Brussels.
He's a strong believer in Telenet’s largest and biggest digital transformation programme that will bring new ways of working for everyone in the company and improve customer experience. He’s devoted to get the new flexible and state-of-the-art IT platform integrated and launched.
Mr. Berger has worked for Liberty Global since 2006, initially as Manager of the Engineering Department at UPC Nederland. As Vice President at Liberty Global since 2010, he has been responsible for Horizon Next Generation digital TV development and product roll-out. Before these endeavors, he gained his first experience in the cable industry at HOT Israel, where he was responsible for the development of the interactive digital service platform and the roll-out of video-on-demand
Geert Degezelle (1974)
EVP Telenet Business SME& LE
Geert Degezelle (°1974) worked at the ICT company Telindus before moving on to Proximus, where he was responsible for sales, but also gained experience in strategy, innovation and M&A (mergers and acquisitions). While there, he also built up the cybersecurity business at the Belgian telecom player, and was responsible for the networking & cloud business unit. Degezelle was CEO of Telindus Netherlands from 2015 to 2019.
Geert Degezelle started work as Vice President of Enterprise Business Sales at Telenet Business on February 1, 2021, and managed all the sales departments at Telenet Business that are aimed at SMEs and large companies. He will take final responsibility for Telenet Business activities as of September 1, and will be a member of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) of Telenet. Geert Degezelle has a degree as a telecommunications engineer, and also obtained a postgraduate degree in telecom from the University of Antwerp and an MBA from the Flanders Business School.
Jeroen Bronselaer (1978)
EVP Media Telenet
Jeroen Bronselaer (°1978) joined the Telenet Group in September 2010 and was at first responsible for the negotiations and relations with broadcasters and content suppliers. Later he took on broader roles managing Telenet’s premium sport and movie channels and was named Vice President Product Entertainment, responsible for the entire entertainment product portfolio of Telenet. In September 2015, Jeroen joined the Senior Leadership Team as Senior Vice President Residential Marketing. Since 2020 Jeroen Bronselaer is the CEO of SBS. Prior to joining the Telenet Group, Jeroen Bronselaer worked at the Flemish public broadcaster VRT, where he started out as a TV producer but quickly evolved into more business driven roles within the Media department of VRT. Jeroen Bronselaer holds a Master degree as Commercial Engineer and Post-graduate degree in Communication from the KU Leuven.
Pursuant to the Corporate Governance Charter, the members of the SLT have a duty to place Telenet's interests above their own and will avoid to perform any actions, to defend certain positions, and to pursue certain interests, if this would conflict, or would give the impression to conflict, with the interests of Telenet. When the members of the SLT take a decision, they shall disregard their potential personal interests and refrain from using business opportunities intended for Telenet for their own benefit. Members of the SLT are required to inform the CEO of any conflict of interest that could, in their opinion, affect their capacity of judgment. The CEO shall in turn inform the chairman of the board of directors hereof.
Considering that the members of the SLT are related to Telenet within the meaning of IAS 24, any transactions and/or business relationships between members of the SLT and one or more companies of the Telenet Group are subject to the special decision-making procedure as set out in Article 7:97 of the Belgian Code of Companies and Associations as described in further detail under title 8.5.6.2 above (Conflicts of interest in the meaning of article 7:97 of the Belgian Code of Companies and Associations).
Members of the SLT are required to inform the CEO of any conflict of interest that could, in their opinion, affect their capacity of judgment. The CEO shall in turn inform the chairman of the board of directors hereof.
If any transactions and/or business relationships between members of the SLT and one or more companies of the Telenet Group would occur, such transactions and/or business relationships shall in any event need to take place at normal market conditions.
Members of the SLT that wish to accept memberships of other corporate bodies outside the Telenet Group shall comply with the Telenet Policy concerning additional external functions. This policy requires members of the SLT to obtain the prior approval of the Remuneration and Nomination Committee before accepting such mandate or function. In taking its decision, the Remuneration and Nomination Committee shall, amongst others, balance and consider the opportunity for the member of the SLT's professional development against the potential time constraints and conflicts of interest that may arise.
