Management Team
The Board of Directors has delegated day-to-day management to the following committees:
1. Executive Committee
Michel COUNSON, Managing Director and Chief Technical Officer (CTO)
Luc DONEUX , Head of EMEA, APAC & Major Events
Jacques GALLOY, Director and CFO
The Executive Committee coordinates the monitoring and development of the company and its affairs. Its members are in permanent contact, receive information on the group’s financial situation, sales and projects, and the Committee takes operational decisions such as appointing or dismissing staff and concluding contractual agreements.
2. Broadcast Executive Committee
A Broadcast Executive Committee has been in place to help defining the requirements in terms of “Broadcast” products, draw up specifications documents, establish and follow the “Roadmap” for the R&D departments and determine commercial policies. The committee meets once a month. It formally includes the members of the Executive Committee and Bernard STAS (Product Management), Thierry Keutgen (Product Development), Quentin GRUTMAN (Coordination Sales and Operations EMEA), Frédéric GARROY (Sales and Operations NALA), and Nicolas BOURDON (Marketing), with the support of the heads of the R&D and of the Business Units, depending on the items on the agenda.
3. Management Committee of EVS Belgium
The role of this committee is to ensure optimum general coordination of Belgian resources to meet the strategic objectives of the group, including in areas such as appointing new people, standardizing pay policy, developing staff assessment procedures, improving internal communication and allocating premises. This committee meets twice a year, and is made up of the members of the Executive Committee and Quentin GRUTMAN (Coordination Sales and Operations EMEA), Thierry DELBROUCK (Production), Bernard STAS (Product Management), Thierry KEUTGEN (Product Development), Vincent THEUNISSEN (Human Resources) and Nicolas BOURDON (Marketing).
4. Operational management of subsidiaries
The Board delegates the necessary powers to its subsidiaries to ensure their operational functioning. The commercial and support subsidiaries are easy to control because their activities are entirely dependent on EVS Broadcast Equipment S.A., based in Liège (Belgium): delivery of promotional materials, presence at trade fairs, supply of machines or exchange parts, and accounts. The representatives of the EVS Board of Directors and, where appropriate, the local managers make up the management bodies of these commercial subsidiaries. The subsidiaries are spread over three geographical regions (America, Europe/Africa/Middle East, Asia/ Pacific). Each region is coordinated by a General Sales & Operations Manager who is a member of the Broadcast Executive Committee. This type of organization enables very efficient provision of information at the group level as well as rapid decision making. The group’s commercial policy is coordinated by the parent company, and each region has an operational autonomy which allows creating an optimal contact with the market.
XDC S.A., 41.3% owned by EVS, is totally autonomous as far as R&D, production, sales and marketing and administration are concerned. Serge PLASCH is the CEO and Managing Director of XDC, with the help of an experienced Executive Committee. With a diluted shareholding of 30.2%, EVS remains the most important shareholder, aside SRIW (20.3%) and GIMV (20.2%). EVS therefore remains strongly involved in the strategic choices, but does not have any significant leverage on the operational management of this subsidiary, whose team and location are now entirely independent from EVS.
Bios of the management team
Michel COUNSON - Managing Director, Founder & CTO
Director since its foundation in 1994, he is now CTO and Managing Director of EVS. Michel graduated in 1982 from Institut Electronique in Liège as a physics engineer specializing in applied electronics and started his career as a hardware engineer at TECHNIQUE DIGITAL VIDEO S.A. In 1986, he founded his own company, VIDEO SYSTEM ENGINEERING S.P.R.L. working in partnership with EVS on numerous projects which resulted in a merger in 2000.
Jacques GALLOY - Director & CFO
A Director at EVS since 2002, Jacques is a commercial engineer and has previously worked for PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Luxemburg before moving into the broadcast industry where he was the Financial Controller of the RTL Group as well as RTL Netherlands and Business Development Manager for TV & Radio.
Luc DONEUX - Head of APAC, EMEA & events
Luc joined EVS in 1996 and alongside Bernard Stas, launched and rolled out EVS in Asia Pacific. Since 1999, Luc has been responsible for developing major contracts with host broadcasters of worldwide major events such as the Olympics, FIFA World Cup, the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games.
Fred GARROY - General Manager, The Americas
Fred Garroy joined EVS in 1996 and was active in several facets of the organization developing the sales market and promoting EVS technology worldwide. In 1998, Fred moved to New York and became the General Manager of the Americas where he teamed with Greg Macchia to expand the EVS presence in North and South America. Since 1996, Fred has played a major role in large events and continues in this position today. Most recently, Fred and his team were recognized for their efforts at the Torino Olympic Games with the prestigious EMMY Award.
Nicolas BOURDON - Marketing and Communications Director
Nicolas Bourdon earned a Business Sciences degree from HEC Liege, Belgium. Nicolas spent six years as a Communications and Marketing Manager for the aviation company Sabena Technics in Brussels. He joined EVS as Director of Marketing and Communications in October 2005. A part of Nicolas’ activities at EVS is to position the EVS brand in news and studio production markets.
Bernard STAS - General Product Manager
Bernard graduated with a Masters degree in electro-mechanical engineering in 1994 and as an R&D engineer in Fluid Mechanics in 1996 from University of Liège. He Joined EVS in 1996 as Sales Manager for the Asia-Pacific region and has since managed both direct and indirect sales in that region. Bernard has also been the General Product Manager for all TV solutions developed by EVS since 1998. Along with the management board, he supervises the improvement of existing products, defines the development of new products and manages third-party integrations.
Quentin GRUTMAN - General Manager, EMEA
Quentin manages EMEA sales network and operations. Quentin has an extensive experience in EMEA sales within large software companies, especially at Oracle where he held various international sales management positions over eight years within the company. Prior to joining EVS, Quentin was the European Sales Director at Heartbeat Experts/Software since 2007. Quentin holds a degree in General and International Management from HEC-ULg in Liège and a Masters degree in General Management (CEPAC) from Solvay Business School in Brussels.
Thierry DELBROUCK - General Production Manager
Thierry Delbrouck graduated in 1992 from Institut Supérieur Industriel Liégeois with a degree in industrial engineering, specializing in electronics. In 1994, he joined the EVS team as a production engineer. Since 1998, he has been managing the Production and Technical Support Department as General Production Manager.
Michel DE WOLF - Business Unit Manager Media Management
Michel De Wolf graduated in 1982 as a civil electronics engineer from University of Leuven. He joined EVS in September 2008 after an acquisition and merger of his former company DWESAB which he founded in 1987. DWESAB was a small profitable Belgian company active in Benelux specializing in service and software R&D for operating workflows, reality TV and management of TV stations. Michel De Wolf is now leading the EVS Brussels Development Center, where mainly studio and archive applications are being developed.
Robert BURY - General Manager, Business Unit Xedio
Robert graduated in 1985 as an engineer in Electro-mechanics from University of Brussels and as Master of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1988 from California Institute of Technology. He worked for Alcatel, L&H, KPN Mobile and Option Wireless in various ‘Research, Product Management and Innovation Management’ director positions before joining EVS in 2008. Robert is now responsible for the Xedio business, the Software-based fast production solution from EVS.
Benoit FEVRIER - General Manager, Business Unit EVS-OpenCube
Benoit obtained a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Bordeaux in 1997, where he acquired extensive knowledge in Digital Image Engineering. He began his professional career working on several R&D projects. In 2003, he founded OpenCube, a Toulouse–based company which provides MXF solutions for the broadcast and D-Cinema industries. In 2010, OpenCube Technologies was acquired by EVS, a global leader in broadcast and media production systems. Benoit is currently General Manager of the OpenCube business unit in the EVS group, where he continues to carry out MXF tapeless workflow analyses, among other activities.
Maximilien d’OREYE - Business Development Manager
Max d’Oreye is managing EVS’ partnerships with broadcast and technology industries and is involved in EVS’ business development strategy as well as the company’s expansion towards new markets. Before joining EVS, Max was working for Newtec since 1998, a Belgian manufacturer of satellite transmission equipment, where he held various senior management positions, including Vice-President of Marketing and Professional Equipment Business Unit. Before joining Newtec, Max was head of European offices at Tiernan. Max has a degree in engineering from Catholic University of Louvain-La-Neuve and Masters of Science degree from San Diego State University. He is the holder of a number of patents and author of numerous papers on television and transmission systems.
Geoffroy d'OULTREMONT - Investor Relations and Corporate Communications Manager
Geoffroy d'Oultremont holds a Master in Business Sciences from HEC Liege (Belgium). Before joining EVS in 2007, he spent four years at Banque Paribas Belgique (communication and private banking), and seven years in the financial communication team of Delhaize Group (food retailer). At EVS, Geoffroy is in charge of financial, corporate and internal communications.