Dieter Van Thienen

CTO for a B2B services client, focused on client-facing digital initiatives, delivery structure, technical direction and operational scalability. The role combines project leadership, client-facing coordination and hands-on technical guidance across solution direction, feasibility, workflow improvement, documentation and practical implementation choices. Acting as a bridge between clients and technical teams, I help align requirements, priorities, delivery expectations and implementation decisions across the full SDLC, including AI-assisted workflows, process automation and delivery optimisation.

Founder of Yumm, a SaaS platform that allows you to manage your digital menus in an easy, inexpensive and ecological way, letting customers view the menu on their own device, without any app installation, supporting multiple menus, languages, allergens, events and hotels.

Heleus is my independent technology practice, supporting organisations with CTO-level guidance, product building and delivery improvement. This work includes fractional CTO support, AI workflows, architecture reviews, cloud migrations, DevOps and delivery processes, automation, vendor coordination and technical decision support for founders and leadership teams.

As Chief Technology Officer, I am tasked with shaping and executing the strategic vision for technology, particularly focusing on the advancement of VR applications. My role encompasses identifying and integrating emerging technologies to solidify our market position, leading a multidisciplinary team to develop innovative VR software solutions, and managing the full development lifecycle to ensure excellence and innovation in our products. Collaborating closely with the product development team, I aim to refine VR software specifications for safety training, ensuring all projects are delivered on time, within budget, and exceed quality standards. My commitment extends to fostering effective communication among stakeholders and driving the automation of internal processes to enhance efficiency and productivity.

Co-founder and de facto CTO of Strategic Water, a start-up company specialized in data-based strategic planning, logistics and operational management in the water, sanitation and environmental sector. Strategic Water brings advanced data analysis and machine learning solutions to the water sector, optimizing facilities, lowering costs and driving investments into new markets across the globe. In 2017, Strategic Water attended Web Summit, where it was enrolled in the Alpha program.

Researcher at the University of Brussels, active within the Department of Computer Science, part of the Faculty of Science and Bio-Engineering Sciences. Active on an academic R&D business project. The responsibilities involve • Creating conceptual and technical prototypes using web technologies • Visualizations for Context-Aware Recommender Systems • Enhancing the user experience for the knowledge worker • Integrating analysis and user research into design practices • Planning, reporting and coordination Apart from the research project, I teach, give training, and assist students. In June 2015 I attended the KES-SEEL 2015 conference in Sorrento, Italy, where my submitted paper, titled 'Smart Study: Pen and Paper-Based E-Learning', received the Best Paper Award.

Designing dashboards for visualizing data using QlikView, ETL, automating data extraction and generating reports.