Supervisory Board and Board of Directors
The Euro Pool System Supervisory Board consists of the following members:
- Noël Keersebilck
- Chris De Pooter
- Karl Schmitz
- Philips Smits
- Henning Schmidt
The Euro Pool System Board of Directors consists of two members:
- Peter Willems
- Louis Selleslags
Noël Keersebilck (1947) has been a Member of the Supervisory Board since June 1994 and was appointed Chairman with effect from April 2001. He graduated from the University of Ghent in 1971 as an Agricultural Engineer and obtained his PhD in Agricultural Sciences from the University of Ghent in 1979.
He participated in a research program at the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Jerusalem from November 1971 to January 1972. From February 1972 to June 1978, he held the Collaborator Chair of Soil Physics, Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Ghent, Belgium, in which capacity he went on secondment to the Soil Research Institute in Bogor, Indonesia. From July 1978 to September 1981, he did his PhD preparation and Consultancies for Belgian Development Aid and FAO in Asia. From October 1981 to March 1986, he was Professor of Soil Physics at the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Gajah Mada in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. From April 1986 to December 1987, he held the position of Research Assistant Chair of Soil Physics at the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Ghent, Belgium. In January 1988, he became the COO of REO Veiling (Agricultural Auction Market) in Roeselare, Belgium, where he was appointed CEO in May 1993. He has been the managing director of NOCON CV since October 2008. He holds several positions on Supervisory Boards, such as President of the Board of Directors of PCLT (Agricultural Engineering Education Centre) in Roeselare, Belgium, Vice-President of the Board of Directors of AGVO (Ostend Fish Auction) in Oostende, Belgium, and member of the Board of Directors of the H.H.R.M. (hospital) in Roeselare, Belgium.
Chris De Pooter (1958) has been a Member of the Supervisory Board since April 1998. He studied Applied Economics in Antwerp (RUCA) and took his MBA at K.U. Leuven. He started his professional career in February 1983 at the former MTV auction as a board assistant responsible for accounts/IT. In March 1991, he became the deputy director, after which he was appointed Managing Director of MTV in January 1993. When MTV and CVG merged and became Mechelse Veilingen in 1994, he joined the Board of the merged auction where he became Managing Director in January 1998. Chris De Pooter is also a member of the boards of several associated organizations, such as VBT, LAVA, Fytolab. He is Chairman of VBT-Kistenpool and the former Chairman of VDT (Association of Managing Directors of Horticultural Auctions).
Karl Schmitz (1947) has been a Member of the Supervisory Board since April 2001. He graduated as a Certified Engineer in Agriculture, Studies of Agriculture (Plant Production) at Universities in Bonn and Kiel in 1972. Participation in a student exchange program took him to Canada in 1970. His professional career started in 1972 when he became a Commercial Officer at the Canadian Embassy in Bonn. He continued his career with the Plant Protection Section of the Federation of German Cooperatives (DRV) in 1978, where he became the Head of the Fruit and Vegetable Section in 1982. He has been the managing director of the German Federation of Producer Organisations for Fruits and Vegetables (BVEO) since 1982. In addition, he holds the following other directorships: since 1997 Member of the Consultative Committee “Fruit Logistica” of the Berlin Fair Authorities, since 1998 Member of the Supervisory Board of the “Deutscher Weinfonds” (DWF), since 1998 Member of the Consultative Committee “ProWein” of the Düsseldorf Fair Authorities, since 2000 Head of Wine Section of DRV, since 2000 Managing Director of "Deutsches Obst-Export-Kontor GmbH" (DOEK), since 2001 Member of "World Apple and Pear Association" (WAPA) and since 2001 Chairman of “Verpackungspool Deutschland” (VPD).
Philip Smits (1950) has been a Member of the Supervisory Board since February 2006. After his higher professional education (Dutch HBS-B), he went on to study Civil Engineering at Delft Technical University, in addition to his employment as a part-time student assistant. During his studies, he founded and owned a technical design agency for non-residential construction. After his military service, he completed his education by following International and Finance Programmes for Executives at INSEAD in Fontainebleau.
Philip Smits was appointed Commercial and Marketing Director of the Consolidates Group in Gorinchem, the Netherlands, in 1981, after which he became Managing Director of the Jongeneel timber and building materials trading organisation in Utrecht in 1992. In 1996, he gave up this position to join the Executive Board of Koninklijke IBC, a group of building companies in Best, the Netherlands, as their COO. There, he was responsible for strategy, human resources, business development and ICT for all Dutch operations.
In November 2002, the Board of the cooperative association Bloemenveilingen Aalsmeer (VBA) B.A. appointed him Chairman of the Board. In February 2006, he became the General Manager for The Greenery, a fruit and vegetables sales organisation.
Henning Schmidt (1953) became a new member of the Euro Pool System supervisory board in 2010 and will take over from Willi Fitzen. From 1976 to 1980 Henning Schmidt studied business management and in 1980 he started his professional career at a major construction company. As early as 1981 Henning Schmidt became a procurator at EDEKA Handelsgesellschaft Nord. In the same year he became commercial director at Nordson Cooperation, Germany. From 1991 to 2001 he was general manager and chairman of EDEKA Berlin in Brandenburg and from 2001 to 2002 divisional manager at EDEKA Zentrale and general manager at EDEKA/IT-Gesellschaft. Since 2003 Mr Henning Schmidt has been general manager at Landgard Blumen & Pflanzen. Since 2005 following the merger of NBV, UGA and Centralmarkt Roisdorf-Stralen – now called Landgard eG – he has been a board member, and he has been chairman since January 2009. During his professional career Mr Henning Schmidt has also taken on a lot of voluntary work. In 2005 a member of the state advisory board of North Rhine - Westphalia of Commerzbank AG, since April 2009 president of the administrative board of Novaflor AG, Switzerland, and in 2010 chairman of the market association in Rhineland, a member of the BVEO general management and a member of the DRV steering committee.
Peter Willems (1962) joined Euro Pool System in September 2008, and became CEO of the Group on 1 January 2009.
He studied Applied Economics in Antwerp (RUCA) and took his MBA at the Antwerp Business School, affiliated with the North Western University in Chicago, followed by further educational programmes, such as International Sales & Marketing at INSEAD in Fontainebleau. He held several international management positions in Finance, Operation & Logistics, and Business Development, prior to becoming Managing Director of the Support Services Division and the Continental Europe Division and member of the executive board at Christian Salvesen PLC, which he joined in October 2003.
After graduating Louis Selleslags (1953) started his professional career at MTV in the product department in 1972. In 1976, he became head of the packaging department of this auction. In 1985, he was appointed board assistant and he became operations manager in 1988. In 1992, he became technical director, responsible for packaging, technology, logistics and staff. In 1992, he also became Chairman of VBT-Kistenpool and he participated in the foundation of Euro Pool System EWIV in that capacity. In the same year, he also became a member of the board of Euro Pool System, which was then still a cooperative association. When MTV and CVG merged and became Mechelse Veilingen in 1994, he was a member of the Board of the merged auction until 1997, responsible for packaging, logistics and infrastructure. On 1 January 1998 (the year Euro Pool System became a private limited liability company), he was employed as COO and joined the company's Executive Team.
