Thomas Pferr to step down as CTO ad interim of Satellic | Bart De Sitter taking over the function ex officio

Satellic announces today that Thomas Pferr will step down as Chief Technology Officer ad interim effective December 31st, 2017. The Board of Satellic appoints Bart De Sitter as CTO ex officio as of January 1st, 2018. Thomas Pferr remains Chief Executive Officer of Satellic.

Since September 2016, Thomas Pferr has been cumulating two functions in the management committee of Satellic, CEO and CTO ad interim. This double position is not compatible anymore with the reality of a more and more competitive environment requiring a deep knowledge of the Belgian market and a fast and flexible answer to its challenges.

Therefore, Thomas Pferr has decided to step down as CTO ad interim while continuing to serve the company as CEO. The Board of Satellic appointed Bart De Sitter as CTO ex officio as of January 1st, 2018.

While announcing the organisational change to the employees, Thomas Pferr stated that “Satellic has made terrific progress and delivered strong results since I took over the function of CEO last year and even more since I was appointed as CTO at the very beginning of the project phase… but to maintain our momentum, we must accelerate the Belgian anchorage of our business and make sure that the right organisational structure is in place in our company in order to strengthen our connections with our stakeholders and with the market. During more than three years, Bart has shown his value as Head of Customer Services and I feel very comfortable handing over my very dear Technology Department knowing that it is in good hands. In my name and in the name of our Board, I want to congratulate Bart and wish him good luck for this well-deserved appointment.”

Bart De Sitter wished to “thank Thomas for his trust and long lasting support. It will be a great honour for me to take over your position – even though it won’t be easy to fit in your shoes – and an even greater honour to collaborate with you within the Executive Committee of Satellic.”

Bart’s current position as Head of Customer Service will be filled in by internal promotions.

Thomas Pferr started his professional career in 1988 as a system specialist with Daimler’s data centre. From 1990 to 2000, he was in charge of the Project Management & Consulting Division at debis Systemhaus Frankfurt, where he led several major outsourcing projects. In October 2002, he became Executive Vice President of T‑Systems International GmbH and was responsible for the Toll Collect Business Centre. Thomas Pferr has a distinguished technical and engineering background, and a wealth of experience with the German Truck Tolling System. Since 2006, he has been in charge of T-Systems’ national and international Tolling Business as Head of the ‘Satellic Telematic Services’ division, and responsible for the ‘International’ division which serves public customers like the EU, the Defence, Education and Research sectors. He is a member of the Public Sector & Healthcare Management Committee within T-Systems International.

Bart De Sitter started his professional career in 1997 as Customer Engineer at IBM where he stayed 15 years and left as Architect in Telco and Utilities Sector. He joined T-System in 2012 as a presales consultant and solution designer and was responsible for the T-Systems BigData solutions in Belgium. In 2014, Bart De Sitter was appointed Head of Customer Services at Satellic with the mission to run the customer services business and to ensure all contractual obligations within the customer services department were met. Among his main assignments, Bart had to manage the call center, the logistics supplier and the service points supplier. Parallel to the Head of Customer Services, he also was the account executive for Viapass.