4 minute read
A JOURNEY OF INNOVATION: FROM CHEMICAL ENGINEER TO DATA-DRIVEN AI SOLUTIONS
The digital transition hinges on high quality data. At Belgian startup Timeseer. AI, a chemical engineer plays a key role in developing a digital quality & observability platform with AI functionality to improve data quality. A portrait of Sébastien Verhelst, Director Customer Success and founder of the Advisory Board.
Leading high-performing teams in innovative organisations, my goal is to champion customer experiences, contributing to a better environment and elevate the quality of life.” Sébastien Verhelst sets the bar high. Over the past ten years, he has developed into a versatile professional with a passion for innovation and entrepreneurship that far exceeds his field of study. In parallel, his obsession with correct data also grew. “In the past, companies have often been very sloppy with their data”, Sébastien explains. “In the chemical industry, there is a tradition of structurally capturing data and keeping a data history but in the other sectors this is much less or not the case. There, employees currently spend 70% of their time organizing and cleaning up data. This job is a manual, labour-intensive, repetitive and expensive task. The negative impact of unreliable data has never been as significant as today.”
Management
Sébastien graduated in 2011 as a chemical engineering student at the then Lessius University College, now KU Leuven-De Nayer Campus. His master’s thesis dealt with the design of an installation for the ecologically neutralisation of alkine wastewater through CO2 injection at Messer Belgium, which specialises in industrial gases. “The way the company was committed to innovation and developing a professional relationship with customers impressed me”, Sébastien says. “It ignited in me an interest in the management aspects of technical projects.”
After completing his engineering studies, he immediately enrolled at the Antwerp Management School for a Master of Global Management. It will give his career a decisive turn. In the jobs he subsequently holds, we see customers increasingly coming to the fore.
Data
With two master’s degrees in his pocket, Sébastien spent the next few years working as an Improvement Project Engineer at Axalta Coating Systems and running the family wine business Qualivino. In 2018, he dives into the world of data at SAS Institute, leader in advanced analytics and artificial intelligence. There, he becomes first Customer Advisor for Western Europe and then Manufacturing Advisory Lead, a position he combines with a seat on EMEA’s Manufacturing Board. “At SAS, I was able to perfectly combine my engineering knowledge with cutting-edge digital technologies,” says Sébastien. “This allowed me to easily bridge traditional engineering practices with emerging AI and data-driven approaches to improve manufacturing processes, supply chain and product quality.”
Because he speaks the engineer’s language with clients, Sébastien quickly becomes the consultant of top companies in the (petro)chemical and pharmaceutical sectors but also in other sectors such as energy, metals and environmental and water management. The projects entrusted to him are particularly diverse. They range from applying machine learning techniques to reduce waste production to intelligent performance analytics and predictive maintenance on air-cooled condensers in an energy company.
Startup
In 2022, Sébastien will become Customer Advisory Manager at Belgian pioneering startup Timeseer.AI, a time series data quality & observability operations software company. The goal of its software is to automate the overall data orchestration throughout an organisation to deliver high-quality, on-demand sensor data to organisational customers. “The software has the ability to detect, prioritize and investigate data downtime before it hits operations,” explains Sébastien. “It is crucial to get a grip on unreliable data before it impacts the operations. At Timeseer.AI, we make the following comparison: it only costs $1 to detect data downtime where it would have cost $10 to fix the problem and it would balloon to $100 of financial impact when it hits you operationally.”
After a year, Sébastien is promoted to Director Customer Success. In this role, he puts a lot of effort into community building. For instance, he leads an Advisory Board of 20 thought leaders and visionaries on the strategic positioning of the company. He also organises a quarterly Trusted Advisory Community forum for innovative idea exchange.
The enterprising engineer himself also continues to work on his own development. In 2019, he attended a Smart Manufacturing Programme at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2021 and 2022, he participated in the Digital Transformation Management Programme at Vlerick Business School. With Sébastien Verhelst, De Nayer Campus -and by extension the Faculty of Engineering Technology- can unpack with an alumnus who is moving outside the predestined paths and building a promising career. In many ways, he is a role model for current and future engineering students.
Yves Persoons
www.timeseer.ai
