Vrije Universiteit Brussel appoints Karin Voets as Chief Information Officer
Friday 7 July 2023 - Karin Voets is the new CIO of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. With 20 years of experience in IT and management, in both the private and public sectors, she brings a wealth of expertise to VUB.
As CIO, Karin Voets will play an important role in strengthening the IT organisation and realising digital innovations at the university.
Rector Jan Danckaert is delighted with her appointment: “Accelerated digitalisation and our increasingly data-driven environment demand a strong IT organisation and strategy. Karin Voets will increase the power of our university in this area. Thanks to her experience and knowledge from varied worlds, including academia, she is ideally placed to respond to technology-driven changes and the innovative role that we as a university want to play.”
Voets began her career in voice technology and was behind the first Arabic text-to-speech system. Before long, she was head of Research and Business Application at Ghent University. She previously held various positions including at Digipolis (the current District09), the IT partner of the City of Ghent. This experience has given her a clear view of the role and challenges of a CIO in a large, complex organisation like a university, with diverse internal and external stakeholders and high visibility.
With her broad knowledge and experience, her passion for innovation and her desire to work with all stakeholders to shape the digital future of VUB, Karin Voets is a valuable addition to the university.
“My vision of the role of CIO is one of a bridge-builder, a link that connects and translates, who both consults and convinces as an organiser and a communicator. I fully believe in teamwork and the importance of dialogue with all stakeholders, faculties and management to develop an IT strategy that reacts to the needs of today and tomorrow, and identifies opportunities for the future,” says Karin Voets.
Voets takes up her role on 1 September. She succeeds Henri (Rik) Vanroelen, who will retire on 1 October.
Jan Danckaert: “VUB is grateful for the work that Rik and his team have achieved in recent years. Under his leadership, with a new, high-performance data centre, the rapid digital switch due to Covid, the continuation of IT standardisation and the increase in IT performance and data security, IT at VUB has reached a new level of maturity.”
