Anja Van Geert

Director

anja.vangeert@a-cross.com

+32 (0) 9 243 60 00

Biography

Anja Van Geert (°1971) joined Across Technology as Director in November 2010.

Anja holds a Masters in Solid State Physics from the University of Leuven (1993), completed with a Doctorate in Nuclear Physics and a Certificate  in International Management from the Vlerick Business School. Anja holds several professional accreditations, including CISA and CISSP.

Her research took her to Dubna (Russia), Bonn (Germany) and CERN (Switzerland). During this period, Anja developed the first websites for the University of Leuven, and led IT-development projects for real-time data-acquisition in collaboration with technical Colleges. She mentored ICT as well as physics students, and was member of organizing committees of international conferences.

After having lived in Russia for two years, Anja continued her career with Tractebel Engineering, as senior consultant E-business B2E and project manager. She managed several sensitive projects, e.g. HR B2E– decentralized CV and talent management, automation of data transfer between nuclear sites and the European Control Agency, development of intranets and websites.

She did global information security audits (ISO 1-7799) for Suez, Electrabel and SITA (U.S.A. and world-wide) , and was asked to join international M&A teams (USA) , focusing on IT-related risks and opportunities, from a technical as well as organizational point of view.  

She led the post-merger integration of Sales Processes (U.S.A), of which more than 90% were successfully implemented after the 1st year of operation. 

She joined Electrabel in 2001, as Service Planning Manager, responsible for implementing service planning processes (continuity, capacity, availability and security) in the newly-centralized ICT-organization.  She brought the processes to the required maturity after only 2 years. She implemented role-specific training for IT staff, speeding implementation and acceptance of change. She reduced the impact of IT-security incidents through optimization of incident management processes and set-up of incident response teams.  

In 2003 Anja was appointed Information Security Manager. She increased the maturity level of information security and business continuity processes from ad hoc to defined processes in 2 years, company-wide (Europe), decreasing security related risk by 60%, and supporting Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance.  She managed the European Information Security and Business Continuity Improvement Programme, reporting to executive management committee and Audit Committee (BoD) Electrabel. She established the IS team structures (Business, IT, Governance), recruited the IS Governance Team and chaired the Information Security Governance Council Suez.  

Anja successfully negotiated the agreements with Governmental Bodies(VREG, GEDIS) on the IS measures necessary to support the progressive implementation of the deliberalisation of the utility market in Belgium. 

More recently, Anja relocated to Shanghai, China between 2007 and 2009, and created her own consultancy company. Her projects focused on IT strategy, IT assessment, International Project Management, business continuity and intercultural coaching.  She worked for local governments, manufacturing companies, FMCG companies, large research centers and private schools, both in China and Europe, and successfully coached expat-managers on their first assignments abroad. 

Within Across Technology, Anja focuses on IT Risk Management, IT Governance and Business Continuity Management. She enjoys assisting global and local organizations in streamlining processes and developing and implementing Information Security, Business Continuity Management and Risk Management Solutions and Frameworks. She has the mix of experience that enables her to work with executive management to determine strategic requirements as well as lead teams in implementing solutions to deliver those requirements.  

In her spare free time, Anja is active in Art and Photography; she is a back-stage crew-leader for youth theatre groups and enjoys being a supportive mother for her 3 children.