Erwin Verstraelen, chief digital and innovation officer at the port of Antwerp-Zeebrugge and Benjamin Bostoen, ceo of Thomas & Piron ICT have been awarded Chief Digital Officer of the Year 2022 in Brussels.

Erwin Verstraelen was chosen for his leadership and vision of an integrated ecosystem with the various partners in the port where data is linked to geographic data, ship trackers and radar images, among others. All data is injected into a digital twin, a digital copy of the port itself. It is also one of the first ports to offer 'drones as a service' and control unmanned ships. The port of Antwerp provides 140,000 direct and indirect jobs and has an annual added value of some €22 billion.

Benjamin Bostoen is leading Walloon construction company Thomas and Piron into the digital age with the switch from paper to data, track & trace systems and offers a 3D concept in the export space with some 18,000 different materials. This leads to higher productivity, more efficiency, no manual data encoding and less material loss. Thomas & Piron builds almost 800 houses and 900 flats a year, generating a turnover of €700 million. It is operational in Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal and Morocco.

It was the fourth time the CDO of the Year was organised. There were over 500 attendees.