Partners
Patrick Vanbrabandt – CEO
Patrick started out his professional career in 1997, as a web designer for one of the very first Internet companies in Belgium. Sensing that Internet technology was not yet of age at that time, he became a solution developer in a company that specialized in software that addressed environmental issues. Aside from the great opportunities it gave him to work on technologically advanced platforms, the close collaboration with universities, policy-making government bodies and industry leading companies gave his work an extra dimension he really enjoyed.
Through his work, he came in contact with all layers in the organizations of his clients, an aspect of the job he has always relished. This, in turn, cultivated his interest in enterprise-wide solutions, such as ERP systems. With their far-reaching impact throughout the client's organization, the aim was always to balance real-life solutions with factual return on investments.
His ever-increasing number of customers gave him the possibility to discover the challenges and opportunities in many industries. After projects in petrochemical, financial, media and leisure industries, Patrick found himself working most of the time in the automotive industry.
Since 2003, he's worked extensively with car manufacturers, importers and car dealerships of different shapes and sizes, on retail and wholesale level. He became intrinsically involved in different departments: service, sales, aftersales, CRM, warehouse and accounting. He often found himself at the crossroads between manufacturers and dealerships, brining them together to establish best practises throughout all departments.
This work took him all over the world. At one stage, he even moved to Madrid, Spain, from where he worked for one year implementing Dealer Management Systems in several European countries.
When Patrick moved back to Belgium, he thought the time was right to give concrete form to his endless pursuit, to be an all encompasing IT provider for car dealerships, delivering them premium services and products, across the board. Hence, Carya Group was born.
As founder and chief executive officer of Carya Group, Patrick has since been a driving force behind it's success and it's subsequent international expansion.
Hubert Gervais – GM France, Executive VP sales Group
Born in 1971, Hubert Gervais spent most of his career on IT Systems for the Automotive Market by leading the DMS Group at Siemens Business Services France from 1993 to 1999 and leading the Automotive Sector for Atos Origin Services from 1999 to 2002.
With a Master degree in IT projects and Sales, Hubert launched in France the incadea product in 2002 and was Country Manager and General Manager of Reynolds and Reynolds SAS (renamed incadea SAS in 2006) until 2007. In 2007 Hubert Gervais acquired this organization together with the Carya Group and drove successfully the new organization.
Cédric Bouckaert – Head of development
Cédric Bouckaert holds an engineering degree in Informatics. After having worked for 7 years for EDS, Cédric has a broad experience in several sectors (banking, logistics, industry, internet and automotive) and several roles (development, software architect, project management). When he left EDS he joined the IT department of BMW where he got familiar with the Microsoft Dynamics NAV and incadea but soon took on the role of IT Coordinator for some of the largest BMW dealerships. Soon after Carya Group was founded he joined the company as partner and is responsible for the development team of Carya Group. Having both technical as business background he is ideally placed to help and understand the customers of Carya Group.
Benny Callewaert – IT Manager
Benny Callewaert (1973) graduated in Informatics (VHTI Kortrijk) and started his career in 1994 at the beginning of commercial internet in Belgium, working for an Internet Service Provider and then as a Systems Engineer for an international Steelwire company.
During the last 10 years as an Independent Senior ICT Consultant and ICT Manager, Benny has been working for international and national leading companies on a wide range of projects.
With his philosophy of Constant and Never ending Improvement he has achieved Master degrees from EHSAL Management School on Industrial Corporate Policy, Project Management, Business Knowledge and Practical Management Skills.
In 2007 he joined Carya Group as a Partner, Benny brings over 15 years of experience in the ICT sector to Carya Group and is since determined to continuously help and push Carya Group to a higher level. Today Benny has a strong focus on Customer IT Solutions in addition to the Internal IT environment and is working together with a great IT Team to deliver premium service every day.