Check out Life @ 45 Degrees

Hi, I’m Thierry Luycx.  I’ve been on this planet since more than 50 years, and running around in the IT world since 1987.  My career started as a trainer, teaching people how to program high-volume laserprinters at Xerox.  After a few months, my career turned into a pre- and post-sales support role and I entered the world of large corporations in the Belgian IT-space, providing help to banks, insurance companies and enterprises.

As the Telecoms industry boomed in the early nineties, I switched to a Service Management role within the KPN-Group and ended up as IT Director for the third largest Belgian ISP (at that time “Planet Internet” was still a well-known brand in the industry… )

My career evolved towards a Customer Support Director role, manging pre-sales and post-sales engineering teams.  As I had always been fascinated by technology in multiple ways, my career moved on towards managing datacentre infrastructure and managed IT-services on a European level at Colt Technologies, a pan-european telecoms provider.  When that adventure ended, I joined Microsoft to become a Technical Account Manager/Service Delivery Manager for several types of Enterprise customers, ranging from international banks to European Institutions.  After more than 5 years, I decided to say goodbye to Microsoft and wanted to start something more individual and become an independent IT-consultant within the Cronos group of companies.

How did you find 45 Degrees ?

I very simply used my personal network to look for a company that could provide me both freedom and interesting projects.  As I have a lot of friends working for the Cronos Group, it was an obvious route to pursue to see what was available at the largest IT Group in Belgium.  Very quickly, 45 Degrees popped up as the best choice for someone with my type of experience and skills as they were looking for a mixture of IT Leadership, Program Management, Project Management and Cloud background.  It was a perfect fit…

Why did you join 45 Degrees ?

45 Degrees can offer me what I value most at this point in my career. As a senior person, I was looking for a real challenger where I can have the freedom to choose the projects I work on and decide wisely on which companies and projects I can have the biggest impact on.

What projects did you do so far ?

My first assignment at 45 Degrees consisted in helping a large enterprise to set up their cloud migration project and define the operational impact on existing applications.

At the same time, I ran an “application rationalization” exercise at the same customer, collaborating with another colleague from another Cronos company, evaluating the obsolescence of applications and conduct user-interviews to assess the applications estate. 

I also performed an internal Cronos project to start off the internal Project & Program Management Guild.

One of the most fun projects I ran so far was the setup of a community-app, where all Cronos-people working in the Microsoft eco-system can collaborate and interact.  A new experience that allowed me to learn a lot.  My current assignment is within the Vlaamse Overheid, where I manage projects in different type of environments.  Cloud or on-premise, infrastructure or development related… everything mixed.   A real challenge…

What do you like about working for 45 Degrees ?

I value the freedom I have to decide how I manage my work, without being forced to handle certain things in a certain way.  I also appreciate that 45 Degrees invests in my personal development and enables me to continue learning things in everything related to Project & Program Management, Microsoft and Cloud technologies.

What are you most proud of during your time @45 Degrees ?

That I was able to cope with the diversity of projects and assignments that were offered to me.  It requires a lot of agility but is extremely rewarding on both a professional and personal level.

What are your professional ambitions ?

To continue to have fun while working with colleagues on some challenging and ambitious assignments.  As an independent IT consultant, I really look forward to the years ahead at 45 Degrees.