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Awards
Congratulations to our winner of 2025
L&D Project of the year
Sweco
As Europe’s leading architecture and engineering consultancy, Sweco is committed to designing tomorrow’s sustainable communities and cities. Our Project Management enhancement initiative addresses increasing project complexity through a blend of classroom expertise and cutting-edge AI support. Our comprehensive training program for engineers, consultants, and managers combines soft skills like commercial awareness and conflict management with functional training in project management and financial leadership. Critically, our seasoned Project Managers played a pivotal role in designing and delivering these programs, ensuring they address real-world challenges. By co-facilitating sessions and sharing practical insights, they enriched the learning experience and provided actionable knowledge. Innovatively, we integrated AI technology via SwecoGPT, capturing training transcripts and developing concise learning nuggets alongside an AI assistant for personalized on-the-job support. Launched with strong executive sponsorship in Q2 2025, this initiative fosters continuous learning, significantly improving efficiency and client satisfaction. Executive leadership involvement and extensive input from Project Managers underscore our commitment to this initiative. With aspirations to evolve this program into a rolling effort, we aim to measure long-term impact through elevated project efficiency and client contentment. Sweco’s forward-thinking training program prepares employees for future complexities, showcasing our dedication to sustainability and excellence.
About the awards
LearnTech believes technology is a driving force in a rapidly changing world of work. It will be instrumental in designing more efficient processes, creating an engaging employee and learning experience and enable better decision making. The L&D award will go to a Benelux L&D team that concluded a strong learning project in 2024-2025.
The selection process
- Nomination Phase: Fill in the application form. Deadline applications: Monday, June 15, 2025, 23:59h.
- The candidates that match the criteria will be evaluated by the jury.
- The Jury selects the candidates. These candidates will be published on the website.
- Public voting will be possible from June 25 till August 31, 2025.
- Public voting ends August 31, 2025, 23:59h.
- Two laureates will be selected through public voting & jury expert opinions (40%-60%).
- Jury meeting September 5, 2025. The laureates convince the jury for one last time.
- Presentation of the L&D award @ the gala dinner on October 10, 2025.
The jury
Nicholas De Poorter
Nicholas De Poorter is an investor at Strada Partners, a Belgian private equity firm focused on Software, Business Services, and Healthcare. Within the firm, he is responsible for Invincible Software Holdings (ISH), a platform of founder-led B2B SaaS companies built in partnership with two experienced software entrepreneurs who lead day-to-day operations across the group.
Nicholas also serves as Head of M&A at ISH, where he is responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and executing acquisitions from end to end. His focus lies in building a strong and coherent portfolio of independent software businesses with long-term growth potential.
To date, he has led five acquisitions in the HRtech space, specifically in recruitment and people management software. This experience has provided him with deep insight into the technologies and business models that are redefining the future of work.
Before joining Strada in 2023, Nicholas held M&A roles at PwC, Cargill (Food & AgTech), and Kraken (Crypto). He holds a Master’s degree in Business Engineering from KU Leuven.
Nicholas De Poorter
Strada Partners
Investment Manager Strada Partners + Jury President
Ann Guinée
Ann Guinée
Ann has a strong connection with the world of digitisation, in all layers of the organisation. At Beltug, Ann is responsible for the communication with the members and facilitates many of the member-events on various topics.
This allows her to be in direct conversation with the Belgian ICT business users and gain insights on their drive and on the challenges they face.
Her energy boosts when she can talk to Belgian companies, listen to their stories and hear about their priorities.
Ann Guinée
Communication Manager Beltug
Communication Manager Beltug
Kristof Van der Stadt
Kristof Van der Stadt
Kristof Van der Stadt is an experienced journalist with a strong technical background in computers and consumer electronics. His passion for information and communication technology has driven him to become a respected figure in the industry. With a focus on telecoms, enterprise computing, and the impact of social media on business, Kristof’s expertise allows him to analyze and report on complex subjects with clarity and depth. He has contributed to both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) magazines, sharpening his skills in print and online journalism. Known for his comprehensive understanding of the tech landscape, Kristof combines his technical knowledge with a talent for explaining intricate concepts to a wide audience.
Kristof Van der Stadt
Editor in Chief DataNews
Editor in Chief DataNews
Hilde Haems
Hilde Haems
A seasoned HR professional with 37 years of experience on the counter. In addition to HR, the rubric includes a passion for business and innovation. Currently working at Ackermans & van Haaren. Her career started at ING, and has built up further at Allen & Overy, RGF staffing and SD Worx.
Hilde Haems
Chief Human Capital Officer Ackermans & van Haaren
Chief Human Capital Officer Ackermans & van Haaren
Kathleen Vangronsvelt
Kathleen Vangronsvelt
Kathleen combines a broad business experience as HR Professional (DHL Aviation, AB Inbev, H.Essers, Belfius) with academic skills (PhD in Business Economics “Values at work” – KU Leuven). Her work was published in both top-ranked academic and practitioners’ journals and presented at national and international conferences. She taught at Rotterdam School of Management, IESEG Paris and – up until today – Antwerp Management School.
The combination of business and academia enables her to translate a wealth of scientific knowledge into hands-on insights and workable solutions. Her domain of expertise focuses on realizing individuals’ potential in a work context and spans topics such as values and authenticity at work, leadership, resilience and well-being, enabling diversity in teams and strategic HRM.
Her background in psychology (Master – KU Leuven) and mediation (Post Graduate – KU Leuven) empowers her to optimize the learning experience for a group, and to understand the deeper motivations and processes behind some questions and events.
Kathleen Vangronsvelt
Professor Organizational Behavior & HRM Antwerp Management School
Professor Organizational Behavior & HRM Antwerp Management School