March 27, 2024
Today at
08:10
Almost a year after the resignation of the previous CEO, the listed apartment rental company appoints a successor: financial director Preben Bruggeman.
Home Invest Belgium
has a CEO again after a long wait. The board of directors has appointed financial director Preben Bruggeman (39) as CEO. The listed apartment rental company reported this in a press release on Wednesday morning.
Bruggeman has been working at Home Invest Belgium since 2019. Previously, the commercial engineer was financial director at the listed shop rental company QRF. He started his career as a real estate analyst at the bank Degroof Petercam.
After Janssens’ departure, Bruggeman and legal director Ingrid Quinet temporarily took over the management. But the search for a new CEO did not seem to be going smoothly. Chairman Lieven Van Overstraeten liked to indicate that he did not consider the replacement urgent. According to him, the executive committee was performing extremely well without a CEO.
We needed the right CEO. That has been an evolutionary process.
Lieven Van Overstraeten
Chairman Home Invest Belgium
Ultimately, Home Invest Belgium appoints its financial director as CEO. The choice was obvious. Bruggeman has a good reputation and enjoys the confidence of the reference shareholder, the Van Overstraeten family (29.5%). But Bruggeman, with his financial profile, had no interest in the CEO post, it was always said.
The financial expert has now come around. “A lot has happened in one year,” he says. ‘We achieved very good results with the team in 2023 (higher earnings per share, but a net loss of 14 million euros, ed.) and built a well-oiled machine. That made me look forward to it more and more.’
The reputation of the Van Overstraeten family, which likes to get involved in operational policy, does not deter Bruggeman. ‘I have been with Home Invest Belgium for five years. I work for all shareholders. I know the family: no surprises. We work well together.’
Van Overstraeten calls Bruggeman the suitable person to lead Home Invest Belgium in a changed landscape. ‘We needed the right CEO. That has been an evolutionary process. Preben doesn’t take any risks. He spent twelve months thinking everything through to create the perfect conditions in which he has the least chance of failure. Our job as entrepreneurs is not to take risks, but to eliminate risks.’
