Working across a variety of different markets such as materials science, electronics, life sciences, natural resources, and industrial manufacturing, FEI is a pioneer organisation dedicated to the pursuit of meaningful answers to the most complex research challenges. The company is solutions-driven and committed to help providing answers to the daunting questions that drive its customers.
Hein Gijsbers, Senior Vice President of Global Operations, brings a wealth of global experience in numerous industries that is vital to the ongoing work FEI does. My career in the industry started many years ago in R&D. Then I worked in several activities around manufacturing and sorting logistics. I worked for several years in high-volume electronics, so I understand what its like producing millions per year. I then left and worked in Japan and Belgium.
For the last 10 years before I started working with FEI, I was with Philips Healthcare, responsible for global operations of MRI, meaning factory sourcing, logistics, and customer service. During the last stage of that assignment, I was Senior VP for commercial operations, responsible for optimising the field, and there were all kinds of challenges around fulfilment, logistical alignment, back-office structures, and so I restructured those activities. Three years ago, I joined FEI in my current role.
As FEI is a major international corporation, Hein recognises the importance of thinking and working like a global company. We are a global player, which means we have to start acting globally as one company, so I think transforming global operations means fulfilling our orders consistently with the right quality. In my opinion, that was one of the challenges for us. FEI has been growing so fast, so another big challenge that we had to face was supply chain, be it in industrial capacity or attracting enough talent for the company. In a broader sense that also meant keeping consistency and consistently supplying to our customers.