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Welcome to CIONET Belgium

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Upcoming Events

 
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Belgium 9-6-26 Invitation Only Virtual english

From Dashboards to Decisions: Restoring alignment, ownership, and confidence in enterprise reporting

Data availability keeps growing, but decision-making often feels slower. Every function builds its own dashboards, metrics multiply, and reports begin to contradict each other. What was meant to improve transparency now creates confusion. The problem is not access to data but alignment on interpretation. When information becomes noise, confidence in reporting collapses. People hesitate to act, functions challenge each other’s numbers, and trust in analytics erodes. The challenge lies in restoring clarity: deciding which metrics matter, who owns them, and how reporting connects back to action. Let’s discuss how to simplify information flows, define consistent metrics, and reconnect dashboards with decision-making. How ownership, cadence, and shared understanding bring alignment back. A closed conversation on rebuilding confidence in data, where clarity replaces overload and information once again supports action.

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Belgium 10-6-26 Invitation Only Physical english

Man Overboard: A VIP Evening on the Human and Digital Anatomy of a Crisis

In the middle of the night, 200 miles from the coast, the alarm sounds. The "Man Overboard" cry isn't just about a person in the water; it’s the ultimate test of a crew’s preparation, psychological grit, and split-second communication. For the modern European CIO, the "Man Overboard" moment happens in the data centre, the boardroom, or the headlines. When the system fails, the pressure doesn't just sit on the servers; it sits on you. Join CIONET for an exclusive VIP evening at the coast, a deep dive into the Human and Digital Anatomy of a Crisis. We will explore why some leaders thrive under the crushing weight of a "Black Swan" event while others capsize, and how data serves as the steady keel that keeps the ship upright. 

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Belgium 12-6-26 Invitation Only Physical english

AI Governance at Scale: Defining boundaries, ownership, and accountability for AI at scale

AI started small: a few pilots, some dashboards, a couple of chatbots. But then it spread, quickly. Now every department wants a model, every vendor adds “AI-powered” to their pitch, and every regulator is asking about risk and transparency. Governance suddenly went from a nice idea to a full-time job. Scaling governance is harder than launching AI. Policies look great on slides, but in practice, ownership blurs and enforcement stalls. Central control slows things down, while local freedom invites risk. Everyone agrees AI should be safe and ethical, but no one agrees on who signs off when something goes wrong, all leading to AIs living as permanent PoCs. So how do you scale oversight without creating bureaucracy? How do you distribute responsibility between IT, business, and compliance? And what controls actually hold up when AI keeps changing after deployment? Let’s explore how organisations make governance part of daily operations, not an afterthought. A closed conversation for those trying to keep AI credible, compliant, and under control while it spreads across the enterprise.

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Upcoming TRIBE Events

 
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June 9, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Virtual english

From Dashboards to Decisions: Restoring alignment, ownership, and confidence in enterprise reporting

Data availability keeps growing, but decision-making often feels slower. Every function builds its own dashboards, metrics multiply, and reports begin to contradict each other. What was meant to improve transparency now creates confusion. The problem is not access to data but alignment on interpretation.

Read More
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June 12, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

AI Governance at Scale: Defining boundaries, ownership, and accountability for AI at scale

AI started small: a few pilots, some dashboards, a couple of chatbots. But then it spread, quickly. Now every department wants a model, every vendor adds “AI-powered” to their pitch, and every regulator is asking about risk and transparency. Governance suddenly went from a nice idea to a full-time job.

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June 18, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

Building the Event-Driven Enterprise: Managing flow, context, and control in event-driven systems

Becoming event-driven sounds like the logical next step: real-time visibility, faster response, tighter integration. The promise is appealing, no? But turning that vision into reality is another story. Where do you start, with technology, operating model, or mindset?

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CIONET Partner Updates

CIONET Partner Updates

Recent Cases

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Exscientia Uses Generative AI to Reimagine Drug Discovery

Exscientia uses generative artificial intelligence (AI) throughout the design-make-test-learn (DMTL) cycle to discover new therapies for patients quickly and relatively inexpensively.

“Using AWS, we reduce bottlenecks and accelerate the pipeline.”

David Hallett
Interim CEO and Chief Scientific Officer, Exscientia

 
 
 

 

 

Exscientia uses generative artificial intelligence (AI) throughout the design-make-test-learn (DMTL) cycle to discover new therapies for patients quickly and relatively inexpensively. Conventional drug discovery methods can take up to 15 years and cost over 2 billion dollars, with an average failure rate of 90–96 percent because scientists hunt for specific drug candidates among 1060 bioavailable small molecules.

Built on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Exscientia’s innovative DMTL solution incorporates in silico design—using generative AI algorithms to design compounds in the cloud—and automated robots that make drug candidates in a lab. “We use generative AI to solve for efficiency and effectiveness,” says David Hallett, Exscientia’s interim CEO and chief scientific officer. “By predicting the molecular features of a safe and effective drug in silico, we minimize the number of costly experiments. Our platform, built in collaboration with the AWS team, is optimized for speed. We can repeat many DMTL learning loops, improving our drug candidates with every iteration.”

 

Using Generative AI for More Efficient Drug Discovery at Reduced Cost

Working backward from patient needs, Exscientia defines precise target product profiles (TPPs) that specify the complex combination of properties required by a well-tolerated and effective medicine. AI engineers design algorithms that generate panels of potential drug candidates to meet the TPPs. Active learning algorithms help expert designers to select a short list of drug candidates to synthesize in the lab, because they either move the TPPs forward or refine the models for future DMTL cycles.

Exscientia’s algorithms are trained on publicly available pharmacology data and proprietary in-house data generated from patient tissue samples, genomics, single-cell transcriptomics, and medical literature. By encoding data throughout the process and analyzing experimental results and previous design cycles, Exscientia can optimize upcoming design cycles and promote compound designs that are physically synthesizable. Using this synthesis-aware, iterative approach built on AWS, Exscientia makes 10 times fewer compounds than the industry average. “The idea is to iron out chemical liabilities to make safer and more effective drug candidates before we ever test them in patients,” says Hallett.

Exscientia has accelerated drug design by up to 70 percent while decreasing capital cost by 80 percent, compared with industry benchmarks. Using generative AI with other tools, Exscientia not only developed better drug candidates faster but also identified the right drug combinations to trial with patients in the clinic.

 

Cutting Time and Costs Using Automated Robotics to Make Better Medicines

Exscientia has incorporated cutting-edge chemistry synthesis and biology assay lab equipment with automation robots to avoid manual handling of lab equipment. Thus, its lab—orchestrated by AWS microservices—can operate 24/7 with minimal human supervision, “When our designs are ready, we can push a button, and within a few days, the robots are making the drug,” says Hallett. Maintaining extremely high levels of security and comprehensive disaster recovery, Exscientia will use this automated robotic capability to reduce the make and test timelines resulting from traditional offshore research contracts used across the industry.

As the company closes the loop with its robotic automation lab, it expects further productivity improvements. Data generated in the lab improves algorithmic predictions and speeds up DMTL cycles.

 

Introducing AI-Designed Molecules into Clinical Trials

Six molecules that Exscientia designed using AI have entered clinical trials. “Using AWS, we reduce bottlenecks and accelerate the pipeline,” says Hallett. “By switching on this highly integrated and automated DMTL loop, we can make drug candidates faster and more cost-effective.”

Technologies

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Partners

CIONET Circles

CIONET Business Circles

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Cyber Circle

CIONET’s Cyber Circle: a new three-event programme exclusively focusing on the most urgent, complex, and high-impact challenges in cybersecurity today. Launched in 2026, this initiative brings together CISOs, CIOs, and senior IT executives with a strong interest in cybersecurity for three curated gatherings each year. As part of CIONET’s trusted executive community, the Cyber Circle provides a confidential, peer-driven environment to exchange insights, share real-world experiences, and address evolving cyber threats. Each session is designed to foster strategic dialogue, strengthen resilience, and elevate cybersecurity as a core driver of business value.

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Telenet Business Leadership Circle

The Telenet Business Leadership Circle powered by CIONET, offers a platform where IT executives and thought leaders can meet to inspire each other and share best practices. We want to be a facilitator who helps you optimise the performance of your IT function and your business by embracing the endless opportunities that digital change brings.

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Les Rencontres

Découvrez la dynamique du leadership numérique aux Rencontres de CIONET, le programme francophone exclusif de CIONET pour les leaders numériques en Belgique, rendu possible grâce au soutien et à l'engagement de nos partenaires de programme : Deloitte, Denodo et Red Hat. Rejoignez trois événements inspirants par an à Liège, Namur et en Brabant Wallon, où des CIOs et des experts numériques francophones de premier plan partagent leurs perspectives et expériences sur des thèmes d'affaires et de IT actuels. Laissez-vous inspirer et apprenez des meilleurs du secteur lors de sessions captivantes conçues spécialement pour soutenir et enrichir votre rôle en tant que CIO pair. Ne manquez pas cette opportunité de faire partie d'un réseau exceptionnel d'innovateurs numériques !

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Female Leadership Circle

CIONET is committed to highlighting and celebrating female role models in IT, Tech & Digital, creating a leadership programme that empowers and elevates women within the tech industry. This initiative is dedicated to showcasing the achievements and successes of leading women, fostering an environment where female role models are recognised, and their contributions can ignite progress and inspire the next generation of women in IT. Our mission is to shine the spotlight a little brighter on female role models in IT, Tech & Digital, and to empower each other through this inner network community.

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Check out our latest news

Testimonials

Geert Goethals
Geert Goethals
CIO
Sibelga
Bahadir Samli
Bahadir Samli
CIO
ING Belgique
2-Feb-29-2024-11-35-00-9309-AM
Bart Kerkhofs
Director Digital Technology
Tata Steel Nederland
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Michał Paprocki
Group CIO
Euroclear
1-Feb-29-2024-11-34-59-8990-AM
Manfred Boudreaux-Dehmer
Chief Information Officer
NATO
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Annick Faes
Vice President IT and CIO Medical Devices EMEA
Johnson & Johnson
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Piet De Ceuleners
Global IT Director
Melexis
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Stef Schampaert
Country Managing Director BeLux
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Kevin Ledegen
Group IT director
SDWorx
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Chief Digital & Information Officer
Bekaert
Thomas Kessler
Thomas Kessler
Partner | CIO Programme Leader
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Emmanuel Gob
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CIO
DPD
pascal pauwels
Pascal Pauwels
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Koen Segers
Managing Director Belgium and Luxembourg
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benoit dewaele
Benoît Dewaele
Group IT Director
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Dirk Deridder-1
Dirk Deridder
CTO - Technology Services & Practices
SMALS
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Koen Vandaele
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Liesbet D'hoker
Managing Director
Kyndryl BeLux
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Digitaal Vlaanderen
Jack Hamande
Jack Hamande
Director General Digital Transformation
Federale Overheidsdienst Beleid en Ondersteuning
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Tom Tomczak
Chief Commercial Officer (CCO)
NRB
an swalens
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Head Of IT (CIO)
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Chief Technology & Transformation Officer
Krëfel
CIONET Belgium - Advisory Board Member - Koen Van Loo
Koen Van Loo
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Steven De Haes
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CIO
Carrefour
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Christel Plessers
Head of IT European Markets
Mercedes-Benz Europe
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Baudouin Corlùy
Chief Market Development Officer
LCL Data Centers
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VP Marketing
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DHL
Jeroen Verbruggen
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Proximus
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Team

Luc Hendrikx
Luc Hendrikx
Partner - CEO
Inès De Bien
Inès De Bien
Partner - CCO
1-Feb-08-2022-10-22-08-68-AM
Daniel Eycken
Partner - COO
Hendrik Deckers
Hendrik Deckers
Partner - Founder
foto Herman
Herman Roelandts
Tribe Master
Joseph Antoun
Joseph Antoun
Senior Programme Director
1-Dec-16-2021-02-15-57-02-PM
Eman De Sutter
Programme Manager
4-Feb-08-2022-10-22-09-03-AM
Shelly Deracourt
Programme Manager
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Charlotte Coen
Partner Success Manager
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Ivana Bradvica
Programme Manager
Vlera Berishaa (1)
Vlera Berisha
Community Manager
Stanislav Mosan
Stanislav Mosan
Financial Director

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