A number of shifts are taking place in the Forum Estates executive committee at the beginning of 2020. After ten years of hard work building Forum Estates into a supermarket fund, since the end of this year with the GVBF (or REIT) status, Wouter Dewulf and Philippe Donche have decided to step aside as respectively CEO and CFO. The day-to-day running of Forum Estates during a period of rapid expansion was difficult for Wouter to continue to combine with his university career. Now that Forum Estates has become a GVBF, and the legal structure around it has been created, this seemed to be the perfect moment for Philippe to leave room for a CFO who list Forum Estates in the coming years to the stock exchange as a GVV (or RREC) and after the IPO in the financial world.
Stefan De Bock, who has been a director for several years and has been active as COO at Forum Estates since July 2019, was appointed CEO by the Board of Directors. The strategy and the ‘DNA’ of the fund become very important in the conversion to GVBF (or RREC). Wouter will work part-time at Forum Estates and will therefore focus as CSO (Chief Strategy Officer) on refining strategy, business development and external communication with the stakeholders. An external CFO is being sought to replace Philippe in the coming months. Continuity is of course ensured with these shifts. Philippe and Wouter will also remain on the Board of Directors.
The entire Board of Directors would like to thank Philippe et Wouter warmly for the excellent track record of the past 10 years. In addition, the BoD is convinced that a further expansion of Forum Estates into a listed GVBF or RREC can certainly be continued with these changes and wishes Stefan, Philippe and Wouter all the best success with their new challenges.