David Wintershoven is an industrial and civil electromechanical engineer and his career has been anything but run-of-the-mill. Smilingly jovial, he is fluent in four languages. He has also trained in aircraft mechanics. And he works in special building techniques.
Currently posted with Engie Cofely by Syngenia as a Project Manager, he emphasises the richness of a professional pathway that has ranged from renewable energy and applied research to the construction sector.
- What brought you to Engie Cofely via Syngenia?
Right from the outset of my career, I took an interest in renewable energy. That was why, after my initial experience in aeronautics, I joined an consultancy office as an industrial and building engineer. That put me in touch with technical systems that were new to me, such as heat pumps and solar panels. Keen to move beyond the conceptual aspects of that profession, I subsequently joined a general construction company. There, I handled both financial and technical matters. But what with a Colombian mother, a father with Dutch-Belgian roots and having grown up in Belgium, I felt my career needed an international side to it. So I contacted Syngenia for a first consultancy mission with Tractebel on a project in the Middle East. After this, I went on to a mission that lasted for several months in an engineering office before starting, one year ago, my current mission with Engie Cofely, who had been looking for a profile like mine.
- This multidisciplinary approach seems to appeal to you…
It certainly does. I like to keep up the “generalist plus in-depth knowledge” side of my profile. It gives me a grasp of various techniques. I like the balance it strikes between the occupations of designer consultant, general entrepreneur and installer. They all have the same objectives. Project management helps me to upgrade my competences through contact with various different technologies. Over the past year that I’ve spent with Engie Cofely, I’ve also developed my knowledge of renovating professional buildings, as well as of computer room maintenance and data centres.
- And in the midst of all that, what does Syngenia mean to you?
Besides the practical aspects, Syngenia enables me to join in an enterprise culture that maintains this multidisciplinary approach, among other things by organising joint activities with the other consultants, who come from different backgrounds. Syngenia puts a lot of effort into that, and I appreciate it. Also, Syngenia is an excellent way of finding the right associates when a project calls for certain technical profiles.
