Roularta launches Roularta Digital hub and Innovation Lab and appoints Stefan Seghers as Chief Digital Officer

Stefan Seghers (39) will become Chief Digital Officer (CDO) of Roularta Media Group (RMG) from 3 September 2018. He has a degree in commercial engineering (KU Leuven) and started his career as financial controller at Daikin Europe . He then went to work at Adecco as department head of business analysis and later at Amazon, where he first worked at Amazon France and later as project manager  for the launch of Amazon Spain and Amazon Italy.  He subsequently strengthened the collaboration between Alpro and the e-commerce teams of various European supermarkets. In recent years he was active at Storesquare, the e-commerce platform for SMEs in which Roularta is participating for 65%.

As CDO, Stefan Seghers will lead the Roularta Digital hub that Roularta Media Group is establishing today. Stefan will also be a member of the Management Team and report to CEO Xavier Bouckaert.
 
Roularta Digital hub will accelerate digitisation at RMG. With its extensive digital expertise, the division will also support the various business units in their digital transformation.
 
Roularta Digital hub consists of three units:
 
Data & New Business
This department will handle the analysis and enrichment of data for the advertising market and the readership market. Furthermore, the department will be responsible for implementing new revenue models and the deployment of new technologies at RMG. Mark Daemen (45) will lead the unit. He started his career in the research department of Sanoma and later became account manager and brand manager at De Persgroep. During the last twelve years he has held various positions at Mediahuis, including most recently: Director Digital & Product Development.
 
Web/app development & digital marketing
This unit is responsible for the web/app development of digital platforms with a focus on user experience. In addition, the unit manages traffic to all RMG platforms and offers extensive expertise in the areas of SEO, SEA, social media and affiliate marketing. The department will be led by William De Nolf (41), who until today was director of New Media at RMG.
 
E-commerce
This department is responsible for operating the Storesquare e-commerce platform, but also for the development and support of e-commerce activities associated with the media brands of RMG (Weekend, Libelle/Femmes d’Aujourd’hui, Flair, Feeling/Gaël, She Deals,…). Frederik Wybo (42) will lead this unit. He succeeds Stefan Seghers in this position. For the past seven years, Frederik has been active as IT and e-commerce manager at Schoenen Torfs.
 

In line with this elan, RMG is also establishing an Innovation Lab to investigate new technologies, tools, software and start-ups, and to evaluate their added value for RMG. To this end, the Innovation Lab will also be concluding partnerships with universities and colleges. The aim is to enable innovation at an early stage and increase operational efficiency at RMG. The Innovation Lab will be led full-time by Erwin Danis (56), who has been with Roularta for more than 30 years, mainly as director of Premedia.
 
As a result of these changes, RMG is also making a change at group level. Production – premedia and printing – will fall under the same management. Premedia is again being brought under the print shop, under the direction of William Metsu.
 
RMG aims with this new structure to accelerate the digital growth of all activities and respond alertly to innovative applications.