Wouter Michiels

Commercial & Business Development at Air Liquide

Antwerp, Flemish Region, Belgium

About

I am focused on overall organizational performance and business profitability. Prior to joining Air Liquide I have worked 2.5 years with McKinsey as a consultant in their Operations Practice and 9 years with ExxonMobil in refinery operations, with leadership positions in engineering and supply chain. I am passionate about capability building, elevating individuals & teams to a higher performance and hereby creating business impact.

Experience

  • Air Liquide (Full-time · 5 yrs 10 mos)
    • Commercial Director
      Sep 2025 - Present · 10 mos

      Leading the team of commercial and business development managers for our Large Industries business line in Belgium & The Netherlands.

    • Performance Director
      Feb 2024 - Dec 2025 · 1 yr 11 mos

      Transversal role reporting directly to the General Manager of Air Liquide Benelux Large Industries. Focus on business performance and profitability.

    • Head of Energy Management - NEC Cluster
      Sep 2020 - Mar 2024 · 3 yrs 7 mos

      Our team is responsible for developing and operationalizing the energy strategy for Air Liquide's Northern Europe and CIS countries (NEC) cluster. We are at the core of driving the group's long term competitiveness while supporting progress towards our climate objectives.

  • Consultant at McKinsey & Company
    May 2018 - Sep 2020 · 2 yrs 5 mos

    As a consultant in the McKinsey's Operations Practice I focused on manufacturing and service operations, and have primarily served clients in the chemical (petro & bio), pharma and nutrition industry. Typical projects included operational excellence (e.g. lean management) and digital & analytics to improve productivity, always with a strong focus on building client's capabilities for sustained impact.

  • ExxonMobil (8 yrs 7 mos)
    • Energy Leader
      Mar 2015 - Mar 2018 · 3 yrs 1 mo

      • Supervising 2 engineers responsible for energy management of the refinery (on top of Process Control Group Lead role). • Achieved best ever Energy Efficiency (EII) performance in 2015 and sustained this performance in 2016 and 2017. • Ensured compliance with Flemish Government Energy Agreement. • Led a 20 people team during a two week energy audit and developed an Energy Plan which allows the refinery to reduce its primary energy consumption by 2021. • Managed external relations in a high tension atmosphere through calm, focused & confident attitude.

    • Process Control Group Lead
      Apr 2014 - Mar 2018 · 4 yrs

      • Supervising 5 engineers responsible for Process Control and Optimization. Focus on safety, people development & project management. • Ensured long term continuity and knowledge retention by development & implementation of staffing plan. Increased personal development opportunities of people involved. • Led the team to successful implementation of 4 large projects resulting in +- 10 M$/yr margin improvement while ensuring continued support to base operations.

    • Process Design & Safety Coordinator (ad interim)
      Dec 2014 - May 2015 · 6 mos

      • Took up additional role of supervising 3 engineers & 4 engineering contractors following resignation of a colleague. • Effectively combined this role with base role and managed increased workload through application of work efficiency methods & productivity tools. • Ensured project planning for 2015 HAZOPs and improved productivity & output quality of engineering contractors through more intensive follow-up.

  • Academic Council Catholic University Leuven at LOKO
    2008 - 2009 · 1 yr

    Acted as student representative for the total sciences and engineering students group (+- 5000 students) in the Academic Council of the university: one of the three students in the highest decision taking council of a 35.000 student university. This council consists of all deans and the (vice-) rectors and debated about the academic policy of the university.

  • R&D Internship at University of Maribor
    Aug 2008 - Aug 2008 · 1 mo

    Research on chemical kinetics of synthesis reactions, both experimental as computational (AspenPlus) at the University of Maribor, Slovenia.