Prize Wout Theuws / Prof. Leenaerts

BEMAS, the Belgian Maintenance Assocation, yearly organizes a competition for students in the final year of vocational and technical high school education, who write a thesis or  an internship report on the subject of maintenance or reliability

 

Manager en ingenieur

In Flanders, the competition is called Prize Wout Theuws where in Wallonia it runs under the name Prize Professeur Leenaerts. With this prize, BEMAS wants to inspire young people in technical education to start their career in maintenance, just like Wout Theuws and Professor Robert Leenaerts, with the ambition of further developing themselves into a real high-level industrial leader. 

The Prize Wout Theuws / Professeur Leenaerts puts students who stand out, together with their school, in the spotlight. Participating in this competition is an extra motivation to make a fascinating thesis about maintenance, or to make an excellent internship report about experiences in maintenance. For the winner it is also a nice reference to put on his or her CV.

There are also real prizes to be won: there is a cash prize for the finalists, and a special prize for the school that submits the winning thesis: an ultrasound machine from the SDT Ultrasound Solutions range for use during practical lessons.

All details about participation are available on the Dutch and French versions of this page (click in the upper right corner to switch languages).

Wout Theuws

What's in a name?

Wout Theuws, born in 1953, studied car mechanics and started his career in a garage at the age of 16. Through hard work, a great curiosity and evening studies, he was given more and more responsibilities. Thanks to his experience and practical knowledge, Wout Theuws was able to start at Fisher Price in 1975 as a toolldesigner and was promoted to plant engineering manager. In this capacity, he was responsible for the design and realisation of new production machines. He also set up the entire maintenance management system.

In September 1986, Wout Theuws joined Bosal in Oevel as Technical Engineering Manager. Just like in the early years, he continued to 'learn for life'. In 1991 he completed the "Master in Integrated Maintenance Management" course at the Hogeschool Gent. In 1996 he obtained a post HBO, Business administration and organisation, at the Hogeschool Eindhoven. At Bosal, Wout Theuws has since put high-performance and result-driven maintenance management on track, crowned by the title of Belgian Maintenance Manager of the Year in 2000. This prestigious award was conferred on him by BEMAS on the basis of his excellent dossier, his correct defence and the high score achieved during the on-site audit.

Prof Leenaerts

Professor Emeritus Leenaerts was the inspiration and first president of BEMAS.

Robert Leenaerts graduated as an engineer in Liège in 1959. He then worked as a development engineer at UCB in Ghent. He also became an assistant at the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve. At the age of 40, he concentrated more on maintenance. In 1978, seeing how things were going in Belgian companies, he organised a symposium where he brought together some 200 maintenance professionals. This was the first breakthrough for maintenance in Belgium and paved the way for the creation of BEMAS. On 20 March 1989, together with Jean-Pierre Schellekens, he founded BEMAS vzw-asbl. Professor Leenaerts was also the very first president of BEMAS. 

Professor Leenaerts passed away in October 2021 and BEMAS will continue to dedicate itself, as its founder did, to inspiring the Belgian community of maintenance and asset management professionals. To honour its founder, BEMAS has decided to launch this award to encourage technically trained young people to start their career in maintenance, just like the Professor, with the ambition to become a true industry leader at international level.  The Professor Leenaerts Award will be the first marker on the CV of the winning student.

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