My name is Ben Broeckx. My professional life has been about black boxes and what is inside of them, hence the title of the blog.

Business processes and personal productivity processes are like black boxes. I usually start out looking at them, examining them from the outside. Then I shake them a bit, to see whether anything happens. I open them, look at how their internal structure is built. Eventually, I see whether they work as they should and are intended to, and where possible, I try to improve them.

As both an internal auditor (my day job), a teacher (my vacation job) and a blogger (my evening job) I have the wonderful job of examining as many black boxes as I can.

Current occupation

  • Chief Audit Executive BTC/CTB - Belgian Development Agency
  • Lecturer at Solvay Brussels School delivering in-company trainings on risk management and cost benefit analysis
  • Partner CasMo BVBA - Training, advice and implementation support in risk management, ERM and internal audit

Certifications

  • 1999 - Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) - Institute of Internal Auditors
  • 2013 - Certification in Risk Management Assurance (CRMA) - Institute of Internal Auditors

Professional achievements

  • Co-authored MobiRisk, the integrated risk management methodology which was awarded the 2009 European Strategic Risk Award as best risk management methodology for the public sector in Europe
  • Self-published several articles on new systems of risk management at different topical blogs. Recently redacted and curated most of these articles on http://www.exploringtheblackbox.net

Relevant past employment

  • 2008 - 2011: director responsible for risk management, internal control development and internal audit in the public sector for KPMG Advisory Belgium;
  • 2007 - 2009: Head of consulting (Client Principal) of IMS Health’s Belgian strategic consulting practice;
  • 2002 - 2007: Senior manager at Deloitte Enterprise Risk Services, responsible for the European and Belgian public sector projects in risk and reengineering;
  • 1997 - 2002: Manager and senior auditor at Andersen Risk Consulting, charged with the development of Belgian public sector accounts
  • 1995 - 1997: External auditor at Arthur Andersen

Relevant past projects

  • Implementation of MobiRisk integrated risk management methodology in the Belgian federal government services Mobility & Transportation, Personnel & Organization (strategic level) and Health, Food Safety & Environment;
  • Responsible for multiple projects for risk assessment and management at the strategic and operational level for the Flemish regional government
  • Responsible for the coordination and day-to-day management of the Belgian Administrative Simplification Agency’s “measurement bureau”, charged with measuring the administrative burden (2008 - 2011)
  • Project manager responsible for the management of four reengineering projects part of the Belgian Copernicus project (large scale reengineering exercise for the Belgian federal administrations)
  • Responsible for the build of risk based internal audit departments at the Belgian federal government service Mobility & Transportation and the Flemish Water Company. Responsible for assistance in building the risk based internal audit capability for the Belgian federal government service Health, Food Safety & Environment;
  • Responsible for the build of risk based internal control systems for the Flemish State Education schools (implementation covering about 500 individual schools)

Personalia

  • Born in Turnhout, Belgium on February 16th, 1970
  • Happily married, 2 children

What I think is true

"Those who are willing to understand, don't need an explanation when they see.

Those who need an explanation after having seen, do not yet understand."