Silke Zschweigert stepped into the role of CEO at Jonckers effective July 2020. Zschweigert joined Jonckers as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) in the fall of 2019, along with former SDL colleague Dominic Kinnon.
Zschweigert takes the reins from Geo Janssens, who led the Belgium-based language service provider (LSP) for four years and has now decided to take on “a strategic, executive role in developing technology solutions for Key Accounts,” Zschweigert told Slator.
Janssens’ new title is EVP Strategic Accounts. According to Zschweigert, he was instrumental in creating the Jonckers TMS platform, WordsOnline, and “will continue his 17 + years at Jonckers working where he feels happiest: developing customer experience and successfully growing customers.”
Jonckers’ new CEO described WordsOnline as a major driver of the company’s future development, extolling the platform’s scalability and efficiency during a recently completed project for an online retail marketplace: “They needed 4 million words published in a new language. We were able to deliver within 8 weeks what would have normally taken them 6–8 months.”
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Highlighting the cost-savings and quality improvements offered by WordsOnline, Zschweigert said their e-commerce client was able to save “50% on the cost of this project” and “the quality threshold, which was set at 95%, was exceeded and completed at 97%.”
On her biggest achievement as CRO, Zschweigert said it had to do with WordsOnline — increasing volumes, sustaining growth through the Covid-19 pandemic, and developing the future vision.
Zschweigert pointed to “a well-diversified customer base” as having helped mitigate the effects of the global business slowdown, and the fact that Jonckers operates mainly in retail/e-commerce and IT/software, industries that in many cases saw actual growth.
“We are cautiously optimistic for the foreseeable future”
Asked to comment on 2019 revenues and projections for 2020, the CEO replied, “We currently don’t wish to publish our revenues, but I am happy to speak about trends.”
According to Zschweigert, “We have seen a strong uptake in demand for our solutions, particularly for e-commerce and for video solutions. For the first half of the year, we are seeing [revenue] growth, year-on-year, of about 14%. We see that many of our customers are still hesitant about forecasting volumes, which is very understandable in the given climate, but we are cautiously optimistic for the foreseeable future.”
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She said Jonckers employees worldwide — all 167 in-house employees in 10 countries — were able to start working remotely from day one. Zschweigert added, “In some locations, many employees chose to go back into the office, but there is no such thing as a global ‘back to the office’ policy, as each situation is different and needs local decision-making. Remote working has become the new norm and so a flexible working model combined with our unlimited holiday scheme allows us to attract and retain the best talent.”
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Asked to comment on her interaction with the Jonckers board and its shareholders, Zschweigert replied that it “has been very positive from the beginning.”
“There is no such thing as a global ‘back to the office’ policy, as each situation is different and needs local decision-making”
Zschweigert told Slator that Jonckers is privately-owned and its shareholders come from a range of sectors, including B2C and legal. She said, “Their longevity as shareholders in the business demonstrates their commitment to the future success of the business.”
She added that the board and shareholders “always make themselves available and are excellent sparring partners. Our visions are completely aligned and I look forward to working with them as CEO delivering on the vision.”
Upon Zschweigert’s promotion to CEO, the Jonckers executive team now comprises the following:
Silke Zschweigert – CEO
Dominic Kinnon – Chief Delivery Officer
Geo Janssens – EVP Strategic Accounts
Jack Wang – Chief Technology Officer
Marc Jonckers – Founder and Chief Strategy Officer
And on the management team are
Chiara Raimondo – Chief Customer Officer
Martin Vesely – VP Technical services
Nicola Meinders – Global Marketing Manager
Igor Kupecek – VP of Quality and Processes
Melissa Kane – VP of Community Management
Florent Bertin – Director InfoSec
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