New adds to Ebusco’s management with Bob Fleuren and Will Bierens

Dutch manufacturer Ebusco announces that at the beginning of April Bob Fleuren joined the management board of Ebusco as COO/Head of Programmes (PMO). From 1 May the board will be further strengthened by Will Bierens, who will perform the role of Chief Performance Officer (CPO).

«Ebusco’s strong growth in the last few years is only a foretaste of what is to come. In order to be able to realise its ambitions in full, Ebusco makes targeted investments in people. People with ample experience of the business and/or specific know-how relating to new applications within the industry. With Bob Fleuren Ebusco has acquired both», the company says. Bob will manage the Production and Project Management departments.

Bob Fleuren in Ebusco, from the aerospace industry

With the innovative Ebusco 3.0, Ebusco is making the move to buses from lightweight composites, a technology from the aerospace industry. The industry in which Bob Fleuren earned his spurs in various roles with the Dutch Royal Air Force and Fokker among others. Bob Fleuren has been involved in the development of Ebusco’s lightweight composite bodies for quite some time.

After graduating from the Royal Military Academy, Bob Fleuren started his career as a Technical Officer in the Royal Dutch Air Force. During the 11 years he spent working for the Air Force he built up experience in the area of maintenance, engineering and programme management. In the following nine years he performed roles within business development with Fokker (now part of GKN Aerospace).  Among other things he was Programme Manager for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter programme. For the last five years he was Managing Director with a major Dutch retail group.

Will Bierens, 30 years in public transport business

Will Bierens has over 30 years experience in the world of public transport. He started in 1986 as a depot manager with Zuidooster (later Hermes, part of Connexxion). From 2005 he was part of the Veolia tender team. As tender manager he won the biggest concession in the Netherlands: the multi-modal concession for taxis, buses and trains in North, South and Central Limburg. After that he managed to win various concessions and was responsible as implementation manager for impeccable implementation. Following the merger of Veolia Transport and Transdev in 2011, Will was made Procurement Director with Transdev Nederland and as such ultimately responsible for the supply chain of the Public Transport, Taxi and Ambulance product lines. At Veolia he was the first to offer electric buses for a concession and as such one of the initiative-takers of the transition to zero emissions in the Netherlands and responsible for the acquisition of hundreds of electric buses for Connexxion.

Also, at the beginning of 2020 he was asked to act as Transport Adviser for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In this role he was responsible for all the event-related bus transport as regards strategy, procurement, contracting and a complete implementation of nearly 3,000 buses, 750 of them electric. At the end of 2020 Mowasalat placed with Yutong the world’s biggest order for buses, including electric buses.

Bob Fleuren and Will Bierens join Ebusco

Ebusco’s CEO Peter Bijvelds commented: “We’ve known Bob for quite some time and we’re extremely glad that he’s coming to strengthen our management team. Bob is results-oriented and people-driven. These are two important qualities for being able to realise our zero emissions ambition. With Will Bierens we’ve acquired an enormous amount of experience. We find it extremely important to have the know-how in-house as to how our customers think and what challenges they face. With Will we’re getting someone who knows this, quite apart from all the other insights and knowledge that he brings with him.”