Lippert Components, Inc. named Olivier Steenaert as vice president of human resources for the company’s European, Middle Eastern and African (EMEA) business units.
In the role, he will lead all aspects of the company’s human resources activities in EMEA including strategic direction, talent acquisition, talent management and development, organizational design, succession planning, employee relations and total rewards for all the European business units.
Steenaert will be responsible for working on HR performance management, HR systems and HR guidelines.
“My new role is not only a new role for myself, but it is also new at Lippert EMEA,” Steenaert said. “Throughout the past years, Lippert has acquired several businesses in multiple markets in EMEA. Those businesses have professional HR strategies in place, and my goals are to support them and have the business and HR work as one wherever possible, be efficient and be the liaison between HR EMEA and HR USA.”
Steenaert said he is excited to work with the business, be involved with operations and execute projects.
Jim Menefee, Europe group president, said Steenaert’s hiring is part of Lippert’s ongoing leadership team buildup and overall business strategy for the EMEA region.
“He is a great fit for our culture and will guide our HR teams to find more synergies, develop best practices and encourage collaboration among our groups,” Menefee said.
Steenaert holds a master’s degree in law from University Utrecht, a business strategy degree from University Groningen, and a degree in strategic leadership & change from the University of Nyenrode. He began his career as a lawyer at a top 15 firm in the Netherlands. He later served as Legal Manager at World Online and Legal Manager at Essent-RWE.
After completing a management development program at Essent, he changed his focus from legal to human resources and in that role, led all of the company’s traineeships and in-through-outflow of employees. Steenaert later worked at Grohe where he was responsible for human resources of EMEA sales and headquarters.
