New faces at Cyclops: this time, a mechanical engineer who oversaw dredging operations in Bangladesh and Abu Dhabi, ran an assembly department in Belgium, and came looking for the whole project rather than one phase of it.

Ward Vandeperre joined Cyclops as a Project Manager in September. Mechanical engineer from KU Leuven, two and a half years abroad with an international dredging and marine works contractor, then head of assembly at a Belgian steel construction company. The thread through all of it: he wants to see the result of what he does, and he wants to own it.

 

A chemistry student who switched to machines 

Ward started his bachelor’s in Leuven with chemistry as his major and mechanical engineering as his minor. The minor won. “I found mechanical engineering more interesting in the end,” so that’s what he took into his master’s. 

In those two master’s years he picked an elective called Dredging Technologies, taught by an engineer from one of the big international dredging contractors. That was his introduction to the company, and he joined straight after graduating. 

“What appealed to me is that you do something and you see the result straight away. It’s very tangible.” 

He was also, by his own account, looking for a bit of adventure. 

 

Dredgers, sand and an offshore island 

Ward went out as an expat: two months on site, one month at home. Six months in Bangladesh, then two years in Abu Dhabi. 

His main job was operational superintendent, running dredging vessels during execution. “Making the planning: which ship goes where, where are we dredging, where do we get which sand.” He started with one vessel and ended up steering two or three at once. 

In Abu Dhabi he also worked as a project engineer on project preparation for what was then one of the company’s largest projects: building an offshore island. That meant dredging, coastal protection with rock placement, and excavating foundation trenches to design. “Marine civil works, basically.” 

He enjoyed all of it. What ended it was the rotation. “After a while I was tired of always leaving. It was too hard to combine private life and work.”

 

Head of assembly 

Back in Belgium he joined CSM, a steel construction company that builds, among other things, steel bridges. Ward ran the assembly department: three site managers, four assembly crews, several sites running at once. 

The job had two halves. Planning the crews across the sites, and technical preparation. “How are we going to place things? Which crane do we need? What do the men need to take with them?” 

“I learned a lot there. A lot of practical things.” 

After several years in execution, Ward was ready for a next step: following projects from start to finish, across different industries. 

“I was looking for a broader role, where I could be involved in the whole project.” 

 

Why Cyclops 

He found the vacancy while searching online. Two things drew him in: “the variety, and doing real project management.” 

The interviews added a third. “I had the feeling they work very hard to match the work they give you with your personality.” He also noticed the openness in those conversations, and the sense that if he needs more challenge at some point, it will come. 

One coincidence came with the job. Tom, already at Cyclops, studied with Ward in Leuven – they did group projects together – and neither knew the other was here until Ward walked in. 

 

What he’s looking for on a project 

Ward is open to any sector. What he looks for is the same wherever he works. 

“It’s really ownership I’m looking for. When you give me responsibility, I work much more efficiently. If I get the feeling that whether I do something or not, someone will take it over anyway, then I don’t feel good about it.” 

It doesn’t have to be a whole project. “It can be a defined scope. But real end responsibility for one thing. They say to me: this is yours, get on with it.” 

“Then I feel motivated, and I come home thinking: that was a good day.” 

 

Outside work 

Ward can’t sit still. He runs and cycles at least three times a week, and plays piano most evenings, fifteen years in, so it’s no longer something he has to think about. “I think of something, and I can play it.” 

 

Why this matters to us 

Ward knows what execution looks like from the bottom: which crane, which crew, which sand, which vessel goes where. That’s the knowledge an Owner’s Representative needs when a contractor says a date is feasible. 

He now brings that experience to the earlier stages of a project, where the plan takes shape. 

And his measure of a good day – having owned something – is the one we’d like every project manager to use. 

Welcome to the team, Ward.