K-Boringen continues to build on its organisation. With Levi Glorieux, Abdullah Bayrakli, Tibe Verelst and Ruben Vanvelk, the company welcomes four new colleagues with very different backgrounds. Their profiles range from decades of experience in the international tunnelling industry to young engineers taking their first steps in their professional careers. This combination of experience, technical expertise and fresh perspectives will help K-Boringen continue to grow in a highly specialised sector.
Levi Glorieux joins K-Boringen as Technical Director
One of the key additions to the team is Levi Glorieux, who has joined K-Boringen as Technical Director. Levi is no stranger to the industry and brings valuable experience that he can now put to use at K-Boringen. Much of his role takes place behind the scenes. He oversees the various project sites, helps prepare projects and maintains contact with clients. At the same time, staying connected to the work on site remains important, and he regularly visits the projects himself. Levi’s transition to K-Boringen went smoothly. One thing that immediately stood out to him was the combination of young technical professionals and colleagues with many years of hands-on experience.“We have a great mix of young, motivated people who are very resourceful, alongside people who sometimes have 20 to 30 years of experience. That interaction works extremely well.”
Abdullah Bayrakli: 25 years of experience in the tunnelling industry
With around 25 years of experience in the tunnelling industry, Abdullah Bayrakli brings a wealth of expertise to K-Boringen. Throughout his career, he has worked for various companies and in different countries, gaining extensive hands-on experience in both microtunnelling and larger tunnel projects. Over the years, Abdullah has held various positions in microtunnelling, including as a drilling supervisor and workshop manager. He has also worked with large tunnel boring machines (TBMs). The largest TBM he has worked with had an impressive diameter of 13.6 metres. He now brings this combination of technical knowledge, practical experience and experience in different roles to K-Boringen. His first impressions have been very positive:“Everyone here is friendly and helpful. I’ll do my best to help keep the atmosphere positive and make things even better.”
Tibe Verelst: from aerospace engineering to K-Boringen
Tibe Verelst brings a different profile to the team. He is completing his degree in aerospace engineering at KU Leuven and is currently combining his work at K-Boringen with his thesis. Despite being at the start of his career, he has already gained some remarkable hands-on experience. Together with three fellow students, he worked on a project for a hospital in Kenya that was experiencing problems with its electricity supply. After a year of preparation, the team travelled to Kenya for eight weeks to install a solar power system with battery storage. At K-Boringen, he once again has the opportunity to combine technical knowledge with practical experience. His work is not limited to an office desk; he also gets to work alongside his colleagues and on site. The level of responsibility and freedom he was given appealed to him from the outset.“It’s a dynamic company where I was immediately given a lot of responsibility, along with the freedom to take initiative. The projects are interesting, and it’s a job that isn’t confined to an office.”
Ruben Vanvelk: driven by technical curiosity
Ruben Vanvelk is also at the beginning of his professional career. He studied electromechanical engineering, driven by a strong interest in technology and mathematics. What particularly caught Ruben’s attention was the highly specialised world of tunnelling. It is not an industry that engineering students encounter every day during their studies. That unfamiliarity was precisely what made K-Boringen so interesting to him.“Tunnelling isn’t something you come across every day, which really sparked my curiosity. Since joining, I’ve discovered just how fascinating and specialised this industry is.”Since joining the company, Ruben says he has experienced a strong willingness among team members to share their knowledge, answer questions and support one another. In the coming years, he hopes to continue developing in his role and contribute new ideas and insights based on his technical background.
Passing on experience and helping young talent grow
With Levi, Abdullah, Tibe and Ruben joining the team, K-Boringen is not simply adding four people with similar profiles. That diversity is precisely where the added value lies. Levi brings his industry experience to the company’s technical leadership. Abdullah draws on a quarter-century of hands-on experience in tunnelling projects. Tibe and Ruben, meanwhile, bring curiosity, up-to-date technical knowledge and fresh perspectives shaped by their engineering education. The result is exactly the combination Levi describes: experienced professionals who can pass on their knowledge, alongside younger colleagues who are given the opportunity and freedom to develop their skills further. Welcome to K-Boringen, Levi, Abdullah, Tibe and Ruben!