Barbara Belpaire Appointed As General Manager TomTom India

India, 24 July 2015 – TomTom (TOM2) announces the appointment of Barbara Belpaire as General Manager of TomTom India. Barbara brings with her 17 years of experience in Engineering, Business Process Management and Operations, and has been with TomTom for over a decade in different cross-regional management positions in China and APAC.

As the site owner of TomTom’s Pune unit, Barbara will focus on the overall visioning, strategizing, planning and branding of TomTom in India. With the recent launch of TomTom’s award winning and world-acclaimed GPS sports watches, Barbara will also focus on establishing a prominent presence in the Indian market.

Alain De Taeye, member of the Management Board at TomTom commented on this occasion saying, “We are happy to welcome Barbara to join our Pune site, which is our second largest facility worldwide and has 700 employees focusing on Mapping, Engineering, Sales & Marketing, FSSC and Customer Care. In her new role, she will contribute to the further development of the Pune site by creating a cohesive employee community and overall brand building of TomTom. Her cultural and social awareness as well as her unique leadership style will be key to TomTom’s success in this market.”

Barbara Belpaire, General Manager (India) at TomTom commented saying, “I am very excited to join TomTom India as I am passionate about the region and collaborating with people. My ambition is to make TomTom India the Best Place to Work by unlocking the in-house potential and developing key talent and capabilities.”

In prior roles, Barbara focussed on technology transfer, and building high-performance teams and processes with captive centres and suppliers in China and APAC. Under her leadership, TomTom received ISO/TS certification for 3 APAC business units – Singapore, China and Japan.

Subsequently, Barbara set-up business process management in TomTom and supported the POI team by driving the big data technology roadmap for Points of Interest. Early in her career, she also lived and worked in India. She is active in community giving programs and was the Chair of “To the Heart”, a community giving initiative within TomTom. Barbara holds a Master’s degree in Bio Engineering from the University of Leuven and Industrial Management from the University of Gent. She also successfully completed an executive master class in business process management at the Vlerick business school.