With over 28 years of experience in the aviation fuelling business, he is highly specialized in design, construction, financing and operation of airport fuelling infrastructure, as well as managing fuel into-plane operations. As an industry veteran with wide experience in all disciplines of aviation fuelling, he was in charge of numerous and varied developmental projects - engineering, consultancy, BOOT, start-ups and acquisitions worldwide.  

 

With a master’s degree (cum laude) in Electro-Mechanical Engineering (KU Leuven – Campus Groep T) and a Postgraduate in Business Economics (KU Leuven), Pieter Van Espen started his career in the aviation fuelling business in 1993 as Technical Manager of Hydrant Refuelling System nv (HRS), the centralized fuelling infrastructure company at Brussels Airport.  

After obtaining an MBA (Hasselt University, cum laude) and a Postgraduate in Environmental Management (KU Leuven – Campus Brussels - EHSAL, management school) he gradually took up various roles in BFSC, HRS, Luxfuel. During this period, he launched the ‘aviation fuelling infrastructure engineering’ as a separate business line with contracts in Liège, Athens, Luxemburg, Brussels and projects in other countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia.

 

In 2005, he was onboarded in the Skytanking Group after the acquisition of Skytanking from the Belgian Fuelling & Services Company nv (BFSC), the former fuelling subsidiary of the Belgian flag carrier Sabena. At that time, he acted as CEO of BFSC nv and managed HRS nv and Luxfuel sa.

 

Soon after his new position at Skytanking Group, he became responsible for the companies’ business in the Benelux and successfully added activities in Switzerland (Zurich) and France (Paris, Nice and Bordeaux). He was appointed formal lead of Business Development in 2012, whilst taking up various board memberships of fully owned subsidiaries and JV’s. During this period, the company successfully entered the markets in Turkey and Israel. 

 

Prior to his decision to leave Skytanking in early 2021, he was appointed member of the Group Executive Team in September 2019 in his capacity as Executive Vice President Business Development. In this role, Pieter was responsible for implementing the pro-growth strategy of the company (adding Spain and 2 new continents, USA and Australia).