Meet the Cake Advisory Board! ๐
ย Hi there! This is Davy, co-founder and CEO at Cake! ๐
Early on, we felt it was important to quickly build a strong external advisory board next to our official board of directors.ย ๐ช Such an advisory board usually consists of partners and entrepreneurs that assist the company by opening their network and sharing their experience and knowledge. They provide non-binding strategic advice.ย
A few months ago, I started announcing the first few members of our newly-formed advisory board via my twitter account.ย
Over the past few quarters, the early members of our advisory board have already been incredibly helpful.ย ๐ Theyโve assisted us with fundraising, introduced us to potential partners, gave advice on key business and legal challenges, and acted as a strong sounding board.
As an external group, they provide us with unbiased information and advice. We communicate informally via WhatsApp regularly and meet as a group in person at least every 8 weeks to discuss all things Cake. ๐ These meetings are very inspiring and helpful, as I always go home with new ideas and tons of added energy. ๐
Today, we are super excited to announce the addition of a new key member! Because of that, I thought it would be a good idea to provide you with an overview of our newly-founded advisory board!
(Oh, and by the way, two more are yet to be announced in the near future ๐)
The Cake advisory board
Michel Vermaerke
Michel is a former member of the executive committee of the European Banking Federation (EBF) and former chairman of its strategic committee on banking reform. He was CEO of Febelfin, former chairman at Ombudsfin and former Secretary General, general counsel and member of the executive committee at Belgacom (now Proximus).
Over the past 25 years he held positions of leadership and executive responsibilities in a wide range of fields (legal, regulatory, public affairs, communications, crisis management, governance, finance) and the domains of banking, telecom, and later on in the fields of arts and culture or the not-for-profit social sector.
Harry Demey
Since 1990, Harry is the founder and CEO of LDV United, a well-known advertising agency based in Antwerp. Heโs a Brand inspirator and was awarded the Master Marketer title in 2011. Heโs also co-author of โThe Spirit of the Valleyโ, together with Peter Hinssen and Steven Van Belleghem. We were delighted to have him join the advisory board, as he has incredible knowledge of crafting valuable consumer brands.
His agency helped us develop the Cake brand name, logo and positioning! ๐ฐ Heโs been a great sparring partner so far and solid challenger for Sophie, our Head of Marketing and Communications.
Newcomer
Iโm so glad to announce that the latest member to join our Advisory Board is Geert Van Hove. His combined experience and understanding of legacy banking infrastructure will be tremendously helpful as we connect with many European banks in the near future.
Geert Van Hove
Geert is the former Chief Information & Digital Officer of Argenta bank ๐ถ, former CIO of Belfius bank ๐ถ, former CIO of Telenet – Liberty Global and former CTO at Estee Lauder Companies.
โOne of the reasons I decided to join the Cake Advisory Board is that I truly believe that, based on my experience within the banking sector, Cake will be an industry game-changer. I admire their customer-centric way of thinking and developing. This is unlike anything I have seen before. โ โGeert Van Hove.
A great complementary skillset
It is incredibly empowering to see that, next to a super senior and capable team, we have been able to gather the support of such experienced individuals.ย We now have a ton of experience within our advisory board across the fields of legal, regulation, communication, branding, IT and banking.ย
I’m looking forward to be working together with Geert and the rest of our newly formed advisory board!ย ๐ฅ
We will be announcing more members soon, as we’d like to add even more brainpower in the fields of retail, commerce, and more.
Thanks for reading!
– Davy
(PS; don’t hesitate to sign up for the Cake waiting list below ๐๐๐)
Cake is launching later this year!
Leave your email below to get on our early access list.
You’ll be one of the first to try out Cake when it launches. We’ll also keep you informed about all things Cake! ๐ฐ
More from our open blog ๐ฐ
What we’ve learned from the Cake beta so far
It’s been three weeks since we launched the Cake beta, and we wanted to give you an update on our learnings so far!
Announcing Cake dark mode
When the Cake banking app launches in December, it will have a dark-mode from day one!
Which banks are ready for Cake?
We think it's awesome that there's so much interest in Cake, even weeks before our public app is launched! Over 6000 people have already registered on the waiting list! ๐ (If you haven't joined already, fill out the waiting list form at the bottom of this article and...
The first beta tests have begun!
We are thrilled that after officially launching the Cake brand last week, we have now shipped the first beta-version of Cake for Android! ๐ฅณ The iOS beta will be released in a couple of days!
So far, weโve on-boarded almost 100 beta testers, and more will be added in the upcoming week.
New banking app Cake makes bank accounts profitable again
Banking app Cake allows users to share in the revenue and is getting ready for the Belgian launch this autumn.
Safety First: how we handle your data
Every day we are all flooded with requests to give permission for cookies and to receive mailings. We are chased by personalized ads and social media posts as we move online. How does Cake handle this?