Who is Jurgen?

Jurgen Verstrepen, born June 12, 1966 is every inch a ‘new and old media’ man.

At the age of 15, he hosted his first radio broadcast. At 22, he started working for the BRTN, the Belgian public broadcaster. He went through all stages of the audio-visual production, from research over direction to production.

After a short stint at a Brussels located advertisement agency and multimedia company, in the early nineties of last century, he launched his first production company specialized in corporate events and advertising. The main focus was on cosmetic brands with Estée Lauder-Clinique being one of his first clients. A couple of years later, in cooperation with IDTV Holland, he created his television production company and made several TV-productions for the Flemish commercial TV-station VT4.

Jurgen produced a number of television reports and was the first to start with talk radio in Belgium.

At the end of the nineties he launched the first interactive radio and television programme on the commercial TV stations VTM and Kanaal 2. He became a well-known lighthouse customer of new techniques such as interactive voting, text message platforms or internet streaming. In the same period he produced several reports for the VTM current affairs program Telefacts.

In 2000 he set up an internet company, specialized in streaming, content management and digital publications. Many political parties were among his customers and during the Belgian elections he realized the first online alliance between his company, the newspaper companies and MSN. His company supplied the first live voting and online modules with voting intentions, both in Dutch and French. The company also had a blogging platform developed, long before it became fashionable, for all the Belgian elected officials. Meanwhile, Jurgen was specializing in political and crisis communication.

After having sold his company, he was elected in the Flemish parliament and he sat for ten years in the parliamentary media commission and the ‘Digital Flanders’ commission. In the same period, he studied the European media legislation and worked as an advisor for numerous new media projects. He revealed himself as the media specialist in the Flemish parliament and was a major force in several legal adjustments.

Nowadays he is involved in several new media initiatives and acts as a consultant in terms of social media, interactive platforms and media legislation.

Jurgen Verstrepen lives in Antwerp and has two children. He speaks Dutch, German, French and English and commutes regularly between Europe and the US.

jurgenverstrepen@newmediacoach.be – 4 rue de la presse – 1000 BRUSSELS – +32475232386