About us

The core Helicus team :  Mikael Shamim, Geert VanhandenhoveTim Cleys , Chesney De Bondt, Rik Van Boxem and Alexander Roets fuse their aviation and Healthcare expertise to create functional solutions based on drone technology.  Key is our collaborative approach, that also leverage the capabilities of our partners to provide you with the right solutions.

Team

Geert Vanhandenhove

Flight Operations

Tim Cleys

Healthcare Integration

Chesney De Bondt

product development

Rik Van Boxem

QUALITY & PROCESSES

Alexander Roets

BUSINESS DEVELOPER

Mikael Shamim, MSc, MBA, PPL/RPL

CEO

Following a remarkable academic track record, Mikael has been fortunate to collaborate with and learn from exceptional professionals throughout his carreer.

He complemented his commercial engineering degree (UAntwerp / JWGU), with an MBA (SDA Bocconi / Columbia GSB).  Before joining the Healthcare sector full time in 2014, he worked 7 years as a management consultant (Accenture & Bain) and 10 years as an industry executive (Deputy GM at Toyota Motor Europe & COO Kärcher Benelux).
 
Helicus was launched in 2016 to fulfill healthcare demand for drone based medical transport solutions.  Immediately after, Helicus Aero Initiative (HAI) was launched aimed at creating an ecosystem of leading organisations from all sectors to work towards robust, safe and economical unmanned aerial services
 
Having spent his youth sailing (navigating) the world, Mikael realized an old dream and obtained his Private Pilot Licence (PPL-A) in 2009. He flies Piper Warrior III and Robin DR400 at the Royal Antwerp Aviation Club.  Joining the age of (aerial) robotisation, he additionally obtained his class 1 drone pilot license (RPL-R) and converted his license to EASA compliant A2 in 2021.
 

Geert Vanhandenhove, BSc, PPL/RPL

Manager Flight Operations

Building on his academical education in Applied Communications, he followed a broad range of IT, Project Management and aviation related courses.

The creation of an airline company video during his Communications studies, triggered Geert’s lasting interest in the airline sector. He obtained his Private Pilot License (PPL-A) and joined the Royal Antwerp Aviation Club (RAAC). Currently Geert is member of the board and a pilot ground instructor, teaching navigation to new private pilot students.

Joining the drone age, Geert obtained his RPL-R class 1 license and later converted to EASA A2.

Geert is experienced at developing, implementing and managing solutions for business needs at different levels of complexity.  Through analysis and input from all stakeholders he builds and support solutions, new processes and process improvements. Geert facilitates change processes by creating broad support always ensuring that the final goal is being implemented.  He builds strong teams and enjoys seeing his team members grow through personal development.  He measures his achievements by their business impact with a genuine interest in people.

Geert has built a strong career in the IT and healthcare.  He has taken up roles as IT & Data Manager (De Vijver Media, Flanders), Business Intelligence Portfolio Manager (Johnson & Johnson) and Business Intelligence Manager (OCD Pharmaceutical).

Tim Cleys, MSc

Manager Healthcare integration Services

Tim holds a scientific degree (M.Sc. Biology) from the University of Ghent.  After a few years in operations at Kinepolis group, he kicked off his career in the Healthcare sector. As a laboratory manager he supported the medical team during 12 years at GZA group (three hospital sites) and the Antwerp University hospital (third line specialised test) groups.

During this time, Tim saw the laboratory landscape changing dramatically: Growing organisations, accreditation, efficiency requirements, maintain increasingly complex equipment and sub-specialisation.  He both ran lab operations and projects.  In this position, Tim was responsible to improve efficiency and quality at an acceptable investment cost.

Among these projects: working towards laboratory centralisation for 3 historically independent hospitals, infrastructural lab-designs, process (incl. LEAN) and workflow designs, scheduling and team-organisation for 130 employees, IT system integration projects.   At the University hospital (UZA) he worked on inter hospital network collaboration, e.g. related to highly specialised tests & medicine.

Tim brings in depth healthcare organisational and hands-on healthcare experience to Helicus.  He spearheads Helicus’s ambition to help bring your healthcare organisation, (automated) processes and use of technology to a next level.  Tim is responsible for Healthcare Integration Services.  In this function he will ensure that unmanned systems are truly useful for healthcare users.  He will also run hospital integration projects and will be a reliable partner to Helicus hospital partners that struggle with their hospital network design and how this impacts central technical functions (like labs, pharmacies and blood banks) .

Chesney De Bondt, MSc

Product & Brand Development

Chesney holds a master’s degree in design sciences (M.Sc. Product Development) from the University of Antwerp and EASA compliant A2 remote pilot license.

Passionate about al things that are drone related, Chesney designed and build a 3D-printed quadcopter already in 2015. Based on this first version, he reviewed all requirements and created a new and improved quadcopter with greater functionality. During the next years he would continue to follow up on electronics development and consumer electronics, developing a strong interest in the technological aspect of product development that can support optimal user experiences.

During his five years Master program he learned how to design a product from start to finish. He worked for Helicus since 2019 as an intern, on the Drone Cargo Port design team, on which he also wrote his thesis that was completed Cum Laude.  Chesney joined in 2020 to propel Product Development, and continues to work on this key air-ground integration activity in collaboration with the partner teams.

As of July 2020, Chesney coordinates overall product development activities within Helicus and strives to push the ecosystem’s product development to the next level, structuring opportunities and closing gaps identified by the partners. Using his multi-disciplinary approach, he takes a 360° view when making design choices, creating solutions that best fit customer and partner’s needs.

Rik Van Boxem, MSc

QUALITY & PROCESSES Manager

Rik holds a master’s degree in design sciences (M.Sc. Product Development) from the University of Antwerp and EASA compliant A2 remote pilot license. He has been working for Helicus since 2020.  He wrote his Master thesis on integrated order entry & tracking processes for hospital labs and pharmacies, that was completed Magna Cum Laude.

As Quality & Process manager, Rik’s objective is to ensure safe and efficient processes throughout the Helicus ecosystem ranging from order entry to delivery.  He is responsible for specification management, as well as Helicus software quality accreditation.

With his background in Product Development, with focus on interaction design, Rik loves to analyse customer needs throughout the value chain to create and document integrated quality processes. His ongoing work targets the operator-work-position user experience at the automated Command & Control Center.  Any remote fleet operator using Helicus solutions will be supported by an ergonomical environment where workload is correctly prioritized.

Alexander Roets, MSc

BUSINESS DEVELOPER

Alexander holds a master’s degree in design sciences (M.Sc. Product Development) from the University of Antwerp.

 

During this 5 year program, he discovered his interest for the design and development of mechanical products. This in combination with his goal to design products that will have an impact on daily people’s life lead him to his internship at Helicus. Starting this program in 2021 he focused on the development of the maritime DCP that explores to option to integrate drones on Ships and offshore windmill farms. The information he acquired during his internship in combination with his interest and skills in project management made him an ideal candidate to further explore the capabilities of Helicus in this new offshore market.


Today Alexander works as a business developer for the maritime and inspection use cases for which he coordinates the new projects, and seeks out new opportunities for Helicus to enrich their portfolio in these respective fields. With his background in Product development he also assists the product development team in industrializing the DCP set-up and making the transition to the offshore DCP.

Helicus BVBA

Pastoor De Conincklaan 32
2610 Antwerp, Belgium
VAT: BE0667845691

info@helicus.com
Tel: +32 485 685 222

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