Johan Kestens facilitates peer groups in the finance function. With a background spanning both business and technology – and senior roles ranging from the boardroom to the C-suite – he brings a distinctive ability to cut through complexity and steer conversations toward what actually matters.
Johan says:
My career has taken me through roles as MD, CIO, CISO, and Independent Non-Executive Director, backed by an MBA and an MSc in Electronic Engineering. That combination means I can follow a finance problem into its technical or governance dimensions without losing the thread. When a member brings something to the table, I use that experience to ask the question that sharpens the issue – for instance, distinguishing whether a difficult relationship is about perceived lack of competence or about personality. Getting to the right question is often more valuable than jumping to answers.
The atmosphere in my peer group meetings tends to be informal, expecting, and curious – people arrive ready to engage, not just to listen. When someone hesitates to share a difficult dilemma, I draw on empathy or bring in a story from my own experience where something similar came up. That usually lowers the threshold. If I’ve made mistakes too, there’s less reason to keep yours under wraps.
When the network makes a difference
What drives me is that moment after a meeting when participants leave thinking: we collectively got somewhere I didn’t believe was going to happen. That’s the whole point for me. I remember one meeting where a member put an issue on the table framed as a succession question. Through probing questions from the group, it gradually became clear that the real issue was a lack of personal trust between the member and the person being discussed. It wasn’t a dramatic click, but it was a real one. The frame shifted, and with it, so did the path forward.