Léon Wennekes parts ways with PTC and CINET

In the past weeks it was agreed upon that Léon Wennekes will change his career into other activities and stop his work for CINET and the other trade associations in PTC (Professional Textile Care) including his function as Secretary General of CINET. He is preparing a trip (as far as Corona allows it) for the next months. After the first of July he will not be directly involved in the work of the associations, only execute specific, ad hoc research assignments as a freelancer while taking some time off for a sabbatical.

Since 2003 Léon has been working in the family business M&P Bureauservice BV which has been the firm executing the secretariat services for the trade associations. Since he was 15 years old he has been involved in communication projects and event management, first for the Dutch trade associations and later for CINET. In those days his tasks were mainly centered around social media and PR-activities as well as supporting event management.

 

Study

Along the way his tasks and projects became more detailed. During his study Business Administration at the Radboud University in Nijmegen he kept working in the business one or two days a week and he finished his bachelor degree with a thesis focused on marketing titled: ‘Drivers in the consumer market that can stimulate the usage of professional textile cleaning’. After his bachelor he worked one year fulltime for the trade associations before starting his master ‘Organizational Design & Development’ at the Radboud University. This degree was also completed with a master thesis related to textile care titled: “The Key to Future Success in Professional Textile Cleaning: Italy”. After his studies several internships abroad followed. He worked at companies in China, Indonesia and the USA. Also he executed a market research in the field in India, exploring collaborations to set up a trade association for professional textile care in India. In the years that followed he was active in numerous countries at all sorts of events, gaining practical experience in the world of professional textile care.

 

Publications

In this orientation phase he also co-authored the various book publications of CINET titled ‘The World of PTC’. He wrote a large part of the content from volume 2: “Market Characteristics and Trends” (published september 2013), volume 5: “New Business Models & Showcases” (June 2016), an extensive market study to the rise of Laundry on Demand (December 2016) and volume 6: “Digitization & E-commerce” (September 2018). In the summer of 2016 he was granted the position of Secretary General of CINET, contributing to the growth of this umbrella association which anno 2020 has over 100 members from nearly 40 countries.

CINET’s World of PTC book series

 

 

Projects

In the last years he was also working as project manager for the Dutch trade associations NETEX and FTN. He developed several projects in the field of digitization & logistics, setting up collaborations with the Data2Move community from the technical University of Eindhoven and analyzing business development opportunities for existing and new markets (for example in an EY study published in April, 2019). Numerous articles were published by his hand in the Dutch trade magazine Textielbeheer, both for Retail textile cleaning and industrial textile services. Soon his new book (volume 7) will be published focused on digitization, sustainability, circularity and hygiene in PTC titled: “Building New PTC Markets”.

Introduction of the Data2Move themes & video: A Day out of the Life of a Towel

 

Presentations

Léon presented the outcomes of his studies in many countries, during all major PTC events across the globe in Germany, China, USA, Russia, France, UK, Italy, India, Indonesia, The Middle-East and of course in Belgium and the Netherlands. Besides this he was involved in the development of CINET’s ‘World of PTC Business School’ and ‘CERCLEAN® International Certification’, of which distribution partnerships were set up with trade associations in China, India and several other countries. Furthermore he was heavily involved in the organization of the Global Best Practice Award programs of CINET, in which hundreds of leading laundries all over the world participated since 2016.

Presentation at National Convention in Delhi, India with some 1000 visitors from the professional laundry industry (September, 2019)

 

Word of thanks

Leon: “I’ve always really enjoyed working for professional textile care industry, both internationally and in the Netherlands. In my social circles it usually took some time to explain how professional textile care (as one of the best kept secrets in society) actually ensures that all sorts of markets function properly (health care, hospitality, trade & industry and retail), but it never took long before people understand the value. Despite the Corona crisis & and the ‘Great Lockdown’ I’m convinced of the added value of PTC and believe the future will be prosperous for this industry. I really pity the scheduled events can’t continue due to Corona, originally the Global Awards 2020 would have been the highlight enabling me to say goodbye to so many great people in person. Nevertheless I would like to take this moment and thank you all for the wonderful opportunity working with you over the past years. It was genuinely a magnificent adventure, learning from a wide range of different companies all over the world. I realize it’s been a most fortunate position for which I’m sincerely grateful. Lastly I’d like to thank my parents in particular for supporting and pushing me towards personal development. It’s not always easy working with so many interests of different members but the time is very precious to me and surely it has created a marvelous starting point for next steps in the future which is currently still unclear.