Kurt Vandeputte graduated as Chemist at Ghent University (Belgium) in 1991. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry at the same university for introducing quasi non-destructive characterization and measurement techniques for dating old objects and artefacts. In 1997 he joined Umicore in one of the Belgian production plants where he was responsible for product quality control and material characterization in research projects. In 2003 he moved to a technical marketing role for cobalt containing products used in the Li-ion battery supply chain. After several leadership assignments in marketing, research, sales and production he was appointed Senior Vice President of Umicore Rechargeable Battery Materials Business Unit in 2017. In July 2019 Mr Vandeputte created Umicore’s New Business Incubator within the CTO-organisation. In October 2020, he was appointed SVP global Government Affairs of Umicore.