EY CFO Outlook: Driving Ireland’s energy transition with Marc van Huet, CFO, Calor Ireland

In this episode of the EY CFO Outlook podcast, Marc Van Huet, CFO of Calor Ireland joins host, Dearbhail McDonald, to talk about building a modern finance engine, why a private, family-owned structure creates space to innovate, and the role LPG and BioLPG can play for rural homes, hotels and industry on the journey to net zero. He also shares the cultural lessons he’s learned in Ireland, the value of a diverse team, and why a good culture is built in small daily choices.

Marc Van Huet’s road to CFO began behind the glass walls of an iconic Louis Vuitton store in Singapore, where a particular project taught him about relationship between customer experience and process discipline. That experience sparked an early interest in how strong brands connect with people, something that continues to guide his work today. 

Marc’s career has taken him across several industries and leadership roles, from working with entrepreneurs to managing financial and project teams within SHV and beyond. Now, as the youngest CFO featured on the EY CFO Outlook podcast, Marc brings that same focus on people, growth, and innovation to Calor Ireland.

They also discuss: 

• Marc’s early career and the importance of customer service.
• Key lessons learned from working with entrepreneurs and across multiple industries.
• The modern CFO: freeing the month-end “engine” to focus on value; AI and process mining in finance
• Calor’s ambition to grow while leading Ireland’s energy transition.
• How being part of a global family business supports innovation and investment.
• Why culture and teamwork matter in modern leadership.

Transcript

George Deegan, Partner, Assurance and CFO Programme Partner Sponsor, EY Ireland

Welcome to the EY CFO Outlook Podcast

In this series we feature some of Ireland’s leading CFOs - sharing interesting perspectives on a range of topics, from driving growth in their business to leading major finance transformation.

I’m George Deegan, a partner and sponsor of EY’s CFO Agenda programme. 

In this episode, we welcome Marc van Huet of Calor Ireland, a leading energy solutions provider. 

Marc talks about building a modern finance engine, the value of a diverse team and the important role Calor is playing in Ireland’s energy transition.

Dearbhail, over to you..

Dearbhail McDonald

Thanks a million, George and Marc Van Huet, you're very, very welcome.

Marc Van Huet

Thank you so very much for having me.

Dearbhail McDonald

Listen, your path to CFO is a very, very intriguing one from luxury via Louis Vuitton to LPG. How did that happen?

Marc Van Huet

Well, if you make it sound like that, not sure if that was a career path you would follow instantly. But no, I had a nice opportunity while I was studying in Singapore to do a nice project in Louis Vuitton Singapore. And now as CFO of Calor Ireland trying to make a difference here. But maybe to talk a little bit about Louis Vuitton in Singapore, I think everybody remembers who has been in Singapore, the iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel with a ship on top of three hotel pillars, basically. And there is one store in front of that hotel and it's quite an iconic store. It's the Louis Vuitton store. But it is basically almost made out of glass. So what you see is that all walls are of glass. You can see through the whole Marina Bay Sands Hotel, but also the whole harbour of Singapore, which means that the drawer space in that store is very limited.

And well, luxury shoppers typically don't have the patience to wait 20 minutes or 30 minutes for you to show them the right bag. We needed to optimise the drawer allocation in that store. So that was a very nice Lean Six Sigma project, which I got to do for a month or two in that store.

Dearbhail McDonald

What did you learn? I know it was an unusual task to do, but what did you learn about luxury customers that you've sort of taken forward?

Marc Van Huet

I think it's that customer experience bit with even today is also very important. I think Calor Ireland as a brand as well is known for its customer experience. We look after the customer, whether it's when they have a query on the phone and when they call into our company or just in general, the way we set them up as new customers. I think it's that general piece which resonates in both companies as an example, because it's something which is close to me, looking after people. I do like that aspect of doing business to make sure that people are comfortable in whatever way.

Dearbhail McDonald

Talk to me about the early part of your career, because you seem to move early and move often. It's been quite a dynamic career path with you, working with entrepreneurs before you actually get into a big, big business. Do you like that? Do you like that kind of dynamic?

Marc Van Huet

I think it's something which is important in your early years and it is often probably not perceived well to do like job hopping, going from one place to the other. I think I found a middle ground in doing interim work for the first two and a half years basically.

Dearbhail McDonald

Consulting?

Marc Van Huet

Consulting, yeah. Doing projects from between four to nine months and just see various things. I worked at PwC as an external auditor for four months. I did various project management financial accountant roles and it just allows you to get an understanding of what that role is like. You don't have to do it forever to get a bit of an understanding. It helps me in the position where I'm in now to understand that a month end close is not done after one day. The team needs time. I won't be knocking on their door after 24 hours to see if the results are there yet. I know they have to go through a process to get there.

Dearbhail McDonald

Is that part of your drive as a leader? What you've learned from that? Not quite job hopping, but actually getting exposed to lots of different things, particularly in the earliest part of your career.

Marc Van Huet

Yeah, I think it helps you in multiple ways. You get a lot of exposure to different people, different aspects of the role. You really try to find what is close to yourself and what resonates with you to continue to do in the future. Because sometimes an experience can be very good or very bad and both you learn from.

Dearbhail McDonald

Talk to me. Calor is actually your longest serving role so far, just over two years. It's going good. But talk to me about it because Calor Ireland is such an iconic brand and a brand that people have a lot of love for and recognition for. But it's actually part of a group, SHV. Can you tell us a little bit about it? It's from your own country.

Marc Van Huet

It's from my own country. It's a large family business, a conglomerate, as they say. So they own a group of businesses across various industries. Calor obviously, clearly part of the LPG energy sector, but also companies well known around heavy lifting like Mammoet. The red crane is quite iconic for global heavy lifting projects. You typically see Mammoet cranes around those projects.

Dearbhail McDonald

Makro would be another one familiar to many people in Ireland.

Marc Van Huet

Yeah, the Cash and Carry stores, the first store opened up there in Amsterdam. And from there they built it on quite all over the world from Asia to Latin America. And I think another one which will resonate well with the people in Ireland is the nutrition animal feed known as Trouw Nutrition. So many, many farmers will probably know that brand as well.

Dearbhail McDonald

Because it's interesting when we think of the Netherlands, we think of Heineken, which would be very, very popular here. But this is a family business. But the scale of it is actually well, there's two things that's really striking about it is the scale of what they do, but also the longevity. They've been around a long time.

Marc Van Huet

Yeah, I had the opportunity to in 2021 be part of the celebration that they existed 126 years. We had to delay the celebration with one year due to Covid. But yeah, they established themselves in 1896, starting with coal and fuels and energy has been always part of the business. But since then, they expanded. 

Dearbhail McDonald

And in that conglomerate or the holding group, what sectors and what countries are they serving?

Marc Van Huet

Yeah, so the sectors, it's energy with the likes of Calor and a lot of sister business units in in twenty two, twenty three countries around the world. They would do Nutreco, which is animal feed and an aqua feed. That is also quite a significant presence across the world from the Nordics in Europe to Latin America as well. The recent addition to the family, Kiwa is in testing, inspecting and certifying company. They are rapidly growing. You probably know the established names, Bureau Veritas, SGS, Eurofins.

Dearbhail McDonald

What kind of turnover market are we talking about?

Marc Van Huet

The total turnover of the company of all SHV is probably around 20 to 25 billion on an annual basis.

Dearbhail McDonald

And did you come into the mothership as it were? Did you come into the HQ before being dispatched to these shores?

Marc Van Huet

Yeah, so I had the opportunity a little bit like what I was talking about at the start. When I did the interim work, I did a project for the mother company. So I did some project management there and which from there I got the opportunity to actually stay with the company as financial controller. And from there I did all kinds of roles in headquarters before I said I don't want to become a corporate dinosaur. Stay here forever. If there would be an opportunity in any of the operational business units across the world, I would very much looking into that and look forward to take on that challenge.

Dearbhail McDonald

And that challenge is Calor Ireland. Where does it fit within the SHV, you know, mix? Obviously it's LPG. So obviously that benefits presumably hugely from being part of that wider group.

Marc Van Huet

I think at Calor Ireland we definitely benefit from that. Things like standards around health and safety, compliance, etc. are in Dutch companies just so well organised. And I said at such a high level that we as a company benefit from that. It's often perceived as a cost, but I see it as a benefit because it just sets the right standards. And it really resonates with the values of integrity and trust, which we would like to embody by looking after our people in that. So I think that is a big benefit. But also more on the entrepreneur side, being part of a family business allows you to innovate and to try new things. To really have the curiosity there, to explore things. One of the things we do here in Ireland, well familiar, I think with the listeners, is the canisters, the LPG cylinders they use for their barbecues, their patio heating, etc. We are bringing those to the market via various dealers and outlets, etc. But of course the population and the entrepreneurs are sometimes aging and not willing to sell.

Dearbhail McDonald

The sons or whoever else aren't taking on the business.

Marc Van Huet

Exactly. And the cylinders are generally heavy also to lift and they don't want that hassle anymore. So we actually opened three months ago the first cylinder vending machine, Calor gas, to go in Ireland as such. It's the first cylinder vending machine on the whole island. And that's something which is possible because you have the backing of a family, because we had the connections with our sister company in France where they have already vending machines and you're just able to build on existing connections and leverage that.

Dearbhail McDonald

What are the benefits, do you think? I know there's probably benefits to each, but the difference between being in a publicly listed company, quarterly reports, all of those big, big requirements. And being in a family, essentially a private business, what are the big opportunities there for you?

Marc Van Huet

I think the opportunities for us are that we can really take the time. So we can really see something through. There is not the next three months that I immediately have to report to the group on whether or not this project I just gave an example of is it a success or not. We really have the time to figure it out. Will it work or not? And then we are honest enough to say if it doesn't work, then we stop doing it. But you seriously have the time, whereas there is, I think, more pressure to immediately show results in a listed environment.

Dearbhail McDonald

What do you know, all of the CFOs that we speak to, all speak to be the evolving role of the CFO and it's gone from that very traditional kind of finance, not quite finance only role, but very much sort of in that pocket. And now they're really, really driving different parts of the business. What do you see as your role as a CFO?

Marc Van Huet

Yeah, I like to think that I'm a more modern CFO in that. So I may shock some listeners, but I am actually not an accountant myself. So I have a head of finance and a senior financial accountant in my team who are accountants and have their experience with the accountancy firms prior to joining Calor. And they will be well able to look at that aspect. It doesn't mean that I have no knowledge about it.

Dearbhail McDonald

You put in the resources that you need.

Marc Van Huet

Exactly. And you just ensure that that reporting engine is a very stable engine and that continues.

Dearbhail McDonald

What does that allow you to do then as a CFO and as a leader?

Marc Van Huet

I think it allows me to, as we say, to be on the balcony and to overlook the whole thing and to see what is really required and how do we take not only finance, but the wider business to the next level. I mean, within finance, we look at it and I know as well, EY is very strong on their AI front. We are looking at that as well. There are certain bits in the month-end process which we can do smarter by the use of AI. So we are looking into those kind of things, but also process mining, something new in finance as well, or at least new to me, where we really look into how does the process actually run. Because if you look at a process as such, you have an ideal way of floating it, then you know there are some anomalies.

Marc Van Huet

But the actual process, if you process map it, will probably more look like a bowl of spaghetti. And to really attack that and to really make the process smooth again, those kind of things would allow efficiencies and people really focusing on added value.

Dearbhail McDonald

So is it about that driving value and really driving the strategy of the company?

Marc Van Huet

Yeah, because as a company, Calor, we have the ambition to really grow over the coming years. We have an opportunity in rural Ireland to really make a difference.

Dearbhail McDonald

Yeah, talk me through that because we are kind of, Calor sits in the mix and hopefully we will tease out the Irish energy landscape. But where do you see yourself fitting in that mix as all countries, including Ireland, are trying to transition to greener, to cleaner?

Marc Van Huet

Yeah, and I think it very much differs per country. So it is all depending on the energy infrastructure of the country and in what you see in Ireland. Also to make the economy a success, the energy sector needs to drive. And I think it's important to realise that we cannot go from zero to 100 in an energy transition immediately and that we need a transition fuel in that. And we are really pushing ourselves as being one of those preferred suppliers as energy, as transition fuel basically.

Dearbhail McDonald

Yeah, and you've already mentioned the residential market, but obviously, SHV is looking at commercial, industrial and all of its different markets.

Marc Van Huet

Absolutely. So we have domestic customers, we have industrial customers, a lot of hotels, restaurants, anything you can imagine in rural Ireland, which is basically not connected to the national grid, is a potential customer of Calor.

Dearbhail McDonald

I mean, many countries are struggling with this, whether it is grid capacity, you know, whether it is having the right planning systems in place, the right capital investment in place and even where all of that comes from. What do you see as our biggest challenges and opportunities in this market? Bearing in mind that you have the advantages of seeing what the holding group does elsewhere.

Marc Van Huet

Yeah, no, I think the challenges in Ireland are that the typical rural houses are not immediately fit for purpose to have a heat pump installed tomorrow. So the retrofitting of those houses is going to be incredibly costly.

Marc Van Huet

Whereas if you would go with Calor, you have an opportunity to really take a serious cut on your carbon emissions and still have a very good quality of heating your house without having significant costs to retrofit.

Dearbhail McDonald

And we're in that sort of you can't go, you've already said from zero to 100 overnight. So how do we accelerate that transition?

Marc Van Huet

Yeah, so we offer both LPG and bio LPG, bio LPG from mainly used cooking oil and that is already 85% more greener or less carbon intense. And that is the first step into a transition towards net zero. There will be and that is also the benefit of being part of such a larger group that our mother ship is looking into alternatives which can use the same infrastructure. But that will take time to develop. But then you need to think about like rDME, which is based on waste generated LPG.

Dearbhail McDonald

And obviously Ireland is a small island open economy. We're not having conversations yet about nuclear like France or Germany and data centres can be controversial in some countries, including here. So how do we get ourselves, how do we get ourselves in, you know, ready for the transition? And what role does Calor have to do that? Like we, are you in the middle of that transit, you know, where can you kind of come in in terms of solutions?

Marc Van Huet

Well, the colleagues of myself are actively talking to politicians and really ensuring that we play a role because we are willing to take up our responsibility in decarbonizing rural Ireland because we see an opportunity there to definitely be right in the middle.

Dearbhail McDonald

Yeah, right in the middle of that. Talk to me about some of the biggest differences maybe in terms culturally in terms of business between Ireland and the Netherlands.

Marc Van Huet

I think one of the things, especially on arrival, I needed to get used to. But I think it's a beautiful thing is the work life balance. I think the office people really are committed to do their shift and are pulling their weight. But they also very well know that at whenever they finish up, it's time to go home and to spend time with family.

Dearbhail McDonald

Was that a culture shock coming from?

Marc Van Huet

No, I mean, it's probably just a mindset thing more than anything else. Because if you have a deadline, or if I would have had a deadline in the Netherlands, you would be rather finishing it up on the same evening.

Marc Van Huet

Get it behind you and make sure that you submit it whatever needs to be submitted rather than maybe finishing it in the next morning. So that that was something especially at the start where I which I noticed as a difference.

Dearbhail McDonald

In a good way..

Marc Van Huet

In a good way. Absolutely. I think another thing which in between the Dutch and Irish, I think what works well is that I think people in Ireland, a little bit similar. Look after each other, try to keep everybody friendly. And as Dutch, we are sometimes a bit more direct. We call a spade a spade. And that that sometimes works well, because sometimes somebody just needs to say what it is about. And then it allows you to progress as well.

Dearbhail McDonald

Your team here in Ireland is quite diverse. How important is that for you?

Marc Van Huet

I think it's very important just to get the various insights of various perspectives of people. I had the opportunity to take a team from two, three different nationalities to now five alone already in my management finance management team and nine in the full finance team. And that it spreads from Latin America to Asia and in Europe right there in the middle. And that gives a lot of perspectives. And also...

Dearbhail McDonald

Are you seeking within that to get particular skills into your finance team that mightn’t ordinarily be associated with it? Like, I mean, how important is data or AI or maybe some of that more kind of, more creative?

Marc Van Huet

Yes and no, I think in an interview, I very much look like look at the person and their values. And because I truly believe that capabilities can be learned once somebody is interested in in the in the job, because in principle, the job spec should already say that some certain things are expected..

Dearbhail McDonald

Taken as given.

Marc Van Huet

And then it's all about cultural fit to me to make sure that yeah, it is it is rowing in the same direction as you could say to ensure that we benefit on both ends. They have a unique opportunity to develop themselves in a company like Calor. And at the same time, we benefit from their experience. They bring from externally as well.

Dearbhail McDonald

Can you talk to me a little bit more just about culture, because we talk a lot. We talk about it a lot in business. But what does that actually kind of mean to you to have the right culture? Like as a leader, what kind of culture are you trying to foster? Because a negative one can have a bad outcome for lots of people.

Marc Van Huet

Absolutely. No, I think you would like to have the people a good time at work. I mean, and that's not always going to be the case, because there is sometimes pressure for certain reports and mountains and that the normal pressures of business that you won't take away. And that would also not be the right thing to do. However, you can create an atmosphere where people are feeling inclusive, feeling part of a team and feel a sense of belonging. And that's what really resonates with me. And that's where I really believe that you can make a difference as a leader. Very simple example. We had all kinds of dividers in the on the finance floor and I took them away just

Dearbhail McDonald

A simple thing just to..

Marc Van Huet

just to it were very old green dividers. So they also soaked in a lot of light. And we have white desks in our office. So even by taking those out, the place felt already much brighter. And really, people are just one slide away behind the screen to look at each other and to have a quick chat. It's those little things where you just can make a difference of people interacting in a natural way or people have to stand up to have a conversation. And it's those things. People having lunch together now, having breakfast together. It's those things which allow people to really have a sense of belonging. They belong to the team. They contribute in their way and have success together because it's also important to celebrate success.

Dearbhail McDonald

You have a lot of autonomy as a leader. You've already sort of described that dynamic of working for a private group and one. I think there's still some family representation on the board.

Marc Van Huet

Yeah, in the Supervisory Board of SHV.

Dearbhail McDonald

So talk to me about if you've got a lot of autonomy here in Ireland, you will, like every other CFO on this island, be looking to much bigger things like the geopolitics of energy, energy security, tariffs, looking at policy. How do you navigate that?

Marc Van Huet

It's a challenging time without a shadow of a doubt. I think what we see is that the indirect impact from changes in the US.

Dearbhail McDonald

Are you seeing that already?

Marc Van Huet

Yeah. Yeah. We see that already. We see that the exports towards the US is declining of our customers.

Marc Van Huet

So they we basically can monitor consumption of our customers at all times. And we see their consumption dropping.

Marc Van Huet

An example are the distilleries in Ireland where they have serious, serious trouble at the minute because they..

Dearbhail McDonald

You can literally track that.

Marc Van Huet

Yeah. Then they have serious challenges because they are selling stock. They produced earlier, but they are not producing anything new because they don't know how the world will look in a year or two from now. And if it would be worth it to produce.

Dearbhail McDonald

Yeah. And what about even then, I know you've probably you've only been here just over two years, but you probably got to enjoy one of the warmer and drier summers here in Ireland, which probably isn't good for your business. But winter is coming. So it'll be back in back in black for that. What do you kind of see then when you're looking because you do have a very sort of intimate look at how we use energy is how we live life?

Marc Van Huet

Absolutely. And then I think in general, the very social aspect of the Irish culture resonates with that. It's an important piece of family gatherings and whatsoever. And we have the benefit that we have in the summer, our cylinder business, which is obviously roaring at that time. The barbecues, the barbecues, the patios. People want to sit outside. I think on the back of Covid, people started to appreciate their back gardens again and really developed that into their extension of their living room as such. So now I think we play a very important role, I think, on the back of us launching a new strategy at the end of last year, we really went for the catchphrase, the energy that connects us. And I think that that is what Calor is. We are able to connect people, businesses and the whole of Ireland because we don't want to leave. We want nobody to feel left behind in this energy transition. Calor can really play a role for everybody because we are there when you are not connected to the grid.

Dearbhail McDonald

Because that's one of the biggest issues, isn't it? With the just transition, we talk about it a lot, but actually the big key issues of who is going to pay for that. I mean, when you look even to capital markets and capital investment, how do you think that that's going to be funded in the future?

Marc Van Huet

I mean, funding in general is something where we need governmental support. I think in general, there is a massive opportunity. We have an opportunity to create new skills, new employment and to really be as Ireland and a leading country in how to do this energy transition because everybody is still trying to figure it out. And I think a supportive energy policy framework is essential to ensure that all sectors from domestic but also to local restaurants or hotels are included in that.

Dearbhail McDonald

Yeah, so because sometimes the biggest things here in Ireland are policy and planning, but there's also that element of public support as well. And I think it's true to say that a lot of these investments are not just resource intensive, but they're time intensive. They're kind of quite long cycles.

Marc Van Huet

Absolutely. And I think it's a mix of technology and one size fits all. I think we need to avoid that we go for one size that fits all. I think at the minute we have that, I think the likes of oil or peat can serve almost everybody. But in the future, that will not be enough to go into a transition. We really need to look individual case by individual case. And then, like you said, that will take time.

Dearbhail McDonald

And what about the future for LPG in particular? Because it's the real staple of SHV, isn't it, in terms of that arm of the conglomerate?

Marc Van Huet

Yeah, and I think that's why we on the global scale are looking into alternatives. And what's next? The first thing that is next is bio LPG. That is something which really contributes already to, well, for instance, Irish hospitality sector. It's very well appreciated by various hotels and then the more boutique hotels who like to use also the...

Dearbhail McDonald

Because their customers are demanding it.

Marc Van Huet

Exactly. So you need to have that solution. And then it also again, benefits that you're part of a global company so that you can source the bio LPG.

Dearbhail McDonald

Are you optimistic about the future of the energy sector? Do you think that the technological innovation is going to rise to meet this moment that we're in?

Marc Van Huet

I think I dare to say that that is something which should be possible with the capacity of the people we have, that we need to find a way to really play an important role in this energy transition.

Dearbhail McDonald

What is next for you, Mark Van Huet, because you've worked in so many different areas and you've had that opportunity, that unique opportunity within a big holding group to be able to move early, move to different parts of the business. I mean, do you ever see yourself, do you want to rise to CEO? Do you want to move into different areas or sectors?

Marc Van Huet

It's an interesting question. And also one, I'm...

Dearbhail McDonald

Open your own Louis Vuitton store.

Marc Van Huet

Well, in due course, maybe, no, I don't think they do any franchises. I think they are quite confidential about their figures because we had to, at the time, work also with dummy figures to calculate what margin would it, or what profit would it bring from optimising the draws. We did not work with the real numbers. We built a model that they could use.

Marc Van Huet

No, but to bring it back to your question about what is next. I'm contemplating that myself as well. It could be a CEO role in a similar fashioned business, a similar size business. It could also be a CFO role of a slightly larger business to really go for the next step and see how that will go.

Marc Van Huet

But that is still a far bit way, at least here for the foreseeable future, to really leave something behind to which I can look back at even wherever I will be then.

Dearbhail McDonald

And what does success look like that? And if you were to leave that role of CFO here in Ireland, what would success look like for you within the company?

Marc Van Huet

I think we can do two more steps in finance on AI and on automation to really make sure that the finance team is future-proof. As mentioned, the whole growth journey of Calor should not go with the growth journey of the finance team. I think the current finance team should be well-equipped to handle the growth journey.

Dearbhail McDonald

And what does that growth journey look like?

Dearbhail McDonald

What are you targeting?

Marc Van Huet

We are targeting domestic homes in Ireland. In the rural communities, we launched our most recent Liquid gas Ireland report at the Ploughing and we are just there to really be part of the energy transition as transition fuels.

Dearbhail McDonald

Did you enjoy the Ploughing? That's one of our other great cultural moments.

Marc Van Huet

I was not there. It was the CEO of our company who was there. We took the opportunity to…

Dearbhail McDonald

We cannot let you leave Ireland before you get to go to the Ploughing. Can I ask you just one final question? Because you're probably the youngest CFO that we've profiled on this podcast series. You’re what age now?

Marc Van Huet

31.

Dearbhail McDonald

31. And you've achieved an awful lot in that period of time. What would your advice be to younger people? Graduates who are just coming into the business or younger students who are maybe considering a career in finance? What would you say to them?

Marc Van Huet

I think you mentioned a good point there. What to say to graduates? I think one of the key things I tried to do as well when starting here in Calor was creating a finance setup of structure to really allow them to see a career path through finance within Calor. So you can join Calor now as trainee accountant and see a whole career path naturally through finance over the years if you are successful.

Marc Van Huet

What would be my biggest recommendation to them? Be curious. There are no stupid questions, although people might suggest otherwise. You will always learn something and then be curious about also things outside your remit, not only within your role. I mean, you obviously need to try to master your role as soon as possible. And at the same time, enjoy the journey as well, because it's also a very, very rewarding experience to really make a difference.

Dearbhail McDonald

And who were your mentors in business or who do you admire in business when you look across, whether here or across Europe or elsewhere?

Marc Van Huet

I think it's not so much one particular person. I think what I do admire in people is when they give you the trust to give it a go. I think that is one key element of SHV, but also here in Calor, I get the opportunity to give it a go. And then that trust is a very important element. And if leaders possess that ability, I think that is something which admires.

Dearbhail McDonald

And if and when you do stumble like all of us do, how do you come back?

Marc Van Huet

I think it's... I like to play golf in my free time. I think it's happening there where you take 10 steps and try to forget your previous shots, because probably after the 10 steps, you're already where your ball is as well. So, you know, it's those kind of... You need to build in a bit of a moment of reflection to learn from it and then make sure that it doesn't happen the second time. And then, yeah, it's a bit of resilience you build up along the way.

Dearbhail McDonald

What is your most surprising thing about Ireland so far?

Marc Van Huet

The most surprising thing, I think it's the hospitality. I remember being here in the early parts of 2023 when I was looking for a place where to live and I was looking on the corner of the street and didn't not sure where to go. And already two, three people ask you, "Where are you looking for? Where do you want to go?" And it was an honest interest and you end up talking with people for five to 10 minutes and they explain you everything about the neighbourhood. And it's probably the best way to find out where you want to live in Dublin. But, yeah, no, the welcomeness and the openness of everybody that that really surprised me.

Dearbhail McDonald

And finally, what should we know? What should we know quintessentially about the Dutch? Apart from your directness.

Marc Van Huet

Apart from the directness. I think, overall, it is probably the entrepreneur spirit. I think you see it a lot throughout the Dutch culture. We like to innovate and we like to bring new things if that is in business, if that is in TV shows. I recently saw in Ireland how Traitors was such an important... 

Dearbhail McDonald

Water cooler moment.

Marc Van Huet

Yeah, exactly. And it's those TV shows, for instance, which are developed in the Netherlands as well. So it's quite interesting to see the innovation of, for instance, the TV landscape driven by the Dutch as well.

Dearbhail McDonald

Absolutely. Listen, it has been an absolute joy to speak to you. Do you think this could, if we could tempt you, this might be one of your longest roles. In corporate business.

Marc Van Huet

Oh, no, it will for sure be. So I won't be leaving anytime soon. Absolutely.

Dearbhail McDonald

Well, it's been an absolute joy to have you with us. And we look forward to hearing from you and from all of the rest of the CFOs on the series. Marc Van Huet, thank you very, very much.

Marc Van Huet

Thank you very much for your time.

Dearbhail McDonald

And that is it for another episode of the EY CFO Outlook podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And we'll catch you on the next one. Thank you.