Overview
Hannes D'Hulster is COO of Cellavie, a role he took up in October 2025. He is based in Brugge. Since March 2025 he has been a host at Huis Ampère, and he has worked at Mrs & Mr since September 2007, first as a UX designer and, since January 2015, as product manager.
He founded Smooth Sailing and led its product work from February 2020 until October 2025, and between 2010 and October 2020 he was the founder of Nerdlab. From January 2005 to February 2020 he was a project manager and information architect at Ligo, Centrum voor Basiseducatie Brugge-Oostende-Westhoek. He was a designer at Mono – Interface Design from 2015 to 2017 and an information architect at Wijs from 2011 to 2015, and he coached at open Summer of code between 2019 and 2022.
Earlier he taught media art at Hogeschool Gent from 2010 to 2011 and at Das Kunst from 2007 to 2010, and worked as a student employee at Tropicana in 2006. He studied Communication and Media Studies at Katholieke Hogeschool Limburg, completing a master's degree in 2006.
Career history
In the news
- Zit je soms in een meeting waar iedereen naast elkaar lijkt te praten? De meningen visualiseren en zo het probleem helder krijgen, werkt voor mij altijd! Deze keer hou ik het niet voor mezelf, maar deel ik mijn werkwijze tijdens de brunch op 16 oktober in Huis Ampère. Er zijn nog vier plekjes vrij. Snel inschrijven 👉 https://luma.com/68yzanzh
- Unless you only ever shred dry gigafactory scrap, you'll need discharging capacity. Anything that still holds a charge (cells, modules, packs) has to be emptied before it goes into the shredder. Safety rule, no way around it. 🙃 The awkward part: you pay for it before the first ton comes in, while your volumes are still a forecast. Recyclers overbuilding is a real risk, the IEA has warned that announced capacity is running far ahead of actual feedstock. So don't size for the wave. Size for what's on the dock and add discharging
- Dear network, who do I need to talk to for Electrical engineering power? (pun intended) Nerdlab, Ghent University, VIVES Technology?
- Well look at that 👀 Deep dischargers leaving the nest, off to a French recycler to go chase electrons still hiding in their batteries. Nothing custom here. These are our standard modules, 2 kW each, that stack like Lego. A recycler rarely really knows what feedstock lands on the dock next month, so instead of guessing capacity upfront, they add bricks as the volume shows up. Bon voyage! 🇫🇷
- Wrapping up a great week in Berlin for ICBR. 🔋 Every year, ICM AG brings together the crème de la crème of the battery recycling community to look at the data and evolutions in the sector. Everyone with a stake in battery recycling is there, and of course, Cellavie was too, discharger backpack and all. 🧠 My biggest takeaway this year: the aging models on battery lifetime. They give real insight into both our market and that of the recyclers. Happy to have had battery-tech-seasoned Anthony F. along to catch the subtleties I might
- We installed a puinching bag in the Cellavie office 🥊 When we are cracking very difficult problems we hit it a few times and it often help us to keep going. These weeks it has been swinging a lot! But with results. ✅ We finished a big order ✅ we solved some long outstanding issues ✅ We did some innovation which will open big new markets! Keep going fellow entrepreneurs!
- The summer 😎 is not very chill at a #start-up like Cellavie. We’re producing and adapting to the constant market evolution while pioneering technology to discharge end-of-life EV batteries. 🪫 We need #help with that understanding our customers pain points and close new impactful projects! So, if: - you are a freelance sales pro - with a background and network in #recycling equipment or #circular economy - who closed deals with corporates in a multi stakeholder context We offer a 2 day per week engagement with a base fee
- I’m a sucker for well designed things 👨🎓. I studied #design, I ran a design #agency, I worked with designers in every step of my job journey. 🌪️ The AI age shook things up a bit and we all need to adapt. I worked with Dieter Peirs on the branding of Cellavie (he obviously did all the hard work) and we found an interesting new deliverable: The Claude Design skill. 1️⃣ Defining a style and deliver assets so Claude know what to do with it 2️⃣ Install and just mentioned it once and it works pretty well 🚀 Ready to deliver
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