Overview
Laurens Van Reijen is the managing director of LCL Data Centers, a position he has held since September 2002. He is based in Brussels.
He also sits on the board of the Federation of Belgian Industrial Energy Consumers, FEBELIEC, which he joined in March 2023, and has been a board member and treasurer of The European Data Centre Association, EUDCA, since June 2016. Between July 2012 and November 2019 he was an independent board member of IXcellerate.
Earlier, from 1998 to 2001, he founded Eurofiber and served as its operations director.
Van Reijen studied economics at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel from 1983 to 1986. He later followed the KMO excellence programma at Vlerick Business School from 2011 to 2012 and the school's Beyond Excellence Program from 2012 to 2016, and in 2021 obtained a certificate in sustainable business strategy from Harvard Business School Online.
Career history
In the news
- Yesterday at DatacenterDynamics Connect London, I joined a debate on a question that goes well beyond grid capacity: Are data centers becoming Europe’s new energy partners? Together with Rune Hogga, Director of Power at Bulk Infrastructure, Carlos Alves, Manager Energy & Capacity at Digital Realty, and Goran Arya, Director, Energy Origination & Structuring EMEA at Equinix, we discussed grid allocation, flexibility, powered land and the changing relationship between data centers and the energy system. The debate was moderated by
- I look forward to being in Londen for the DatacenterDynamics Investment Forum next week, taking part in two discussions on a pressing challenge for our industry: access to power. During the Forum, I will join industry leaders to explore how bringing power generation closer to the data center could help address grid constraints, whether this can become a viable long-term strategy, and how our sector can enable investment in new generation and storage capacity. I’ll be taking part in two closely connected sessions, both centred
- I’m delighted to share that for the first time, LCL Data Centers has been nominated for a Trends Impact Award in the Climate & Energy category. This nomination is an important recognition of the path we have chosen as a company. We believe data centers should play an active role in the energy transition. That is why, at LCL, we go beyond purchasing renewable electricity. We invest in creating our own renewable energy capacity through wind and solar energy, alongside battery storage to make better use of surplus energy. At the
- On 17 September, I will join the DatacenterDynamics Investment Forum in London for a roundtable discussion on renewable energy and on-site power generation. Power is a prerequisite for data center development. As expected grid constraints make securing capacity for new developments increasingly complex, on-site and renewable power generation are opening up new possibilities. At LCL Data Centers, our on-site solar park at LCL Wallonia One, together with the solar façades at LCL Brussels-North and LCL Brussels-West, generate renewable
- Sustainability plays a growing role in how customers and investors assess digital infrastructure. The EU Taxonomy brings a common European standard to this. It helps make clear which investments can be considered environmentally sustainable, based on standardised criteria and evidence. For LCL Data Centers, the EU Taxonomy helps improve access to sustainable financing and provides a clear framework for responsible growth. We assess our major investments against its criteria. Together with Haskoning, we put this into practice across
- My holiday reading: The Thinking Machine by Stephen Witt. How does a graphics card manufacturer grow into one of the most important infrastructure providers for AI? The Thinking Machine tells the story of NVIDIA and Jensen Huang. And it sometimes reads like a thriller. The book offers a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes at NVIDIA and into Jensen Huang’s entrepreneurship. One concept that stayed with me is the “zero-billion-dollar-market”: looking for markets that do not yet exist. A great illustration of just how
- Adopting AI is not the greatest challenge. Transforming an organisation while preserving trust, accountability and resilience is. That becomes even clearer in the public sector, where change has to happen without disrupting the services people depend on. During a recent CIONET x LCL Data Centers roundtable with leaders from the public sector, healthcare and critical infrastructure, we discussed the realities of adopting AI. From preparing for the AI Act and NIS2 to building digital foundations that can support change over the
- It was a pleasure to welcome Ken Casier, alderman for Innovation and Digitalisation at the city of Antwerp, and his team to LCL Antwerp. We always appreciate the opportunity to welcome local policymakers and share what we do. It was a pleasure to note Ken Casier's extensive expertise in ICT and his clear understanding of its strategic importance for Antwerp. The Port of Antwerp-Bruges is the leading European oil and chemical cluster in Europe and at the same time a logistical hub for Europe. An example of innovation is that drones
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