Ruben Mertens is Maintenance Manager at Envalior in Antwerp, one of Belgium’s major chemical production sites with multiple plants. He leads a centralized maintenance organization of 115 employees, covering maintenance execution, reliability engineering, E&I engineering, planning & scheduling, warehouse operations and contractor management. After starting his career 13 years ago as a maintenance engineer and working across several production plants, Ruben was asked to lead the centralization of the maintenance department. Under his leadership, Envalior rolled out standardized work processes across all units, strengthening safety, compliance and operational performance. Ruben focuses on sustainable asset performance, operational excellence and long‑term reliability improvement.