Industry Champion: Terry Ceulemans, President of Deceuninck North America

ALTIX INDUSTRY CHAMPION INTERVIEW

Terry, thanks for joining us for the Industry Champion interview. First of all, tell us about you, your career, where you are coming from, so our readers know a little bit more about you.

I was born and raised in Belgium. It was an amazing time—I had great parents who gave me the opportunity to be successful. I had a strong dad who always told me: “Have success in your life.” When I was six years old, he said, “First you study, then you play,” and from that moment on, that’s how I guided my life. I was very committed throughout my schooling. I always challenged myself to follow the hardest path. I went to the best schools and the best university in Belgium.

My dad used to say, “You never achieve a position where you’re happy—you can always do better.” My mom, on the other hand, was more the emotional comforter. And that is where I learned about work-life balance.

I went to the best university and graduated as a chemical engineer. Why chemistry? Because everything around you is chemistry. Take away chemistry, and there is nothing else.

I started at 3M for two reasons: to leverage my education as an engineer, and more importantly, because 3M’s headquarters are in the USA. My mom had lived in the USA from 1963 to 1964 and always wanted to stay—but she met my dad. At home, we had all her memorabilia in a box, and I started dreaming about the US from an early age.

I started as a technical sales engineer, and my dream was to move my family to the USA. We tried three times—it didn’t work out at first. Then we moved the family to Paris for a few years with 3M, and finally, in 2015, we made it to the USA. I believe in the American dream. I believe it’s real. There’s a mindset here: people want to help you; they want you to succeed. The second reason is opportunity. There’s so much opportunity in this country, nothing is impossible.

After almost ten years of a very successful journey, I left 3M in 2023. My second dream was to start my own company from scratch. I had tried in Belgium in the early 2000s, but there was too much bureaucracy. I’m a people person, so I started a business in recruiting. Six weeks in, I got a call from an executive headhunter telling me there was a company very interested in my profile. I declined—but he told me it was a Belgian company looking for a CEO in the USA.

My third dream was to become the CEO of a Belgian company in the USA. I know Europe and European culture very well, and I had lived ten years in the USA. I believed I could be the matchmaker between Europe and the USA. I finally took the job, and I could not be happier.  I am the President of Deceuninck North America.

About Deceuninck

Please tell us now about Deceuninck: Who is Deceuninck, and what does the company do?

Our mission is helping to build sustainable homes by providing best-in-class profiles for windows and doors. Every house needs windows and doors, and we are leading in that market. We are one of the biggest players in the USA and Canada.

What makes Deceuninck different from other players? What does it take to be a leader?

Windows and doors are commodities. The way to stay a leader in a market segment is to be competitive and to excel in a few key areas. For us, there are three things we focus on: reliability, innovation, and sustainability.

Reliability means making sure our customers can count on us. We provide good solutions for our customers, their customers, and ultimately the end consumer. That means unique solutions at every step in the value chain. We support our customers with technical expertise in the field—even if the problem isn’t caused by our product. We send engineers onsite in less than 24 hours to help find a solution. That builds long-term trust and strong partnerships.

We manage our business based on relationships. I personally do a lot of customer visits, and I can attest that during those visits you can not only see the trust, but you can also feel it. We are open book, we help each other. That comes from commitment—it doesn’t happen by accident. There’s still work to do on reliability, and we are investing heavily in operational excellence, automation, and efficiency to raise our baseline to the next level.

Terry, you are very passionate about innovation. You have been innovating a lot during your time at 3M. How do you apply innovation at Deceuninck?

In a commodity environment, you can copy products. But the only way to really grow a category like windows and doors is to imagine what comes next. Will windows in 2050 look the same as today? No. If you want to be part of that game, you better be at the drawing board designing the window of the future. The market and our customers expect continuous innovation—not just incremental, but also disruptive. Disruptive innovation means developing products that don’t exist today. That’s the mindset I want to bring.

Leadership & Culture

It’s great to be the disruptor. How do you, as a leader, instill that mindset across your team?

Two things. First, the mindset has to be embedded in the company—it starts at the top. It has to be part of your daily conversations. I always start discussions about the future, with customers and with employees.

Second, you make it an expectation. I want open ideas. There are no stupid ideas, no one knows what will happen in 2050. The more ideas on the table, the more options we have, and the more likely we are to create something disruptive in the future. Lead by example and make it clear that thinking ahead is part of the job.

Can you talk about the transformation you are leading at Deceuninck North America—strategic priorities, operational shifts, and long-term vision.

If you want to be the market leader, you need a manufacturing operation that is state-of-the-art. That operation has to support your growth strategy and back up your product solutions for your customers.

First, you have to picture the blueprint of what you have today. Automation is critically important for two reasons: one, it’s not easy to get employees—and great employees is even harder —to do repetitive work; two, quality matters. If you make quality less dependent on the human factor, quality goes up. Automation doesn’t need to be everywhere, but it needs to be where it really matters.

From a supply chain perspective, we are thinking differently. We are embedding our customers much more in our supply chain processes, eliminating waste and inefficiencies wherever possible. That allows us to be faster, more responsive, and more reliable for our customers.

Transformation is not just about machines or processes, it’s about linking strategy, operations, and customer experience. Everything we do has to support our long-term vision of being the market leader while delivering exceptional solutions.

Let’s continue with your leadership philosophy, the role of culture in performance, and how you drive cultural change to enable innovation and transformation.

My leadership style is people centric. I believe you need the right people to be successful. That starts with hiring great people and giving them freedom—of course within the framework of your strategy—but setting them up to succeed. Along the way, you support them with the right tools so they can be successful.

Number two is open and honest communication. If something is right, tell us—and we will celebrate it. If something is not right, tell us—and we will fix it. Transparency builds trust, and trust builds performance.

Number three, we all own the company as employees. Every employee has ownership over the company. That mindset drives accountability, engagement, and creativity. When people feel ownership, they step up, innovate, and help drive transformation.

Culture is not a poster on the wall—it’s lived every day. Through my leadership style, I try to create an environment where people feel empowered to contribute, share ideas, and challenge the status quo. That’s how you enable innovation and transformation in real terms, not just in theory.

Vision

Can you share your vision for Deceuninck five years from now.

First, we already have a leading position in the US and Canada, and we need to reinforce that. But we also have a very big growth mindset. Over the next five years, we want to outpace that growth by a factor of two or three.

We have a very ambitious goal: to aggressively grow our market share. That means taking share directly from our competitors. That’s the plan.

The way we do it is by changing the mindset, everything is possible. Getting a “yes” is what you should aim for, even if it’s not always easy. Along the way, we celebrate successes, we recognize learning, and we recognize people for making mistakes and learning from them. That’s how you build a company that doesn’t just grow—it thrives and transforms.

Personal

Now on a personal note, you have a demanding job. How do you find your energy every day, and how do you recharge?

Two things. First, I enjoy every single minute of my life—no exceptions. I focus on the positive, even in the most critical situations. There is always an upside, and that energy helps me stay focused, even on the challenges.

Second, I find tremendous joy in making people successful. I always want to help others become a better version of themselves, and as a result, it makes me a better version of myself.

Third, my family is the most important asset in my life. Everything else can change rapidly, but my family is the cornerstone. I will do everything possible to support them and help them succeed—that is my passion and my focus.

Thank you, Terry, for sharing your insights and experiences—you are truly an Industry Champion, and your vision, passion, and leadership inspire us all.

It’s a pleasure and an honor to share some perspective, and I hope people can be inspired. Dreams start as dreams. They aren’t real yet. But they can become real. Most people don’t believe it, but two things matter: be patient, and involve other people. Build partnerships, and they will support you. I always share my dreams with my customers. I’ve lived my dreams three times already, so I know it works.

I want to help others make their dreams real. You can’t do it alone. You need to map it out. And you have to be patient—it may not happen the first, second, or third time, but if you keep believing, it will happen. I used to be impatient. Now, I have learned to be a patient man.