About

Free ICT Europe Foundation(FIE) is a not-for-profit foundation actively promoting the ICT Secondary Market within Europe. Our objective is to secure the right of ownership and the freedom for consumers and businesses alike to freely choose their providers to trade, maintain and repair by:

  • Address the restrictive practices undertaken by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)
  • Ensure serviceability is included as a key component of the EU Digital Agenda
  • Promote common standards for reuse and resale of equipment and software
  • Achieve contract transparency to protect end users against unfair business practices.
Download free report
Learn more
Free ICT Europe - Mission

Mission

FREE ICT EUROPE aims to bring together the independent enterprise ICT aftermarket chain under the banner of "Freedom to Support, Repair and Resell". These organisations have been able to extend the life and improve the service to ICT assets while realising better value.

Free ICT Europe - Collaborating

Collaborating

While we might bring together competition, the relationships we have are based on Trust and elevate to the level of Interest of the market as a whole. Affiliations are within our core market & beyond.

Free ICT Europe - Representing

Representing

FIE is recognised as the European Representative for the IT aftermarket, representing companies active in Third Party Maintainance, Software Support, ICT Brokerage/Reselling, Spare Parts Suppliers, Used Software resellers, Rental and Leasing Companies.

Free ICT Europe - Influencing

Influencing

Although many companies in this market are working well with each other on a daily basis, there is no united approach towards institutions and other organisations. To be heard one voice needs to be strong enough to inform bodies about our market and issues.

Free ICT Europe - Support

Support

The market developments stimulate us to unite our common values & knowledge to become stronger, to defend the rights and interests of our customers, our businesses and Europe as a whole. Confidentiality is key.

Free ICT Europe - Transparent

Transparent

As listed at all our communication we are registered in the EU transparancy register. When you are interested to receive our Financial Report, please use the Contact Form. Our donors receive a copy automatically.

Our Board

A group of independent European IT services operators and CBE founded the creation of an alliance - Free ICT Europe Foundation.

Tomás O’Leary
President
Tomás O’Leary

With over 15 years working both in IBM directly and leading one of their most successful European Business Partners, Tomás understands the issues and dynamics at play in the rapidly changing ICT services landscape. Subsequently, Tomás has spent the last number of years building a business which is rapidly becoming a recognised global leader in the independent support of IBM software, Origina. Origina enables large organisation to enhance their software budgets through cost reduction in relation to software support they already have, as to enable them to obtain the technology they really need.

Tomás is a recognised thought leader and vocal member of the secondary ICT market. He both understands and is passionate about the importance of representation and co-operation to achieve common goals. A consistent advocate for the promotion of choice for large ICT users, he has been an avid campaigner against the lock-in practices that can dominate the ICT industry. These passions coupled with an informative and enlightening time with the SIA’s Advocacy Group, (which ultimately became Repair.org), Tomás then went on to help found Free ICT Europe Foundation in 2014.

tomas@freeict.eu
Habibou M’Baye
Board Member
Habibou M’Baye

Habibou M'BAYE is the founder and CEO of SOFTCORNER, a digital exchange dedicated to the software licence circular economy.

Frenchtech ambassador and awarded by European Commission, SOFTCORNER is recognized as one of the most innovative marketplayer in the industry.

In the last few years, while developing its knowledge of software licensing and intellectual property issues, Habibou became aware of the need for the ecosystem to organize itself and act as closely as possible to the European institutions, in order to defend a fairer, more affordable and sustainable conception of the IT market."

Habibou joined the board of Free ICT Europe in 2017.

habibou@free-ict.eu
Jan Hoogstrate
Executive Director
Jan Hoogstrate

Change will continue to happen, influence matters. It is Jan’s drive to work on these changes; unite & represent SME’s, call for a fair market and participate in legislative processes to make the connection.

With cars becoming computers on wheels two main sectors in his career came together. Jan’s education has been in Automotive followed by a Bachelor in Business Administration and a master in Total Quality Management.

Since 2001 most of his time in the secondary IT market with roles in the organisations; Computer Brokers Exchange (CBE), the AscdiNatd and the Free ICT Europe Foundation. Since 2016 Jan works part-time for Free ICT Europe, next to his consultancy activities.

Jan has worked for large businesses and SME’s. As advisor and analyst he was involved in M&A projects, business development and creating strategic change. For Free ICT Europe he takes the lead in participation of EU projects, key contact for alliance partners and responsible for daily operations.

jan@freeict.eu
Kjell Olsson
Board Member
Kjell Olsson

Kjell Olsson is co-founder and CEO of Shibuya Crossing, a key player in the IT infrastructure specialist business in Sweden.

Shibuya Crossing is a skilled system integrator that provides services and solutions in the areas of server, storage, security and communications. Our goal is to build long-term sustainable IT solutions together with our customers, that contribute to increased competitiveness and growth.

Kjell Olsson has played a key role in developing Shibuya Crossing by a number of mergers and acquisitions and he has started up the TPM business which offers Independent services to extend systems life cycle and reduce cost of operations.

Astrid Wynne
Board Member
Astrid Wynne

“Astrid Wynne is a chartered environmentalist and a full member of IEMA. She is Sustainability Lead at Techbuyer, a global specialist in sustainable IT hardware provision with a specialism in data centre IT equipment such as servers, storage and networking.

Astrid is a subject matter expert in circular economy and wider sustainability issues such as energy efficiency, carbon footprints, environmental impact and ESG risk. She is a published author in multiple peer-reviewed journals on topics related to these issues, most recently in the IEEE Journal of Sustainable Computing (2020) and Elsevier Journal of Sustainable Computing: Informatics and Systems (2021).

Astrid also works with the data centre industry to increase circularity and sustainability with the adoption of heat reuse, more efficient material management, Net Zero plans and social impact assessments. She is Chair of the Sustainability Special Interest Group at the Data Centre Alliance and collated the first Sustainability Best Practice document for the association in 2022.”

A.Wynne@techbuyer.com

Get Involved

Are you an ICT Secondary Market provider?
Then please join our alliance, as we need your help to raise our voice.

FIE has become a serious partner in Brussels, please join the alliance, so that we can continue to expand our reach and gain more attention representing businesses like yours.

Join

As a Foundation we are depending on the gifts we receive. Please consider to support us financially, your contribution is appreciated & needed!
Thank you in advance,

Donate

Subscribe to our newsletter so that we can share more about our activities and the issues our industry is facing. We also encourage other companies to share their story.

Subscribe