Retention-led revenue
Generated in FY26 Q4 at Oracle—the highest result in EMEA. Protecting customer value also protected the business.
Cloud & AI adoption leader · Technical depth · People development
Understand the technology.
Bring people with you.
Deliver the outcome.
I’m Stefan Willems. I’ve grown from Customer Success Manager into regional cloud adoption leadership at Oracle, combining technical problem solving with customer insight, commercial judgement and a coaching approach to leadership.
Across EMEA and North America, colleagues have turned to me to untangle complex technical questions about OCI, develop practical solutions and help customers move forward.
Regional people leadershipGlobal OCI expertiseHands-on cloud & AI
Exploring my next leadership opportunity · Based in Bucharest
Dutch roots. International reach. A practical mindset.
01 / Selected outcomes
Outcomes that
matter to the business.
Customer progress, team delivery and commercial impact across different stages of my Oracle career.
Production go-lives in FY26
Delivered with my team, connecting onboarding and production readiness with the resolution of technical blockers and coordination across specialist teams.
Growth in OCI usage
Achieved over 18 months in my Senior Customer Success Manager role (2018–2020), during the early years of my OCI work.
Results drawn from my CV and subsequent updates. The 800% growth relates to the early years of my OCI work. Leadership results reflect work delivered with teams and cross-functional colleagues.
02 / What I bring to a team
Technical credibility.
Collaborative instinct.
People leadership.
Three connected strengths: get into the detail, make expertise useful to others, and develop people who can take ownership.
I get into
the detail.
I have hands-on experience setting up OCI environments: provisioning compute instances, configuring storage, networking and connectivity, and setting up IAM policies and permissions. My work also includes GPU infrastructure, self-hosted AI and an OCI CLI MCP I created to connect Codex with cloud operations.
I combine that practical experience with deep OCI Organizations, billing and metering expertise, and extensive, self-taught Oracle Analytics Cloud experience—investigating platform behaviour, tracing dependencies and turning complex questions into practical answers.
I make expertise
useful to others.
My contribution reaches across functions, regions and reporting lines. I bring together customers, sellers, engineers and adoption colleagues when a technical problem needs shared understanding and clear ownership.
I grew the internal OCI Organizations community to more than 1,600 people, helping knowledge travel beyond individual conversations.
I help people
become more capable.
Hiring, onboarding, coaching and developing a regional cloud adoption team. I set clear expectations, help people work through difficult situations and encourage them to develop their judgement and take ownership.
The aim is a team that grows in confidence and capability while staying focused on customer progress and business results.
03 / My progression at Oracle
A career built
by taking on more.
From customer success to cloud architecture, engineering and regional leadership—an expanding scope of responsibility, with technical depth and customer focus throughout.
Dec 2017 – Jun 2020
Customer success
Customer Success Manager → Senior Customer Success Manager
IaaS / PaaS · Benelux & key accounts
IaaS / PaaS · Benelux & key accounts
Built an understanding of customer needs, adoption blockers, renewals and expansion. Coordinated across Sales, Support and technical teams to help customers realise value from their cloud investment.
Jun 2020 – May 2021
Cloud architecture
Principal Cloud Architect
IaaS & PaaS · Key & top accounts
IaaS & PaaS · Key & top accounts
Expanded into OCI architecture, implementation choices and operating models. Developed subject matter expertise in billing, reporting, metrics and the relationship between platform capabilities and commercial terms.
May 2021 – May 2022
Cloud engineering
Principal Account Cloud Engineer
IaaS & PaaS · Key & top accounts
IaaS & PaaS · Key & top accounts
Supported enterprise customers with technical escalations, troubleshooting, consumption blockers and go-live readiness. Built cross-team trust and co-founded the cross-continent OCI Think Tank.
Jun 2022 – Aug 2026
Cloud Adoption leadership
Senior Manager, OCI Cloud & AI Adoption
Benelux & Israel
Benelux & Israel
Led and developed a regional team supporting 40+ strategic enterprise customers across four countries. Combined coaching, escalation ownership and cross-functional delivery with adoption, consumption and retention goals.
Role titles and dates from my CV.
04 / How I lead
Develop people.
Create ownership.
Keep the team moving.
My approach to leadership combines technical credibility with coaching and practical support. I help people work through difficult technical and customer questions, develop their judgement and take ownership of the next step.
Alongside managing my regional team, I was asked by executive management to lead the Cloud Adoption EMEA AI Hub. I led a team to evangelise AI in the workplace and help colleagues use it to assist customers—connecting people development, practical experimentation and customer value.
Help people build their own judgement.
Help people understand the context, explore options and grow their ability to handle the next challenge.
Clear expectations. Room to grow.
Hire, onboard and develop people, set performance expectations and create space for ideas and ownership.
Keep the outcome in view.
Connect technical specialists, commercial teams and customer priorities around practical next steps and shared accountability.
05 / Influence beyond the role
An impact that outgrew
the job description.
OCI Organizations became one of the clearest examples of how I work: develop deep platform knowledge, investigate recurring questions and turn individual answers into knowledge that other teams can use.
OCI Organizations is a multi-tenancy feature that lets organisations separate workloads into child tenancies while managing them centrally through a parent tenancy.
I grew the internal Oracle OCI Organizations Slack channel from a small group into a community of more than 1,600 people. Along the way, I became an informal spokesperson, SME and global go-to person for a subject that sat outside my formal responsibilities.
The contribution went beyond building a community. I became a technical reference point for platform behaviour, tenancy organisation and related billing and metering questions—connecting colleagues across functions and regions, sharing explanations and helping investigations move forward. I took on that responsibility because the need existed.
Executive trust / Regional and global contribution
Asked to lead.
Selected to advise.
Committed to share.
My contribution extended from regional people leadership to an executive-sponsored AI adoption mandate in EMEA and a selective, global advisory role supporting Oracle’s enterprise AI rollout.
EMEA / Executive mandate
Leading the Cloud Adoption
EMEA AI Hub.
Executive management asked me to lead the Cloud Adoption EMEA AI Hub. I led a team to evangelise the use of AI in the workplace and help colleagues apply it to customer needs: supporting customers, developing practical use cases and sharing reusable approaches across the Cloud Adoption organisation.
The wider EMEA initiative involved 120+ FTEs. My focus was enabling people to turn AI capability into useful day-to-day work and customer support.
Worldwide / 19-person AI SWAT team
Advising on the
enterprise AI rollout.
I was part of Oracle’s select, 19-person global AI SWAT team, which held an advisory role in the rollout of AI functionality, including ChatGPT Enterprise and Codex. We provided feedback and guidance to HQ Enterprise Engineering, bringing practical experience from adoption and usage into the rollout discussion.
We also created reusable assets, documentation and practical guidance to help colleagues work effectively with AI. I was recognised as AI SWAT Monthly Star in June 2026.
North America / Cross-team trust
A go-to resource
beyond my reporting line.
In his 2022 recommendation, Joe O’Toole described how I became a trusted resource in a collaboration thread serving 700+ North American sellers—even though we worked in different organisations.
That same approach carried into my AI work: investigate the issue, share what works, connect the right people and make the guidance useful beyond a single team.
AI Creativity Award · 2026Global AI SWAT Team Impact Award · 2026Inspire Excellence Manager Award · 2024
Recognition and cross-team feedback: LinkedIn recommendations ↗. The 700+ figure refers to Joe’s March 2022 account of that collaboration.
06 / Perspectives from colleagues
A reputation built
across teams.
I’m grateful for the people I’ve worked with and what I’ve learned from them. Here are a few reflections they shared about our time working together.
“Any organisation welcoming you will gain an outstanding leader, a wealth of expertise and a wonderful colleague.”
Sandor NieuwenhuijsRegional Director, Software Advisory
Comment on my October 13, 2026 post
His comment also praises OCI, provisioning and FinOps knowledge, international team leadership and practical guidance.
Read the comment thread ↗“Your drive, your professionalism, your ambition made a huge difference in our day-to-day work.”
Gavriel ItzhakiSenior Cloud Adoption Manager at Oracle (OCI)
Comment on my October 13, 2026 post
Worked in Stefan’s CAM team; his comment describes the impact of Stefan’s leadership on the team’s daily work.
Read the comment thread ↗“He rolls up his sleeves, builds, tests, experiments, and provides thoughtful feedback that improves OCI as a whole.”
Cody BrinkmanStrategic Pursuits · OCI & AI · North America
Personal feedback · June 25, 2026
Technical contribution and product improvement
Also on my October 13, 2026 post
“Few people know this industry better than you do, and you have been a go-to resource for so many of us.”Read the comment thread ↗
“He has since become a go-to resource and friend to 700+ NA sellers in a very active collaboration thread.”
Joe O’TooleArea Vice President, North America · Oracle
Recommendation · March 5, 2022
Worked together on different teams
Read the full recommendation ↗Worked together on different teams
Also on my October 13, 2026 post
“Appreciate all your team work over the years, Stefan. Top tier talent and teammate.”Read the comment thread ↗
Personal feedback
“you have knowledge broader than most as well as great insight on how to find answers that are not in your head already.”
“You have been a mentor to so many, including myself, and you made a massive impact during your run here.”
Josh KotranOracle Cloud Infrastructure · Media & Entertainment
Comment on my October 13, 2026 post
Mentoring and impact beyond the immediate team.
Read the comment thread ↗“you are building applications to make the data “speak” or apps to investigate, remediate and solve operational issues”
Raluca DraniceruCloud Technology
Comment on my October 13, 2026 post
Her comment recognises analytical tooling, Cloud Adoption Engineering leadership and collaboration with Product Management on FinOps, observability and manageability.
Read the comment thread ↗From the same October 13, 2026 comment
“Stefan’s contribution had a visible positive impact on our customers and across the entire Oracle Tech Cloud organization!”
Read more feedback from colleagues
“You’ve been an amazing colleague always supportive, going above and beyond many times”
Noel SidebothamOracle Cloud Engineering Director
Comment on my October 13, 2026 post
Recognition of collaboration and consistent support beyond the role.
Read the comment thread ↗“Effective communication, technical acumen and rapid action to solve problems.”
Doug LilesOracle AI Champions SWAT teammate
Personal feedback · June 25, 2026
His feedback also highlights AI-service consumption analysis and root-cause analysis.
“pro-active support and in-depth guidance have been essential to support the NL cloud growth in the past years.”
Joost MaliepaardSr. Director, Technology Cloud Engineering · The Netherlands
Personal feedback · December 10, 2025
His message also recognises management of the regional CAM team.
“This wasn’t part of his formal responsibilities—it was simply how he approached supporting colleagues.”
Luis FalcaoDedicated Region Senior Sales Specialist
Personal feedback · June 25, 2026
Cross-region collaboration on AI adoption and consumption visibility
“Stefan creates an environment where people can take ownership, challenge themselves, and bring new ideas forward.”
Omri MoasDelivering Cloud Infrastructure @ Oracle
Recommendation · May 21, 2026
Reported directly to Stefan
Read the full recommendation ↗Reported directly to Stefan
“Stefan’s expertise and willingness to support teams outside his immediate responsibilities were instrumental in making this possible.”
Rachel CostaPrincipal Account Cloud Engineer
Personal feedback · June 26, 2026
Helping navigate an approval blocker for an AI Data Platform proof of concept
“He looks for patterns behind recurring problems, builds tools to address them, and translates user friction into actionable improvements”
Max XiaoExecutive AI Leader
Recommendation · September 22, 2026
Worked together through Oracle’s AI SWAT initiative
Read the full recommendation ↗Worked together through Oracle’s AI SWAT initiative
“One of those few people that understands technology, but can explain it to a non-technical audience.”
Richard GarsthagenCloud Computing Specialist
Recommendation · February 17, 2022
Read the full recommendation ↗Also on my October 13, 2026 post
“An incredible loss for Oracle and all it's customers. Good luck on your next chapter, hope our paths will cross again.”Read the comment thread ↗
“His technical acumen speaks for itself”
Katie WilsonRegional Director at Oracle
Recommendation · February 17, 2022
Worked on the same team
Read the full recommendation ↗Worked on the same team
“I was impressed by your professionalism, your intricate and deep technical knowledge and your passion for delivering world class services”
Lesley Bown-Jones MBCSCloud adoption · Stakeholder management & change strategies
Comment on my October 13, 2026 post
Technical depth, professionalism and support for peers.
Read the comment thread ↗“Between that first time when you showed me how to do amazing things with the OAC instance and our latest exchanges about how to better put chatgpt enterprise to use, what a learning journey it was :).”
Catalin GavrilescuCloud Adoption Manager · Customer Success Professional
Comment on my October 13, 2026 post
Practical knowledge sharing across Oracle Analytics Cloud and enterprise AI.
Read the comment thread ↗“Your professional approach, punctuality and keeping up with our pace was a great asset to us.”
Ofer GraitzerCloud Account Executive at Oracle
Comment on my October 13, 2026 post
Collaboration with Sales and dependable delivery alongside the team.
Read the comment thread ↗“My colleagues and I trusted your expertise and relied on your help in so many situations.”
Ileana RăchităProactive Solutions Driver
Comment on my October 13, 2026 post
Trusted expertise and consistent support across colleagues.
Read the comment thread ↗“Thanks for always coming to the rescue when things looked challenging!”
Gerald SciberrasOrganisational, Commercial & Operations Leader
Comment on my October 13, 2026 post
Practical support when situations became difficult.
Read the comment thread ↗“You were one of the few people who were truly dedicated to helping not only our customers, but also your colleagues, a true problem solver. A loss for Oracle, and a great opportunity for your next company!”
Antoine GouedardDirector, Data Major España
Comment on Stefan’s October 13, 2026 post
Read the comment thread ↗“His depth of technical knowledge is impressive.”
Rida Salem AhmedOCI Cloud Architect at Oracle
Recommendation · August 1, 2026
Worked in the wider organisation; was not a direct report.
Read the full recommendation ↗Worked in the wider organisation; was not a direct report.
“If there was no solution known, he would find it.”
Steven RijgersbergSenior Solution Sales Executive — Data & AI
Recommendation · February 17, 2022
Describes collaboration with customers, partners and colleagues on complex problems.
Read the full recommendation ↗Describes collaboration with customers, partners and colleagues on complex problems.
“Stefan is one of the most resourceful professionals I have ever met.”
Mark B. BulatovicEnterprise Sales | Salesforce-Data Foundation
Recommendation · February 16, 2022
Highlights resourcefulness, a strong network and support across North America and EMEA.
Read the full recommendation ↗Highlights resourcefulness, a strong network and support across North America and EMEA.
“his kindness, patience and experience helped improve results, numbers and bring value to our work.”
Alexandra NeculaCustomer Success Account Manager
Recommendation · April 12, 2023
Worked on the same team.
Read the full recommendation ↗Worked on the same team.
Selected excerpts from personal feedback and public LinkedIn recommendations. Roles reflect the source material; recommendations express the authors’ personal views.
07 / More independent projects
From an idea
to an interface.
I’m curious about what I can build with technology: practical tools that help me and others work more efficiently, and experiments that explore my personal interests. I start with an idea, turn it into something I can try, and learn by working through the technical challenges along the way.
01 / OCI CLI Operations MCP
Connecting Codex
to real cloud operations.
I built an OCI CLI MCP server that gives Codex tools to inspect cloud resources, plan and execute approved changes, and verify outcomes. I used it to deploy this website and configure my bare-metal AI environment.
A companion documentation skill consults docs.oracle.com when a decision needs official guidance.
Redacted network topology screenshot from the public repository · Click to enlarge ↗
See how I built it
I built the integration around the complete operational loop: inspect live resources, investigate the issue, prepare a change, execute within the required controls and verify the resulting state. I have used this workflow to host this website and set up a bare-metal GPU environment through Codex. It connects natural-language investigation with real infrastructure evidence and controlled operations.
The routing logic keeps simple inventory requests on live OCI tools. For troubleshooting, architecture, security or configuration decisions, the companion oci-docs skill retrieves focused, current Oracle documentation. The workflow separates what the environment shows from what the documentation recommends, proposes a change for approval, then verifies the resulting state.
Inspect live OCI → Consult relevant Oracle guidance → Propose → Approve → Execute → Verify
Additional redacted screenshots: network findings and the approval workflow.
Explore the implementation on GitHub ↗02 / PromptFoundry
Structured inputs for AI execution.
A native macOS workspace for turning a rough request into a structured, editable AI execution brief.
Actual project interface · Click to enlarge ↗
See how I built it
PromptFoundry structures a request before execution: context, constraints, missing information and acceptance criteria become an editable brief. The workflow supports review and reuse before handing the task to Codex, making the inputs to an AI coding task more explicit.
03 / Stereo Forge
Where making music
meets making software.
An experimental native macOS Audio Unit for stereo imaging, chorus and audio signal analysis.
Actual project interface · Click to enlarge ↗
See how I built it
Stereo Forge connects my experience as a musician with an interest in digital signal processing: stereo imaging, chorus, visual analysis and published DSP tests in a native Audio Unit. The project explores how signal processing changes perceived width, movement and space, bringing a technical dimension to a creative question.
04 / Vela
What if a webcam
could recognise my gestures?
A curiosity-led macOS experiment in using hand gestures to control another application.
Actual project interface · Click to enlarge ↗
See how I built it
I wanted to see what I could build with the webcam already in my MacBook. Vela uses Apple’s Vision framework to recognise hand poses locally and maps gestures to Zoom controls, with editable mappings and Paused, Practice and Live modes.
I used my own PromptFoundry to turn the rough idea into a professional, structured prompt, then used that prompt with Codex to build and iterate on Vela. The experiment gave me a practical way to explore camera input, gesture recognition and desktop automation—and the persistence needed to make them work together.
05 / Cloud & AI environments
Cloud, AI & practical tooling
I explore what I can build with cloud infrastructure and open-source AI—from self-hosted language models to reusable creative workflows.
The cloud setup was touchless: Codex executed the provisioning and configuration through the OCI CLI MCP I built.
Product image: NVIDIA · Click to enlarge ↗
See how I built it
From instructions to a running AI workload
Explore the project on GitHub ↗- CodexInstructions & iteration
- My OCI CLI MCPInspect · configure · verify
- OCI bare metal8 × NVIDIA A100
- Kimi LLMSelf-hosted inference
docs.oracle.comOfficial guidance when needed, through the companion documentation layer.
Creative AI workflowsHugging Face models → ComfyUI workflows → Reusable templates
Workflow illustration—not a capture of the live environment.
Technical curiosity drives me to understand how things work by getting them running myself. I deployed a self-hosted Kimi LLM on OCI bare-metal infrastructure with eight NVIDIA A100 GPUs, taking the environment from cloud provisioning through configuration to a running AI workload.
The setup was touchless: I never logged into the Linux machine myself. I directed Codex through the OCI CLI MCP I built, using it to execute the provisioning and configuration remotely. That brought cloud infrastructure, AI tooling and my own integration into one practical technical workflow.
Getting unfamiliar technology to work takes perseverance. I work through technical blockers, investigate what failed, adjust the approach and keep testing until the setup works. I also create reusable ComfyUI workflows and templates with models from Hugging Face, connecting hands-on technical experimentation with my interest in music and media production.
01 / Bare-metal AI infrastructure
Eight A100s.
Self-hosted inference.
An OCI GPU environment, set up through Codex using the OCI CLI MCP I created.
I provisioned and configured an OCI bare-metal GPU environment and ran a Kimi large language model on a system with eight NVIDIA A100 GPUs, each with 40 GB of VRAM, and 2 TB of system memory.
The setup was executed through Codex using my OCI CLI MCP, providing a touchless workflow for the cloud deployment. It brings together infrastructure automation and self-hosted AI: taking a GPU resource from provisioning to a running model through tooling I created to connect an AI agent with OCI operations.
03 / Generative-media tooling
Reusable workflows.
Creative control.
Hands-on ComfyUI work with Hugging Face model checkpoints and reusable templates.
I work hands-on with ComfyUI to build generative-media workflows using model checkpoints sourced from Hugging Face, including models distributed in the Safetensors format. I configure and adapt workflows, experiment with generation settings and create reusable templates for media creation.
This combines technical experimentation with creative direction: understanding how the workflow components fit together, selecting the model and settings for the task, and making the process reusable.
Workflow overview
01 / Model assetsHugging Face
checkpoints
→checkpoints
Model weights, including Safetensors files
02 / WorkflowComfyUI
node graph
→node graph
Configure and adapt the generation process
03 / ReuseTemplates &
media creation
media creation
Experiment, refine settings and reuse the workflow
Technical reference
Technical areas
I work across.
Infrastructure knowledge, platform investigation and analytics—applied to the questions that affect adoption, cost and delivery.
OCI infrastructure & platform operations
Compute · Bare metal & GPUs · VCNs & subnets · Routing · Block / object / file storage · IAM · Security · DatabasesMy technical foundation spans compute, networking, storage, identity and access management, security controls and database infrastructure. I connect those building blocks when investigating provisioning, access and connectivity questions, and combine that breadth with hands-on cloud resource setup and GPU infrastructure work.
Organizations, billing & metering
Tenancy organisation · Parent / child tenancies · Usage measurement · Credit consumption · Billing investigationI became a global reference point for questions spanning tenancy structure, resource usage, metering and billing. I trace how platform behaviour, consumption and commercial terms interact, then turn that investigation into guidance colleagues and customers can act on.
Example: helping investigate a data-egress billing discrepancy through contract history and amendments to establish the cause and support remediation.
Oracle Analytics Cloud & consumption intelligence
OAC · Business intelligence · Usage & spend visualisation · Consumption trends · Adoption analysisI developed extensive, self-taught expertise in Oracle Analytics Cloud, using usage and consumption data to investigate adoption patterns, visualise cloud spend and support customer discussions. I combine analysis with platform knowledge to explain what the data means and where a team should investigate next.
Multi-cloud & production readiness
Workload requirements · Connectivity · Identity · Database dependencies · Operational ownership · OnboardingI connect architecture dependencies and commercial constraints to a viable adoption path. My work across activation, onboarding, production readiness and technical escalations helps customers move from a booking to a usable service and first consumption.
Across FY23–FY26, my regional team achieved onboarding above 90% and activation above 95%.
08 / Beyond the platform
Technology is one language.
I’m interested in others, too.
Music production, law and psychology are lasting interests. They give me different ways to explore creativity, structure and human behaviour—and plenty to be curious about beyond work.
Music & production
I play piano and guitar, compose and produce my own music. Arrangement, recording, signal flow, dynamics and stereo placement interest me as much as the composition itself. Stereo Forge brings that curiosity into software; the pieces below let you hear the creative side.
Law & legal reasoning
My interest in law centres on precision: how an agreement is worded, the obligations it creates and the consequences of its interpretation. My earlier studies in management, economics and law reflect that curiosity, which also connects naturally to my work with commercial terms and billing questions.
Psychology & people
I’m fascinated by motivation, perception and decision making: why people interpret the same situation differently, what builds trust and what helps change take hold. Those questions interest me personally and inform how I lead people, communicate technical complexity and support adoption.
An original composition
Listen to something
I created.
One of my own compositions—a more personal introduction to the music I make.
Watch the original on YouTube ↗This website is a working example
This site uses the same workflow.
I created this website entirely through Codex and used my OCI CLI MCP in the deployment workflow. It runs on an OCI Ampere VM, served by Nginx over HTTPS with a Let’s Encrypt certificate and automated renewal.
Explore my OCI CLI MCP on GitHub ↗The next chapter
Let’s talk about
your next hire.
I’m open to hands-on leadership and senior individual contributor roles across cloud, AI, technical customer success, program management and business development. I bring technical depth, commercial understanding and a collaborative approach—whether I’m leading a team, driving a cross-functional initiative, developing opportunities or working directly on complex challenges.
If my experience fits the team you’re building, I’d welcome a conversation.
Professional profile · Quotes are selected excerpts from LinkedIn recommendations, post comments and personal feedback. Titles reflect the source material. Project screenshots come from the linked public repositories; workflow graphics are explanatory diagrams. Individual recommendations are personal statements, not corporate endorsements. Updated October 20, 2026.