Els Verbraecken graduated in 1993 as a commercial engineer from the University of Leuven.
She started her career in export credit insurance at Credendo, the Belgian Export Credit Agency.
As from 2002 she started working for DEME. For several years she engaged in setting up export and project finance structures all over the world. In April 2013 she took the position of CFO of the DEME Group. She is also a member of the DEME Executive Committee.