Eindhoven, North Brabant, Netherlands
Four cross-functional fixes at Philips and ASML, EUR 150M+ P&L scope, EUR 500M+ improvement portfolio. The common thread is a problem sitting between functions: ownership fragmented across three or four teams who aren't used to working together, and a root cause that has gone unquestioned. I build the cross-functional team, find what is actually broken, and then I stay until the fix is how the organization works. * In operations: partnered with cross-functional teams across 8 business units to deliver EUR 100M+ in value chain transformation at Philips. * In strategy: built the coalition of 50+ senior leaders needed to restructure 50% of the product portfolio at CEO level. * In commercial: worked with 18 local market leads to turn around a EUR 150M P&L across Europe. * At ASML: redesigned how EUR 500M+ in improvement spend gets prioritized across 17 functions, now embedded in quarterly ExCo review. Every one of these problems covered a different domain. The approach transferred anyway, because the bottleneck is rarely technical. It's how people work across boundaries. Currently building an AI app in my free time. Padel when it compiles. Director-level role, Netherlands-based. Transformation, commercial excellence, or integration scope. European multinational or large-scale carve-out. Specialties: Commercial Excellence, Operations Transformation, Strategic Programs, Business Operations, Operating Model, Portfolio Management, Operational Turnaround, Function Build, EBITDA Impact, Consumer Health
ASML's EUR 500M+ improvement portfolio had outgrown its governance: the company doubled revenue in four years, 17 functions still investing in isolation, <20% of spend backed by a business case. Designed and drove adoption of the enterprise investment allocation framework now in ASML's quarterly ExCo review cycle. • Moved from <20% to 100% of improvement spend with Finance-approved business cases and clear ownership. • Shifted investments from function-based historical allocation to portfolio categories: introducing investment buckets that translated strategy into spending priorities, duration caps that ended open-ended programs, and rolling plans that replaced static annual allocation. Redesigned quarterly reviews from information sessions to focused decision meetings. • Built alignment across 17 functions and a cross-functional working team of ~30 (Finance, Engineering, Sourcing, Sector Strategy) before proposing enterprise trade-offs. Produced ASML's first enterprise-agreed improvement allocation: >90% approved at leadership review. Built the annual process across 7 portfolio categories, presenting scenario-based allocation proposals to sector EVPs.
Philips Beauty had been declining for 5 consecutive years across 18 European markets, accelerated by COVID-driven supply shortages and cost inflation. Owned the EUR 150M+ P&L and led the Beauty Western Europe Marketing Manager community (7 country leads) through a pan-European commercial turnaround. Consumer research showed something nobody had built the commercial model around: Southern and Northern European consumers approached the category entirely differently. That finding changed the strategy. Reversed the trajectory within two years. • Recovery: Halted 5-year share decline within two years. Delivered +6% sell-in growth year-on-year, gained +2pp market share in a market declining 10%. Protected IPL's #1 position in target segment. Reallocated A&P from saturated Northern Europe to high-growth Southern European markets and repositioned category from technical product claims to aspiration-led marketing. The global marketing team ran the new approach. Pre-test score was the best in region history. • Margin and pricing: Executed strategic price increases despite anticipated retailer de-listings. Protected gross margin, EBIT, and EBITDA under significant cost pressure. • Route-to-market diversification: Launched Zalando partnership and subscription model, grew D2C channel mix from 5% to 8%. Overhauled digital experience (>35% conversion improvement).
Philips Personal Health had a portfolio problem: 11,000+ SKUs. That number was the symptom. Innovation budget was spread too thin, A&P scattered across products that didn't move the category, and tactical responses to gaps in the lineup kept adding more SKUs. Prior simplification efforts stalled because they treated symptoms, not the cycle. Reframed portfolio complexity as a strategic growth problem and led two connected programs to solve it. Coached 5 senior managers to drive the approach across markets and business units, and built a network of ~40 change champions and 8 project leads. What started as resistance turned into sponsorship. It took time, and real work to bring people into the design. Aligned 50+ senior leaders including the Philips CEO on strategic exits, reinvestments, and commercial model redesign. Global "Where to Play" (Portfolio Strategy): • Delivered 45% SKU reduction (7,000+ to 3,800), freeing EUR 50M+/year for reinvestment. Focus led to extra growth, increasing priority segment share from 50% to 62% in 3 years. • Designed the portfolio decision framework for structured CEO-level consensus on sub-category exits and reinvestments. • Built the case for change from the ground up (consumer research, factory insights, online reviews, business leader consultations) and pitched directly to the CEO, who then set the 50% reduction target with the Supervisory Board. European "How to Play" (Commercial Model Redesign): • Redesigned pan-European commercial model across 3,000+ products, 7 markets, 8 businesses; unified channel clustering, pricing architecture, customer segmentation, and packaging and plug standardization. Result: 70% SKU reduction, 6x cross-market commonality (10% to 60%), +8% revenue year over year.
Philips Personal Health's value chains had grown organically across 8 business units with no optimization across functions: single-source dependencies creating supply risk, component proliferation with hundreds of variants and no governance, and fragmented procurement with each site negotiating independently. Built and led cross-functional teams of 30-40 across engineering, procurement, operations, and manufacturing, delivering EUR 100M+ cumulative EBITDA impact. • Beauty value chain transformation (IPL): Delivered ~EUR 6M/year savings (>15% TCO reduction) while improving supply resilience. Established dual-sourcing, regional manufacturing flexibility (EU + Asia), late customization, and supplier co-creation. • Developed 4 team members toward DfX certification. Coached 2 university theses on applied engineering. Built capability that continued operating after program ended. • Cross-BU tooling consolidation: >EUR 10M/year in value creation with zero escalations over 18 months. Built and led coalition across 8 BUs and 4 manufacturing sites, creating an entirely new commodity function from scratch: methodology, governance, and team structure. Adopted as permanent operating model across Personal Health. Recognized with Philips Procurement Excellence Award 2018. • Component standardization: ~40% variation reduction with double-digit million EUR annual savings across batteries, chargers, and PCBA components in 4 categories.