Christiaan van der Waal

CEO - SaaS & Digital Platforms - Scaling Growth, Replatforming and M&A Leadership

Amsterdam Area

About

CEO and SaaS/Digital platform operator focused on scaling AI-native businesses in investor-led environments through disciplined growth, replatforming, and enterprise value creation through to successful exit. I bring hands-on leadership across technology, product, data, AI-driven platforms, go-to-market, and operations, with a strong focus on alignment, scalable growth, and long-term value creation. As CEO of Relay42, I led the company through its next phase of growth. With limited financial headroom, we reshaped pricing and propositions to enable more sustainable growth, while leading the M&A process through to a successful investor exit in June 2025. Previously, I built and led the Digital organization at FedEx, replatforming and scaling the global online shipping experience to support significant revenue growth and deliver 15%+ digital growth. I’m known for creating clarity in complex environments, combining clear strategy, unambiguous OKRs, and high team autonomy to drive focused, predictable execution.

Experience

  • CEO at Relay42
    Dec 2024 - May 2026 · 1 yr 6 mos

    Led the company through successful acquisition and investor exit. Scaled global GTM operations, directed new proposition and product pivot, ready to be replatformed for global expansion.

  • FedEx (Amsterdam Area, Netherlands)
    • Vice President Digital
      Aug 2019 - Nov 2024 · 5 yrs 4 mos

      Leading digital product development, data and digital transformation. Replatformed both TNT & FedEx globally. Responsible for commercial integration of TNT and FedEx.

    • Managing Director Digital Product
      Jun 2017 - Jul 2019 · 2 yrs 2 mos

      Leading digital product development for Europe, MEISA and APAC.

  • Head of Digital Marketing at TNT
    Mar 2015 - May 2017 · 2 yrs 3 mos

  • Head of Conversion Optimisation at dentsu
    Mar 2012 - Feb 2015 · 3 yrs

    Built the conversion rate optimization practice at iProspect (part of Dentsu). Consulted customers on experimentation and A/B-testing. Customers include KLM, Foot Locker, DHL, Calvin Klein, Scotch & Soda, Thomas Cook and Thule.

  • Co-founder & CEO at Finc
    Mar 2010 - Feb 2012 · 2 yrs