Joost van Hilten

Group CEO, Atida | Online (para)pharmacy across 8 European markets

Bussum, North Holland, Netherlands

About

Atida is a pan-European online (para)pharmacy. We serve more than 4 million customers across 8 markets. I became Group CEO of Atida in July 2025. I joined Atida in 2020 as Group CPTO and grew into the full P&L through country CEO roles, first in Iberia (2023), then France & Iberia from early 2025. My focus at Atida is building an AI-native operator. That means rebuilding key areas like pricing, content, CRM, forecasting and customer service around AI capabilities. The point isn't AI for its own sake. For us it is the way to deliver excellent, pharmacy-grade service at scale Before Atida I was Chief Marketing & Product Officer at Wehkamp. Before that I was at McKinsey in Amsterdam and Boston. I studied law and philosophy of law at Leiden and Oxford and did an MBA at Harvard. I trained originally as a legal philosopher, which is a strange foundation for an e-commerce career but turns out to be quite useful.

Experience

  • Atida (Full-time · 6 yrs 5 mos)
    • Group CEO at Atida
      Jul 2025 - Present · 1 yr

      Group CEO of Atida, a pan-European online pharmacy serving customers across 8 European markets. Joined Atida in 2020 as Group CPTO. Took on country CEO responsibility for Iberia in late 2023, expanded to France in early 2025, and became Group CEO in July 2025. Current focus: - AI-native operating model across commercial, marketing, technology, operations, customer service, and finance - Group performance across the 8-market footprint, with category leadership positions across 5 markets - Pharmacist-backed content and loyalty as the trust differentiators

    • Chief Executive Officer at Atida France & Iberia
      Nov 2024 - Jul 2025 · 9 mos

      P&L responsibility for Atida's integrated Southern European business across France, Spain and Portugal: Santédiscount, Mifarma and Dosfarma.

    • Chief Executive Officer at Atida Iberia
      Dec 2023 - Jan 2025 · 1 yr 2 mos

      CEO of Atida-Mifarma, Atida's online pharmacy business for Iberia (Spain and Portugal). Brands: Mifarma and Dosfarma.

  • Chief Marketing & Product Officer at wehkamp
    Sep 2015 - Feb 2020 · 4 yrs 6 mos

    Chief Marketing & Product Officer of Wehkamp, the leading online fashion and lifestyle retailer in the Netherlands. Joined as Chief Product Officer in 2015; expanded the role to include Marketing in 2017. Member of the Executive Team reporting to the CEO. Responsible for product, e-commerce technology, marketing, CRM and data science. Key accomplishments: - Supported growth from €1.1bn to €1.5bn while keeping marketing spend flat in absolute terms (~20% reduction in relative marketing spend) - Built and launched a native app that grew to around 35% of company revenue and 70% of profit - Built and migrated to a proprietary e-commerce platform without revenue loss; foundation for mobile-first and data infrastructure - Drove customer experience and growth through data science applied across the journey: real-time contextual marketing, personalized CRM linked to shop, advanced search - Grew the loyal customer base by double digits annually through programmatic retention

  • Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company
    Sep 2012 - Sep 2015 · 3 yrs 1 mo

    Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, in the Amsterdam and Boston offices. Led project teams of 1 to 7 consultants across digital strategy, digital transformation, and product and marketing strategy engagements in financial services, telecom and consumer industries. Selected projects: - Designed the digital strategy for a major European retail bank - Project-led a 50-person team to build mobile app development capabilities at a major retail bank - Designed a new business strategy for a major retail bank - Led the online customer experience redesign for a major Pay-TV provider (>30m subscribers) - Developed needs-based customer segmentation and go-to-market strategy for a high-tech client Performance consistently rated "Distinctive" (top 5% of the global McKinsey peer group).

  • Product Manager at Language International
    Jun 2011 - Nov 2011 · 6 mos

    Leading a small team that within 2 months quickly developed the design and launch of a global agency network for language schools (Open Abroad - www.openabroad.com). Building a platform to help facilitate language course bookings across the globe. Continued to stay involved as an advisor after launching the network.

  • Consultant at McKinsey & Company
    Jan 2008 - Jul 2010 · 2 yrs 7 mos

    Started career at McKinsey & Company as Business Analyst in the Amsterdam office. Worked across strategy, digital experience and operational performance engagements in financial services, telecom and consumer industries. Performance consistently rated "Distinctive" (top 5% of the global McKinsey peer group).