Ghent, Flemish Region, Belgium
Over the last decade, I've led digital transformation across global markets, creating short-term and long-term value and growth. My mission is to help 10000+ businesses to build an efficient go-to-market strategy. I help organizations navigate digital complexity, optimize operations, and engage with their audience through compelling content and strategic insights. I've held pivotal roles at Unilever and founded two ventures to reinvent marketing strategy. My portfolio: → I've worked about a decade at Unilever, spearheading growth strategies for the B2B branch UFS → I'm the Founder of Optimus Next, helping business owners grow their business in the ever-evolving landscape of AI, digital marketing and data. → I coach entrepreneurs that need help with marketing, sales, systems and growth My results: → Generated millions in incremental revenue → Delivered keynote speeches and workshops across different countries Twitter: @KennethVanBee Instagram: @kennethvanbee_ YouTube: @KennethVanBee I talk about #business, #productivity, #leadership, #selfmastery
We help ambitious FMCG, eCommerce and SaaS businesses businesses grow and win in a world that never stops changing. We work with businesses that dare to dream bigger, move faster, and own their future. Current assignment(s): Customer Experience Director Western Europe (a.i.) at Barry Callebaut 🍫 • Expanded on previous global CX and growth experience by designing & executing a go-to-market and Customer Experience strategy tailored to Western Europe. • Rolled out a regional Lead Management framework across key markets, further embedding performance-driven marketing into the commercial engine. • Built an AI-powered content engine, enabling real-time, personalized content creation to power omnichannel customer journeys. • Led the development and execution of a regional digital shelf strategy, enhancing visibility and conversion across B2B eCommerce environments. • Established a future-ready data infrastructure, combining market universe, sales, digital behaviour and profile data, building a 360° customer view. • Structured and built a regional digital organization, aligning capabilities, roles, and governance to accelerate execution and scale. Customer Experience Strategist at UFS 🧑🍳 Building and executing key pillars of Unilever Food Solutions’ 2025-2030 Customer Experience Strategy, focused on marketing, sales, data, and tech.
• Designed & implemented a unified regional growth strategy, aligning local priorities with global objectives which resulted in double-digit growth across key markets. • Led the development and global rollout of a Customer Experience strategy covering marketing, sales, tech, and data - improving consistency and scalability. • Delivered €10M+ in incremental revenue through a structured, data-driven Lead Management framework, turning strategy into measurable action. • Coordinated omnichannel campaign planning & execution across multiple countries, ensuring alignment between global & local teams to maximize performance. • Spearheaded AI-powered personalization initiatives, generating real-time insights and boosting customer engagement and conversion. • Built a customer journey framework across digital and physical touchpoints, driving higher retention and loyalty. • Partnered with local teams to adapt strategies for market-specific needs, ensuring strong regional execution and adoption. • Streamlined data tracking and reporting, improving visibility into marketing ROI and campaign performance. • Leveraged advanced data models to identify growth opportunities and accelerate decision-making across priority markets. • Managed cross-market agency networks, ensuring high-quality execution of digital campaigns at both regional and local levels.
• Directed the digital, data, and business transformation initiatives across the Be(Ne)Lux region, reporting directly to the Managing Director and leading a cross-functional team as part of the Leadership Team. • Led the transformation of the eCommerce strategy, achieving a 150% increase in web shop turnover over three years, driving significant market share growth. • Launched a future-fit CRM implementation, improved data management and compliance, which resulted in a 7-10% faster sales performance for engaged customers. During COVID, turned a 150K business waste risk into a 600K business opportunity. • Leading the transformation agenda for the entire company on 4 axes: (a) digital marketing & eCommerce (b) omnichannel strategy (c) the transformation agenda (d) big data • Part of the Leadership Team to drive the transformation across different departments • Continuously building and implementing the company’s omnichannel strategy (also called IDC or Integrated Demand Creation), increasing value and conversions of our operators • Leading a team of 6 experts, each responsible for a specific part of strategy implementation
• Pioneered the first steps of digital transformation, focusing on data, technology, digital marketing, and CRM, resulting in a 7% average growth in digitally-engaged operators. • Drove the launch and adoption of the UFS web shop and loyalty program, achieving a rapid increase in user engagement and sales.ive digital solutions. • Developed the data and technology framework for the Belgian division by creating a collaboration between the Global team and a local team of 5 people. • Optimized conversions and impact by leading small-scale growth hacking projects with the team which resulted in a more positive ROI. • Moved from one-to-many communication to personalised campaigning by introducing lifecycles. • Integrating sales and marketing data to leverage insight-based decision making.
In general, I maintained the websites of the several Barry Callebaut Group brands (Cacao Barry, Barry Callebaut, World Chocolate Masters, Chocolate Academy and Chocovic) for the Western Europe and occasionally global markets. My main task was to update the websites and to add and optimize online content. - I was responsible for some digital projects for a certain brand and cross-projects between brands - I also had an advisory role for social media projects - I worked with Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator - I gave input for new digital projects