Breda, North Brabant, Netherlands
International commercial leader with a focus on growth and learning. Expertise in leveraging market insights to drive sales, marketing, innovation, and value-based solutions. Proven strategic leader with a strong track record in implementation and change management. Skilled in building inclusive, positive teams that thrive on learning and sharing knowledge. Extensive experience in global B2B production and leading valorization of ingredients for food/agriculture markets. I have led several change management initiatives, defining needed processes and structures to implement commercial excellence and design thinking in innovation. I am passionate about making a positive difference in the lives of customers and people. I am interested in discussing a new senior leadership role, preferably in a mid/large international organization with business-to-business production capabilities, where I can add value in the transition to accelerate commercial growth.
Main responsibilities Lead global transition, re-organize/prioritize activities, processes, and teams to optimize market- and value-based propositions. Resulting in >1mio spend reduction and significant steps in collaboration & engagement. Implemented and standardized a 3-tier model to functionally align corporate and sector marketing focus through Market Intelligence, Business Marketing and Corporate Communication. Drive fact-based decision making and innovation through market insights, implement new ways of working (e.g., Artificial Intelligence) and consistent measuring of results. Functionally leading and coaching the corporate & business marketing teams in the regions and clus-ters e.g., in The Netherlands, Belgium, Poland and Brasil. (>30 fte’s, 8 direct reports)
Change management, define needed processes and structure for the transition of de product development and innovation department, towards Customer Solutions Center EMENA
Global Director, reporting to the CEO 12 direct reports and 20+ indirect reports Main responsibilities Lead and developed the 5-year ‘One Zeelandia’ strategy in close collaboration the Supervisory Board, Management team and Country Managing Directors. Define and change the role of marketing in Zeelandia worldwide. From a decentralized sales and volume driven organization to a value based marketing driven collaborative commercial model. Defined and implemented category management in close collaboration with countries and corporate R&D resulting in 7 Centres of Expertise to manage and de-complex the global portfolio, resulting in 2+Mio cost savings average year-on-year Change to and roll-out of market based innovation. From product push to product and service platforms, targeting 3-5Mio innovation growth. Global leadership and development of the Sales Excellence program which focusses on improving commercial effectiveness and efficiency while embedding marketing best practices resulting in >2Mio year on year contribution margin improvements. Professionalized the corporate and marketing communication aligned with the development of Zeelandia’s values and positioning in the market. Including Zeelandia’s visual identity Talent management including hiring leadership of the marketing professionals worldwide and development of the corporate marketing team in particular
Main responsibilities Develop and implement the customer intimacy strategy (change-management) to deliver sustainable margin and scale growth; bulk and specialties Leading and coaching the regional sales offices in United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and the Strategic Account Managers. (35 fte’s, 5 direct reports) Relationship management with strategic customers Implementation of sales processes: sales planning and coaching, market en customer segmentation, category plans, strategic pricing, risk management, et cetera Talent management (performance management, career development planning, recruiting, training) Member ‘gate-review team’ in which investment plans for customer specific innovation and growth projects are discussed, decided and progress monitored Member Cargill’s ‘Sales Leadership Council’ in which choices and actions are aligned between Cargill business units to drive value growth with the top 26 Cargill Europe customers 2 billion euro turnover, 2,2 million Mt products and services, equal to 30% market-share in in the European food ingredients industry Member Refined Oils Leadership team Achievements - >5% annual margin growth and maintaining 30% market-share in the food ingredients market in Europe Change the sales organization structure and culture: from short term product oriented groups to high performing customer focussed teams. Customer loyalty score increased from 40% to 65% / Sales team engagement increased from 67% to 82%
Main responsibilities Executive advisor around strategic choices, risk management and mergers & acquisitions; supporting senior business leaders in decision making processes Projects: Renessen Soy Brazil, Food Ingredients Strategy Asia, Global Meat Study, Avian Influenza Task-force, Russia meat acquisition Training en development of business acumen related to Cargill’s growth ambition, worldwide decision making processes, organization design and leadership standards
Main responsibilities Development and implementation of the sales and marketing plans for the region Central- and Eastern-Europe in which the main focus areas were; risk management, frequent customer visits and sustainable growths Leading and managing 2 account managers, 2 sales supports en local agent/distributors Start-up and expansion of the sales offices in Poland, Russia and Ukraine Product line manager for the cocoa processing factory in Ivory Coast (Micao); including the development and co-ordination of the worldwide sales and marketing plan Turnover 50 million euro, approximately 20.000Mt products and services Achievements >10% CAGR margin and scale growth Designed and implemented sales organization structure; sales office Poland, Russia and agent/distributors in other countries Start-up direct business with 2 strategic customers who still remain in the top 7 business unit customers today