Breda, North Brabant, Netherlands
International Commercial Growth & Transformation Executive with 20+ years of experience helping businesses grow, transform and create long-term value across multinational FMCG, regulated consumer categories, entrepreneurial and growth-oriented businesses. Throughout my career, I have repeatedly been trusted with complex growth challenges, whether entering new markets, creating new categories, launching new brands, developing new business platforms or turning around underperforming businesses. That has become the common thread throughout my career. I specialize in accelerating growth by simplifying complexity and bringing together portfolio strategy, innovation, pricing and execution into clear priorities that people can get behind. My experience spans commercial leadership, category strategy, portfolio transformation, international expansion and P&L leadership across Europe, Africa, the USA and emerging markets. Throughout my career, I have partnered closely with Sales, Marketing, Legal, Regulatory, Finance, HR, Supply Chain and Manufacturing, believing that the best business outcomes are achieved when every function contributes to one shared objective. After 16 years at Philip Morris International across seven countries and a period advising SMEs, startups and investors, I joined Scandinavian Tobacco Group to build the company's first Growth Incubator. Since then, I have built new growth platforms, commercialized next-generation consumer categories and today lead STG's largest global category business. What continues to motivate me is solving complex growth challenges by bringing clarity to complexity, aligning people behind a shared ambition and translating strategy into measurable business results. I am always interested in connecting with leaders, executive search professionals and organizations focused on growth, transformation and building the next stage of their business.
Driving the transformation and growth agenda of STG’s largest global category business (>55% of company net sales / >$0.7B), combining portfolio leadership, pricing governance, omnichannel growth and operational simplification across international markets. Leading global and regional commercial teams, including 23 direct and 22 indirect FTE across cross-functional and matrix environments, bringing together commercial, operational and supply chain priorities to improve profitability, execution and long-term category competitiveness. • Developed and continue to lead the implementation of the FOCUS2030 transformation strategy to stabilize market share and strengthen category profitability. • Reduced global SKU complexity by 45%, improving operational efficiency, supply chain flow and margin performance. • Owning key pricing, assortment, brand and channel decisions in close collaboration with regional sales, operations and supply chain teams. • Repositioned key international brands and accelerated omnichannel activation across retail, distributor and digital channels. • Strengthened organizational effectiveness and execution discipline through restructuring, capability development and improved cross-functional alignment.
Led STG's global next-generation oral category, combining global brand ownership, innovation commercialization and omnichannel growth across international markets. Accelerated the international scale-up of newly established growth platforms through consumer-centric innovation, digital activation and commercial expansion across retail, distributor and emerging category channels. • Built and scaled STG's international next-generation oral portfolio, including XQS, STRÖM and !ACT, across nicotine pouches, functional pouches and adjacent consumer categories. • Accelerated XQS growth in Sweden post-acquisition, delivering +6ppt share growth within 12 months through innovation, digital activation, channel expansion and commercial execution. • Led the business case development, commercial launch strategy and market alignment for XQS expansion into the UK and seven additional markets, supporting early market traction across retail and digital channels. • Established STG's first digital consumer activation and social media capabilities, building omnichannel engagement platforms from the ground up. • Aligned external partners, distributors and regional commercial teams to accelerate market execution and category adoption.
Established and led STG’s entrepreneurial Growth Incubator to build the company’s first growth platforms beyond its traditional cigar business through innovation, adjacent category expansion and strategic commercial partnerships. Combined business development, innovation, strategic partnerships and commercialization to identify, validate and scale new growth opportunities across emerging consumer segments. • Built scalable innovation and commercialization capabilities within a newly established entrepreneurial business unit, creating new growth platforms and adjacent category opportunities. • Developed and launched STG’s first non-core global propositions, including STRÖM and !ACT, supporting expansion into emerging consumer and wellbeing categories. • Delivered $25M in contracted savings through supplier renegotiations, partnership optimization and improved commercial terms. • Led commercial assessments, business case development and strategic evaluation of adjacent growth and M&A opportunities, including a US beverage acquisition opportunity. • Established new global distribution and commercial partnerships supporting long-term diversification and future growth potential.
I worked independently with SMEs, startups and investors on commercial growth, business expansion and new venture development, following relocation back to the Netherlands after 10 years of international leadership roles across Africa and Europe. Assignments ranged from repositioning founder-led businesses and developing new B2B2C platforms to evaluating acquisition opportunities and mentoring early-stage startups on commercial strategy and customer engagement. • Worked with founder-led businesses on commercial repositioning, growth acceleration and development of new business platforms, including a new B2B2C diversity proposition for Spot People. • Developed the Dutch market entry strategy and business case for Novastone Capital Advisors’ Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) program, contributing to a validated acquisition pipeline. • Mentored startups and entrepreneurial founders through Startup & Running on proposition development, customer journey design and early-stage commercial execution.
Hired to rebuild portfolio competitiveness, strengthen marketing capabilities and return the Morocco business to profitable, sustainable growth across a complex and highly competitive market. Led the full marketing organization, including 9 direct and 100 indirect FTE, covering portfolio strategy, consumer engagement, digital activation, innovation and in-market execution in close collaboration with Sales, Operations, Regulatory Affairs and global teams. • Delivered +57% revenue and volume growth and +23% market share by rebuilding the portfolio, strengthening retail execution and introducing a new insight-driven engagement model tailored to both urban and rural consumers. • Built a digital consumer ecosystem from scratch, including CRM, consumer activation and digital engagement platforms, driving strong engagement metrics and +6.1 ppt brand equity growth through early marketing automation and personalization initiatives. • Strengthened pricing governance and contributed to improved industry profitability through tax harmonization initiatives and collaboration with regulatory stakeholders.
Drove regional portfolio and commercial strategy across Africa & Levant ($6B business), focused on strengthening PMI’s footprint across diverse and fast-growing markets through portfolio transformation, whitespace expansion and improved launch execution. Managed a regional HQ team of 3 FTE and partnered closely with local markets, distributors and HQ functions across portfolio strategy, pricing, innovation deployment and efficiency initiatives. • Delivered +13% regional revenue growth through deployment of a unified commercial strategy across highly diverse markets. • Improved innovation and go-to-market execution by redesigning launch processes and governance, increasing launch success rates by 8ppt. • Drove PMI’s first market entry in Sub-Saharan Africa (Tanzania), developed the market assessment, portfolio strategy, pricing model and commercial business case, exceeding targets by +16%. • Reduced creative agency costs by 41% across Sub-Saharan Africa through restructuring of the regional agency model and standardization of communication and product deployment processes.
Led Sales Strategy, Route-to-Market development and Sales Organization Development for South Africa, with responsibility for field sales operations, commercial execution and expansion of the Informal Trade channel. While managing a team of 96 FTE, worked closely with sales teams, distributors and customers in the field to strengthen distribution, retail execution and channel effectiveness across highly diverse trade environments. • Expanded the distribution footprint by adding 14,000+ new POS and delivering +99% channel volume growth through redesigned trade-sales models and stronger distributor and retail partnerships. • Scaled the field organization through recruitment of 87 new sales FTE and rollout of new capability-building and training programs. • Created efficiencies by leading the organizational re-design of the main region Gauteng and by integrating Informal Trade teams into national Field Sales organization (-10 FTE). • Strengthened sales force effectiveness and employee engagement through territory optimization and introduction of interactive training initiatives.
Managed Consumer Insights, Consumer Engagement and Brand Marketing for Southern Africa ($0.3B business, 22 FTE), with responsibility for portfolio strategy, innovation and commercial activation. Partnered closely with Sales team and trade partners to strengthen consumer understanding, retail execution and create stronger brands in this highly competitive market. • Delivered +9% market share and +13% volume growth through portfolio innovation, differentiated brand propositions and new consumer and trade engagement strategies across Horeca, retail and distributor channels. • Launched Marlboro’s and Chesterfield’s first Virginia-blended offerings, generating 1.4 ppt incremental share within 12 months post national rollout. • Improved retail execution and visibility through performance-based key account and vending partnerships, reducing out-of-stock levels and strengthening commercial ROI. • Strengthened consumer understanding and innovation effectiveness through new research approaches, consumer co-creation initiatives and targeted consumer engagement programs.
Managed the premium portfolio strategy for Marlboro and Philip Morris across France and Monaco, representing the vast majority of PMI France’s business in one of the company’s largest and most strategically important markets. Directed portfolio positioning, innovation and commercial activation across highly competitive and mature market environments, working closely with cross-functional and global teams. • Stabilized Marlboro’s longer-term decline and delivered +19% growth on Philip Morris through portfolio innovation, differentiated consumer activation and new product launches. • Developed and scaled a new nightlife engagement platform across key French cities, strengthening brand visibility and consumer/trade activation. • Played a leading role in cross-functional projects focused on market segmentation and organizational redesign.