Nicolas Van Bekkum

Commercial Growth | Business Transformation | Operations

Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands

About

With more than 18 years of experience, I have led commercial growth, customer experience and business transformation across travel, financial services, SaaS, e-commerce and hospitality, working with businesses ranging from €350K to €100M in revenue. Throughout my career, I have worked at the intersection of commerce, operations and technology. My experience includes commercial strategy, pricing, CRM, digital marketing, customer experience, business operations and organizational improvement, with end-to-end responsibility from strategy through execution. I enjoy solving complex business problems. Sometimes that means accelerating commercial growth. Sometimes it means redesigning processes, improving customer journeys, introducing AI and automation, or bringing more structure to teams and decision making. Whatever the challenge, I enjoy combining strategic thinking with practical execution. I work best in environments where growth has outpaced structure. I like understanding how a business really works, identifying what slows it down and building scalable solutions that make life easier for customers, employees and the business itself. Over the years, I’ve learned that sustainable growth rarely comes from one department. It comes from aligning people, processes, technology and commercial objectives around a common goal. Open to permanent, interim or fractional opportunities, depending on the company and challenge. If I’m passionate about it, I dive in. If not, I pass.

Experience

  • Founder at Van Bekkum Group
    Jan 2009 - Present · 17 yrs 7 mos

    Helping businesses solve commercial and operational challenges. Organizations call us when growth stalls, processes become too complex or experienced leadership is needed to move things forward. We work alongside management teams to simplify problems, improve performance and turn strategy into execution. Our experience covers travel, financial services, SaaS, e-commerce and hospitality, with projects ranging from interim management and commercial strategy to process improvement, customer experience, AI and automation.

  • Heyloha - AI Agents (10 mos)
    • CEO (A.I.)
      Sep 2025 - Feb 2026 · 6 mos

      Heyloha builds production grade voice and chat agents for customer communication. Designed for high volume environments, strict control and human handover when needed. Agents that reduce ticket volume, shorten handling times and support human teams. Supported the organization during an early growth phase across operations, commercial priorities and day-to-day execution.

    • Commercial Director (A.I.)
      Aug 2025 - Aug 2025 · 1 mo

    • Strategic Business Advisor
      May 2025 - Jul 2025 · 3 mos

      Developed a new brand and growth strategy for an AI agent platform in 6 weeks. Full brand identity including website, product and roadmap. A clean break from the existing real estate vertical and an expansion plan into museums, travel, hospitality and e-commerce.

  • CCO at FarmCamps, luxe logeren bij de boer
    Nov 2013 - Jun 2024 · 10 yrs 8 mos

    Built and led the commercial organization from early stage to structural profitability, with full P&L responsibility across marketing, sales and IT. Responsible for the full commercial funnel, including brand, acquisition, conversion, retention, partnerships, customer care, marketing technology and commercial systems. Led demand generation across digital and offline channels, combining performance marketing, CRM, pricing and automation to improve commercial performance, customer lifetime value and operational scalability. Built internal capabilities where strategic and collaborated with external partners where specialized expertise added value.

  • Feather Down Farms (2 yrs 11 mos)
    • International Sales & Marketing Manager
      Feb 2012 - Nov 2013 · 1 yr 10 mos

    • Manager E-Commerce
      Sep 2011 - Feb 2012 · 6 mos

    • Manager E-Commerce
      Jan 2011 - Feb 2012 · 1 yr 2 mos

  • Managing Director at TrouwZeker
    Sep 2007 - Jan 2011 · 3 yrs 5 mos