Meet Our Experts
Hands-on, specialised support to temporarily fill a gap, solve a challenge and build capabilities for scaling
Christiane Anell
Expert
Chris is a Brand Positioning & Marketing Strategy Expert and entrepreneur, with 15 years of experience in the corporate and startup world.
During her career she tackled many brand positioning challenges and helped build effective ad campaigns in agencies in Amsterdam and London. She then headed up multiple Marketing Teams building her vast allround marketing expertise. With a background in Behavioural Psychology, she knows how to seduce an audience and optimize conversion.
Her first encounter with the startup world was when one of the Dragons asked her to grow brands in her portfolio. She never looked back since. In her current venture, she guides early stage startups in developing their own brand positioning and marketing strategy, rooted in the firm belief that strategic thinking is one of the main capabilities every Founder needs to build a successful business.
Hajo de Boer
Expert
With 20 years experience in corporate life, Hajo is able to quickly relate to what is meant and needed. Apart from his business knowledge – Master in economics, Master in Business Administration en Lean Six Sigma – Hajo received training in psychology, systems thinking, awareness and human behavior. Which makes him a versatile and pragmatic facilitator of transformation and awareness.
Working at Changekitchen as a facilitator, he has extensive experience in the field of leadership development, team dynamics and personal coaching. Driven by facilitating real change. In small, realistic and concrete steps. Based upon a will to step outside the comfort zone.
His approach is no-nonsense, sharp and finding a balance between lightness and essence. With humor, energy and based on a mutual intention of growth.
Pieter Jan Doets
Expert
Pieter Jan is a Business Growth Architect that has helped both corporate clients such as Microsoft, Oracle, SAS and Airmiles as well as high-tech scale-up companies to achieve tangible results and market leadership positions.
His core competencies and passion are in achieving unbeatable competitive power (marketing, product innovation, etc.) and organizing a growth strategy process to meet shareholders objectives.
Barry Edney
Expert
Barry is an experienced corporate executive, entrepreneur and consultant having worked with large manufacturing organisations on digital transformations and implementation of new ways of working (TOM), turnaround and recovery of poor performing businesses, lowering ‘cost to serve’ in sales and distribution networks and post merger / acquisition integrations.
He has led marketing functions including market entry strategies, product portfolio optimisation and price / margin improvement initiatives.
Tessa de Flines
Expert
Tessa de Flines is an independent consultant specialised in strategy execution and process improvement. Her strong analytical and problem-solving skills allow her to quickly identify high impact improvements. She has many years of experience in developing and executing various types of strategic plans. Tessa is at her best in situations where she can bring order in the chaos, create simplicity from complexity, set clear priorities and implement structure, processes and policies. With many years of international experience and with an American Dutch background, she is well-versed in achieving results in cross-cultural organisations.
Jeannette Homan
Expert
Jeannette Homan is an entrepreneur with focus on growth through digitisation (development and implementation). She has 20+ years experience in managing major projects from strategy to implementation.
Focus on fintech, banking, investments, insurances, pensions and energy. In-depth knowledge of strategy, data, AI&ML, blockchain, software, platform architecture and sales.
George van Iwaarden
Expert
George helps and guides business to operational excellence. With > 20 years hands-on experience as a board member and manager with (inter)national service providers, his knowledge of how to achieve growth and transformation with high quality operations is extensive. He translates solid pragmatic strategies into action and execution by efficiently structuring business operations.
With a human touch, a no-nonsense and result-driven approach, he puts essential work processes in place and ensures the necessary collaboration between people and departments.
Sofie van London
Expert
Strategic advisor with over 35 years of M&A experience at the high end of the international market. Broad network. Develops business models, value propositions, synergies, teaming, joint ventures and other joint operations; transforms organisations; devises checks and balances models for governance and quality assurance.
Has structured innovation in sharing communities, services sectors, R&D, cross-border operations and data collection. Proven track record of success in leading and supporting new modalities, services and product lines.
Analytic result driven connector. Works with the soul of organisations. Keen to push innovation with focussed impact. Other roles: corporate commercial lawyer, board member, entrepreneur, speaker, mentor.
Stephen Mangham
Expert
Stephen is a proven executive and entrepreneur who specialises in helping businesses define and articulate their value. He combines strategic vision with a deep knowledge of marketing and communications, business development and culture to guide profound change journeys in large and small organisations.
Stephen has advised corporates and start-ups in just about every business category in Western and Eastern Europe and Asia. He chaired the largest brand communications group in Southeast Asia before setting up his own business, which was subsequently sold to the Japanese owned Dentsu Group.
Stephen teaches Marketing for Entrepeneurs at EDHEC Business School, and is an active shareholder in a video content platform company.
Viki Pavlič
Expert
Viki is a pitch deck architect and a pitch coach based near Amsterdam. Designer by education, he now helps startups get their ‘wow’ across by making their story clear, concise and convincing. He has helped many founders worldwide raise funds ranging from $300K to $20M. Because, “our ideas are only as good as our ability to communicate them.” – Adena Friedman
Besides his main role as a persuasive communication trainer, he still keeps ties with lean innovation; he does workshops on customer validation and stakeholder value mapping. He works with tech startup incubators like YES!Delft (Europe’s leading tech incubator) and is a guest lecturer at Delft University of Technology where he’s co-initiated the Build Your Startup course.
Richard Russell
Expert
Richard is an ex-Amazon and Google leader with 20 years of experience in tech, product, business, and management, now working as an independent OKRs and Executive Coach with executive teams of high-growth technology-powered companies.
Brought up in Australia with a BSc in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Adelaide, he lived in London for a decade and is now based in Luxembourg with his wife, mother-in-law, three kids, and no pets (yet).
Jelle Stolwijk
Expert
Jelle is an experienced founder (exit ’19) & growth marketeer (7+ years), currently working as a freelance Head of Growth.
In the past years, he has worked with many (venture-backed & bootstrapped) companies, leading their growth strategy.
As a former co-founder of the leading growth agency in the Netherlands, he mastered how to scale a company from scratch to a thriving company with clients across the globe.
Since he sold his shares (2019), he has contributed to unlocking the growth potential of a dozen startups and scale-ups and leading their go-to-market strategies. He is particularly strong in growth strategy, execution and drive for results.
Dinette Tams
Expert
Dinette has more than 20 years of experience in the regulated industry (Medical Device, Life Sciences, Pharma & Food/Nutrition), working for great companies like Johnson & Johnson, Royal DSM and Becton Dickinson (BDX).
She is a certified Black Belt and Scale-Up Board Member. Dinette has a passion for healthcare and improving accessibility of healthcare. Her competences are professional, networker, result oriented and coaching & servant leadership style. Key words for her are social impact, sustainability and innovation.
She brings strategic and hands-on experience in a broad range of functional areas like risk & quality management, compliance, new product development, (contract) manufacturing & integrated supply chain management.
Amit Vaidya
Expert
Amit is a Life Science Expert and Board Advisor. He has over forty years of pharmaceutical/life science experience as a senior executive of which more than 20 years at AstraZeneca across the UK, Global, Europe and Middle East Africa Region.
Since 2009, he has advised top 20 global pharma on their international business helping them on scaleup and expanding into new markets with new Go-to-Market models, designing efficient distribution models and business strategy including pricing and market access goals.
He is based in the UK and currently working with Life Science SMEs to help them with expert guidance in three core areas: Early-stage assessment of the asset for commercial viability for investors and scientists, asset development to commercial exit points – pitch deck preparation for successive rounds of funding, identifying target partners for exit and negotiating exit deals, scale-up in the domestic market and international expansion models.
Partners
With specific Expertise
We also have several expertise partners who can offer services varying from taxation to finance to growth hacking. Check them out!