About me
With about 25 years of experience, I help marketing and sales leaders turn strategy into action and results, specifically when the plan is sound but the organisation isn't moving on it, when the operating model no longer fits the ambition, or when the team keeps missing plan despite having one.
I believe companies already have the knowledge and capability for strategic success; my role is to unlock it. That means combining commercial logic with the behavioural side of change, bringing steadiness when things are chaotic, and saying the uncomfortable truths others avoid. It also means building genuine ownership in your team, not handing down a deck from the top.
Before becoming an independent consultant, I worked at Capgemini Consulting and a boutique strategy execution firm, where I developed deep expertise in strategy execution. Earlier in my career, I held marketing and sales roles at Dell and other commercial organisations, where I honed my commercial acumen.
I live in Amsterdam with my wife and three children, in a home we built ourselves. Outside of work, I recharge through time with family and friends, and through running and ice-skating.
Professional education
I studied business administration (MSc) at the University of Groningen, with coursework at Stanford University (Ericsson scholarship) and UCLA (exchange programme). My master's thesis on radical innovation was published as a book by Pearson Education when I was 26, making me one of their youngest management authors.
At Capgemini Consulting and later at a strategy execution boutique, I developed deep expertise in strategy execution and commercial excellence, the latter culminating in my book More Sales, Same People. Earlier, at Dell, I built the commercial foundations I still draw on today. These years gave me a set of frameworks that have informed my work ever since.
Strategy doesn't work in the abstract, it works through people. So alongside methodological training (Lean Black Belt, Scrum Master, Scaling Agile Foundations, Sustainable Business Strategy), I've invested in understanding how people and organisations actually change: Systemic Consultancy, Change Management for Professionals, Transactional Analysis in Teams and Organisations, Group Dynamics, and Introduction to Psychology. I elaborate on this human centric approach in The Execution Advantage.