Our Board

Cees Brandwijk

Cees Brandwijk was born and raised in Rotterdam. He studied economics at Erasmus University University in Rotterdam and followed various other subject-oriented studies, such as architecture and marketing & management and he obtained his practical diploma in a gray past accounting and MBA. He is also a certified BOBB takeover specialist.. In 2013 this is supplemented by a ‘fiscal-legal’ postgraduate study, which focused in particular on death & succession within (family) businesses. Cees started his ‘serious’ career at Volker Stevin as a member of the automation steering committee. Later As a member of the board at Datex Systems, he was responsible for all divisions with the IBM brand. , he finally establishes his business activities in the ICT sector. He starts, among other things, with the manufacture of personal computers in Hong Kong and is thus a supplier of the first hour of PC private projects. It Dutch company has been supplying products to promote more flexible labor since 1988 & workplace, through wireless data communication and front & back office products. She offers solutions for large end users, including Nokia, TDK, Ericsson for Ram Mobile Data, for applications at Rank Xerox and NS. Product names such as Cisco and later XIRCOM grow to market leaders and with his company Ronin Nederland B.V. as ‘marketer of the year’ for several years (1992-1996). His company grows to 150 FTE, a turnover of 70 million euros and is sold at the end of 1998 to an English listed company. After many years of roaming the world for his field, he goes after the sales are engaged in investments in ICT-related start-ups and in doing so has many business plans reviewed. The ‘discovery’ of these skills then led to the profession of takeover advisor in 2011, and in 2014 Cees started the company takeover together with Rene Bender and consultancy firm. Since then, he has been particularly active in the purchase and sale of companies in the SMEs and he assists entrepreneurs with advice. In recent years Cees has – in addition to various transfers in the ‘Manufacturing & ICT industry’ – also helped smaller SMEs and successful business acquisitions. Cees Brandwijk has been the founder of various companies and, in this capacity, has DGA extensive knowledge in the field of B2B and B2C. He has gained extensive experience in leading and positioning companies. In his many years of career as an entrepreneur, he knew both on the buyer’s side as well as on acquisitions on the seller’s side to translate his vision into concrete results. Cees now spends his “free” time mainly on various administrative and political related activities functions and coaching

Roland Toppen

Mr. Toppen has more than 25 years of experience in the financial sector. During these 25 years, he has held many different roles within the asset management and banking sectors and especially gained a lot of experience in areas such as Strategy, M&A, Finance, and Risk management. From 2005 to 2008 he was the CFO of Robeco in the US and after that, he was responsible for the financial and corporate development/M&A departments of Robeco’s business in 15 countries. From 2015 to 2018 he was the CFRO and member of the Board of Robeco. In the 20 years in which he was responsible for corporate development/M&A, he has worked on many potential deals and of the 14 acquisitions that have had been completed, no less than 11 have been successful and the 3 that were not a good fit have been successfully sold again during his time as CFRO at Robeco.

Jan Stip

Jan Stip is an international executive, with more than 25 years of experience in Commercial and Technical Management functions within the IT, Security, and Network domains. In addition, Jan is internationally active as an investor and advisor at start-ups and scale-ups. The current position is as COO and Co-Founder at OPT/NET, a scale-up in Artificial intelligence. Where he is responsible for the day-to-day management and all customer-oriented activities. Previously employed at Valesco Ventures as CEO, an investor in international start-ups. Before that at Infoblox (NASDQ:BLOX), responsible for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). He was a founding member of Juniper Networks (NASDQ: JNPR) in Europe. Where he has held various positions such as Vice President & Managing Director Service Providers, with responsibility for the Telecom Sector a $2.3 Bn business. And General Manager & Vice President Engineering for the Mobile and Open Software Business Units. Jan Stip was also active as an officer with the Royal Dutch Navy in Den Helder.

Arjen Brussé

Arjen invests in people and companies every day, mainly in Europe and the Middle East. Arjen works with talented and passionate people, either in a role as investor, advisor, coach, or mentor. Arjen graduated in law and tax law and completed his master’s and postmaster’s degrees in the Netherlands and at Harvard Business School. Arjen started his career at several top international law firms and was an international partner for many years at EY (Ernst & Young). With over 24 years of experience as a trusted boardroom advisor, Arjen has seen almost every business challenge in different industries and many countries. M&A and fast-growing companies have always been a passion. Arjen is trained as a leadership coach according to the International Coach Federation standards. Furthermore, Arjen is a certified Intercultural Intelligence (ICI) expert of Knowledgeworkx. Arjen specializes in working with teams with very diverse business and cultural backgrounds. In his role as EY family business leader EY, Arjen also is adept at handling succession challenges and the complex dynamics between family and business. The transition and integration of corporate cultures after a succession or merger is one of his specialties. Arjen provides advice and coaching on M&A, Governance, Strategy, Leadership, and Cultural diversity. Arjen also invests in people and companies in both Europe and the Central East. A condition for his investments is, in addition to profitability, above all making a difference through a sustainable approach to both the market and the workforce. Sustainable relationships with customers are central. Sustainable experiences that last a lifetime for the workforce are equally important to him. Arjen is specialized in navigating through the (company) cultural diversity avoiding known pitfalls and making the most of cultural diversity is achieved, both in the markets and in our teams. Furthermore, Arjen is a supervisory director/non-exec board member of companies in various sectors, both in Europe and the Middle East, with an emphasis on strategy, governance,  board effectiveness, taxes and mergers and acquisitions.

Henry van Geen

Roy van der Meer