Panel of Judges M&A Awards
Panel of Judges Best Deal and Best Deal Mid-Cap
Ton van Veen (Chairman)
Former CFO and CEO of Jumbo Supermarkets. Various supervisory and non-executive board positions
Ton van Veen
Former CFO and CEO of Jumbo Supermarkets. Various supervisory and non-executive board positions
Ton van Veen is the former CFO and CEO of Jumbo Supermarkets. During his 21-year tenure with the company, he played a leading role in Jumbo’s substantial growth through several major acquisitions, including Super de Boer, C1000, La Place, EMTE and HEMA. Alongside his executive responsibilities at Jumbo, he held and holds various supervisory and non-executive board positions with organizations such as Rituals, PSV, Team Jumbo-Visma, La Place, HEMA and Bolsius International.
Ton holds a degree in Business Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam and began his professional career in 1993 at KPN. In 1997 he joined Campina, where he served as Chief Financial Officer of Campina International and Geschäftsführer Finanzen of Campina Germany. Throughout his career, Ton has received multiple M&A and CFO awards in recognition of his leadership, financial expertise and M&A acumen.
Jan Piet Valk
Former CFO of Boels Rental. Various non-executive, supervisory and advisory board positions
Jan Piet Valk
Former CFO of Boels Rental. Various non-executive, supervisory and advisory board positions
Jan Piet Valk is a seasoned financial expert with extensive (>35 Years) experience in General Finance, Corporate Finance and Mergers and Acquisitions. As the former CFO of Boels Rental, he played a pivotal role in developing the growth platform and leading multiple acquisitions and integrations, including the takeover of the high-access equipment company Riwal in 2024. With a distinguished international career spanning various multinational corporations, including SHELL, Valk now serves as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Boels Rental. He is also the chairman of the Advisory Board of the SPYZER Group and a member of the Supervisory Board of the PP Group. His expertise in general and corporate finance and deal-making makes him a committed member of the jury for the M&A Awards.
Gaby Smeenk
Partner at De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek
Gaby Smeenk
Partner at De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek
Maurits Duynstee
Partner at Axeco
Maurits Duynstee
Partner at Axeco and former Head of CF Benelux at Deutsche Bank, and former, Head Wholesale Banking NL, Global co-head CF at ING Bank
Maurits specializes in international and complex M&A transactions and public tenders of Exchange-listed Dutch companies.
Maurits is partner at Axeco and has a very broad corporate finance background in both equity capital markets and M&A Advisory and has been active as a corporate finance advisor for more than 30 years. In 2009, 2013 and 2015, during the annual Alex van Groningen M&A Awards Gala, Maurits was voted best M&A advisor in the Netherlands, and under his leadership, ING Corporate Finance was also voted best M&A House in the Netherlands.
Next to his role as partner at Axeco Maurits has several board positions.
Maurits studied at Erasmus University in Rotterdam.
Cilian Jansen Verplanke
Founding Partner at Karmijn Kapitaal
Cilian Jansen Verplanke
Founding Partner at Karmijn Kapitaal
Cilian is Founding Partner at Karmijn Kapitaal. Jansen Verplanke has over 30 years of experience in the financial sector, including private equity and commercial banking at ABN Amro and Rabobank.
Mayte Oosterveld
CFO Just Eat Takeaway.com
Mayte Oosterveld
CFO at Just Eat Takeaway.com
Mayte started at Goldman Sachs and specialized in mergers, acquisitions, and corporate finance. She held various leadership positions at Goldman, such as business unit manager and executive director in equity capital markets, responsible for investment fund IPOs. Subsequently, Mayte Oosterveld joined Ahold, where she led the Merger & Acquisitions department and was responsible for a significant number of transactions, including the merger between Ahold and Delhaize. In her final role as SVP Business Planning & Performance at Ahold Delhaize, she was responsible for management reporting and budget planning. Starting from June 1, 2019, she serves as the CFO and a member of the executive team at PLUS Retail.
Panel of Judges | Best Diversity Firm
Freerk Smit
Partner at Karmijn Kapitaal
Freerk Smit
Partner at Karmijn Kapitaal
Freerk is a partner and CFO at Karmijn Kapitaal. At Karmijn, he is involved in origination, portfolio management, and investor relations.
Prior to joining Karmijn, he worked at Rembrandt Mergers & Acquisitions. He also contributed to setting up a new commercial bank in Mozambique on behalf of Rabobank. Prior to that he set up and led the Indian branch of a Dutch seafood production company.
Freerk holds a master’s degree in financial management from Nyenrode Business Universiteit.
Arwien Oemrawsingh
Senior Associate at A&O Shearman
Arwien Oemrawsingh
Deputy civil-law notary, Senior Associate at A&O Shearman
Arwien Oemrawsingh is a deputy civil-law notary and Senior Associate in the Finance & Real Estate team at A&O Shearman.
Arwien specialises in real estate law and related notarial (corporate) law. He has broad experience in a wide variety of real estate transactions, including advising on commercial real estate transactions, controlled auctions of real estate portfolios, real estate aspects of the development of on- and offshore wind and solar projects, and the provision of security in the (project-)financing of the aforementioned transactions. Arwien was seconded to the A&O Shearman London office in 2024.
Arwien is a member of the A&O Shearman Amsterdam Cultural Diversity Equity & Inclusion committee, ambassador to the University Pioneers program aiming to provide a step-up to first-generation students at Utrecht University and has been a member of the M&A Awards Best Diversity Firm jury since 2022.
Femke Schouten
Senior Associate at Pellicaan Advocaten
Femke Schouten
Senior Associate at Pellicaan Advocaten
Femke specialises in mergers and acquisitions and ESG. She focuses especially on M&A deals, diversity and inclusion, sustainability, incentives and corporate strategy and always looks for innovative ways to make her work more (cost) efficient, for example by using the newest legal tech and AI tools. She leads transactions and drafts and negotiates transaction documentation, offers her clients practical advise and also conducts (ESG) due diligence investigations. Femke is responsible for the ESG policies and procedures of Pellicaan, which has led to Pellicaan winning the M&A Award for Best Diversity Firm in 2023.
Meltem Koning-Gungormez
Partner at Van Doorne
Meltem Koning-Gungormez
Partner at Van Doorne
Meltem Koning-Gungormez specializes in corporate/M&A, private equity, venture capital and international restructurings.
She has extensive sell-side and buy-side experience in mid-market mergers and acquisitions, buy-outs, exits, investments, corporate venturing transactions and strategic cooperations. Meltem’s clients include both foreign and Dutch private equity and venture capital investors as well as corporates, financial institutions and entrepreneurs in the technology, media-, telecom and retail sectors. Most of her work has a significant cross-border connection, building on her broad international network and extensive experience at international top tier firms both in Amsterdam and New York.
Meltem is part of the Technology Transactions Team of Van Doorne, where she consolidates her PE/VC practice and technology M&A expertise, combining the ‘best in class’ privacy, IP, IT and Fintech practice groups of Van Doorne, into a seamless ‘Tech M&A’ proposition that is unique in the Dutch M&A market.
Annemieke Hoekstra
Partner at PwC Deals
Annemieke Hoekstra
Partner at PwC Deals
Annemieke Hoekstra is partner at PwC Deals, responsible for M&A Integration and transformation. She specialises in helping organizations, ensure they can actively take control on Day One and afterwards capture the planned deal value from acquisitions. She is also responsible for all human capital related aspects in the business unit, including inclusion & diversity.
Panel of Judges | Best Deal Small-Cap
Rob van der Laan
Managing Partner & Founder at NewPort Capital
Rob van der Laan
Managing Partner and Founder of NewPort Capital
Rob is Managing Partner & Founder at NewPort Capital. Van der Laan has over 30 years of experience in the M&A and Private Equity. He was Partner at Turnpoint Corporate Finance until 2003 and at Boer & Croon Corporate Finance until 2012. Following that he was a Partner at Bencis Capital and started with NewPort Capital in 2017.
Brigitte van der Maarel
Managing Partner at Karmijn Kapitaal
Brigitte van der Maarel
Managing Director, Head of NIBC Mezzanine & Equity Partners
Brigitte is Managing Partner of Karmijn Kapitaal. She has over 25 years of experience in Private Equity, Leveraged Finance and M&A from positions at among others ABN AMRO, ING, INKEF Capital, Convent Capital and leadership position at NIBC Investment Partners before joining Karmijn in 2021.
Parallel to the above Brigitte gained substantial experience in Supervisory Board and Investment Committee positions. Brigitte is currently on the board of a technical installation company, a family company active in the field of electrification and heat transition. Further, Brigitte is on the Advisory Boards of both a real estate investment company, family owned, and the Executive Master Valuation and M&A (VU/RUG).
In the PE Sector, Brigitte is on the board of the Dutch Chapter of Level20 where she has been active seting up the mentoring program. Brigitte studied business economics at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, specialisation Finance & Investments.
Maasbert Schouten
Entrepreneur, investor and CEO of N.V. MaasInvest
Maasbert Schouten
Entrepreneur, investor and CEO at N.V. MaasInvest
Maasbert is a true entrepreneur and a.o. ‘Baron of Entrepreneurship’ of Harvard University. He founded several successful companies, including AFAB Holding N.V. when he was just 21 years old, which grew from a one-man business to a holding company with 1,000 employees. In 2009 he founded N.V. MaasInvest, a professional investment company that currently invests in over 80 private equity funds and a significant number of deal-by-deal and co-investments (with a core focus on Dutch lower mid-market buyouts), has a very successful track record and of which he is currently active as CEO. He also holds a number of Advisory Board and Investment Committee roles in the Dutch private equity landscape.
Margot Engels
Operational Partner and CEO at Holland Capital
Margot Engels
Operational Partner and CEO at Holland Capital
Panel of Judges | Best Young M&A Advisor
Aleksa Nikolic
Investment Banking Vice President at Lazard
Aleksa Nikolic
Investment Banking Vice President at Lazard
Aleksa is an Investment Banking Associate at Lazard, based in Amsterdam. He worked on a broad range of deals in TMT, Consumer, Industrials, Logistics and Healthcare sectors, advising clients such as Philips, Mammoet, Apollo and Keensight Capital, among others. His deal experience includes both Dutch deals, as well as cross-border transactions with targets located in Germany, Russia and Denmark.
Prior to joining Lazard, Aleksa spent six years with ING, of which three years in its Corporate Finance team advising clients in M&A deals and three years in its Corporate Strategy department as an inhouse strategy consultant, advising ING’s top management.
Aleksa is the winner of last year’s ‘Best Young M&A Advisor’ award.
Tanja Kramer
Head of ABN AMRO Sustainable Impact Fund
Tanja Kramer
Head of ABN AMRO Sustainable Impact Fund
Tanja heads the ABN AMRO Sustainable Impact Fund, which has a commitment of € 500m and invests in a world in transition with the primary focus on climate. Tanja has 20 years of experience in M&A, investing and venture capital.
Christiane van der Wateren
CFO at LeydenJar
Christiane (Schnellert) van der Wateren
CFO at LeydenJar
Rebecca Runa Pinto-Noome
Partner at NautaDutilh
Rebecca Runa Pinto-Noome
Partner at NautaDutilh
Rebecca Runa Pinto-Noome is partner at the Corporate and M&A practice of NautaDutilh’s Amsterdam office and member of both the Private Equity and Life Sciences & Technology sector teams. She focuses on M&A work, advising on a wide variety of Dutch corporate transactions, with a specific emphasis on minority investments.
Rebecca spent six years in our New York office. She has in-depth experience with advising on Dutch law aspects in US originated transactions, and in-depth knowledge of the US M&A market. She has the expertise to make US deals with Dutch entities go smoothly and to represent US clients without the disconnects that easily occur when bridging continents and legal systems.
Nina Zimberlin
Director at Rabobank
Nina Zimberlin
Director at Rabobank
Nina Zimberlin is Director in Rabobank’s Corporate Finance team and last year’s winner of the Best M&A Advisor award. With an international background—including time spent in South Africa, Canada, and Portugal—she brings a global perspective to landmark transactions in the energy transition space. Her recent deal highlights include advising on the sale of Giga Storage to InfraVia and Infracapital’s sale of Eteck to Partners Group. Nina is passionate about inclusion, diversity, and sustainability, which she integrates into her work and leadership.
Panel of Judges | Best Young M&A Lawyer
Julius Kahn
Senior Associate at Freshfields
Julius Kahn
Senior Associate at Freshfields
Julius specialises in advising international corporates, private equity firms and financial sponsors on complex cross-border private M&A and joint ventures and has a particular focus on the media, life science and technology sectors. In 2021, Julius won the award for Best Young M&A Lawyer and gained international experience in 2022 when he was seconded to Freshfields’ New York offices.
Guillette van Grinsven
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Partner at Houthoff
Guillette van Grinsven
Partner at Houthoff
Guillette specializes in mergers and acquisitions (including company acquisitions, private equity investments, joint ventures, SPAC partnerships and restructurings). She focuses specifically on financial regulatory related mergers and acquisitions, and represents domestic and foreign private equity funds, institutional investors and strategic parties. Guillette has had a leading role in more than 50 transactions and became a partner at Houthoff in July 2022. Until 2023, Guillette was a board member of the Dutch Young M&A Community. In 2016, Guillette won the Best Young Professionals Law Award. Legal 500 has recognized her as Next Generation Partner in the area of Private Equity.
Terry Verheij
Partner at Voxius
Terry Verheij
Partner at Voxius
Terry Verheij is al jaren jurylid bij de M&A-awards. Terry spreekt dagelijks, als mede-eigenaar van Voxius (consultancy, werving – en selectie en interim bemiddeling voor juristen), juristen over hun werk, toekomstmogelijkheden, leiderschap etc. Gecombineerd met het feit dat Terry M&A-advocaat is geweest, maakt hem een kundig jurylid voor de M&A-awards. En niet alleen de juridische kundigheid van de kandidaten speelt daarbij een rol. Ook wie ze zijn als mens, omgang met anderen en visie voor de toekomst zijn belangrijke elementen in de beoordeling.
Eric Wijs
Managing Director and Head of Benelux at Lincoln International
Eric Wijs
Managing Director and Head of Benelux at Lincoln International
As co-head of Europe, Eric provides strategic, operational and financial leadership for Lincoln’s European business. He also spearheads business development and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the Benelux, a region where the private equity industry continues to develop and is increasingly considered one of the most attractive asset classes.
Eric has more than 30 years of experience advising clients on M&A, public take-overs, divestitures, capital raisings, public offerings, leveraged buyouts, privatizations and restructurings. His clients sit across numerous geographies and include large public companies, privately held companies, private equity investors and government entities from a range of industry sectors.
Prior to founding Lincoln’s Amsterdam office, Eric was a Managing Director within the financial advisory practice at Lazard, helping to establish its Amsterdam office. He started his career with ING, prior to its acquisition of Baring Brothers & Co.
Eric graduated in Business Administration from the Erasmus University Rotterdam and holds a CEMS Master degree.
Marcellina Rietvelt
Senior Associate at CMS
Marcellina Rietvelt
Senior Associate at CMS
Marcellina is a senior associate in the CMS Corporate/M&A Practice Area Group and specialises in corporate law, with a special focus on the energy sector. She advises on international and domestic mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures, as well as on sustainable energy projects and energy related commercial contracts.
Marcellina is the winner of last year’s ‘Best Young M&A Lawyer’ award
Panel of Judges | Best Young PE Manager
Nicole Zomerhuis
Investment Manager at Karmijn Kapitaal
Nicole Zomerhuis
Investment Manager at Karmijn Kapitaal
Nicole is Investment Manager at Karmijn Kapitaal. She is responsible for sourcing and executing investments in Dutch SMEs and manages three portfolio companies. She has a particular interest in companies that combine strong financial performance with meaningful contributions to social values and society at large.
Nicole joined Karmijn in 2022 and brings over 8 years of experience in mergers and acquisitions. Prior to Karmijn, she worked at international M&A advisory firm Oaklins as an Associate, where she was involved in numerous buy- and sell-side transactions, particularly in the software sector, as well as across a wide range of industries. Her clients included founders, owner-managers (DGAs) and private equity investors.
In 2024, Nicole was awarded Best Young PE Manager for her outstanding performance and leadership in the private equity sector.
Nicole holds a Master’s degree in Business Economics with a specialization in Financial Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Ronald Kemmeren
Partner at Smile Sail
Ronald Kemmeren
Partner at Smile Sail
Ronald co-founded Smile Sail (Smile Software & AI Fund) in 2024 where he is a Partner and an Investment Committee member. Ronald has 10+ years of hands-on private equity experience with technology and software companies across Europe. Growth strategies of these companies were mainly centered around accelerating organic and acquisitive international growth. Moreover, Ronald gained operational experience with travel technology company Tiqets, where he supported the company throughout Covid as VP Corporate Development & Strategy. In 2019, Ronald was awarded the Young Private Equity Manager of the Year by the Dutch M&A Community and has been an active jury member for this award since 2020.
Wendy van Luit
Director at Strategy& Deals, part of PwC Netherlands
Wendy van Luit
Director at Strategy& Deals, part of PwC Netherlands
Wendy van Luit is a Director at Strategy& Deals, PwC’s in-house strategy consultancy in the Netherlands focused on commercial due diligence, M&A strategy support and value creation. She works with leading private equity firms, corporate boards and management teams on their most important strategic investment decisions, from developing M&A strategies, assessing deal opportunities to realising value post deal. She has extensive experience in both buyside and sell-side processes across industries with main expertise in the Business Services sector and in Retail & Consumer markets. She has deal experience in the Netherlands and Singapore. Prior to joining Strategy& Deals, Wendy worked as corporate finance professional at Rabobank.
Wendy won the award for Best Young M&A advisor in 2020.
She holds a MSc in Financial Economics from the University of Rotterdam (graduated cum laude).
Valéry Schaap
Senior Associate at AKD
Valéry Schaap
Senior Associate at AKD
Valéry Schaap is a senior associate at AKD who specialises in company law. Valéry assists clients during various transactions, including (strategic) acquisitions, private equity deals and (venture capital) investments. Moreover, she assists clients with respect to general company law matters such as concluding of shareholder agreements, establishing joint ventures and other partnerships and establishing and managing (venture capital) investment funds.
Valéry’s clients range from Dutch (upper) mid-market and family businesses to multinationals and foreign (listed) companies. Her clients appreciate her involvement and reliability.