Panel of Judges M&A Awards 2024
Panel of Judges Best Deal and Best Deal Mid-Cap
Marc van Gelder (Chairman)
Founder & CEO at Dennendonck Investments and former CEO of Mediq
Marc van Gelder
Founder & CEO at Dennendonck Investments and former CEO of Mediq
Marc van Gelder is founder & CEO at Dennendonck Investments and was CEO of Mediq from 2005-2014. From 1996-2004 Marc worked at Ahold. His positions included Director Corporate Business Development and President and CEO of Peapod USA. Prior to Ahold he was an Associate Principal at McKinsey. Currently, Marc is chairman of the board at Incision and JP Morgan European Discovery Trust plc. He is also supervisory board member of Action and a board member of the Netherland-America Foundation.
He was chairman of the supervisory board of Nexeye, Vastned, Diabetes Fonds and Quantib and member of the supervisory board of Maxeda DIY Group, GIMV and Medeye.
Marc earned his Bachelor of Economics, Master of Finance at Erasmus University in Rotterdam and his MBA at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Koos Breen
Former CEO Van Leeuwen Buizen Groep, specializes in family and private equity owned businesses in the mid-market segment.
Koos Breen
Former CEO Van Leeuwen Buizen Groep, specializes in family and private equity owned businesses in the midmarket segment.
Koos Breen was President and CEO of Van Leeuwen Buizen Groep from 1998 until 2007. From 1978 to 1998 Koos worked at Philips Electronics. His positions included Managing Director East Asia and Managing Director Asia Pacific.
Currently he is Non-Executive Director at Teijin Aramid, Royal Smilde, Van Leeuwen Buizen Groep, BridgeHead, Black Bear Carbon, Well Engineering Partners. He is Member Investment Committee of the TBL Mirror Fund, a fund for High Growth Businesses in Africa.
He was Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Royal Ahrend and Chairman of the Advisory Board of Muller Shipping. Koos also acted as Industry advisor for IK Invest.
Koos earned his Master of Science Mechanical Engineering at Delft University of Technology and Bachelor Business Administration at Rotterdam University.
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.
Kay de Gier-Formanek
Founder and CEO at KAY Diversity & Performance
Kay de Gier-Formanek
Founder and CEO at KAY Diversity & Performance
Kay is Founder and Managing Director of KAY Diversity and Performance, a company committed to unleashing the business benefits of performance. Before founding her company Kay was Managing Director at Accenture, a company she served for 25 years. During her tenure at Accenture she led the Diversity and Inclusion Practice and assumed a leadership role in the Women Council and High Potential Development Program.
She is an author of diversity books, a lecturer and collaborator at a number of leading Business Schools and serves as coach and advisor to Boards and leaders across the globe on the area of Diversity. Her key focus is Unconscious Bias and How Diversity translates to Business Performance. She is a welcomed speaker at major events on the topic of Diversity leadership. She serves as Vice Chair of an NGO serving the interests of women and children in fragile states. She is mother of 3 kids and avid sportswoman and lives in The Netherlands.
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.
Femke Schouten
Associate at Pellicaan Advocaten
Femke Schouten
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.
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 Associate at Lazard
Aleksa Nikolic
Investment Banking Associate 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
Head of Finance Europe at Versuni
Christiane (Schnellert) van der Wateren
Head of Finance Europe at Versuni
Christiane has 20 years of relevant expertise in Financial Controlling, Business Modeling and Value Creation, Problem Solving, Planning & Analysis and M&A. She worked and lived in Germany, Singapore and The Netherlands.
Since 2015, Christiane is working as Finance Lead of the Mergers, Acquisitions and Divestments department in Philips. She oversees Financial Due Diligence and DD Vendor Engagement, the Finance Integration/Carve-out Strategy and finance related integration/disentanglement activities. She also is responsible for M&A Budget Control and Post Integration Performance Reporting. Through her role, she was involved in the IPO divestment of Philips’ Lighting division in 2016 and in more than 20 acquisition projects that Philips had worked on over the past 4 years.
Christiane holds a degree as Executive Master of Finance & Control (University of Maastricht) and a Diploma in Business Administration (University of Hamburg, Diplom-Kauffrau). She is Lean Six Sigma certified (Black Belt).
Willianne van Zandwijk
Managing partner and Head of Corporate M&A Practice at NautaDutilh UK
Willianne van Zandwijk
Managing partner and Head of Corporate M&A Practice at NautaDutilh UK
Willianne van Zandwijk is managing partner and head of the corporate M&A practice of NautaDutilh’s London office. Willianne is an all-round transaction lawyer, advising a variety of corporate clients and financial investors on cross-border and domestic M&A transactions, with a particular focus on transactions in the infrastructure, real estate and private equity sectors. Willianne is a member of the Private Equity Team.
Representative experience of Willianne includes advising:
· RTL on its proposed merger of RTL Nederland and Talpa Network;
· Silver Lake on its proposed acquisition of a strategic minority stake in Exact and on its investment in Getir B.V.;
· Long standing client Neste Corporation on its acquisition of Bunge’s refinery plant in Rotterdam and its acquisition of Count Terminal Rotterdam;
· AroundTown on various transactions;
· Quadrum Capital on its sale of real estate developer VanWonen
· Blokker Holding on the management-buy out of the Blokker and Big Bazar retail chains by Blokker Holding’s CEO and on the sale of De Marskramer;
· Brookfield on its acquisition of a majority stake in Schoeller Allibert Group;
· The Carlyle Group on its acquisition of Hunkemoller and on its acquisition of Dobla (via its portfolio company, Irca);
· SHV Holdings, a family-owned multinational, on the merger of its group company Dyas Holdings B.V. with Oranje-Nassau Energie B.V.
Willianne obtained her Master’s degree in Dutch Civil Law from Erasmus University Rotterdam (cum laude). Willianne completed a post graduate degree in energy law (VU Amsterdam).
Panel of Judges | Best Young M&A Lawyer
Hanneke Rothbarth
Partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Hanneke Rothbarth
Partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Hanneke specialises in public transactions, capital markets as well as private M&A and private equity. She has been involved in numerous public M&A deals, including strategic takeovers, public-to-privates and cross-border mergers.
She also advised both banks and issuers on a wide range of ECM transactions including initial public offerings, rights issues and accelerated bookbuild offerings and regularly assists listed companies in their continued compliance with financial markets regulations, such as market abuse, stock exchange rules and ongoing obligations.
Guillette van Grinsven
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.
Omar el Gachi
Senior Associate at Stibbe
Omar el Gachi
Senior Associate at Stibbe
Omar specialises in corporate law, with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments and corporate governance. He advises on a variety of corporate matters for a broad spectrum of clients, including large national and international businesses.
Omar was seconded to Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York and London (2023-2024). He has a master’s in corporate law from Radboud University Nijmegen (2016, cum laude) and he attended an MBA Highlights Programme at INSEAD in 2022.
Omar is the winner of last year’s ‘Best Young M&A Lawyer’ award.
Panel of Judges | Best Young PE Manager
Katherine de Kruiff
Associate at Torqx Capital Partners
Katherine de Kruiff
Associate at Torqx Capital Partners
Katherine is an Associate at Torqx Capital Partners. Katherine is responsible for supporting several of Torqx’ portfolio companies (Beter Bed, Nexio Projects, Fri-Jado) as well as sourcing, evaluating and deal execution of investment opportunities. She is eager to find new and challenging opportunities and enjoys working together with management teams to identify and implement key initiatives realizing the strategic potential of the company. Katherine is a pragmatic problem-solver with an energetic and positive mindset.
Katherine holds an MSc. Degree in Quantitative Marketing & Business Analytics from the Erasmus School of Economics (cum laude). She was awarded ‘Best Young PE Manager’ in 2023.
Ronald Kemmeren
Investment Director at DELTA Equity Partners
Ronald Kemmeren
Investment Director at DELTA Equity Partners
Ronald is a Vice President at HPE Growth where he is responsible for sourcing, evaluating and deal execution of prospective investment opportunities in European growth stage technology companies as well as supporting HPE Growth’s portfolio companies WeTransfer, Tiqets, Uberall and Airborne International with their respective growth strategies. In addition, Ronald is an advisory board member at VEECEE which is a pan-European network of Venture Capital and Growth Capital professionals. In 2019, the Dutch M&A Association acknowledged Ronald as the Best Young Private Equity Manager in the Netherlands.
Prior to joining HPE in June 2016, Ronald was an Associate in the Private Equity division of Dasym Investment Strategies, which is a global TMT investment boutique, where he was among others assisting on a number of private equity investments in the media, consumer and internet sectors. Before joining Dasym, Ronald was in the Investment Banking Department of Morgan Stanley.
Ronald holds an MSc. degree in Finance & Investments from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, where he graduated Cum Laude.
He also was awarded ‘Best Young PE Manager’ in 2019.
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).
Nathalie van Woerkom
Partner at AKD
Nathalie van Woerkom
Partner at AKD
Nathalie van Woerkom is a lawyer and partner at AKD. She has extensive experience in general corporate law and specializes in mergers, acquisitions and private equity. For example, Nathalie has worked in various places on cross-border due diligence and restructuring of Dutch activities. She also advises on the various aspects of distressed M&A.
Nathalie’s clients include large international companies, joint ventures in Europe, USA, Asia and Africa, and management buy-outs. Chambers Global, Legal 500 and IFLR1000 recognize Nathalie as a leading individual. Her clients praise her as an “excellent negotiator and great team leader”.