Panel of Judges M&A Awards

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 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.

Partner at De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek

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 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 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.

Aleksa is an Investment Banking Vice President at Lazard, based in Amsterdam. He worked on a broad range of deals in Consumer, Industrials, TMT, Logistics, Business Services and Healthcare sectors, advising clients such as AkzoNobel, Philips, Mammoet, Apollo, Bridgepoint and Keensight Capital, among others. His deal experience includes both Dutch deals, as well as cross-border transactions with targets located in Spain, Italy, 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.

Aleksa is the winner of the ‘Best Young M&A Advisor’ award for 2023.

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.

CFO at LeydenJar

Willianne is a partner in our Corporate M&A department. From August 2019 to September 2023, she served as managing partner of our London office, where she headed the Corporate M&A practice. She is an all-round transactional lawyer who advises a wide range of corporate clients and financial investors on mergers and acquisitions, with a particular focus on cross-border transactions in the infrastructure, real estate and private equity sectors.

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 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 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.

As Head of Europe for Lincoln International, Eric has been instrumental in the firm’s growth in Europe.

Eric has more than 25 years of experience advising clients on mergers and acquisitions, public takeovers, divestitures, capital raisings, public offerings, leveraged buyouts, privatizations and restructurings. His clients span numerous geographies and include public companies, privately held companies, private equity investors and governments.

Prior to founding Lincoln’s Amsterdam office, Eric was a Managing Director within the financial advisory practice at Lazard in London, Paris and Amsterdam. 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’s degree.

Baris is a senior associate in the corporate team of A&O Shearman in Amsterdam. He advises large corporates on strategic takeovers, joint ventures and divestments, as well as private equity firms on complex investments. In 2023–2024 he was seconded to the firm’s London office, supporting cross-border M&A and private equity mandates globally.He joined A&O Shearman in 2017 and studied law at Leiden University and Tsinghua University (Beijing). Beyond his legal practice, Baris is an ambassador for One Young World, contributing to global initiatives focused on inclusive leadership, sustainability and responsible business.

Baris is the winner of last year’s ‘Best Young M&A Lawyer’ award.

Joris is Partner at H2 Equity Partners, a leading value-add investor. He joined H2 Equity Partners in 2016 and has been involved with investments such as Urban Care Group, GaragePark and Contiweb. Joris holds a Master’s degree in Quantitative Finance from the Erasmus School of Economics and enjoyed several courses from Harvard University. Joris won the award for Best Young Private Equity Manager in 2025.

Ronald co-founded Smile Sail (Smile Software & AI Fund) in 2024 where he is a Partner and an Investment Committee member. Ronald has 12 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 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).

Ralph is a seasoned Corporate/M&A lawyer with over a decade of experience guiding clients through complex transactions and strategic growth. He focuses on private equity, venture capital, including corporate matters, rollovers and management participation.

He represents financial sponsors and their portfolio companies, VC funds as well as founders at every stage of the investment cycle – from initial entry and buy-and-build-strategies through to exit, whether by trade sale, secondary buy-out, dividend recapitalisation or IPO. Working on domestic and cross-border transactions, Ralph has developed a deep understanding of the commercial, structural and strategic considerations that drive value creation at each stage of a private capital investment.

Prior to joining AKD he was Head of Legal & Procurement at an emerging e-commerce platform backed by private capital, active in Europe and the United States – giving him direct experience of the dynamics that matter most to investors and management teams.

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 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 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 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 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.