ir. Paul de Ruijter, Associate

Mr. De Ruijter has a long history in starting new businesses and in developing scenarios and strategies for leading multinationals. Beginning with the foundation of the local entrepreneurs association at the University of Twente, and a career at Shell's strategy department in London, he is an expert on entrepreneurial activities from the perspective of both large and small organizations.

With his broad experience in scenario and strategy projects, Mr. De Ruijter has led projects for European government institutions and multinational entities in the automotive, finance, consumer electronics, biotech, telecommunications and information technology industries through the Global Business Network in Europe and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in Geneva.

His entrepreneurial activities span involvements as co-founder and external-director for multiple businesses in the IT, technology, international recruitment and finance industries.

Paul is a frequent lecturer at leading European business schools in the disciplines of strategy and scenario planning, as well as in the management development programs of multinationals in banking, mobile communications and electronics.

Robert Hewins, MBA, Associate

Mr. Hewins is an interdisciplinary serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in the IT, software, telecommunications, banking and consulting industries for small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) and multinationals. He has worked for and undertaken engagements with a distinguished client list including Time-Warner, Mitsubishi Trust & Banking, Citibank, Readmore Automation, American Management Systems (AMS), Versatel Telecom, o.tel.o Telecom, KPN, Rabobank, Wolters Kluwer, the European Training Foundation and the European Union.

With significant IT and consulting projects executed in the United States and Western and Central Europe, Mr. Hewins brings a multinational perspective in identifying and integrating business opportunities across diverse sectors. He specializes in formulating mechanisms and strategies to convert high-level plans into viable businesses, and in bringing together interested parties wishing to participate in new ventures. His current focus is on how to leverage market dynamics and processes in the SME business segment.

Mr. Hewins' involvement in large projects and technology startups span senior management, co-founder and director levels, with responsibilities ranging from multi-million dollar funding acquisition and operations start-up, to financial management of geographically dispersed high-value projects.

Mr. Hewins has designed courses and been a frequent lecturer for the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Graduate School of Business, in the areas of business strategy for high-tech companies and the impact of technology in business and organizations.

Erik Bryld, MBA, Associate

Mr. Bryld is an international business developer with comprehensive executive experience in business startups and turnarounds with line management of upwards of 400 employees. Mr. Bryld's focus over the last 10 years has been on global conglomerates, such as Metra Corporation and Royal Philips Electronics.

As director and shareholder of a chemical company, Mr. Bryld grew the business to the number two player in its market. He initiated a renewal of the business processes through new IT systems, and identified and executed the firm's entry into valuable new consumer markets to a 12% overall share. The company was later acquired by Bayer Chemie.

Following divestment, Mr. Bryld became Managing Director of an insolvent subsidiary of Metra Corporation, which he restructured over 4 months to reach break-even in 10 months. Through development and launch of innovative solutions for access control, renewed growth was achieved in a rapid market entry and expansion strategy involving two joint development and sales alliances with major players such as Group 4 and Telecom Denmark. The company was later merged with the main competitor and now a part of the Assa-Abloy Group.

Over the last 5 years with Royal Philips Electronics, Mr. Bryld ran a number of value driven renewal projects of mature businesses involving up to 1200 people and startup projects with major telecom players valued between Euro 2 to 100+ million. Mr. Bryld's activities with Philips also involved divestments and partnerships in all phases of the value chain.