Board and Executive Leadership Team
The non-executive directors, all of whom the Company regard as independent, bring considerable international experience to the Board across a number of sectors. They play a full role in constructively challenging and developing strategic proposals, as well as chairing and being members of Board committees. The executive directors implement Board strategy, most recently having reorganised the Group divisional structure to align operating businesses more closely with customers, to deliver synergies and accelerate growth.
The Board
Ben Verwaayen, MSC
Chairman
Appointed: April 2020
Skills and experience: Ben has a breadth of experience, having been the CEO of several companies, including Alcatel-Lucent SA and BT plc. He held the position of vice chairman and chief operating officer of Lucent Technologies Inc, was president of KPN and a non-executive director of Bharti Airtel. He has also been chairman of a number of companies and industry bodies including the CBI Energy and Climate Change Board in the UK. Ben currently serves as a non-executive director on the boards of Ofcom and Akamai Technologies Inc. He is a Founding Partner at venture capital company Keen Venture Partners LLP. Ben graduated from Utrecht University with a master’s degree in Law and International Politics.
Allard Castelein, MD
Senior Independent Director
Appointed: January 2017
Skills and experience: Allard qualified as a medical doctor before pursuing an international career in the energy sector, holding a number of senior positions at Shell in various countries, culminating in the post of Vice President Environment of Royal Dutch Shell in 2009. He was President and CEO of the Port of Rotterdam from 2014 to 2023. Currently Allard is a Supervisory Board member of SBM Offshore N.V., Heijmans N.V. and a Non-Executive director of Associated British Ports PLC. He is Chair of the Supervisory Board of Rotterdam’s Philharmonic Orchestra, the Erasmus Trust Fund, and Supervisory Board member of the Internationale Architectuur Biënnale Rotterdam. He is also Special Envoy for Critical Raw Materials for the Dutch Government.
Jolande Sap, MSC
Independent
Non-Executive Director
Appointed: April 2018
Skills and experience: Jolande is chair of the Social Impact Team that advises the Dutch government on the social impact of pandemics and disruptive crises. She is also member of the Board of the Dutch Emissions Authority, vice chair of the Supervisory Board of KPMG and a member of the Supervisory Board of Royal KPN N.V. In addition, she is involved in a number of social initiatives, including Chair of the Smoke free table of the Dutch National Prevention Agreement, the Springtij Forum and the Impact Economy Foundation. Between 2008 and 2012, Jolande represented the Dutch Green Party, GroenLinks, in the lower house of the Dutch parliament, leading the party from 2010. Before that she worked as an economist in the fields of science, policy and business. She was, among other things, head of the Incomes Policy department at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, and director of the LEEFtijd center of expertise, a consultancy for sustainable employment issues. Jolande graduated from the Tilburg University in economics.
Luc Sterckx, MSC, PHD
Independent
Non-Executive Director
Appointed: September 2017
Skills and experience: Luc started his career at Exxon Chemicals, before becoming the CEO of Indaver and subsequently joining the executive committee of PetroFina, where he served as managing director of Fina Holding Deutschland and as group senior vice president for SHEQ matters worldwide. He was then appointed CEO of Oleon where he led a successful management buyout. Luc was subsequently appointed as CEO of SPE-Luminus in 2005, the second largest power and gas company in Belgium, created as a result of a multi-party merger. Luc is an INSEAD certified international director and a specialist in internal governance. He currently holds a number of nonexecutive and advisory positions, specialising in the fields of energy and chemicals, renewables and corporate governance.
Neil Hartley, MA, MBA
Independent
Non-Executive Director
Appointed: January 2019
Skills and experience: Neil is a Partner at Velocity Partners, a private equity firm that invests in businesses that support the energy industry with focus on integration of renewable energy, lowering emissions, increasing energy efficiency, decarbonisation of industrial processes and other improvements to existing energy infrastructure. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and is also a graduate of Oxford University in engineering, economics and management. Neil has a total of 18 years in private equity, and prior to that, spent six years in investment banking with Simmons & Company International, specialising in corporate finance, M&A and capital raising in the energy sector. Neil has also been a management consultant at McKinsey & Company Inc and spent seven years in technical and line management roles with Schlumberger as a field service manager and field engineer.
Katleen Vandeweyer, MSC
Independent
Non-Executive Director
Appointed: December 2022
Skills and experience: Katleen brings a wealth of experience in finance and auditing, most recently until July 2022 in her role as Deputy Chief Financial Officer at Belgian-listed company, Proximus SA, an international provider of digital services, communication and ICT solutions. Prior to Proximus, she held various leadership positions including that of CFO at Worldline S.A. and Arthur Andersen. She currently serves as Non-Executive Director on the Boards of Fedrus International BV, Ageas Group, AG Insurance and Vantiva S.A; she also sits on the Audit committees of both Ageas Group, AG Insurance and Vantiva (Audit Committee Chair). Previously, she sat on the Boards of Ion Beam Applications, bpost bank, Connectimmo N.V, Scarlet N.V. and Proximus Pension Fund. She holds a degree in Applied Economics from the University of Leuven.
Otto de Bont, MSC
Chief Executive Officer
Appointed: April 2019
Skills and experience: Otto was promoted to the role of Chief Executive Officer in April 2019. Prior to this, he was the Managing Director of Renewi’s Commercial Waste Netherlands Division, playing a central role in the integration of Shanks Group plc with Van Gansewinkel Groep B.V. Before joining Renewi, Otto worked for a number of blue-chip companies including United Technologies’ divisions Otis, Carrier and Chubb and General Electric’s Plastics and Security divisions. He has worked a significant part of his career abroad, including in Belgium, Germany and the United States. During his six years at United Technologies, Otto spent time in various managerial positions culminating in his role as president of Chubb Continental Europe. Otto holds a MSc in Engineering from the University of Technology Twente. He is member of the Strategic Advisory Board of TNO’s unit for Energy and Material Transition
Annemieke den Otter, MA, RC
Chief Financial Officer
Appointed: June 2022
Skills and experience: Annemieke joined the Board in June 2022. Previously she held the position of CFO of ERIKS, a €1.7 billion revenue global engineering components and service provider (privately owned and part of SHV group). From 2016, she served for five years as the CFO of Ordina, a Dutch software company listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. Earlier in her career she worked for three years at VolkerWessels, one of the large construction companies in the Netherlands. Prior to this she worked for ING and Macquarie Bank and lived in London for five years. Since 2020, she has been a Supervisory Board member of ForFarmers N.V., an international organisation offering feed solutions for livestock farming. Annemieke holds a master’s degree in English and Literary Science from the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam and has a post-masters degree in finance and control from Erasmus University, Rotterdam (Register Controller in Dutch).
Executive Leadership Team
Otto de Bont, MSC
Chief Executive Officer
Appointed: April 2019
Skills and experience: Otto was promoted to the role of Chief Executive Officer in April 2019. Prior to this, he was the Managing Director of Renewi’s Commercial Waste Netherlands Division, playing a central role in the integration of Shanks Group plc with Van Gansewinkel Groep B.V. Before joining Renewi, Otto worked for a number of blue-chip companies including United Technologies’ divisions Otis, Carrier and Chubb and General Electric’s Plastics and Security divisions. He has worked a significant part of his career abroad, including in Belgium, Germany and the United States. During his six years at United Technologies, Otto spent time in various managerial positions culminating in his role as president of Chubb Continental Europe. Otto holds a MSc in Engineering from the University of Technology Twente. He is member of the Strategic Advisory Board of TNO’s unit for Energy and Material Transition
Annemieke den Otter, MA, RC
Chief Financial Officer
Appointed: June 2022
Skills and experience: Annemieke joined the Board in June 2022. Previously she held the position of CFO of ERIKS, a €1.7 billion revenue global engineering components and service provider (privately owned and part of SHV group). From 2016, she served for five years as the CFO of Ordina, a Dutch software company listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. Earlier in her career she worked for three years at VolkerWessels, one of the large construction companies in the Netherlands. Prior to this she worked for ING and Macquarie Bank and lived in London for five years. Since 2020, she has been a Supervisory Board member of ForFarmers N.V., an international organisation offering feed solutions for livestock farming. Annemieke holds a master’s degree in English and Literary Science from the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam and has a post-masters degree in finance and control from Erasmus University, Rotterdam (Register Controller in Dutch).
Mark Thys
Chief Operating Officer Commercial Waste
Skills and experience: Mark joined Renewi in May 2021 as Managing Director Commercial Waste Belgium. Before joining Renewi, Mark held the position of Global Chief Transformation Officer for Eurofins Scientific. Prior to this, Mark built his career at Goodyear Dunlop, completing various international assignments and holding different senior positions, including Managing Director International Sales and Operations, Managing Director France & Benelux and Goodyear’s EMEA Business Transformation Leader. Mark holds an MSc in Commercial Engineering from the University of Hasselt and an Executive MBA in Business Management from KU Leuven.
Kirsten Yperman
Chief Human Resources Officer (ad interim)
Skills and experience: Kirsten assumed the Chief Human Resources Officer (ad interim) role in April 2024, having joined Renewi as HR Director Belgium in 2022. Prior to joining Renewi, Kirsten held several senior HR functions at Stanley Black & Decker where her last function was Senior HR Director Commercial Central East Europe Region & Finance EMEA ANZ and Talent Management Director EMEA ANZ. Kirsten holds a Bachelor in Marketing from Karel de Grote Hogeschool as well as several strategic Human Resources qualifications from Vlerick Business School.
Bruno Bruins
Chief Strategy Officer
Skills and experience: Bruno joined Renewi in May 2024 as Chief Strategy Officer. Prior to this he held various political positions in the Netherlands, most recently as member of the Council of State, previously as State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science, and Minister of Medical Care and Sports. His career in industry spans leadership roles in various transport companies, including as a member of the Board of Directors of Connexxion Holding NV and as acting general manager of HTM NV. Bruno is a member of the UNICEF and Chairman of the Alrijne Zorggroep Supervisory Boards, and Chairman of the Keolis and Yris BV Advisory Boards. Bruno studied Dutch Law and Public Administration at the University of Groningen.
Extended Executive Leadership Team
Theo Olijve
SHEQ Director
Skills and experience: Theo joined Renewi in June 2019 and following a divisional restructure was appointed Managing Director of the Mineralz & Water division in March 2020. Prior to joining Renewi he worked in senior management positions in the petrochemical industry and liquid bulk terminals for over 25 years, including Divisional VP for LyondellBasell, managing the Odfjell Terminal Rotterdam where he was responsible for restoring the operation and compliance after a safety shutdown in 2012. In 2017 he became an independent management consultant. Theo holds a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Groningen.
Marieke van Wichen
Director Communications
Skills and experience: Marieke joined Renewi in July 2022, bringing over 15 years’ experience in international marketing and communications. Prior to joining Renewi, Marieke fulfilled a wide range of global communications roles, both in the B2B and B2C areas, and more recently had global responsibility for the internal and external communications of the consumer division at Philips. Earlier in her career, Marieke worked in advertising and developed marketing campaigns for the Dutch national market. Marieke holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications.
Frederik Paauwe
Director Transformation
Skills and experience: Frederik joined Renewi as Director of Digital Core in July 2023, bringing 20 years of experience in business transformations, business process redesign, and leading digital programmes in the energy sector. Graduating with a degree in Earth Sciences from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Frederik began his career as an Exploration Geologist at Shell in 1991. This was followed by an MBA from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College (USA) and four years with strategy consultants McKinsey & Company. Frederik re-joined Shell in 2001 where he held senior management positions in Shell’s European Commercial B2B business, Downstream, and in Upstream, leading regional and global teams driving operational excellence and digital transformations for the business. In his last role as Vice President Business Excellence, he led the programme to define Upstream’s target digital model, enabled by SAP.
Ans Verlooy
Director IT
Skills and experience: Ans was promoted to Group IT Director in November 2023, having joined Renewi as IT Director for the Commercial Waste Belgium division in 2022. Prior to joining Renewi, Ans built significant experience in IT leadership having held several senior IT positions at Argenta, Colruyt Group, Johnson & Johnson, and ING Belgium. Since joining Renewi, she has played a pivotal role in the development and application of the Flexible Delivery Model, providing a critical framework aligning strategic business objectives with IT deliverables. Ans continually updates, develops and supplements her knowledge and qualifications and holds numerous practical certifications related to her role, including in Data Protection, Prince 2 project management, and as a Scrum Master. Currently Ans is training as a certified information security manager (CISM).