Board and Executive 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. He is also Chairman of the Nomination Committee.
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.
Ben is considered by the Board to be independent.
Allard Castelein, MD
Senior Independent Director
Appointed: January 2017 and appointed Senior Independent Director in September 2019. He is also a member of the Remuneration, Nomination and Safety, Health and Environment Committees.
Appointed as President and CEO of the Port of Rotterdam in 2014, Allard will be stepping down from this position at the end of July 2023. He 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 is a Supervisory Board member of SBM Offshore N.V and Heijmans N.V, a Non-Executive Director of Associated British Ports and a senior member of several Dutch trade organisations including the Economic Board of Zuid Holland and the Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers.
Allard is considered by the Board to be independent.
Jolande Sap, MSC
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.
Jolande is considered by the Board to be independent.
Luc Sterckx, MSC, PHD
Non-Executive Director
Appointed: September 2017 and appointed Chair of the Safety, Health and Environment Committee in February 2021. He is also a member of the Audit, Remuneration and Nomination Committees.
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.
Luc is considered by the Board to be independent.
Neil Hartley, MA, MBA
Non-Executive Director
Appointed: January 2019 and appointed Chair of the Remuneration Committee in September 2019. He is also a member of the Audit, Nomination and Safety, Health and Environment Committees.
Skills and experience: Neil is a Partner at Buckthorn Partners, a private equity firm that invests in businesses that support the 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 16 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.
Neil is considered by the Board to be Independent.
Katleen Vandeweyer
Non-Executive Director
Appointed: From December 2022. She is also Chair of the Audit Committee and member of the Nomination Committee.
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 PLC, 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 and AG Insurance. 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.
Katleen is considered by the Board to be independent.
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. During his six years at United Technologies, Otto spent time in various managerial positions culminating in his role as president of Chubb Continental Europe.
Annemieke den Otter
Chief Financial Officer
Appointed: June 2022
Skills and experience: Annemieke joined the Board on 1 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 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. During his six years at United Technologies, Otto spent time in various managerial positions culminating in his role as president of Chubb Continental Europe.
Annemieke den Otter
Chief Financial Officer
Appointed: June 2022
Skills and experience: Annemieke joined the Board on 1 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).
Helen Richardson
Group Human Resources Director
Skills and experience: Helen joined Renewi in April 2019 as Group Human Resources Director. Helen has a strong track record in international HR leadership roles. She has worked across various industries including FMCG, Telecommunications, Real Estate Development and Retail. Most recently, Helen held HR leadership roles at Danone / Nutricia. During this period, Helen played a leading role in the integration of several businesses, professionalising HR by driving employee engagement, putting Talent Management at the heart of the organisation and improving HR Services.
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.
Maarten Buikhuisen
Chief Information Officer
Skills and experience: Maarten joined Renewi in January 2020 as Chief Information Officer. He has over 20 years of IT experience, having worked in a number of global IT leadership roles. Prior to joining Renewi, Maarten had various international business and IT roles at Heineken, in telecommunications company Alcatel and an internet business-to-customer start-up. During this period, he delivered business and IT transformations, global ERP programmes, digital innovations and data driven organisations.
Maarten has a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology and an MBA from the University of Bradford.
Patrick Deprez
Product Sales Director
Skills and experience: Patrick was appointed in February 2017 as Product Sales Director. He joined the legacy Van Gansewinkel (VGG) business in 1998 and was the Regional Director for West Belgium until 2002 when he was appointed as Group SHEQ and Technical development director. During this period he was responsible for leading several quality and safety improvement programmes. From 2006, Patrick managed the strategic waste outlet portfolio for VGG and in 2012 was appointed as a member of the VGG Executive Committee. Before joining VGG, he was the head of the waste division at B&P Sobry NV for almost 10 years. Patrick has a degree in Environmental Management.
Marc den Hartog
Managing Director, Commercial Waste Netherlands
Skills and experience: Marc joined Renewi in April 2021 as Managing Director, Commercial Waste Netherlands. He previously worked for 8 years for Corbion N.V., a multinational company listed on the Euronext Stock Exchange, where he held a number of senior management positions including Executive Vice President, BU Innovation Platforms and Chief Operating Officer. He was also a board member of TOTAL Corbion PLA, a joint venture between TOTAL S.A. and Corbion N.V. producing and selling biodegradable polymer. Prior to this, he held senior positions at international business CSM NV, at Loders Croklaan and at Unilever. Marc holds a Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Leiden.
Mark Thys
Managing Director, Commercial Waste Belgium
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 a MSc in Commercial Engineering from the University of Hasselt and an Executive MBA in Business Management from KU Leuven.
Theo Olijve
Managing Director, Mineralz & Water
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.
James Priestley
Managing Director, Specialities
Skills and experience: James joined Shanks Group plc as Managing Director of the Municipal (UK) Division in November 2016, shortly before Shanks and Van Gansewinkel merged to form Renewi. In March 2020, following a divisional restructure, James was appointed Managing Director of the Specialities Division , which includes the Group’s international Coolrec and Maltha operations as well as UK business. James has broad experience leading and strengthening businesses in Europe and America. Prior to joining Renewi James was interim President Americas for Britax Child Safety and before this President Europe for RGIS, an inventory services company owned by Blackstone. After starting his career at ICI he moved on to gain extensive management experience at Ford, British Airways and Tesco and consulting with Alix Partners. He has a degree in Chemical Engineering and an MBA.
Frederik Paauwe
Director Digital Core
Skills and experience: Frederik joined Renewi as Director 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 4 years with strategy consultant McKinsey & Company. Frederik re-joined Shell in 2001 where he has 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.
