An operational CEO with a deliberately narrow advisory practice.
Full-time CEO of SOD.DEL. Two to three advisory mandates a year through LIDI Partners, at the intersection of operating, M&A and digital.
I run a company for a living. The advisory practice exists alongside that, not instead of it, and it is capped at two to three mandates a year – because the moment it stops being a side of the desk, the thing that makes it worth buying disappears.
INSEAD is the grammar
The Global Executive MBA gave me the vocabulary and the cross-border reflex: cases rather than theory, and a bias towards the decision and its execution rather than the presentation of a strategy. The alumni network runs through European private equity and operator circles, which is where most of this work comes from.
Three years in US mining
As Digital Director at Carmeuse I learned three things I have never unlearned. A business case is only true if it survives contact with the floor. Deal economics hide in the earn-out and the working capital, not in the headline multiple. And integration planning starts before close, not after – by the time you own it, the decisions that mattered have already been made.
How I work
Operator truth beats framework truth.
Narrow beats broad.
Honest capacity beats vague availability.
In practice that means: a data room read the way an operator reads one, hundred-day plans that name people rather than functions, a monthly retainer that produces something written, and a straight answer about scope and availability before you commit anything.
Working together
How many advisory clients do you take?
Two to three mandates a year. One retainer seat and one programme at a time. I will tell you which is open before you ask, and roughly when the other frees up.
How do you handle conflicts with SOD.DEL?
I name SOD.DEL's sectors at the intro call, before you tell me anything specific, and decline if your target, acquirer or a close competitor sits inside them. If a conflict surfaces later I stop and you pay only for work delivered.
Where do you work?
Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and northern France in person, from Brussels – near enough to be in a room at short notice, which is where most of the value in this work actually sits. Outside that, remotely and without hesitation: a data room, a management team and a board pack do not care where I am, and cross-border work has been most of my career.
Which languages do you work in?
English, Dutch and French, including written deliverables and board readouts. Belgian mid-market boards rarely deliberate in English, and a memo your shareholders have to translate loses half its force.
Thirty minutes, no charge.
Video, or coffee in Brussels. The fastest way to find out whether this is useful.