Cees Brandwijk’s CV and profile
Cees Brandwijk was born and raised in Rotterdam. He studied economics at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam and took various other specialist courses, such as construction engineering and marketing & management. In addition, he has a certificate in practical accounting and an MBA. He is also a certified BOBB acquisition advisor. In 2013, he added a ‘fiscal and legal’ postgraduate course to his academic qualifications. This course focused particularly on death and succession within (family) companies.
Cees started his ‘real’ career with Volker Stevin as a steering committee member. Later on, as a member of the Executive Board of Datex Systems, he was responsible for all divisions using the IBM brand.
After starting up a number of construction industry-related activities initially, he finally decided to transfer all his business activities to the ICT sector in 1988. The company supplied wireless data communications and front & back office products for making work procedures and workplaces more flexible. He offered solutions for large end-users, via Nokia, Ericson and TDK for Ram Mobile Data, Rank Xerox and NS. In 1985, he started to manufacture personal computers in Hong Kong and established himself as one of the very first suppliers of PCs for company-run home PC schemes in the Netherlands. Cees helped establish brands such as Xircom and later Cisco as market leaders, earning himself the title of ‘marketeer of the year’ on several occasions. His company, Ronin, which grew into a substantial business employing 150 FTEs and generating a turnover of 70 million euros, was sold to a British listed company at the end of 1998.
After many years of travelling the world on business, he started to specialise in investments in ICT-related start-ups following the sale of his company, an activity which required him to critically assess numerous business plans. In 2002, this led to an advisory role for a major international hotel chain, which caused him to expand his activities to include the hotel industry and specialise in preparing international hotels for sale. The ‘discovery’ of these skills also resulted in further business transfer assignments. In recent years, Cees – in addition to completing several successful transfers in the ‘Manufacturing & ICT industry’- has also helped smaller SME businesses to manage successful company acquisitions.
Cees is a real sports enthusiast, who actively played various sports in his youth, coached football teams and raced in Formula 3. He now mainly devotes his leisure time to administrative activities for associations, political activities and coaching.