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Marketing for the experience

and transformation era.

Driving sustainable growth by bridging the

gap between marketing, operation, and IT

through pivotal digital transformation.

The talk ánd the walk.

The challenge

The complex playing field of digital transformation.

Digital transformation is complex. Success depends on the right blend of strategy, operations, and IT. Crucial to drive customer experience and sustainable growth. Still, a struggle for many.

There’s plenty of reasons why. To name a few: no clear ambition. Lack of a value-based roadmap. Leaning on technology as the silver bullet. The gap between marketing and IT.

The business impact: budget overruns. Project delays. Business cases at risk. Risk aversion regarding tech investments.  Your competitive position in jeopardy.

The solution

A skilled business partner that will fix it for you.

Mastering strategy, operations, and IT, I empower organizations for pivotal digital transformation and so, help them drive effective marketing, improved customer experience, and sustainable growth.

My recipe is a tried and tested approach: simplifying complexity. Creating pragmatic plans and structure. Securing value-based implementation and optimization.

I put the customer first. Strengthen strategy to execute. Implement and scale the marketing technology. And optimize operations, ensuring maximum adoption.

The result

Faster top-/bottom-line growth and operational efficiency.

Taking my pragmatic, hands-on approach on digital transformation comes with clear benefits and rewards. Think of:

  • Increased brand preference and loyalty, i.e. higher engagement and revenue.
  • Stronger CRM, omnichannel and e-commerce, and brand communication performance.
  • Integrated way of working across business areas with efficient operational processes.
  • Improved ROI on technology investments and smoother scaling of customer tech.
  • Engaged/invested employees capable to deliver on customer experience promises.

Portfolio

the results of my work: Successful transformations. Effective marketing. Efficient operations. And faster growth.

May my work inspire you and imagine what I can do for the growth of your organization and brand. See more work.

Stokke

Transformation to a data-driven, customer-centric way of working, resulting in better global brand and activation campaigns.

Pets Place

Significant growth achieved through the development and implementation of a loyalty strategy and program within just 7.5 months.

Nederlandse Loterij

A decisive approach to build a well-supported agile CRM team, a customer experience GTM, and a pragmatic digital transformation.

Tommy Hilfiger

Engaged members of the European Tommy Hilfiger Club loyalty program contribute 100s of millions in additional revenue.

Royal IHC

An E-commerce self-service portal for dredging ship spare parts and a customer mindset foster loyal clients.

Interim
Change
& Program
Management

 

Explore the Cadillac case.

With over 25 years of hands-on experience — actively contributing to numerous programs, projects, and campaigns — and an open, curious mind, I have built different, related specializations. That makes me a credible partner to help businesses and NGOs drive results in the complex arena of customer experience and digital transformation.

I combine strategic thinking with a strong execution mindset. I get things done, as strategy without execution remains just a dream. The real magic — business growth — happens in day-to-day practice. In my roles, I’ve often worn multiple hats, including those of program manager and delegated product owner. I have worked with family-owned businesses, private equity portfolio companies, and established (inter)national brands and creative/digital agencies.

My areas of expertise:

  • Digital transformation
  • Marketing
  • Customer experience (CX)
  • Employee/candidate experience (EX)
  • CRM & loyalty
  • E-commerce
  • Brand communication
  • Marketing & business operations

Recommendations

What others say about me.

Gerben was instrumental in designing a brand process enabling both global and regional marketing to create and deploy campaigns to support the business and strengthen the brand. He led a great international team of marketers across different locations, delivering global campaigns. And was also involved in strengthening our global creative agency and implementing a new brand platform. Job well done! And, he is very much liked and quickly became an important member of the Stokke family.

Helene Abel HansenCMO @ Stokke

I got to know Gerben as a major asset to our team. He’s a self-starter, hands-on, and brings an infectious energy that gets things done. Gerben is a connector—effortlessly building buy-in from stakeholders within the larger Epam organization. He played a key role in shaping clear market propositions and products around themes like growth services and CRM & loyalty. And he was the driving force behind launching our marketing services into the market.

Sjoerd van GelderenCEO Emakina NL, part of Epam Systems

I had the pleasure of working with Gerben while he was helping Stokke plan out their marketing roadmap for the upcoming years. Gerben is a smart, well organized, insightful, and transparent partner that not only helps move the work through the system, but also helps it get better along the way. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Gerben and look forward to hopefully doing it again in the future!

David NewsomeBrand Director @ B-REEL (Stokke's creative agency)

I have come to know Gerben as a valuable counterpart. Together with his team he implemented our CDP as the core of our customer program. He skillfully balanced business needs versus technical requirements and capabilities. Of course, with these kinds of implementations things can get strenuous and hectic with deadlines in view. But he handled that pretty well, at all times keeping an overview on how to move forward. And, what’s important as well, he is a nice person to work with.

Ewa BadarukDirector CRM, Loyalty & Customer analytics @ PVH (Tommy Hilfiger & Calvin Klein)

Gerben helped us develop our CRM strategy and implement our VIP Club customer program. Since my role was still relatively new to me, I was especially grateful for Gerben’s hands-on coaching in CRM. What stood out was his deep experience not just on the marketing side of CRM but also his understanding of the IT setup and how to lead development teams—because he speaks their language. Working with him was a real pleasure.

Jessica LangenbergCRM Manager @ IJsvogel Retail (Pets Place & Boerenbond)

In nearly 10 years of working together, I’ve come to see that Gerben possesses some truly exceptional skills. From strategic deep dives to implementation, Gerben supports you in a practical, hands-on way. And he always delivers on time and within budget. Reliability is one of Gerben’s core values. He ensures progress with a clear roadmap and implementation plan. Hands-on. And, above all, it’s just a pleasure working with Gerben as a person. A man with a big heart.

Philip KokCEO The Valley

I’ve worked with Gerben since he joined Bookmark in 2005, where he elevated clients and played a key role in improving agency operations. At The Valley, I got to know him again as a solid and reliable cornerstone in various roles. Gerben brings a strong drive, endless energy, and is a talented writer. I’ve come to know him as someone who always delivers quality. I highly recommend Gerben to any professional organization.

Auke MeijerCFO/COO Bookmark/Isobar & The Valley

One of the qualities I truly value in Gerben is the high level of quality he brings to strategy development, execution planning, and benchmarking service design projects. His proposals are always clear and to the point, with an eye for the big picture, the essentials, and the relevant details. He crafts his proposals and presentations as narratives—a real asset when selling strategies, ideas, and plans both internally and externally.

Brian OostenbrinkCXO The Valley

Working with Gerben on GM's Cadillac, Corvette & HUMMER accounts was an incredible experience. At Bookmark, he developed several brilliant, impactful strategies. Gerben understands client service, and when he combines that with his strategic strengths in loyalty marketing, customer engagement, lead generation, and brand activation, he becomes an invaluable asset to any company.

Samuel TaitManaging Director media transformation Dentsu Aegis Network