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Apollo Executive Search helps investors and entrepreneurs attract the right people to lead their companies
Our clients range from mid-market private equity portfolio companies to VC-backed or independent technology scale-ups. We partner with them for CEO, CFO, COO, CCO, CTO, strategic and Non-executive board positions.
At Apollo, we always work form a solid understanding of the business and specific business challenge and/or opportunity
Our consultants have backgrounds at organizations such as McKinsey, Rocket Internet, Roland Berger and LEK, including first-hand experience as MD, CFO and founder and educational backgrounds at INSEAD, TU Delft and Harvard
We continuously work with successful investors and fast-growing technology scale-ups. Building and maintaining solid relationships with our candidates during executive search processes gives us access to a unique talent pool
We always combine our existing personal and professional networks with thorough market research and personal outreach to ensure no one is missed
We know our clients have a lot on their minds as CEOs, founders and or investors. We provide efficiency, reliability and speed and are continuously fine-tuning our processes
We put in place a structured process with the most effective predictive tooling, and stick to it
Peter is Managing Partner and co-founder of Apollo and has worked in executive search since 2016. Prior to Apollo, Peter worked as a consultant at McKinsey (between ’10 and ’15) and as Managing Director / co-founder of Carmudi Indonesia with Rocket Internet.
Peter graduated cum laude from TU Delft with an MSc in Applied Physics after exchanges to Zurich, China, Singapore and Barcelona.
Peter enjoys sailing, playing football and spending time with his girlfiend and son.
Maarten works with entrepreneurs and investors across industries on C-level executive searches and succession plans. Maarten works closely with especially Private Equity on their portfolio operations.
Before co-founding Apollo, Maarten built a number of successful recruitment businesses including Legal Top Talent that he founded as a student, The Legal Bench, ConsultancyExit and MatcHR, which serves leading tech companies worldwide. He began his career as a strategy consultant at Roland Berger in Amsterdam.
Nadine works with CEOs, founders/ entrepreneurs and investors across a broad variety of industries. Her specialism (and passion) is building successful management teams in complex settings such as the next phase of growth in start-ups/ scale-ups, or family-owned companies in need of transformation (often triggered by a change of ownership).
Prior to joining Apollo, Nadine was CFO at SecurityMatters, a VC-backed cyber security software scale-up, where she helped, next to her finance function, significantly to form the management team, build the advisory board and lead the strategy development. She started her career as a strategy consultant at L.E.K. Consulting in London and Shanghai.
Nadine holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Heidelberg, in Germany and has an MSc in International Management from ESCP-EAP Business School in Paris, France.
Together with her husband and children, Nadine loves the outdoors and can be found all-year round running (with and after her children), playing Tennis, skiing and biking.
Jan enjoys family live with his wife and two children and likes to spend time on cooking, reading and running through Amsterdam’s parks.
Contact:
jan@apolloexecutivesearch.com +31653746563
Thirza supports entrepreneurs and investors across industries on their C-level search and assessment needs.
Contact:
thirza@apolloexecutivesearch.com
+31655502942
Pleun works closely with CEOs, founders/ entrepreneurs and investors across a broad variety of industries to advise on leadership challenges and recruit top talent for a range of executive roles. With more than 10 years of experience as a leadership advisory and executive search consultant, Pleun advises on (amongst others) succession planning, talent development and diversity in light of long-term company objectives.
Prior to joining Apollo, Pleun was a senior consultant at leadership advisory firm Russell Reynolds Associates, where she led the European Supply Chain Practice and worked in particular for the Energy and Industrial sectors. Pleun started her career as a lawyer at Allen & Overy, where she worked as a corporate/commercial lawyer in the Energy Sector.
Pleun holds a Masters in Law from the University of Maastricht.
Pleun loves to spend her free time camping and skiing with her daughter. She is also a board game enthusiast and tries to convince people to join her for a game, every chance she gets.
Contact:
pleun@apolloexecutivesearch.
Karen works with entrepreneurs and investors across industries on C-level executive searches as well as searches for senior strategy, commercial, and operational roles.
Before joining Apollo, Karen worked in the financial services industry in London for 10 years (KBC Bank and Fortis Bank), after which she started a career in executive search in Singapore. From 2016, Karen was a senior consultant in a boutique recruitment consultancy in The Hague (Vroom & Van den Heuvel), with a main focus on Senior HR positions, and with Acre; an international executive search firm focused on Senior Sustainability professionals.
Karen holds an MA in Employment Law from the University of Rotterdam.
In her free time, Karen enjoys cooking for family and friends, playing the piano, and sports (skiing, tennis, running).
Contact:
karen@apolloexecutivesearch.
Louise works closely with entrepreneurs, family businesses and investors across various sectors on different functions such as CEOs, CCOs, COOs as well as roles in supply chain, procurement, strategy and investment.
Before joining Apollo Louise spent more than six years at Egon Zehnder, where she was aligned to its global health practice group. She was involved on a range of (international) assignments and worked with a variety of clients, from PE portfolio companies to large corporates.
Louise holds an MA Philosophy and an MA Dutch Language & Literature from the University of Amsterdam. During her studies she worked as a part time lecturer and taught Dutch language, ethics and communication courses.
Louise lives in Amsterdam and loves family, friends, reading, (ro)cycling, skiing and field hockey.
Contact:
louise@apolloexecutivesearch.
We have established trusted relationships with the most respected Private Equity firms and their portfolio companies, the leading VCs and entrepreneurs and the grittiest startups. We recognize opportunity when we see it and we know the type of leadership to capitalize on it. But don’t take our word for it.
“We value Apollo’s pragmatic and resourceful support on portfolio and team matters, coupled with their business understanding and deep network of interesting candidates”
“Apollo has been my go-to partner in attracting senior leadership as CEO at World Wide Lighting and Emesa / Talpa eCommerce: they know the best people across sectors, whether it is Travel or Lighting”
As CEO of Emesa / Talpa eCommerce I was looking for a C-level entrepreneur to develop, launch and run a new business line. This challenge required the ability not only to design a strategy but to build an e-commerce business from scratch with limited resources. Apollo was able to quickly activate an existing pool of successful e-commerce entrepreneurs who also had a background in strategy consulting – and had the right combination of hands-on and strategic skills to make our new venture a success. More recently, Apollo has helped me find the right commercial leadership within a completely different industry at World Wide Lighting, where we were again looking for that combination of strategic vision to upgrade our sales organisation across geographies as well as the ability to roll up the sleeves and get stuff done in the here and now. With surgical precision, Apollo brought in a candidate from their existing network, who not only was a commercial leader within our niche, but had the broad background to grow with the company and scale the business to new heights internationally.
“You cannot take any chances when hiring a CEO, which is why we partnered with Apollo to ensure the most professional, fast and non-biased process.”
As Co-founder I led in3 in the role of CEO through the startup face, but in order to scale up the company through the next phase of hyper growth, we were looking for an experienced industry leader to take over as the new CEO combining strong operational and technical acumen with a deep network.
As we needed to make absolutely sure we had the right person for the job, our investors recommended partnering with Apollo for their professional, fast and non-biased process. Starting with an exhaustive mapping and screening of the best candidates in the market, Apollo took complete charge of all aspects of the process, which allowed us to focus on what is most important: getting to know the best candidates for the job.
What really helped us make the right decision in the end was Apollo’s job sampling method, which sets up the whole process as a two-way due diligence, and which allowed us to directly compare candidates on key criteria every step of the way. In the final stage, the best candidates each presented a strategic plan, meaning there was a concrete course of action we knew we could expect from the new CEO from day one.
Because the process was run in a highly professional and disciplined manner, it took us no more than three months from scoping the profile to signing the new CEO, in spite of the logistical circumstances of Covid-19.
“We chose Apollo for the next growth stage of StartSelect as we needed a COO. Their in-depth knowledge of the role and e-commerce industry network played out great.”
We definitely recommend Apollo for CTO searches. Even though we were looking for a difficult profile, Apollo very quickly provided us with a large selection of very strong candidates and helped us bring them in. In fact, the whole process was really good
We have successfully partnered for CEO, COO, CFO, CCO, CMO, CTO and strategy positions at
