Our Investment Committee generously donates their time and wealth of expertise to aid Kampani in making smart, high-impact investments throughout the global farming community.

Members

Biographies

Pierre Queritet, Partner, PwC Legal

Pierre is co-lead of M&A at PwC Legal. He has worked with PwC for over 15 years and specializes in mergers and acquisitions, corporate law and deal structuring. He has expertise in national and cross-border restructuring projects (mergers, carve-outs, group entity simplification, capital and debt restructuring, etc.), business contracts (drafting and negotiating distribution, manufacturing, leasing, licensing and other contracts) and M&A where his involvement included the structuring of transactions, due diligence coordination, and drafting and negotiating the transaction documentation (SPAs, APAs and JV agreements).

He received his Master of Laws from the university of Leuven in 1997 and has continued to hone his expertise through postgraduate programs ranging from corporate law to Chinse business law.

Pierre brings this wealth of experience and expertise to Kampani and provides invaluable legal perspectives into the conversation.

Suzy Serneels, Policy Officer, Right to Food, Broederlijk Delen

“Kampani is all about social impact. If the farmers don’t gain sufficiently from the deal, there is no deal.“

Suzy Serneels is policy officer for the Right to Food at Broederlijk Delen. The  NGO is committed to work towards a dignified life for rural communities in Africa and Latin America and strives for a sustainable world without inequality. Before joining the policy department, Suzy was programme officer for several countries in Africa. She worked as a scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya and was involved in several research projects on human-wildlife interactions and remote sensing at UCLouvain and KULeuven.

Marieke Kruis, Program Manager, Oxfam

Marieke works as a Program Advisor for Oxfam Belgium. She is in charge of providing thematic and methodological support to Oxfam’s programs on Sustainable Food Systems with a particular focus on the Sahel region.

She has over ten years of experience in project and partnership management, facilitation of strategic learning and capacity building and has extensive background in the areas of gender, the rights approach, rural development, sustainable family agriculture, agroecology and inclusive natural resource management. She has extensive field experience in Africa, especially in Senegal, where she worked for several years with different Belgian NGOs.

Marieke holds a MA in African Studies from the University of Leiden (Netherlands).

Patrik Haesen, Deputy General Manager, MRBB

Patrik is the Deputy General Manager of MRBB, the holding company of the Group Boerenbond. He is in charge of the financial investment portfolio and Agri Investment Fund, which is mainly focusing on innovative venture capital investments within the AgTech sector and aims at providing added value in the broadest sense for the Flemish agricultural sector.

He takes on mandates in the Board of Directors of MRBB’s subsidiaries Arvesta and Aktiefinvest, as well as in the boards of companies active in the agricultural sector such as Aphea.Bio, AnimAb, Virovet, Protealis, Better3Fruit and Iscal Sugar. Patrik worked before as a Senior Auditor at PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers). He holds a Master in Commercial Engineering from the University of Leuven and a postgraduate degree in Finance from Ehsal Management School.

Thomas Dewever, Managing Partner and Co-founder of Smile Invest

Thomas is co-founder and Managing Partner of Smile Invest. Smile Invest is a European investment company that partners with innovative growth companies. Thomas is a member of the investment committee and is responsible for all aspects of the investment process, from identifying attractive investment opportunities, coordinating due diligence, structuring transactions, to driving value creation throughout the lifecycle of the investment. Prior to joining Smile Invest, Thomas worked at Gimv, where he focused a.o. on investments with a positive impact on sustainability.

He is a current and past board member of several companies including 4ITEGO Group, Greenyard Foods, Hospidex, Lampiris, Microflor and Rovers Medical Devices. He is board member of the BVA (Belgian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association).

Thomas holds a MSc in Engineering from the university of Leuven (KUL) and a Master in Strategic Management from HEC Paris.

Sybile Vancoillie, Portfolio Officer, BIO

Sybile is a Portfolio Officer at BIO (Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries – Belgian DFI), responsible for monitoring a loan portfolio of direct investments and financial institutions in Africa. She has an expertise in investment analysis, rural and microfinance, organizational development and capacity building. Sybile is a Member of the General Assembly of Rikolto.

Her former professional experiences include Investment Manager at Trividend, a Flemish social investment fund, where she was responsible for all aspects of impact investing. She also worked as a finance capacity building assistant for Memisa NGO in Kinshasa, RDCongo, and as a Finance Advisor at the International Planned Parenthood Federation where she was responsible for the financial coordination of the subsidized projects and technical assistance missions in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Sybile holds a Master Conflict & Development from Ghent University and wrote her thesis on “Rural finance in the agricultural development programs of ENABEL”. She also holds a Master of Science in Business Engineering from the Catholic University of Leuven.

Josephine Ecklu, Inclusive Business Manager, Rikolto

 

Josephine works as Inclusive Business Manager for Rikolto and is based in Accra, Ghana. She is passionate about agriculture development, food security and agribusiness. She has experience in managing agriculture and food security projects which are PPP (Public -Private Partnership) in nature. Her area of expertise has a strong focus on sustainable production, improving and de-risking value chains, post-harvest technologies, improving sustainability of food systems, sustainable investment and trade with focus on private sector, inclusive business models and market-led approaches.

Josephine holds a Master degree in Development Finance from the University of Ghana and a Master in Sustainable Food process Engineering from Wageningen University.

Patrick Eeckloo, Program Manager, Trias