Derk has thirty years of experience in the academic publishing and consumer media industry. He has served as Chief Executive Officer of research publisher SpringerNature and been Member of the Supervisory Council of the Dutch broadcast association AvroTros. Derk has also acted as Chief Executive Officer of Elsevier Science and sat on the Executive Board of Reed Elsevier PLC.

Derk holds a degree in Economics and Business Administration from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a Master’s degree in Economics and Business Administration from Universiteit van Amsterdam.

Klaas Meertens has led a highly successful career as an investor in the fields of investment banking and private equity. A managing partner of the private equity firm HTP Investments in Amsterdam, he is also a founding partner of the multi-family office Novum Capital Partners in Geneva. In addition, he is a member of the supervisory board of Knaus Tabbert AG, the Frankfurt listed European leisure vehicle producer.

Prior to these positions, Klaas worked for J.P. Morgan in New York, Amsterdam and as of 1997 in London, where he first headed and built their TMT EMEA team and later became head of investment banking for the Benelux and Switzerland. He was also part of the EMEA Investment Banking Coverage management team.

Klaas studied Physics at the University of Utrecht (BSc) and Management at the Interfaculteit in Delft (MSc).

Chris is an expert public market CFO with a strong capital markets track-record and extensive experience in regulated environments. He has been a member of the Board of Management of KPN and Chief Financial Officer since 1 February 2020. Before his appointment at KPN, Chris was CFO of ASR Nederland NV. Chris is currently also a member of the Supervisory Board of UNICEF Netherlands and a member of the Economic Board Zuid-Holland.

Chris graduated cum laude from the University of Groningen in Financial Economics and completed his studies as an investment analyst at EFFAS (European Federation of Financial Analysts). He also lectured in Risk Management at Stanford University.

Founder of Sure We Can Inc, a community-based not-for-profit in New York City recyclable container redemption center, Florence boasts an outstanding international career in finance and capital markets. Sitting as an independent member in the Supervisory Board of Klépierre, a French real estate investment trust, Florence has also been serving as an independent director of global market research firm Ipsos SA since 2014.

Florence began her finance career in 1980 working at JP Morgan’s Paris, London and New York offices specialising in international securities markets. She is member of the United Nations NGO Social Development Committee, the Commission on the Status of Women and the UN Family Committee.

Florence graduated from HEC Paris, specialising in finance.

Katrin has over 20 years of industry experience as an investment professional in Private Equity and Venture Capital, supporting high-growth technology-based companies, including SMEs, in the Technology, Media, Life Sciences and Business Services. In addition to her role at Azerion, Katrin is currently Partner and Member of the Agri FoodTech Investment Committee at Praesidium, a private investment office.

Katrin holds a Master in International Management and Diplom-Kffr. from ESCP Europe and a BA from Vienna University of Economics and Business. Katrin is fluent in English, French, Italian and German.

Atilla co-founded Azerion in 2014 and has been Co-CEO ever since. He started his career as a business consultant for ICT companies before founding a string of businesses in the information and digital systems. He co-founded Triodor, an international software development company before launching Azerion. Atilla has a strong focus on technology and digital ecosystems and is a specialist in digital ecosystem developments.

Atilla is also founder and chairman of The Dutch Dream Foundation. This foundation focuses on projects to inspire, motivate and coach entrepreneurs. Atilla was already committed to diversity and inclusion, for example by working for Tannet, a Turkish academic network, and by being Ambassador for the National Diversity Commission, organised by the Dutch Ministry of Justice.

Atilla has a Master’s degree in Management of Information Systems from Tilburg University.

 Umut is one of the founders of Azerion and has been co-CEO ever since Azerion was founded in 2014. He is a serial entrepreneur for more than 20 years – founder as well as acquirer of many technological and digital companies such as Triodor Software, Improve Digital, Widespace and SellBranch.

Umut has extensive experience in the field of digital technology creation and development, and organic growth of digital companies. He started his career at Philips Business Communication, where he managed different engineering projects.

Together with Atilla, he founded the Dutch Dream foundation which focuses on projects to inspire, motivate and coach entrepreneurs. He also worked for ACB, an institute for multicultural studies and projects in the Netherlands.

He holds a degree in electrotechnic from the Technische Universiteit of Delft.

Ben has over 27 years of professional experience in Law, Investment Banking, Strategy and Corporate Venture Capital with an extensive track-record in public and private M&A, equity and debt capital market transactions.

Ben worked as a barrister in London, before joining Rothschild as an M&A and advisory investment banker. From there he joined Barclays Capital, eventually becoming the Head of its Financial Institutions Group for the investment banking division across EMEA, the Chief Strategy Officer for Barclays’ Investment Bank and then Group Head of Strategy for Barclays PLC. He then founded and became the CEO of Barclays Ventures, before becoming an Executive Director and the Chief Investment Officer of EFIC1, a special purpose acquisition company listed on Euronext Amsterdam in March 2021.

Ben has extensive experience as an early and growth-stage mentor, adviser and investor and helped scale Barclays’ Eagle Labs to be one of the largest incubator networks of its kind in UK. Ben has a track-record of identifying, incubating and scaling disruptive strategies and data/technology-led business models.

Sebastian is Chief Revenue Officer and former CEO of Improve Digital, Azerion Group’s proprietary programmatic platform. With over 25 years working in the marketing sector, Sebastiaan has witnessed firsthand how marketing and technology have become intrinsically connected, leading to increasingly complex technology-driven media strategies.

Prior to joining Azerion, Sebastian worked as COO for GroupM for nine years. He was also the founder and CEO of Reddion, a company that he later sold to the global media agency WPP.

Sebastiaan has graduated in econometrics from the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, and informatics from the Technische Universiteit in Delft.

As Chief Investment Officer, Joost has been overseeing Azerion Group’s M&A and strategic partnership activities for the past five years. Joost is actively involved in the growth of the global business across the different markets.

Joost is the founder of Yoki, a European leading advertising network specialised in youth, which was merged with Azerion in 2015. Thanks to his previous entrepreneurial experience in the digital industry, Joost knows how to identify organic and non-organic growth opportunities for Azerion Goup’s business.

Joost has a Bachelor from the Avans University of Applied Sciences.