Bart Verhaeghe
Business Partner

Francis Veldeman
Member Advisory Board

Sofie Simler
Business Support Manager

Koen Vandenberghe obtained his University Degree at K.U.Leuven (Business Economics) and has an MBA in Human Resources.
Koen offers a 16 years’ background in Executive Search and started his recruitment career with a local Belgian recruitment organisation, DIP Consulting Group.

After a brief stint with the Flemish Government (Flanders Technology International), Koen started his Executive Search career with one of the European top-3 Executive Search Organisations. At YESS International, part of Egon Zehnder, he operated as a sector and functional search generalist. After four years he joined a Global Executive Search organisation as Practice Leader, Advanced Technologies for the Benelux. During his time there he managed a team of 7 search consultants and was responsible for local and Pan-European search assignments in the Advanced Technologies space (IT, Telecom, Semiconductors and Logistics).

Koen started his own Executive Search organisation Beaumont Karlson Benelux in 2002. Koen is Managing Director of the Benelux. His practice focus is on Technology, Venture Capitalists, Life Sciences (Pharma, Biotech & Medical Sector) and Logistics.

Wouter Van der Stricht
Business Partner
Telephone: +32 2 719 03 42
Mobile: +32 478 259 543

Wouter Van der Stricht has a Master in Economics. He joined the international Executive Search organisation, Nicholson International, straight from University as a Researcher. With ForTalent he operated as an experienced Executive Search Consultant. He offers a generalist background with experience in different sectors (Health Care, Telecoms, IT and Medical IT, Automotive, Industry and FMCG).

Wouter is one of the Founding Partners of Beaumont Karlson Benelux and has built over the last years a strong expertise in both local and Pan-European searches. As Co-Founding Partner of Beaumont Karlson, Wouter is driving the further development of our company. He offers valuable experience with multinational stock quoted corporations, cross-sector as well as with start-up organisations and the spin-off communities.

Ann Claessens
Business Partner
Telephone: +32 2 719 03 49
Mobile: +32 495 305 841

Ann holds a Master degree in Modern Languages. She has over 6 years of experience in Executive Search starting with You & Us Pharma, member of People Solutions Ltd., a pan-European network of search companies. In her role as Senior Consultant she combined business development, with local and pan-European searches for the pharmaceutical, medical and services industry.

Prior to entering in the Executive Search business, Ann worked at IMS Health where she was the Account Manager responsible for both national and international clients.

Ann started her career at Management Centre Europe, a management development organisation, focusing on training programmes for Pharmaceutical Industry Executives.

She is part of the Beaumont Karlson Lifesciences (Pharma, Biotech and Medical) sector Practice, developing and managing different customers and delivering both local and international search assignments.

Bart Verhaeghe
Business Partner
Telephone: +32 2 719 03 47
Mobile: +32 496 574 475

Bart has a Master Degree in Law, and is Insead Alumnus (Advanced Management Program) and Cedep Alumnus (General Management Program).

Bart joined Beaumont Karlson with an extensive track record in senior management. For almost 30 years, Bart was active in the Finance Industry, partly in the KBC group, partly in the AXA Group. He occupied several management roles in different domains as Marketing, Sales, Credits, Planning & Strategy.

With Capgemini Belgium he was in charge of Business Development for the Financial Services. As the Managing Director of Digit4, he was active in recruitment of Information Technology profiles. During two years he was also active with Business Solution Builders (BSB) as Business Development Manager selling software products and services, especially to the Financial Services Industry.

With his specific and in-depth financial services market intelligence, Bart drives our Practice Financial and Professional Services.

Francis has gathered an extensive track record in senior management positions around the globe: the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Belgium and the United Arab Emirates.

With two Belgian university degrees and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Boston University, Francis collected extensive business exposure in multinationals such as Bristol Myers Squibb as Vice-President Finance, DHL Worldwide Express as CFO EMEA and such as Oracle Corporation as Vice-President Software Applications. In the Middle East he joined Jebel Ali Free Zone as CEO. Francis was also the Chief Information Officer for Dubai World and a Board Member of Tejari and of Istithmar. He also did a turnaround project with Molenbergnatie-Ilomar Holding NV as CEO.

Francis supports Beaumont Karlson in strategy and business development and focuses on international and country specific C-level recruitment, cross-industries. Francis is also our Middle East expert, consulting our customers in Middle East business, relocation issues and guidance to Middle East Officials. Together with Francis, Beaumont Karlson offers specialist experience with Middle East search assignments.

Sofie is our central point of contact, being responsible for all back-office related processes. Sofie is multilingual and worked for major Executive Search organisations and Multinational Organisations before joining Beaumont Karlson Benelux. Sofie continuously runs improvement programs to reach the needed high standards of quality in our daily operations.