Willem focuses on the intersection of technology and the financial behaviors, markets and infrastructures that connect us and create opportunity for people across the globe. That interest is manifest in his fully-owned venture fund, Velocity Capital Private Equity, as well as other high-impact investing endeavors for Velocity Capital, ranging from select global real estate investments to dairy production capabilities in Ethiopia.
Through Velocity Capital Private Equity, Willem offers his portfolio partners not only the funding support they need to succeed, but a deep personal commitment to adding value through proven business acumen, an uncanny ability to connect the dots and a carefully cultivated global business network.
Willem’s experience spans two IPOs, 40 M&As and a multitude of varying business deals in between. Before Velocity, Willem was co-CEO of Petroplus, a company he co-founded in 1993 and took public on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in 1998. In subsequent years, he helped Petroplus navigate multiple stages in its lifecycle, including its delisting in 2005, a restructuring of the Petroplus group, and its relisting in 2006 on the SWX exchange in Zurich, Switzerland. Before Petroplus, Willem first established his business credentials as a successful corporate banker at ING.
Willem holds a BSc degree with honours from the HEAO business school in The Hague. He holds a MBA degree from Erasmus University in Rotterdam and the William E. Simon School of Management of the University of Rochester (New York, USA).
Back to team overview