Menno van Dijk was a senior partner at McKinsey for over 20 years. He specialized in innovation and growth, working with companies in Europe, South Africa, Australia, and everywhere in between. He created McKinsey’s first software business in a JV with Nielsen. After returning to Amsterdam, Menno co-founded THNK, the School of Creative Leadership. After some years, he was ready for the next big thing: ScaleUpNation. His company came alive with two assumptions in his mind: “Large societal challenges in the world are also large entrepreneurial opportunities. And only the companies that scale can move the needle in terms of impact, value creation and employment”.

Menno’s expertise is in leadership, business strategy and growth. He has deep knowledge of what makes a start-up scale or stall, and can provide you clarity – on your vision, your strategy and your priorities.

Jan Paul’s career has been focused on digital transformation for over 20 years, in roles that ranged from journalist, to intrapreneur, to senior global executive. His experience in the scientific publishing industry revealed to him the limitations in traditional governance practices, but also the opportunities to improve. So he went on to become an independent coach on innovation and leadership. In 2015 he joined Rockstart as Program Director of “Renew the Book”, an international startup accelerator. He also joined THNK, the School for Creative Leadership, as an enterprise coach, guiding participants on their individual innovation projects.

At ScaleUpFood his role is to guide participants through the program’s business case module, a practical simulation of different scaling challenges.

Anieke holds 20+ years of hands-on experience in innovation and strategy departments across different food & agriculture corporates. She was Innovation Project Leader at Unilever for 10 years, before joining Corbion as Sr. Director Innovation of Food. In 2019 she joined the ScaleUpNation team as director of the ScaleUpFood program. During that time Anieke worked directly with dozens of scaling food&agri ventures in the Netherlands and abroad, witnessing first hand what the best practices for scaling an innovative venture are in the F&A industry. In 2021 she stepped up to the role of CEO at ScaleUpNation.

Anieke is passionate about helping companies articulate and accelerate strategic business development and innovation initiatives. She always says there’s 2 sides to innovation: the one you can see - prototypes, project plans, business cases - and the invisible side. Everything that is related to passion, human interactions and learning. Anieke believes that those aspects are the true enablers for innovation, and in her interventions she strives to bring those aspects out with change management techniques, combined with innovation management tools.

Anieke holds a PhD in Chemistry (Utrecht, 1997), a Master’s degree in Advanced Change Methodologies (SIOO, 2011) and an education in Corporate Governance (ESAA 2020).

Rod’s career started off with playwriting and screenwriting, having passed through stand-up comedy, storytelling, and improvisational theatre. His main metric of success? LPM - laughs per minute. He uses those soft skills for training behavior change through role plays, writing for film and television, and teaching Design Thinking and Leadership at THNK, the School for Creative Leadership.

At ScaleUpNation his focus is on “Storytelling for Impact” - coaching teams on how to tell their story in a way that makes a difference.

Rod holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Boston University and a Master’s degree in Cultural Analysis from the University of Amsterdam.

Peter de Boer has worked with numerous brands throughout his career, and has a wide experience in finding creative and unconventional ways to bring them to life. Peter achieves that by “inviting, stimulating and helping brands to break the rules and reshape them in a beautiful and irresistible way”.

He has over 20 years of experience in a wide range of roles and industries. In the last 5 years alone he has become a branding associate at EY VODW, started his own practice (irresistible branding), wrote a column at the Marketing Tribune, joined Viisi as the creative director, and founded his own brewery (Willsark).

At ScaleUpNation, he helps teams create a branding strategy that will make them stand out.

Peter holds a Master’s degree in History of Art (Leiden University, 1985), and is a Doctor of Philosophy (Delft University of Technology, 1988).

Rene Jongen has a background in business strategy and marketing, having managed business units in different tech companies. He then rose up to partner at Boer & Coon, a management consulting firm, where he helped companies streamline their marketing & sales strategies for nearly 10 years. In 2014 he founded RevelX, a strategy consulting firm that supports organizations with the design and execution of growth, innovation and go-to-market strategies. Along with his co-founders, he helps clients sail the waves of digital transformation through strategic innovation.

At ScaleUpNation he helps teams develop a winning sales strategy. His expertise is in commercial excellence, value proposition design, coaching and change management in commercial organisations, and persuasive communication strategies.

Robert has a long track record of facilitating modules on leadership and personal development - he is one of the founding members of THNK, the School for Creative Leadership, he’s in the faculty of the Amani Institute, and has moderated courses on design thinking and innovation in several renowned universities (Wharton, Columbia, Stanford). In 2002 he founded his own company, where he designs learning journeys for senior management, focusing on strategic thinking, self awareness and next level communication skills. Robert is also the author of 4 young adult novels.

His specialty is helping leaders communicate with connection, vision and startling authenticity, which are the skills he brings to the ScaleUpFood program.

Karin is an intellectual property lawyer and licensing expert. She’s active in the life sciences sector, with a focus on food.

Since 2010 she has practiced at Axon Lawyers, a niche firm that serves clients in the fields of food, pharma, medical devices and e-health. She is responsible for assisting companies in the generation, protection and exploitation of IP. Previously, she practiced in different law firms, both Dutch and international, and was Senior Legal Counsel at the Leiden University Medical Centre.

In the ScaleUpFood program Karin shares her expertise in IP law, sharing with participants what it takes to negotiate license deals or R&D cooperations, regulatory advice on product qualification and market access, and GDPR queries. Her area of expertise is functional foods, feed and pharmaceuticals.

Francesca spent more than two decades in growing and leading the operations and teams for start-ups, scale-ups and corporate companies. She has been doing it in different countries and across different industries. At ScaleUpNation she will make sure that operations teams are fully on track and she will guide them to achieve growth, also with her mischievous sense of humor.

Robert’s expertise can be found in business strategy. His career started at Shell, as a business analyst and then marketing & sales manager of Europe. After that he joined Strategy& as Partner and Vice President for over 13 years. Then, he joined Bain & Company as partner, for global management consulting that is dedicated to developing practical, action oriented insights to deliver undering results, mostly focusing on strategy, operations, technology, organizations and M&A decisions.

Robert has a MsC in Chemistry from Leiden University, a PhD in Chemistry and Physics from Paris-Sud university, and an MBA from INSEAD.