The Collective

Karel assists manufacturers and retailers active across various B2B and B2C sectors on their digital sales and marketing journey toward a go-to-market strategy, ‘from passion to purchase’.

Thanks to over 15 years of experience at leading sales and marketing companies, Karel has accrued unique expertise in influencing omni-channel customer behaviour. He notably oversaw the digital transformation agenda at Coca-Cola European Partners, where he developed multiple scaleable innovations together with leading retailers (including Albert Heijn, Colruyt, Carrefour and Delhaize).

Karel is a passionate game changer who values long-term partnerships and successfully balances strategic foundations with pragmatism. He regularly gives keynote speeches and guest lectures about customer centricity and innovative sales and marketing techniques.

Sarah has been a strategic adviser for more than 15 years. She has worked at the C-level for leading companies, challengers and scale-ups across multiple B2B and B2C environments. As Digital Marketing Strategy professor at Ghent University, she combines research, knowledge and expertise into hands-on advice that will successfully reorient your business during times of chaos.

She is known for seeking to thoroughly understand the problem and context at stake. She is convinced that both are crucially important in order to find fitting strategic solutions.

Sarah is motivated by challenges, is passionate about complexity, inspired by what’s new and determined to create change.

Jan Callebaut is a Belgian entrepreneur and ‘thought leader’ in marketing and communication strategy. As the founding pioneer of modern diagnostic market research and psychoanalytical marketing, he is an expert in understanding people’s motives and motivations (human drivers), no matter the context or situation. In 2019, he was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Belgian Association of Marketing (previously known as STIMA).

Jan especially enjoys working on highly confidential and sensitives issues. In approaching such issues, he combines a challenging voice with new insights and an extensive network in order to arrive at flexible, strategic solutions.

With experience in marketing communication and a broad range of interests, Audrey has contributed to the development of strategic trajectories at Callebaut Collective since early 2019. From identifying trends and developments in the industry at stake, and deep research into an organisation’s strengths and challenges, to assisting with the conception of a strategy for the future.

Audrey insists on fully understanding the situation at stake and continuously aspires to offer a well-founded analysis that can serve as a foundation for the future. Although she always maintains a full overview, she catches every small detail. When it comes to the execution of strategies, Audrey always closely works with clients and ensures that strategies are correctly put into place. She serves as a contact point for strategic advice when next steps need to be concretised and offers continuous communication assistance, both internally and externally.

After having completed two Master’s Degrees in Business Economy, Jonathan joined Callebaut Collective in 2019. Callebaut Collective allows him to combine both his passion for business and marketing.

As a Growth Analyst, Jonathan is passionate about understanding industries, markets and contexts. He insists on deep analyses, both qualitatively and quantitatively. As a pragmatic and creative person, Jonathan moreover has a supporting, hands-on role in various strategic projects.

Fun fact: Jonathan’s friends and acquaintances have been known to refer to him as ‘techno Viking’ because of his fervent interest in emerging technologies.

From 2020 onwards Marie is active as a Growth Analyst at Callebaut Collective where she uses her analytical skills and conceptual thinking while analyzing companies and industries. She additionally assists the team in developing new strategies and innovations in an enthusiastic and fascinated manner. While doing so, she makes use of her passion for service design that originates from writing a master’s dissertation on the Service-Dominant logic. She strongly believes that a focus on service offerings, durable relationships with customers and the implementation of ecosystems can secure growth for many companies.

Early 2021, Valentine joined the Callebaut Collective team.

Valentine is a real allrounder in the company. She serves as team and project support and therefore has an important role in professionally and efficiently organizing Callebaut Collective. As Office manager graduate, Valentine likes to keep her work orderly and thus never misses a detail.

Furthermore, Valentine is partly responsible for the internal and external marketing and communication at Callebaut Collective and additionally supports the ongoing projects.

Valentine is passionate about building successful social media strategies and uses her broad knowledge and interest in content creation and social media in order to do so. She believes that a human focused marketing approach is key.

Steven Boelens is the co-founder of the BAUNAT jewellery brand. The company has raised more than €20 million in capital, while its fast growth has allowed it to set a leading example as a ‘Digital Native Vertical Brand’ in the international diamond jewellery industry. The company has private consumers in more than 100 countries around the world. Almost 70% of its revenue comes from the online stores www.baunat.com and www.baunatdiamonds.com, while the remaining 30% is generated by the sales of their 9 showrooms in Europe and Asia.

Steven is a pragmatic, creative and result-oriented entrepreneur with vision. He is a true team player who likes to share his strategic insight and international experience.

Peter began his career as an academic at KULeuven where he became one of Belgium’s first environmental historians. He subsequently switched careers to become a political adviser. For years, Peter worked for multiple parliaments and the Belgian government, and assisted the members of a political party.

His experience as the spokesperson for parliamentary groups, several party heads and a prime minister has made Peter a veteran communication specialist. From branding and campaigning to crisis communication, he is an expert in the subject. Peter moreover has a deep understanding of the non-profit and social profit sector thanks to his experience in both the private sector and academia.

Peter’s natural talent when it comes to empowering colleagues is what allows him to take the lead while at the same time remaining in the background.