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.

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.

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.

Lies is an experienced expert in guiding strategic processes – from vision creation to implementation, in supporting change processes, and in developing a quality management system in all its facets.

Lies is passionate about using her expertise to make an impact in the social & non-profit sector. She combines Callebaut Collective with her position as a senior consultant at RS Health where she strategically guides healthcare companies. Before joining Callebaut Collective, she spent the 10 years working as a strategy and quality management expert in home nursing. Before that, she learned about the health and wellness sector during her time as a consultant in the public sector where she also gained a lot of experience in the different areas of organizational development.

Lies’ trademark is result orientation combined with collaboration. She likes to build real relationships in which trust, collegiality and teamwork are central. She likes a pragmatic and project-based approach in which she always keeps the overview.

Matthias is a seasoned digital marketing expert with, besides a strong hands-on knowledge in various marketing domains, a solid expertise in data analytics and an extensive technical background.

Thanks to this unique mix, Matthias is specialized in projects where digital marketing and IT, including web teams, come together. Setting up data-driven marketing strategies with multichannel focus combined with technically strong web foundations is his specialty. Setting up dashboards that contain business analytics and determine next steps in strategies are an integral part of this. He also has extensive experience in lead generation, business development, growth systems and e-commerce management within various sectors.

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.