edwin birnbaum

Director at Clarity Advisers Limited

Bio Summary

Born in Belgium, married and 4 kids Studied Commercial Engineering at Solvay Business School at Free University of Brussels, and MBA at Vlerick Fluent in Dutch, English, French, Hebrew, German Edwin started his career at Procter & Gamble Brussels. After 4 years as brand manager left to join Bain & Company in London. He was then recruited to marketing director of Dixons-Currys, followed by his first board position as CEO of Wickes Continent, CEO of Carrefour hypermarkets in Belgium, and then VP Europe for CHEP for 5 years. Since over 19 years working with private equity firms to grow and enhance their portfolio companies, including the following companies ACV, Aliaxis, ASK Chemicals, Balta, Boehringer Ingelheim, British Pathe, Continental Foods, Contraload, DORC, Edcon, InBev, Integer/Inpost, Keter, Koramic, Ontex, Samsonite, Savi, Soudal, Univeg, and many more. Edwin has wide experience ranging from Transformations, Operations footprints and Plant shut downs, Due diligences, Post Merger Integrations, , Restructurings, Supply chains and procurement, Sales Effectiveness and more.

Employment History

Director

Clarity Advisers Limited

June 2003 - present

London, UK

In past 19 years worked for many companies, mostly owned by Private Equity. Type of work ranges from transformations, due diligences, Post-Merger-Integrations, Operations Footprint, plant closures, carve-outs, business plans, ...see more

Chief Transformation Officer

InPost

November 2020 - January 2022

France

of Assignments: • PROMEDICA (PE owned care-workers firm) Q1'2022: Review strategy to halt past 3 years of strong decline, prepared business plan, and got buy-in from all management to the plan. • INTEGER (PE owned parcel ...see more

COO

Keter

May 2018 - December 2018

Netherlands

owned plastic injection consumer goods) 2018: Redesign of European operations footprint. Successfully managed the entire closure of a plant (social negotiations, sale of trading activity) and transfer of production to another ...see more

COO

Keter

January 2017 - December 2017

Netherlands

project resulting in identification of over €10m savings in 2016; Renewing and accelerating Procurement program again in 2017. • BRITISH PATHÉ (Privately owned UK media company) 2016: Defined strategy and 5-year plan inc ...see more

Chief Transformation Officer

Blokker

January 2014 - December 2014

Amsterdam, Netherlands

(Family owned leading Benelux non-food retailer with 13 chains) 2014: Set-up integration of Bart Smit & Intertoys (Managed the integration of both chains, including closing of overlap stores, creating single organisation, sin ...see more

PMI Manager

Baltana

January 2012 - December 2013

Belgium

(leading global fresh produce supplier) 2010 + 2012/2013: European integration plan • BALTA (PE owned largest European carpet manufacturer) 2010-2011: Supported acquisition negotiations with large competitor, and managed ...see more

CEO

Wickes

February 2011 - April 2012

Breda, Netherlands

CEO Wickes Europe. Succesfull turnaround

Interim CEO

Wickes

December 2011 - December 2020

Belgium

set a new strategy including changing the business from unprofitable screen-printing to digital printing, and managed the outsourcing of labour intensive areas, improved account management including CRM introduction, new mark ...see more

Retail Consultant

Van de Velde

January 2010 - December 2015

Belgium

+32 495 282 082 or +44 7935 886 524 [email protected] www.clarityadvisers.com refinancing presentation for banks and creditors. New approach to all regional sales offices. • VAN DE VELDE (Family owned luxury Belg ...see more

COO

ParenCo

January 2009 - December 2010

Netherlands

restructuring/transformation leading to €20m cost reductions and return to strong profitability, including managing part of the production outsourcing from Belgium to Hungary, downsizing, redundancy program in several count ...see more

Growth Consultant

Ontex

January 2007 - December 2010

Belgium

6- sigma approach of all processes • ONTEX (PE owned global leading private label disposable hygiene manufacturer) 2008: Set up environmental strategy, deployment & marketing. Immediate cost reductions across all

Consultant

AROVITE

January 2006 - December 2009

Denmark

targeting and negotiation support • AROVIT/C&D Foods Group (Irish based European private label Pet-food supplier) 2007/2008: Reorganised the salesforce, account managers' targets & incentive plan, introduced and deployed CR ...see more

VP Europe

CHEP

May 1998 - May 2003

Antwerp, Belgium

Head of all pallet tracking, and also head of all plastic containers pooling

CEO

Carrefour

April 1997 - May 1998

Brussels, Belgium

AS CEO of Carrefour Belgium, I needed to cut costs but large productivity improvement

Marketing Director

Currys

October 1991 - October 1993

London, UK

Head of marketing domestic appliances & white Goods

Management Consultant

Bain & Company

January 1989 - October 1991

London, UK

Brand Manager

Procter & Gamble

September 1984 - December 1988

Brussels, Belgium

Education

Master's in Finance

Vlerick

1987

Master's in Finance

Vlerick Business School

1987

Master's in Finance

Free University Brussels

1984

Bachelor's in Finance

Free Univesity of Brussels

1981

Language Skills

German English French Hebrew (modern) Dutch

Country Experience

Belgium Denmark France Germany Israel Netherlands Poland South Africa United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States

Skills

Business

Asset Management,

Change & Implementation,

Transformation Management Office,

Carve-out,

Commercial Due Diligence,

Joint Ventures & Alliances,

Corporate Venture Capital,

M&A Strategy & Due Diligence,

Merger & Acquisitions,

Post Merger Integration,

Operational Due Diligence,

Target Search,

Spin-Offs,

Valuation,

Business Process Outsourcing,

Capacity Management & Planning,

Continuous Improvement,

Manufacturing,

Operation & Maintenance,

Operation Management

Finance

Divestitures