Bio

As a Director at Founders, Christian focuses on portfolio company strategy and operations, with a special focus on leading companies through change programs or other major initiatives. He is also involved in monitoring individual portfolio company performance, and participates in diligence processes. Since 2019, he has been serving as President & CEO of Ganache Brands / Totally Chocolate. Founders is a family firm that combines 30 years’ private equity experience in over 80 companies with deep operating knowledge. The firm invests its partners’ own capital and focuses on applying operating know-how in medium-sized food businesses, with a view to building thriving organizations over the long term. Prior to joining Founders, Christian was VP Acquisition & Integration at Post Holdings and integrated American Blanching Company into Golden Boy Foods, creating a USD 300+ million revenue Nut Butter business unit. Prior to that, he held positions at Golden Boy Foods including General Manager of the CAD 150+ million revenue Fruit & Nut business unit, and IT Director. As General Manager, he doubled inventory turns, improved customer service, upgraded quality certifications and professionalized procurement, setting the stage for a doubling of EBITDA. As IT Director, he created an information system infrastructure consisting of QAD ERP, Warehouse Management, MRP, SharePoint Business Intelligence and EDI integration with 70% of the business’ customer base. Earlier in his career, Christian worked as an Operations Manager and held consulting roles at ERP solutions providers. Christian is a BRC certified Internal Auditor and Third Party Auditor, is a Lean Sensei certified Blackbelt, is APICS certified in Production and Inventory Management, and QAD certified in Manufacturing and Distribution. He obtained his B.A. and M.A. from the Tilburg University, and his M.B.E. from the Eindhoven University of Technology.