Bio

Rob Thielen is the Chairman of Waterland, which he founded in 1999. He developed Waterland into one of the best performing private equity groups in the world, active in 7 core countries, with acquisitions in over 20 countries across 4 continents. He is also a partner of Elbrus Capital, a Russia-focused private equity firm with a capital base of approximately $ 1 billion. Before he started Waterland, Rob gained extensive experience in numerous (cross-border) mergers and acquisitions as manager/shareholder of RWP, later on acquired by the Investec group. He was also general manager of his family’s fashion retail group. Earlier on, he worked as a turn-around consultant with IMCG and as account manager with the Corporate Finance Group of ABN AMRO Bank. Rob was a non-executive member of the board of RPS plc, a London Stock Exchange quoted company active in environmental consultancy and of arxes NCC AG, an IT service provider quoted at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. He was a member of the visiting faculty of the Rotterdam School of Management (Erasmus University). Rob graduated in tax law at the University of San Diego in California, USA, and obtained a degree in tax law at the Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, the Netherlands.