1. Reference Letter for Ruurd Ouwehand 15 May 2013
To whom it concerns,
Ruurd Ouwehand has been Joint Managing Director of the Van der Windt Group (VDW) from 2004 to 2013,
responsible for Finance, HR and Operations. He continues in these responsibilities as VDW is sold by Clondalkin
(after 17 years of ownership) to Paardekooper,
It has been my pleasure to work with Ruurd for the last 10 years.
In all his time at VDW, Ruurd has carried out all of his responsibilities with great professionalism, skill, intelligence
and energy. He provided strong leadership as Managing Director at all times in setting business strategy and
leading numerous operational improvements. VDW is a highly successful packaging distribution business delivering
over 15,000 products to 5,000 customers usually against order times of four to 24 hours. The logistics requirements
are immense.
These following achievements are particularly noteworthy:
• Ruurd managed Finance, HR, IT, Logistics, Quality Management, Secretarial and Design & Print Facilities;
• He introduced new automated systems to drive improvements in warehouse handling, transport efficiency
with own fleet and all aspects of working capital and fixed asset management;
• Key to the VDW profitability (the highest in the industry), Ruurd designed and supervised price setting and
procurement systems to ensure optimal sales price and product buying and management systems by over
80 trader desks, all dealing in real time information;
• He upgraded systems to connect efficiently with customers on line and real time;
• In his HR responsibilities, in addition to managing annual reviews, recruitment and training and
development, and safety and health management, Ruurd was a first mover in migrating the VDW defined
benefit pension arrangements to defined contribution arrangements. VDW enjoys excellent employee /
employer and is a trend setter in employee appreciation actions; and
• He championed multiple environmentally aware schemes to secure industry leading standards.
• VDW’s gross margin increased by 20% between 2005 and 2012 under Ruurd’s stewardship – a truly
fantastic performance in recessionary markets in those years. VDW is the top performing working capital
management business in the distribution business, with a cash conversion cycle of approximately 40 days
and inventory and bad debt charges well below industry standards.
Ruurd was responsible for presenting capital expenditure and business acquisition projects and managing them.
He played a lead role in all presentations to the Group divisional and main board teams.
Ruurd led the extremely demanding business disposal process in an exemplary manner leading to a very
satisfactory result for all parties.
The key descriptors I apply to Ruurd are creative, reliable, entrepreneurial, top class process designer to ensure
focus on KPI’s and high quality decision making, hard working, accessible, change agent, mentor, energetic,
leader.
Ruurd is a world class performer and fantastic addition to any management team.
Yours sincerely,
Colman O’Neill
Finance Director of Clondalkin Group Holdings BV
Clondalkin Group Holdings BV | ITO Tower, 9th
Floor | Gustav Mahlerplein 68 | 1082 MA Amsterdam | The Netherlands