Gert-Jan Huisman (Chairman)

Current employment:

Dr. Gert-Jan Huisman (1968) is the founder and CEO of private equity company Anders Invest in the Netherlands since end of 2014. With a team of 4 persons they undertake long term investments in medium-sized technical companies, especially manufacturing companies. Anders invest works out of the conviction that a sound long-term and above-average growth is possible with an operational and values-oriented approach in close cooperation with all involved stakeholders.

Before that, Huisman was CEO of Centrotec AG for nearly 15 years.  Centrotec is a German stock listed company in heating and ventilation products, with market leading brands such as Wolf, Brink and Ubbink. Under his leadership, the company grew from 13 to 530 million EUR annual sales and expanded the number of employees from 100 to over 3,300. Centrotec executed over 15 M&A transactions and had an average organic growth rate of more than 11% p.a., far above market growth. He also led the solar business and as such has been the initiator of Centrosolar AG, the stock-listed solar subsidiary created in 2005. From 2007 to 2010, Dr. Huisman has presided as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Centrosolar.

He started his career working for Commerzbank in Düsseldorf and Hong Kong. Aged twenty-two he became branch manager for Commerzbank in Neuss. Following this, he worked for five years at McKinsey & Company in Düsseldorf and in Amsterdam, in the roles of senior consultant and project manager. He was active in the banking, telecom and risk management practice. Huisman holds a Masters degree in Business Administration from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam and a Ph.D. from Handelshochschule Leipzig, Germany, a private university affiliated with INSEAD.  He wrote his magna cum laude rated doctoral thesis on the impact of shareholder structures on the operational management of companies. He is currently Supervisory Board member at Van Dorp, one of the largest technical installation companies in the Netherlands. He further is co-chairman of the 70-person Ledenraad (member council) of the Evangelische Omroep. Huisman is member of the advisory boards of  ForumC and IFES as well as board member of the CUC Foundation which aims to start an international christian university college in the Netherlands.