Since January 2023, Boudewijn van Schaïk has been CFO of Amsterdam-based Avantium. Listed on Euronext, the chemical substances firm develops and commercializes applied sciences that produce supplies from sustainable carbon feedstocks. Amongst its improvements: a course of for changing plant-based sugars into furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), a key constructing block of sustainable plastic. He was previously company finance director at SBM Offshore and vice chairman, Oil & Gasoline Asia, at NIBC Financial institution.
International Finance: What has been essentially the most difficult side of your job, to date?
Boudewijn van Schaïk: I don’t have a conventional CFO background. Transitioning from my earlier roles in banking and at SBM Offshore in oil and gasoline to a CFO function with a broad portfolio was a big step. It was a steep studying curve, with many new obligations and actions to handle. Renewable chemistry was totally new to me. Adapting to this function and trade was difficult at first, but it surely was an thrilling journey.
GF: Did you could have any networks or mentoring techniques to assist you?
Van Schaïk: Sure and no. I’ve had precious conversations with my former boss, the CFO at SBM Offshore. I used to be invited to take part within the CFO Discussion board, a program supplied by INSEAD in collaboration with PwC and Egon Zehnder. It’s an unique program; I used to be lucky to be invited final yr. The discussion board brings collectively a gaggle of CFOs from the Netherlands for a couple of days, participating with professors and friends. It was a improbable expertise. Reflecting on it, I understand I don’t community as a lot as I ought to. Constructing and leveraging a community is extremely essential.
GF: What has occupied most of your time within the final 12 months?
Van Schaïk: There are two key areas; an important is being in management. This broad idea covers processes, procedures, governance, and guaranteeing all standalone capabilities—whether or not finance, authorized, or procurement—function inside a cohesive management framework. It’s about guaranteeing the corporate has sturdy checks and balances and that everybody follows established procedures.
That is vital for any group, however particularly for Avantium, which is transitioning from a analysis and development-focused firm to 1 that may personal and function a big flagship chemical plant. This shift requires important modifications, with processes, controls, procedures, and governance evolving to fulfill the calls for of a rising and maturing group.
GF: And the second?
Van Schaïk: Making certain the corporate is sufficiently funded. As we scale up and endure this main transition, one among my major obligations, alongside the CEO, is to safe the required funding to assist the corporate’s development and operations. [In 2024, Avantium secured $114 million in financing.]
GF: How do you retain traders completely satisfied?
Van Schaïk: By delivering outcomes. Nonetheless, we’re restricted in making forward-looking statements or offering in depth steering. It’s a fragile steadiness between managing expectations and shaping perceptions of the longer term. Transparency and engagement are key.
For instance, throughout the opening of our flagship plant in October, we hosted a devoted day for retail traders. Over 200 attended, spending the afternoon in a big tent the place we had espresso and engaged with them one-on-one or in small teams. Offering this private consideration and making them really feel a part of the journey, quite than simply shareholders, is extremely essential.
GF: How do you handle transparency, given the necessity to defend mental property?
Van Schaïk: With the skin group, we talk on a a lot greater stage. We discuss concerning the basic properties of the merchandise that we’re creating. What makes it distinctive? However we don’t go into particular, IP-sensitive particulars across the chemistry.
For instance, we don’t discuss concerning the catalyst that we use or the method expertise and the way it precisely works in our plant. However we do inform them concerning the 4 phases, the place we begin with fructose syrup. We discuss concerning the course of—about our chemistry, about our expertise—in a approach that the common investor will perceive, however nowhere close to in sufficient element that in any approach it turns into fascinating for a competitor or for anyone who’s searching for inside data from an IP perspective.
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