Portrait of Erik Gruwel, CFO

Erik Gruwel — Executive CFO

Commercially driven CFO with a track record of improving earnings, strengthening cash control and upgrading finance capabilities in PE-backed platforms, scale-ups and multinational consumer businesses.

Trusted by CEOs, boards and investors in situations where business complexity increases, expectations rise and finance needs to become a stronger engine for value creation.

Executive profile

Erik performs best where there is both ambition and pressure: businesses that need finance to support real change through growth, integration, performance improvement or operating model redesign.

He combines PE-backed operator experience with senior roles in global FMCG, specialised nutrition, hospitality and digital marketplace environments. His natural fit is often a multi-country, multi-entity company in roughly the €200m to €800m range, though he has operated both below and above that range.

Based in the Netherlands, fluent in Dutch and English, and open to CFO and executive finance roles across Europe and internationally.

Core CFO capabilities

Value creation and performance

  • Value-creation planning aligned with investors, boards and management teams.
  • EBITDA uplift through pricing, mix, productivity, overhead discipline and commercial steering.
  • Cash, working capital and liquidity management with stronger forecasting discipline.
  • Commercial finance partnership with CEOs, CMOs, CSOs and operational leaders.
  • Design of management cadence, forecasting rhythm and executive performance dialogue.

Scaling finance and transformation

  • Finance operating model, organisation design and leadership team build-out.
  • Creation and improvement of shared services and specialist finance capabilities.
  • M&A support, post-merger integration and value delivery after the deal closes.
  • Leadership of ERP, EPM, BI and data foundation programmes.
  • Debt financing and stakeholder management with lenders and investors.

Career overview

Interim Finance Director Business Control & Performance — Landal

KKR portfolio company · c. €1.2bn business · 2025

Worked as a close partner to the CFO in a complex post-merger PE-backed environment, strengthening business control, forecasting, cash visibility, cost discipline and performance management while supporting the rollout of NetSuite and OneStream.

Group CFO — HousingAnywhere

Digital marketplace · GMV > €0.5bn · 2023–2025

  • Improved EBITDA from roughly –20% to +20% through Zero-Based Growth, cost optimisation and organisational redesign.
  • Accelerated revenue growth from single digits to more than 30% by aligning strategy, pricing, sales and execution.
  • Secured €26m in debt financing to support acquisitions and expansion.
  • Integrated acquired businesses and built Finance, Legal and IT into a stronger operating platform.
  • Established internal controls and delivered the first successful EY audits.

Global Finance Director Data, Digital & Business Performance — Danone

Danone · 2021–2023

  • Finance lead for Danone’s global data and performance backbone.
  • Designed a unified data model and reporting architecture integrated into core systems.
  • Built dashboards and management frameworks to support better decisions across geographies and categories.
  • Helped leadership steer faster with more consistent management information.

Global Sales, Category & Brands Finance Director — Danone Specialised Nutrition

Danone · 2020–2021

  • Partnered with the global CMO and CSO on a portfolio exceeding €7bn revenue.
  • Supported brand, category and channel decisions from a value-creation and profitability perspective.
  • Improved resource allocation and commercial steering for profitable growth.

Global ZBB Director — Danone Specialised Nutrition

Danone · 2019–2020

  • Accountable for €400m of structural indirect spend productivity.
  • Delivered approximately €50m above target through cost discipline and operating model changes.
  • Embedded stronger savings cadence and cost visibility with leadership teams.

Senior finance roles — Danone

2015–2019

Held roles in FP&A, global growth controlling, procurement control and regional operations control, building deep cross-functional understanding of supply chain, procurement, growth steering and global performance management.

Finance roles — Mars

2010–2015

Built early foundations in operations finance, supply chain performance, cost control and core finance processes in a global FMCG environment, including plant and supply finance leadership.

What CEOs, PE partners and boards value

  • Operator mindset — combines strategic clarity with hands-on execution and real-world constraints.
  • Calm in complexity — stabilises first, then upgrades in integrations, resets and high-change environments.
  • Commercial orientation — understands the P&L and the operational levers behind earnings, cash and growth.
  • Board credibility — direct, transparent and evidence-based communication.
  • Team builder — develops finance benches across business control, FP&A, shared services and specialist functions.
  • International leadership — effective with cross-border teams, investors and stakeholders.

For CEOs, PE partners and executive search

If you are running a CFO search or assessing how to strengthen the finance agenda of a platform, scale-up or consumer business, Erik is available for a direct conversation on fit, context and priorities.

Book a 30-minute conversation