Growth + Profitability Summit

Stephan lives in Germany and he has been working in construction equipment industry since 1998. He has been active in the road construction area for the brand Dynapac since 2009. After different roles and positions as Product Manager, Regional Aftermarket Manager for D/A/CH region and Pricing Manager, he is now acting as Head of Commercial Management and Processes. He is leading a team of three pricing and CPQ nerds, aiming to provide commercial excellence. He has detailed experience and knowledge in aftermarket affairs, sales support, pricing and commercial business tools. Dynapac belongs to the Fayat group and have 5 factories around the globe. Main products are Soil and Asphalt Rollers, Pavers, Feeders and Light Compaction Equipment.

Jacob has worked with pricing in large multinational B2B companies in +10 years. Jacob has extensive knowledge on how to set up pricing concepts to support value based pricing across international markets and sales channels. Previous to pricing Jacob has worked with different roles in finance and sales. In his current job, Jacob is responsible for a global pricing team of 9 FTEs supporting Danfoss businesses in price optimization. Jacob holds a masters degree in International business from Aarhus University and is a Certified Pricing Professional since 2018. Privately Jacob is married and has two daughters and a spanish water dog.

Koen is a global digital strategy manager within Yokogawa and is responsible for the rollout of future digital platforms and price optimization programs within the IA products division. He has almost 22 years of experience in direct sales, product management, and setting regional IA product sales strategies, which I consider a must-have for transforming the Yokogawa digital mindset towards the future. Based in Belgium, working for a Japanese company and talking to global colleagues in the US, Singapore, Korea, and the Middle East is a natural enrichment of the job, which keeps me continuously motivated to achieve the common company goal.

Björn is founding partner at PAGE-37 and previously an Associate within the Pricing and Profitability Management competence center of Monitor Deloitte in Belgium and Switzerland. Throughout his career, Björn is active as a consultant in the domain of Commercial Excellence. His key areas of expertise include Customer Management Strategy, Sales Force Management, Pricing and Profitability Management and Entrepreneurship.

He has demonstrated top level analytical and tactical skills which, combined with a high level of pragmatism, lead to successful process reengineering and strategy implementations. He acts as a lead member of the European Pricing and Profitability Management Community. As such, he drives the further development of pricing methodologies and market awareness. He is a regular guest speaker at conferences. Bjorn is a professional coach and trainer and has extensive experience in workshop facilitation and interviews. His mother tongue is Dutch, and he is fluent in English and French.

Bruno Slosse has served as the President and CEO for Vendavo since 2015, where he has led a comprehensive transformation of the company from a 1st generation B2B price management solution provider, into the leading SaaS provider of Price Optimization & Management and CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) solutions.

Bruno came to Vendavo with more than 20 years of sales and senior leadership experience in enterprise software at companies like Cerner Corporation and Ascend Learning. Having spent over 10 years as General Manager of Cerner Europe, Bruno has worked with global clients and led organizations in both the US and Europe.

He is fluent in Dutch, French, German and English. Bruno graduated with Honors with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University Ghent, Belgium.

Gina Bates brings more than 20 years of sales and leadership experience from SAP, Coupa, Anaplan and Salesforce.

Gina has a proven track record building successful, high-performing teams, and is passionate about cultivating a strong team culture. She leads the Global Sales, Business Consulting, Sales Operations, and Partnership teams in all geographies. Gina is a Michigan State alumna.

Robert has worked in the area of Pricing for over 20 years and has spent the last 14 years at Vendavo helping customers to implement and automate their pricing processes, strategies and margin optimization. Before joining Vendavo, Robert was the Global Director of Pricing at a High-Tech manufacturer where he developed, built and led the Pricing Organization. He is experienced in leading sales and operations teams in the international business environment and has a proven track record of successfully leading organizations through structural and process change. Robert has an MBA from Wake Forest University and a BA (Hons) in International Business from Sheffield City Polytechnic.

With over 8 years of experience in the field, Michal is a seasoned Principal UX Designer dedicated to crafting exceptional digital experiences. His main mission is to empower customers with the right information at the right moment. By providing all the important information seamlessly, Michal’s designs eliminate the need for complex training and allow users to effortlessly accomplish their goals.

His relentless pursuit of effective and intuitive accessibility drives him to create designs that prioritize user needs and preferences. Throughout his career, Michal has collaborated with almost all product teams, delivering user-centered solutions that elevate the overall product experience.

Michal firmly believes in the power of user research, conducting in-depth user interviews and rigorous usability testing to ensure that every design decision is backed by data and aligned with user expectations.

Michal has contributed significantly to the success of Vendavo’s Deal Price Optimizer product, which optimizes prices based on customer willingness to pay.

Growth and Profitability Summit’s Master of Ceremonies, Johanna Anderson, brings a wealth of multifaceted experience as an Associate People & Culture Business Partner at Vendavo. Since 2019, she has played a pivotal role in nurturing relationships and creating a thriving workplace. Her vibrant energy, innate ability to connect with colleagues, and power to drive employee engagement sets her apart. Prior to Vendavo, Johanna was a Meeting & Event Hostess at Radisson Blue Waterfront and worked in management at J. Lindeberg. Johanna’s global perspective has been enriched by her time living and working in the US and Australia. When she’s not working, Johanna’s creative spirit finds expression in her deep passion for interior design.

Chris is a Business Consultant with Vendavo and brings a wealth of pricing and commercial experience across a wide range of areas, including IT, pharmaceuticals, genomics, manufacturing, food, and petrochemical industries. Most recently working in industry in the private equity space for LGC group, he drives pricing acceptance and excellence in businesses through creative, realistic solutions that demonstrate real value returns. Prior to Vendavo and LGC group, he ran the Western Digital EMEA pricing function.

Ladislav has more than 10 years experience in customer facing roles (Account Manager, Service Delivery Manager, Customer Success Manager) in SaaS, IT, Fin-Tech, and moire. His expertise is Customer Relationship, Retention, Escalation management, and Leadership. He is based in Prague and he joined Vendavo in August 2020, where he is leading EMEA CSM since April 2022. He has previously worked at Worldline global, ADP, and Interoute (GTT) .

Olga Liaudanskaya is working as Senior Customer Success Manager at Vendavo.

Kati has nearly 20 years of experience in pricing-related topics from various positions in the packaging industry. She has worked as a Commercial Manager in a manufacturing site and in central positions as a Pricing Manager. Over the past year and a half, she has been responsible for implementing Pricing Digitalization at Huhtamäki Fiber Foodservice. In this project, she has had the opportunity to utilize her previous experience in IT projects. The digitalization journey has been challenging but rewarding.
At work, Kati is passionate about development, and outside of work, she engages in “off-work” activities such as exercise and analytical puzzles. Her approach is to work hard with a smile and maintain a focus on continuous development.

Sophie has 20+ years of business experience and electronic industry knowledge; she leads international teams and projects to transform and digitalize business activities and processes. This enables Avnet’s business strategy, and creates value for customers, suppliers, and employees, through innovative, differentiated, and scalable process improvements, using various digital technologies.
Throughout the years, she held different management roles in Asset, Operations and Sales, giving her a deep insight and knowledge of what innovative pricing strategies can bring to the business.
By coordinating a team of Digital Pricing analysts, and in collaboration with various specialized IT teams, she enabled the definition and roll-out of an end-to-end Digital Pricing strategy and set of tools in EMEA.

Niklas is responsible of pricing at Xylem, a global water technology provider and a company with a yearly turnover of ~1B$. He has worked at Xylem since 2010 and he has had different roles, among others within Technical Engineering and Sales. He has a master degree in Engineering and Corporate Finance from Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Maarten is a Partner within Monitor Deloitte with a strong track record, Commercial Strategy & Pricing (16+ years). Maarten is leading the Commercial Strategy & Pricing practice and therefore has a solid experience in leading large multinational strategic pricing projects. His operational experience (8 years) in pricing, sales & marketing from the industry enables him to identify the critical value levers and translate strategies into pragmatic and result-driven approaches. Furthermore, Maarten has built up a very strong pricing management expertise, having supporting several multinational companies across the globe on optimizing their pricing performance

Ron Pascuzzi has more than 20 years of leadership experience in software, IoT, and consulting.

As Chief Customer Officer, Ron provides executive leadership across the entire customer lifecycle, from onboarding through to retention, expansion, and renewal. Prior to joining Vendavo, he spent 4 years as Chief Customer Officer at Plex Systems, Inc. where he led customer success and services.

Ron holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from Western Michigan University.  He resides in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Alex Hoff has been with Vendavo since 2008 and has served in roles across pre-sales, professional services, marketing, and product management. In his current role as head of product management, Alex manages a talented team that brings innovative software solutions to market that enable B2B corporations to operationalize their commercial excellence strategies. Since 2018, Alex has led the transformation of Vendavo’s product portfolio from a first-generation on-premises software platform, to a portfolio of integrated cloud-native SaaS products.

Prior to working for Vendavo, Alex worked in various marketing and pricing roles for Fortune 500 companies in business services, retail/consumer goods, and freight transportation.

Alex earned his MBA with a Concentration in Marketing from the MJ Neeley School of Business at TCU where he also holds a B.S. in Psychology.  Alex was also among the early participants in the Certified Pricing Professional program from the Professional Pricing Society in 2008.

Darius leads the Value Acceleration practice at Vendavo. He has 15+ years of professional experience in pricing and digital transformations across various industries including B2B manufacturing, distribution, and financial services. He is an advocate for elevating commercial excellence to strategic levels in organizations and is an expert in scaling pricing & negotiation capabilities.

Before joining Vendavo Darius advised customers at other consultancies including Simon-Kucher & Partners focusing on top-line growth initiatives.

Karl is based in Stockholm and has been working with pricing since 2006. Karl has served in roles across professional services, managing product development teams and product management. For manufacturing and automotive industries Karl has been running price optimization programs, developing and implementing value based and market driven pricing strategies and developing operational processes supporting their long-term success. He has been implementing our price management solutions for our clients. Karl is the product manager for Vendavo Pricepoint.
Karl holds a M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management from KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.

Ali is responsible for leading the functional design and implementing Vendavo solutions for the largest clients. He has more than seven years of experience in pricing and commercial excellence. Furthermore, his main industry experience is in discrete manufacturing and automotive. Ali holds a Master’s degree in Industrial and Management Engineering from Luleå University of Technology.

Thrudur is a Consultant at Vendavo. She brings a wealth of knowledge in digital innovations within logistics and supply chain management in the construction industry. Prior to joining Vendavo, Thrudur served as a Teaching Assistant at Uppsala University and worked as an Accounting Associate at Kvika banki hf. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from University of Iceland and a Master’s degree in Industrial Management and Innovation from Uppsala University. Thrudur is a Prosci Certified Change Practitioner, reflecting her dedication to driving successful organizational transformations. With her diverse background and expertise, she consistently delivers exceptional results in optimizing sales processes and enabling revenue growth for Vendavo’s clients.

Kalle Aerikkala has worked within the pricing and product management profession for the last 10 years, starting with Finnish technology companies supporting service and spare part pricing globally. Currently Kalle works with Vendavo as a Business Consultant, helping a broad range of customers to achieve better results through improved commercial excellence. Even after 10 years in the industry he learns something new every day, and finds the world of pricing incredibly interesting as it touches on basically every function within a company.