Amsterdam
BEARFIELD
WHAT WE DO
Mission
BearField seeks to fundamentally disrupt the beverage industry to deliver more healthy, sustainable and more exciting beverages. The way we aim to do this, is to collaborate with breakthrough entrepreneurs and globally scale-up their local-market successes.
Team
The team consists of entrepreneurial minded individuals that have a unique combination of strategic insight and hands-on delivery-focus. Our job is to compete with and outsmart the biggest beverage companies in the world.
Business model
Simply put: BearField’s business model is to deliver commercial and supply chain services for brand owners in the beverage market.
ARIZONA BEVERAGES
The #1 RTD in the USA
It all began in 1992 with two hardworking guys from Brooklyn selling beer out of an old van. After witnessing the overwhelming sales of bottled tea along their usual delivery route, John Ferolito and Don Vultaggio had found a calling. Their business plan was simple: create a high quality product in packaging that stands out. Today, Ferolito, Vultaggio & Sons sells more AriZona beverages than any other premium ready-to-drink iced tea company in the United States. AriZona doesn’t rely on traditional advertising but rather the strength of the quality of our products alone.
Charlie's Organics
Let's drink harmless
Charlie believes that adding real fruit to sparkling water is better, and tastes better, than adding aromas. And fruits are better when they come from organic farming, for both people and the planet. Would you like to know what else is in the can? That’s quite simple, really.
Nothing else, we promise.
NATURAL ONE
Real Juice From Real Fruit
Natural One juices are 100% natural and made by an exclusive process that keeps the flavor, aroma and freshness as if freshly squeezed at home Made of fresh fruits, without the addition of sugar (except lemon flavor) and preservatives. Moreover, we don't use concentrated juices.
COMPANY EXPERTISE
Consumer needs segmentation
Strategic planning and financial KPI reporting
Forecasting & supply chain management
Consumer channel & customer data gathering and analysis
European value chain mapping and management
Regulatory, labeling compliance and trademarks
WHO WE ARE
Alexis den Beer Poortugael
Partner - COO
After getting his MBA in FIU Miami in 2005, Alexis started to work at a Benelux based claims management company called Interlloyd Group, managing key accounts such as Pioneer and Yamaha. Subsequently, Alexis worked for a year at ING in the Debt Capital Markets team. End of 2007, Alexis was approached by Arizona Beverages to launch the brand in Europe. The 10 years after that have been an amazing ride!
Pieter van den Akker
Partner - CEO
Has over 20 years experience in the beverage world, 10 years at executive level from Country Manager to Innovation Director for RTD Nestea & Nescafe. Being bored with the “corporates”, he got out in 2007, to help beverage start ups grow internationally. In 2009 Pieter joined BearField to help develop AriZona and Caipi One in Europe. Life is too short...
Philippe den Beer Poortugael
Partner - CMO
Started his career in 2003 at a start-up ad agency in NY, working in all the different aspects of the trade from creative to account & project management. He left NY to find a position at BBDO in Brussels, working with clients such as Volvo, Gillette, Oral B, Braun & Bayer. End of 2007, Philippe was approached by Arizona Beverages to launch the brand in Europe. Why be in advertising if you can build brands like AriZona and....
Pavol Kanuch
Business Development Director
Pavol has more than 20-year experience in FMCG marketing management and business development, incl. cross-national marketing strategies & communication leadership, market strategy development and coordination of execution plans. Led number of successful innovations within different FMCG categories in multiple European markets. Experienced in operations management and multi-task projects coordination. Holding Executive MBA degree from University of Minnesota, able to communicate in 5 languages.
Stefan Schmidt-George
Sales Director Germany
Over 25 years in Sales FMCG and over 15 years in Beverages. Worked on all levels in Sales for national and international Groups like Unilever, Danone, Apollinaris & Schweppes and Valensina. After working together on AriZona in the last two years, he joined BearField in 2015 to be responsible for the sales development in the German Market. “Age is not a disease, it is acquired capital!”
Paul Corten
Business Development Manager
Paul brings +12 years experience in different commercial roles.
After succeeding Masters Degree Law at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam he developed experience within Account Management, Trade Marketing and Category Management. He did this within leading FMCG companies like Heineken, Ahold, Bacardi and Reckitt Benckiser across multiple European markets and categories.
Paul shows a proven track record for the portfolio sales and development,
pricing and promotion strategy, relationship management, setting short and long term strategy.
Stefan Smeets
Sales Manager
Stefan graduated from the University of Amsterdam with a Master’s degree in Business Studies and a specialization in strategy, organization and entrepreneurship.
Linda Glastra
Sales Operations Manager
Linda joined Bearfield beginning of 2012 and has been an invaluable addition to the team. Prior to Bearfield, Linda worked 4 years for CoolCarré BV, as the personal assistant of both partners and responsible for all secretarial duties. Up to 2008, Linda worked for nearly 10 years as the assistant of the management and marketing department heads of an event planning company.
Kai Wu
Customer Operations Manager
Kai is a seasoned professional with over 10 years of experience in supply chain, operations, and commerce. Throughout his career, he has worked with leading companies such as Samsung and FrieslandCampina, gaining extensive knowledge in diverse industries including FMCG, Electronics, and Industrial Design Manufacturing.
He believes in the power of forward momentum and is driven by the quote, "If you don't move forward, you will move backward."
Jerome Desmarres
Senior Supply Planner
After completing his degree in Languages, Jerome travelled the world for a few years. He landed in Amsterdam in 2014 and acquired experience in Customer Service and Supply Planning in the beverage and paper/packaging industries with Starbucks and DS Smith. He joined BearField in 2020.
Ilias Askepidis
Demand Planner
After gaining a bachelor’s degree in Economics at the University of Thessaloniki, Ilias spent 3 years as a Supply Chain Coordinator in a wholesale retail company. Shortly after, he moved to the Netherlands and completed his master’s in Law and Economics at Utrecht University. In the following years, Ilias was gaining hands-on experience in the domain of Compliance and European Tax regulations before joining Bearfield in 2022, as a Demand Planner. “I believe Demand Planning is the core of business operations and I am enjoying being part of it.”
Niels Harte
Planning & Stock management
Niels successfully finished his Business Logistics Studies and fulfilled various positions within supply chain management. He is a diehard who wants to develop his analytical and planning skills.
“There is a lot of energy in this demanding team, which encourages to perform. It is an honor to be part of BearField. After all, it is all about doing what suits you with the right people.”
Mihaela Barza
QA & Sales Assistant
After 14 years of customer service at Döhler (first in Romania, then in The Netherlands), Miki joined BearField in 2017, as sales assistant.
If she has to choose a motto which defines her, it would be: Work hard, laugh harder.
Shirley S
Operations Coordinator
Shirley studied Fashion Retail. She has worked as a planner and buyer for V&D for 10 years.
Jelena Dzida
Operations Coordinator
Jelena studied International Management and prior to BearField worked eight and a half years for Diageo Brands BV as a customer account manager. She was responsible for the complete order process, playing a key role between the customers on the one hand and the production facilities on the other.
Dolores Bajs
Operations Coordinator
After she graduated from college in 2010 with a degree in Market Communication Management, Dolores decided to go abroad.
She studied at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA) and fully immersed herself in a new culture and language.
Dolores has a background in different areas such as transport planning, reservation management, office administration, customer service and leading teams.
Maria Dabrowska
Operations Coordinator
Maria studied at the Warsaw School of Economics and moved to the Netherlands shortly after graduating. During her studies, she also spent a year living in Germany and in Austria. Over the last few years, she gained experience in finance departments of various shared service centers, working closely with both internal and external stakeholders.
Eszter Szabó
Operations Coordinator
Eszter moved to Amsterdam from Finland in 2017 and completed her bachelor’s degree at Hotelschool The Hague in 2021, where she also worked for 3 years as a librarian. Following her studies, she worked in operations at a scale-up before joining BearField as an Operations Coordinator.
Michiel Schalkwijk
Operations Coordinator
Michiel has a bachelor degree in history. He then worked 4 years as a sales manager and after 3 years as finance and logistic specialist at a large garden center. Michiel joined BearField as an Operations Coordinator.
Diego Romero
Operations Coordinator
Diego is originally from Bogota, Colombia but lived in quite a few countries before living in The Netherlands.
After graduating in Communication and Marketing in 2008 in Hogeschool Rotterdam his career took off in Customer Service and Logistics in several industries and has worked at DSM, Eastern Chemicals and Duracell in Operations and Logistics.
He is very excited to have taken a new step in his career to join Bearfield in the Operations Coordinator role and looking forward to bringing in fresh new ideas
Karolina Peetoom
Operations Coordinator
Karolina moved to the Netherlands in 2012 and for the last 7 years, she has been working in the logistics and financial field.
Prior to BearField, she was worked at Action, where she was responsible for the coordination of the internal and external orders, supplier management, invoicing processes within the transport, and analyzing data.
Quintijn Mielke
Operations Coordinator
After working for 7 years in Germany, Quintijn found his way back to the Netherlands. He worked mainly in the Display and Co-Packing industry and gained a lot of experience in POS marketing and planning big projects for his customers. He is glad to have joined the BearField team..
Elle Sharifipour
Elle studied Marketing and worked for various companies. Before entering the financial industry, she worked as a project manager at Philips and PwC, managing and coordinating different projects from conception to completion. Over the years she has gained experience working in all aspects of finance from small companies as well as large investment firms. As a result, she has a variety of experiences that offers strong cross-field impact and allow her to see a unique perspective.
Fefe Shi
Accounting Assistant
Graduated at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam (University of Applied Sciences) in 2014. She has joined BearField since the beginning of 2019.
Prior to BearField, Fefe worked for Royal Diamonds Amsterdam as a Financial assistant.
Proven herself as a motivated and organized person.
Viktor Negyesi
Financial Manager
After graduating at School of Management in Budapest he started his career at IBM and Nokia in accounting and VAT departments. While working in different finance and controlling functions he learned how to thrive in dynamic and fast changing environments and got expertise in setup and professionalization of finance departments. In 2020 he relocated to the Netherlands and worked at Action in setting up new finance administration for the IFRS16 regulation. Later moved to Ebitwise to help start-ups and scaleups in developing their finance department and supporting their ambitious growth plans through setting up proper budgeting, financial planning and controlling activities and processes. Joined Bearfield in 2023 to lead the finance department.
Ratih Nawangwulan
Operations Coordinator
Ratih earned master’s degree in Food Innovation and Management from Wageningen University and worked as Digital Marketing Specialist in Indonesia for a few years. She then returned to the Netherlands and worked for Picnic Technologies as a team leader and editor in an automatic fulfillment center. There she
gained knowledge and interest in food industry’s supply chain. Well-versed in warehouse management, customer service,and internal communications, she’s looking forward to continuing her career in BearField with the goal to improve value chain processes and customer’s satisfaction.
We're currently hiring for a variety of roles across multiple departments, and we're confident that there's something here for everyone. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting out in your career, we have opportunities that can help you grow and develop your skills.
Here are some of the open roles we're currently recruiting for:
Don't be afraid to reach out.