During this Visionary Circle, Marit van Egmond, supervisory board member at Royal A-Ware and former CEO of Albert Heijn, and Han Kolff, supervisory board member at PLUS Retail and Royal Agrifirm Group, will discuss this strategic challenge, where economic strength, innovation, and societal stability intersect.
The central question is how the Netherlands can safeguard food as a strategic foundation for resilience and prosperity in an era of rapidly changing international relations.
CEOs and Supervisory Board
5:30 PM | Program starts (including presentation, discussion, and 3-course dinner)
8:30 PM | End of formal program, opportunity for informal networking
Grand Hotel Huis ter Duin, Noordwijk
Supervisory Board Member at Royal A-Ware and former CEO
Marit van Egmond is a Dutch senior executive with extensive experience in retail and food. She worked at Ahold Delhaize for more than 25 years, including the final 6.5 years as CEO of Albert Heijn, Etos, and Gall & Gall. During this period, she delivered significant growth through a strong focus on private label development, digitalisation, acquisitions, and new strategic partnerships.
She began her career at Albert Heijn in a range of commercial and operational roles. She later became CEO of Gall & Gall before returning to Albert Heijn’s executive leadership team. She is widely recognised for her emphasis on collaboration, promoting healthier lifestyles, and responding to evolving consumer needs, contributions that further strengthened the company’s market position in the Netherlands.
Supervisory Board Member at PLUS Retail and Royal Agrifirm Group
Han Kolff is an experienced board member, advisor, and former CEO/CFO with more than 30 years of international leadership experience across the food, retail, HR services, and business services sectors.
He currently serves as a supervisory board member at PLUS Retail and Royal Agrifirm Group, and as an advisor to the Next Food Collective. He is also the founder of the Food Transformation Forum, an initiative dedicated to accelerating the transition toward sustainable and future-proof food systems.
Throughout his executive career, he held senior leadership positions at organisations including HeadFirst Group, TMF Group, Randstad, Danone, and Heineken. He combines deep expertise in strategy, leadership, digital transformation, innovation, finance, and change management with a strong focus on sustainable growth.
Food is no longer a given, but a strategic issue that directly affects the resilience, autonomy, and long-term economic future of the Netherlands. Geopolitical tensions, disruptions in trade flows, and increasing strategic dependencies highlight how rapidly stability can shift into vulnerability.
This requires close cooperation between government and business, clear and decisive prioritisation, and the translation of shared ambitions into concrete implementation within a rapidly evolving geopolitical and economic context, where speed and consistency are essential.
The Netherlands holds a unique position. It is among the global leaders in agricultural knowledge, innovation, and productivity, and plays a central role in international agrifood chains. This position is embedded in a strong public-private ecosystem in which government, business, and knowledge institutions reinforce one another. At the same time, it is increasingly under pressure due to geopolitical fragmentation, evolving sustainability requirements, technological disruption, and shifting dependencies.
During this Visionary Circle, Marit van Egmond, supervisory board member at Royal A-Ware and former CEO of Albert Heijn, and Han Kolff, supervisory board member at PLUS Retail and Royal Agrifirm Group, will discuss this strategic challenge, where economic strength, innovation, and societal stability intersect.
The central question is how the Netherlands can safeguard food as a strategic foundation for resilience and prosperity in an era of rapidly changing international relations.
You are cordially invited to participate in this dialogue.
