While you can find our entire team on this website, we think those short biographies don’t do them justice. This month’s colleague in the spotlight: Roel Evers!
Roel’s a commercial director at Aexus, which means he works with the entire team of sales managers, business development managers, sales execs, SDRs and is responsible for all the commercial activities that are conducted for our partners.
Can you tell us about your background and how you ended up at Aexus?
I studied commercial economics, first with a focus on marketing, then I switched to a small business and a retail management program. What I really wanted to know was how to build your own company. I started working at Aexus straight after that in 2008. I came across Aexus through a mutual connection. He knows Chris Gerretsen (founder Aexus) and thought that since we both support the same football club (NEC Nijmegen) there would be a match. Needless to say, that has proven to be correct.
I started working at Aexus as a business development manager and at the time there were 4-5 people here doing the same role but working in different regions. I ended up working all over the world, selling into and traveling to 25+ countries, and having roadshows all over Europe as well as Southeast Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong, KL, Manilla), which gave me the opportunity to explore lots of new cultures.
We grew during the years and along with the growth, the founders thought that we needed to reorganize ourselves to be able to scale our business further. At that point, I decided that for my personal development I wanted to see what it is to work for a different company, and I left Aexus, still selling SaaS solutions internationally. When I returned in 2018, the team had grown to 35 people, and I started my new role as a sales director.
As part of the management team, what are your focus points?
I want to make sure everyone is happy, whether they’re working with or working at Aexus. It’s important for me that people are happy with their job and constantly feel challenged in a positive way. It’s a fascinating sales job working with multiple, interesting technologies compared to a typical sales job. You have to be able to manage your own work and processes well. If you are suited for this job and take ownership of it, it can be really cool.
The longer an employee works for a specific partner, the better they get to know their needs and the product, which eventually leads to more deals and happier partners. This is the basis for further growth.
How would you describe the company culture at Aexus?
We have a very entrepreneurial culture and we really thrive on that. That of course means that we want to attract specific types of people to work with us in order to fit in with the team and the culture. We would like to see our employees taking full ownership of their partnership and make it a success.
I also believe we are not a hierarchical company. We still have a very flat organizational structure. There’s a lot of freedom to do things, we are supportive of trying new things which is very much the mentality here. Moreover, you can grow really fast within the company, developing yourself even further.
What kind of plan you have for the future for Aexus?
I would like to see Aexus become the de facto partner to work with for tech companies that want to expand into new markets internationally. We already have a strong foothold in Europe and I would like to see the operation working at the same level in the U.S. Internally, I want the people and the various teams around the world to work as autonomously as possible. I am here to support them, making sure that everyone feels like being part of Aexus, no matter if you are in The Netherlands, Finland, The US, or anywhere else in the world.
