Advising senior executives on how to make and implement better strategic decisions to help them fully realize their business objectives.

Innovation, transformation and leadership occur in many ways. At GBR, our subject matter experts help solve our clients’ most complex issues. We help executives bring their transformational initiatives to life, advising on how to make and implement better strategic decisions to help them fully realize their business goals, and deliver strategy and implementation, from a business and technology view, to help them lead in the markets where they compete.

Our team’s diverse skill set also includes expertise across a broad range of sectors, including: Engineering, Digital Transformation, Operational Excellence, Continuous Improvement, Supply Chain Management, Packaging, Sustainability, Lean Manufacturing, AI, and Manufacturing Excellence.

Our Experts

Ton Aerdts – Research Director, OPEX & Continuous Improvement

Ton Aerdts leads the Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement practice at GBR. In this role he is responsible for both shaping and executing the agenda for these key pillars of GBR’s manufacturing clientele.

Since the start of his career in 1993, Ton has been active in Continuous Improvement (CI). The first 20 years supporting companies in their Lean, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), 6 Sigma and Change Management journey. Leading a boutique consultancy company based in the Netherlands supporting global customers like Heinz, Starbucks, Bosch and Paccar Trucks to better their operational processes.

In the last 10 years he worked hands on and onsite with brands such as Cargill, DSM and Akzo Nobel (to name a few) helping them develop the internal capability and to run integrated CI programs. Most recently as the Site Director and interim Managing Director for the DACH region at Prinsen Berning where he managed a site with around 350 fte producing protein bars though a difficult phase after being acquired by a private equity company. He led the turnaround from a traditional family owned and managed business with serious operational issues to getting ready for the future with tremendous growth.

Ton holds a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering. He is fluent in Dutch, English and German. He is based in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Faisal Ansari – Chief Executive Officer, Business Strategy & Sales Leadership

Faisal heads up the Business Strategy & Sales Leadership segments. In this role he works closely with clients to devise new go-to market commercial strategies, coaching the senior directors and key stakeholders within their businesses on how to align their commercial strategies with the overall corporate strategy.

Prior to GBR, Faisal served as the Chief Commercial Officer and was a member of the executive management team at GMS, a global events company. Upon joining, he took the business revenue from a mid-six figure revenue turnover in FY15 (the previous year) to a multi-million turnover in just over 3 years. Before that he was the Director of Industry Services at SCM World, now a Gartner community where he was responsible for managing the global commercial activity for new industry clients’ acquisition across Fortune 500 and Forbes Global 2000 manufacturers and retailers. The role included deal making and negotiating with the C-Suite; some of the members he acquired included Amgen, ExxonMobil, AstraZeneca, Logitech, Vestas, The Gap & Volvo.

Before that he headed up the Consulting Division which he co-founded with the CEO at the World Trade Group, a global media and events company, where he held responsibility for sales, product development and commercial operations. Working closely with the event operations and production teams to enhance the client experience. Through new business development and key account management his division generated 40% (£4.2M) of the group’s revenues in its first year in the EMEA & Asia regions.

Faisal holds a BEng in Air Transport Engineering from City, University of London. He is based in London, England.