About Katleen
A highly accomplished Bid Director / Bid Manager / Pursuit Leader with 15+ years’ international experience winning complex, high-value contracts across Technology (SaaS/Cloud), Industrial Automation, Critical Infrastructure, Government/Blue-Light, Energy Transition, Telecoms and Professional Services. She is a “golden thread” specialist who brings structure, pace and clarity to multi-stakeholder bids, owning the full lifecycle from qualification (Go/No-Go) through RFI/RFP/tender submission, clarifications, negotiation support and handover.
Supports win strategy development by facilitating win workshops, aligning stakeholders on client challenges and desired outcomes, and translating these into an executable bid strategy with rigorous governance, strong commercial architecture, persuasive storytelling and disciplined risk management.
Operates as a “player–coach”: equally effective in shaping win strategy with senior sponsors or driving hands-on bid delivery and submission readiness. She leads structured programmes across PQQ/RFI and RFP responses, running kick-offs and checkpoints, managing contributors, and ensuring compliant, coherent answers aligned to the evaluation model. She brings strong commercial leadership (pricing strategy across SaaS/CAPEX/OPEX; ROI/TCO, deal structuring; margin/governance) and disciplined risk management, mobilising internal SMEs and external partner ecosystems through clear RACI and a governance rhythm to deliver “one voice” submissions.
Consultant Disciplines: Bid / Deal Strategist, Business Development Manager, Capture Manager, Commercial Director, Commercial Manager, Head of Bid Management, Head of Proposal Management, Knowledgebase Design, Organisational Design, Programme Manager,
Frameworks: MEDDPICC, Miller Heiman, Korn Ferry, Shipley, Value Management
•Strategic Pursuit
•Commercial Leadership
•Operational Excellence
•Multi-National Delivery
English
Native or bilingual
Dutch
Native or bilingual
French
Conversational
Can work on-site
London (up to 50km)
Experience
- Career BreakMBA | Gen AI Leader | Non Executive Director Finance & Corporate GovernanceDIGITAL AND ITJanuary 2024 - January 2025 (1 year)London, United KingdomStrategic Executive Upskilling & Fractional LeadershipLeveraged an intentional career pivot to strengthen board-level commercial and governance capabilities. Actively operating as a Fractional Leader via Connectd, providing strategic advisory to high-growth firms. Completed an MBA and GenAI Leader training focused on enterprise strategy and risk. Further enhanced NED credentials through Finance and Corporate Governance certifications, bridging the gap between digital innovation and robust board oversight.
- Rockwell Automation,Head of Commercial Strategic Accounts (EMEA Large & Complex Pursuits)January 2021 - January 2024 (3 years)London, UKEstablished and led the EMEA pursuit function during organisational transformation, overseeing governance, qualification, and commercial strategy for multi-country deals over $5M. Led a team of five across lead generation, capture strategy, and bid management, partnering closely with sales, finance, legal, product, services, and ecosystem partners (EPC/OEM, SI).• ▪ Built and scaled a new enterprise function by leading a global transformation programme that unified five regional operating models into a single framework aligned to strategic growth and revenue objectives.• ▪ Established a $500M new-logo pipeline in one year by redesigning lead-generation procedures and recruiting/coaching specialist industry talent.• ▪ Delivered $95M+ consistently, over-delivering on target in large, multi-country new business influenced and secured by shaping capture and commercial strategy, aligning executive and cross-functional stakeholders, embedding Rockwell as specified automation and services standard, and securing board-level deal funding.• ▪ Improved pipeline quality and conversion by embedding a disciplined commercial growth framework, delivering +60% qualified leads, -20% bid cycle time, +40% increased win rate.• ▪ Accelerated strategic growth in green energy (Hydrogen) and emerging industries by establishing a focused, ecosystem-led strategy, reducing value-proposition development time to six months.• ▪ Standardised enterprise qualification and governance across EMEA by converting external project intelligence into Power BI dashboards and implementing a structured GO / NO-GO decision model.• ▪ Secured multi-year enterprise transformation deals by positioning 5–10 year automation roadmaps and translating customer strategy into robust TCO, ROI, and CAPEX/OPEX business cases in partnership with sales, finance, product, services, and ecosystem partners.
- Vodafone Cloud & Security,Senior Commercial Lead & Head of Strategic DealsJanuary 2017 - January 2021 (4 years)London, UKOwned commercial leadership for large, complex enterprise pursuits, spanning capture strategy, pricing, contract negotiation, and deal P&L. Led a team of five Bid Managers and partnered with sales, finance, legal, and delivery to improve win probability, protect margin, and ensure commercial governance across high-value bids.• ▪ Delivered £75M+ in enterprise cloud and security deals at 19-22% EBIT, leading pursuit strategy, commercial structuring, pricing governance, and risk management.• ▪ Led Vodafone's largest and most complex strategic pursuits (up to £100M+), owning commercial strategy and negotiations across multi-stakeholder, multinational environments, including complex cultural and language dynamics.• ▪ Improved win probability and profitability by designing capture strategy, SaaS and traditional pricing models, and robust ROI/TCO business cases, securing governance approval on major enterprise bids.• ▪ Protected margin and ensured deal integrity by leading contract negotiations, commercial structuring, and P&L design in line with commercial guardrails and risk thresholds.• ▪ Strengthened commercial execution capability by building and running bid upskilling programmes, quality gate reviews, and competitor frameworks, improving bid quality and on-time submission rates.• ▪ Reduced delivery risk and cost variance on cloud migrations by acting as Commercial Risk Lead, implementing mitigation frameworks that improved margin predictability and customer confidence.
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Education
- MBAUniversity of East London / Ducere Business SchoolMBA
- Foundation Accreditation Value Management ProfessionalInstitute of Value ManagementFoundation Accreditation Value Management Professional