Ergon announces the appointment of Mr. Philip Alberdingk Thijm to its Board of Senior Advisors

Philip Alberdingk Thijm is the CEO of Keesing Media Group (“Keesing”), the leading European puzzle and braintainment company. Since Philip joined Keesing in 2014, he managed to realise an extraordinary growth story through strategic refocusing on the growing brain health theme, strong operational management and an active buy-and-build strategy, including a promising partnership with Mindsnacks in San Francisco.

Ergon acquired Keesing in 2017, alongside Mediahuis, and partnered with Philip and his outstanding team to realise this remarkable growth strategy. Last week, a transaction was signed, whereby Keesing will be sold to BC Partners. By welcoming Philip to Ergon’s Board of Senior Advisors, Ergon will be able to maintain the warm ties with Philip and benefit from his media industry expertise, his strategic vision and his network in the Netherlands and beyond.

Prior to joining Keesing, Philip had an impressive and successful career path and held senior leadership roles across the media industry, most notably as CEO of Sky Radio, CEO of FD Mediagroep and Member of the Executive Board of PCM. Philip has an undergraduate degree from the HES in Amsterdam and holds an MBA from IESE in Barcelona.

In Ergon’s Board of Senior Advisors, Philip will replace Agnès Touraine, who served as Senior Advisor for the past years, tereby greatly contributing to Ergon’s franchise and bringing very relevant expertise in media. Agnès was also a member of the Board of Directors of several Ergon portfolio companies in the publishing sector, namely De Boeck Education, Larcier and Keesing. All of these became successful investments for Ergon.

Ergon’s Board of Senior Advisors consists of a senior group of seasoned business executives from the geographies and sectors targeted by Ergon. It meets on a regular basis to review Ergon’s investment strategy and provide insight to Ergon’s management team.

Wolfgang de Limburg, Managing Partner of Ergon stated: “We are delighted to have Philip join our Board of Senior Advisors. Philip is a strategic, innovation-driven, international and charismatic business leader, with a wealth of experience in the broader media industry. After our successful collaboration at Keesing, Philip’s involvement in the Board of Senior Advisors will be of great added value to Ergon. I would also like to thank Agnès Touraine for her contribution at Ergon and its portfolio companies over the past decade.”

About Ergon

Ergon is a mid-market investment company with over €1.0 billion of assets under management from select European institutional investors and families. Ergon is a disciplined and discreet value investor, which provides “patient and friendly capital” to entrepreneurs and managers, who need capital, industrial or technological solutions to accelerate the development of their companies. Ergon makes equity investments in leading companies with a sustainable competitive position in 2 attractive niche markets located in the Benelux, France, Germany, Italy and Iberia. Ergon is advised by Ergon Capital Advisors which has offices in Brussels, Paris, Munich, Milan, and Madrid. Since its inception in 2005, over successive investment programs, Ergon has raised approximately €2 billion, invested in 27 companies (of which 9 in the Benelux, 4 in France, 3 in Germany, 8 in Italy and 3 in Spain) and completed approximately 60 add-on acquisitions for a total aggregate transaction value of over €4.5 billion. Ergon’s current portfolio consists of 14 companies across its target sectors.

For more information on Ergon, please visit www.ergoncapital.com.