IT service provider Interstellar has appointed Registered Controller Niels Batstra as its Chief Financial Officer. He joins David Schaap (CTO), Maarten van Montfoort (CEO) and Christie Eijkelkamp (COO) to round out the Group Management team for the eleven partner companies in the Interstellar collective.
Interstellar was founded in January 2021 and has grown into a collective of eleven IT firms. The group is currently hard at work on the next growth phase in the buy-and-build strategy. This phase focuses on creating a platform organization, with intensified collaboration to offer customers a broader range of services. The four-person Management squad aims to harness the combined knowledge of the group, harmonies its products and services, apply shared standards and create economies of scale. This will make Interstellar more agile, so it can develop new products and services more quickly to boost its relevance for its customers.
Niels (50) will take on challenges such as laying down the structure of this platform organization to improve decisiveness and scalability and further enhance our service for our customers. During the 16 years before this appointment, he worked in a variety of interim roles. This often involved the position of CFO, as well as other leading roles in the areas of transformation and IT implementation. At Interxion for instance (later acquired by Digital Realty), he handled standardization of the European financial work processes for twelve different countries. In that role, he also created a new operating model as the foundation to implement a new ERP package. At Dept., he was involved in the buy-and-build strategy and integration of the acquired companies.
The organization holds enormous innovative potential, and an impressive talent pool.
Niels BatstraCFO
Niels: “At Interstellar, I’ve found a challenge that suits me to a tee. The organization holds enormous innovative potential, and an impressive talent pool. I’m really looking forward to working together on a structure that can deploy our talent optimally for our customers. There’s a reason why I left my independent career of 16 years to take on this permanent position, that’s such a great match for me and my ambitions”.
David Schaap and Maarten van Montfoort formed the backbone of Interstellar in 2021. In 2022, Christie Eijkelkamp came aboard as Chief Operating Officer (COO). She also boasts a track record of building platform organizations and integrating diverse product ranges. With Niels, the Management Team is complete and ready to take the next step in growing the organization. Maarten van Montfoort adds: “After two years of focusing on the buy, we now turn our attention to the build. We have so much wonderful talent within the different firms. To ensure optimal deployment of this talent for our customers, we want to keep combining our forces, in every arena. Niels’ knowledge, experience and drive offer a massive boost for this next step in our growth. I very much look forward to working with this team to make our ambitions a reality – for 2023 and beyond”.
The Interstellar umbrella covers IT service providers Solimas, Exite ICT, DataByte, Datamex and the CSN Group. The other companies in the collective – Ask Roger, Q-Conferencing, Fundaments, SCCT, DataExpert and Pinewood – are specialists in collaboration, the cloud and security. Founded in January of 2021, the INTERSTELLAR team grew to eleven firms over the past year, with more than 650 employees, 170 million in turnover and 15 branches. All told, Interstellar companies serve over 11,000 customers.
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