Marcel van der Elst

Managing Director

Absy.AI

  • Board Member

Association for Corporate Growth

  • Member, Programming Committee Member, Member of the Year for 2024

Association for Strategic Planning

  • Methodology Author for Scenario Planning

Family Business Alliance

  • Underwriter Representative

Girl Scouts Michigan Shore to Shore

  • Board Member

"Key Management Models"

  • Ten Have, Ten Have, van der Elst (1st & 2nd ed., FT/Prentice Hall)

Economic Club of Grand Rapids

  • Member

Exit Planning Association

  • Member

SNBN: Stichting Nederlanders Buiten Nederland

  • Regional Representative

As a management consultant and business development executive for over 25 years, Marcel has experience and capabilities applicable to a wide variety of industries and organizations.

Marcel earned his M.S. in Industrial Engineering and Management from the University of Eindhoven (Netherlands) and completed Executive Education at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Prior to joining DWH, he worked on strategy, business transformation and commercial capability development in branded equipment and durable goods manufacturing, industrial services, FMCG and service industries, including Sara Lee/DE, Nestlé, TPG and Philips Electronics  He also advised closely held middle market companies, PE/portfolio companies and public companies in the US, Europe and South America, including for 10 years at Deere & Company where has was a senior advisor to executive leadership.

At DWH, Marcel supports private middle market companies seeking ownership and leadership transitions, and organizational transformations. He helps clients through strategic alignment, improvement of cross-functional alignment in organizations, and business process redesign. Marcel’s primary focus within DWH is Mergers & Acquisitions and Strategic Planning with an emphasis on utilizing AI Strategy & Implementation to improve business operations. In recent years, he has acted as a buy-side advisor in multiple acquisitions, advised in complex family business ownership transitions as well as post-transition business process alignment, and as an executive coach to multiple executives in business and not-for-profit leadership. Marcel has recently been involved both in the use of AI applications in business assessment work and in the development of generative AI use cases for clients.

Marcel has published on current management topics. With a focus on strategy consulting, change management and managerial decision making, Marcel co-authored the original (first) and second edition of “Key Management Models” (FT/Prentice Hall, 2003) a Financial Times top-10 best-seller which was translated into several other languages. Marcel has also published articles and blogs on Scenario Planning and on implementation of Artificial Intelligence.

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