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From Capital Markets deals to PE Practice Manager

Writer's picture: Hipo HeroesHipo Heroes

Meet Denise Kromwijk, who after growing up in Switzerland and Germany, studying in Leiden and doing internships in amongst other India, joined De Brauw in September 2010. After having worked for 6 years in amongst others the Capital Markets team, she set-up the Transactional Services Team and was promoted to Private Equity Practice Manager in June 2021.



1. Would you rather travel back in time to meet your ancestors or would you rather go to the future to meet your descendants?

What a fun question! We all know those people who start reading the final chapter of a book and then get going with the beginning. I’m - definitely - not like that. I want to keep the future a surprise so definitely go back in time!


2. In a nutshell, who is Denise Kromwijk?

I’m a legal professional who studied law (with a minor in Economics) in Leiden. I have an international background: I grew up in Switzerland and Germany, went on to study in the Netherlands, did an internship with a microcredits provider in India and was seconded to both Shanghai and South Africa for De Brauw. As a person, I’d consider myself a self-starter. I like to build and set-up new initiatives. I love reading books and I’m also a mum to two kids!


3. What does a typical week look like? What do you spend your time working on and doing, and with who?

To zoom out first, it may be interesting to tell you a bit about my role. Essentially, I facilitate that we have a well-structured and cohesive Private Equity group which runs smoothly. The Private Equity group is multidisciplinary and includes team members from (mainly) M&A, Tax and Corporate Advisory. From M&A, we have a few fully dedicated PE partners and a number of other M&A partners also take a substantial amount of PE deals. The past year, the Private Equity Practice Group grew fast - from 30 people to the current 45. Part of my job is looking towards the future, helping decide where we want to go as a Practice Group, how to get there and implementing those steps in the day to day. I guess you can consider it a bit like a chief of staff role. To break down “running the practice smoothly”, my work can be split into three main pillars: strategic topics, implementation & a bit of necessary admin.


As to strategy: I help set the strategy for the group, including what we will not focus on - conduct SWOT analyses, help create even more structure in our way of working and optimize processes. We also organise off sites with the whole Private Equity Practice group to jointly discuss and work on topics relevant to the whole group, from culture to business development.


As to implementation: this relates to implementation of the strategy. An example is making sure that the “bigger picture” and initiatives as set out in the business development plan are followed through. I work closely together with our Business Development team, make sure everyone is aligned and “connect” seniors and partners to Business Development so they can execute on the BD plans.


The third part of my scope is approval of invoices & a bit of other admin - all underlying strategy & implementation.


On a more practical note, I work 4 days a week. We are transitioning to a more hybrid way of working, whereby people go to the office at least 50% of the time. The M&A group are at the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays - these will be the days for catch-ups, physical meetings, and this way I can focus on bigger projects requiring more focus Wednesdays and Fridays!

4. “The good, the bad and the ugly” about your job. Spill the beans!

What’s great is that have the freedom and space to take on what I want to take on and that I can decide - on a high level - what my calendar looks like. I work closely together with the head of the PE group, so I obviously get a lot of input from him, but I generally feel like I have a lot of freedom and influence on shaping priorities. I also love that I get to work with great, ambitious young people & that I’m learning so much about how to manage an organization (rather than just the legal process).


What I experience as more challenging is that my role is not a role with end responsibility and - I think this is the case for not just support roles but many roles in business in general - I don’t always have all the information I’d like to have to be able to do my job even better. However, this is a new role and I do expect that this will improve in due course. As with many support roles, and given I am not client facing, I also need to make sure I’m sufficiently connected with what is needed and visible. 5. What motivated you to make your career changes, first becoming Transactional Services Manager and now your promotion to Private Equity Practice Manager?

I really like diving into new things, bringing structure to chaos & process optimisation. After working in our Capital Markets Team, I wanted to do something new and outside of my comfort zone. I got the opportunity to set-up the Transactional Services Team together with a colleague - and a few years later - my current job. To me, the environment is important and I love working in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with a lot of super ambitious young people. I’m good where I am!


6. How did you make the move to your current job? For others considering similar changes, what would be the #1 advice you would give them?

I’m the first to actually take on the position of Private Equity Practice Manager, so it wasn’t like I responded to an opening. When I was still part of the Transactional Services Team, I started thinking about how to make the Private Equity Practice group even better and I had several discussions about the value I could add if I were to take on the role. At a certain point, the partners also realised there was untapped potential and they offered me the opportunity to take on the challenge, for which I’m incredibly grateful.


It’s a bit of a cliché, but believe in your own ideas and talk to people - you never know how things end up working out and who is pulling the strings and can help you get the job you want!

7. What do you consider the most valuable transferable skills that you developed as a corporate lawyer? Name as many or be as concise as you’d like.

There’s so much. Firstly, I’d say that you really learn to work with others. Secondly, you learn to decide on an end goal and then determine how to get there - remaining flexible on the way and adjusting the plan. Other things that come to mind are writing skills, stakeholder management & the fact that you learn how to be a true professional and not take feedback and criticism too personally. Analytical skills too are top of mind. One last thing: you learn how to get things that have “fallen off” the agenda back on the agenda in a creative & diplomatic way.


8. How is the work that you do now different to the work you did as a lawyer? How do you do things differently, and what did you have to unlearn?

The goal of my work is a lot more abstract. When you’re working on a capital markets transaction or an M&A deal, you’re working towards signing and closing (or a listing) and there’s just a certain process that’s (almost always) followed.


Now, my goals are much more abstract and cover a much broader scope, from business development to culture change. The path towards those goals isn’t predetermined like a M&A process or IPO is, there’s much more room to do it your own way. In addition, because the goals are more abstract, you need to find or create a red thread and turn that big abstract goal into smaller, concrete action items. This requires a combination of intuition and rational thinking and I needed to learn to trust my intuition more. What I also had to learn is to accept that a 1% change is also a change, and a lot of 1% changes add up. Things don’t have to be perfect right away. The end goal is important.


What I had to get used to in my new role is that people don’t automatically listen or respect me “just because” I’m “a lawyer” (i.e. the traditional tension between fee earners and non-fee earners). Instead, it’s the quality of my ideas that trigger and convince my audience, resulting in the buy-in I need. I needed to get used to that, but I also think it’s made me more down to earth and more open to showing my personality. 9. If you weren’t doing what you’re doing, what would be your dream job?

If I had all the time in the world, I’d set up my own company but with two very young kids, right now just isn’t the right time. Another dream of mine is to write a children’s book. I’d really love to do that!


10. Knowing what you know now, what advice would you have given your 10 year younger self?

Again a bit of a cliché but I’d say be kinder to myself & be less concerned with other people’s opinions. On the other hand, I’ve learned a lot over the years (not following that advice to the letter as much), made my share of mistakes & it’s also made my life more interesting.


*Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the interviewee alone and not their employer.


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