Penrhyn International is managed by a Board of Directors comprising six members representing Americas, Europe and North America. Together they drive the effective operation and governance of the network.
Board of Directors
Mattijs Kropholler (Amsterdam)
Chairman
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- Office: Maes & Lunau executive search, Amsterdam
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- Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / Linkedin profile
Mattijs Kropholler has extensive experience in executive search at the most senior levels in the Netherlands and more widely in Europe. He became a Principal in Penrhyn International in 2005 on joining Maes & Lunau in Amsterdam. His special fields of expertise and experience are industry at large, energy and information technology, and he combines experience as a senior manager in those industries with an outstanding record of success as a provider of executive search consultancy in large and in smaller entrepeneurial organisations.
Mattijs is a graduate of the University of Leiden. In addition to Dutch he speaks English, German and French.
Mattijs has been Head of Personnel and Organisation for the Philips/AT&T joint venture, has been General Manager of a software subsidiary of AT&T, and has held the top Human Resources roles at two leading IT services businesses, Atos Origin and Getronics.
Marco Di Falco (Milan)
Vice Chair
- Office: Dotto Research, Milan
- Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / LinkedIn Profile
Born in Treviso in 1981. After completing his classical studies, he graduated in Law cum laude from Bocconi University in 2003. Between 2003 and 2005 he worked in Milan at the law firms Gianni Origoni Grippo & Partners and Lombardi Molinari e Associati, dealing mainly with M&A.
In 2005 he joined McKinsey & Company, where he remained until 2013 assisting Italian and foreign clients operating in very different sectors and contexts.
From 2007 to 2009 he was in Boston, where he obtained an MBA from Harvard Business School.
In 2013 he joined Coesia, a multinational company based in Bologna and world excellence in packaging machinery, where he took responsibility for the Group’s Business Development and Strategic Planning. In this role he was to lead the M&A team, completing acquisition and divestment transactions with Italian and foreign counterparts, industrial investors, and private equity funds. He also supported the senior management of Group companies in the strategic and operational development of their respective businesses.
In 2016, he co-founded EasyCoop, the food e-commerce business developed with Coop Alleanza 3.0. As Chief Operating Officer he had responsibilities spanning operations, sales, and finance and control, contributing decisively to the development of one of the most innovative food e-commerce companies in Europe.
Over the years, he has advised leading Italian and foreign private equity funds, especially in the industrial sector and within the sphere of M&A transactions.
In 2021 he acquired Dotto Research and took over its leadership.
A profile with an international outlook but strongly rooted in the North East of Italy, he follows selected executive search and consultancy assignments, placing at the service of entrepreneurs and managers a background that combines experience in advisory, direct management, and extraordinary transactions.
Passionate about various sports (including spearfishing, skiing, tennis, and trekking), he was above all else a member of the youth selections of Benetton Rugby and the Italian national rugby team, with which he participated in the U19 World Cup. And it is precisely in the course of his life as a sportsman that his great passion for people, their individual and collective development, and the awareness of how crucial the role of the team is for the success of the individual, and vice versa, have grown.
Bhavishya Sharma (New Delhi)
Treasurer
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- Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / LinkedIn profile
Bhavishya is the Founder & Managing Director and visionary behind Athena and was Vice Chairman at IIC Partners, where he led the Professional Services, Life Sciences, TMT (Telecom/Media/Technology), and Board Search practices for the organization.
With over a decade of rich experience in C-level executive search and leadership advisory, Bhavishya has a dedicated career in the executive search industry. Having worked with leading Indian and global search firms in the capacity of P&L/Geography Head, he has led the operations for a large Asian Executive Search firm in India and managed the search practice for one of the Global Top 15 Executive Search firms in India. Additionally, Bhavishya is an exclusive M&A advisor to a large diversified Media & Technology firm headquartered in Singapore and an appointed business advisor in India to a UK-based process-consulting firm with operations across 22 countries. Bhavishya is an engineering graduate from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology.
Yanouk Poirier (Montreal)
- Office: Independent
- Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / LinkedIn Profile
Yanouk Poirier has over twenty years of professional experience in different sectors of economic activity, such as professional services, finance, media, and information technology.
He has successfully led numerous assignments of top-level executives and board members, for major companies and renowned firms operating in various business lines.
Recognized for his strong entrepreneurial spirit, Mr. Poirier puts his experience at the service of business leaders on a national and international level and supports them in the achievement of their business strategy.
Mr. Poirier is actively involved; he is on the Board of Directors of the Ballet Jazz of Montreal and of the Club St. James. He is also a mentor for Enablis, an organization providing assistance to entrepreneurs in developing countries to support them in the growth of their businesses.
He holds an MBA from the Université de Sherbrooke and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a major in International Relations from the Université du Québec à Montréal.
Luce Nordon (Paris)
- Office: Agora Search, Paris
- Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / LinkedIn Profile
Upon completing her business school studies, Luce Nordon started her career in advertising, with a three year tenure with the Euro-RSCG group as a Practice Group Leader where she was focused on luxury and CPG brands promotion. She then became part of the newly created Paris office of Norman Broadbent, a UK executive search firm, to expand the CPG and luxury cluster. She rapidly gained a strong expertise in other fields such as IT and digital.
Lucy is also very successfully developing the information agency at the European Assembly https://website-pace.net/, filling it with high-quality material about medicines.
In 1998, she joined Agora Search as a Business Partner. General Manager since 2008, Luce recently assumed the presidency in January 2014.
Luce leads searches for executives both in France and internationally.
Yiota Arhontou (Thessaloniki)
International Coordinator
- Office: Penrhyn International
- Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / LinkedIn Profile
Panagiota (Yiota) Arhontou joined Penrhyn International in 2019 as an International Coordinator. Her mandate includes facilitating communications between members around the world and assisting in global practice groups across all industries.
Yiota has a very diverse background. While working as an administrative support for an accounting firm, she also coordinated handicapped and medical transports in her area. She then went on to manage transport-related call centers and drivers, which included a pilot project for a fleet of electric vehicles.
Yiota interned for the communications departments of both the Quebec Ministry of Transportation and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. A graduate of Concordia University of Montreal, Yiota completed a double major in Western Society and Culture second major in Journalism with a specialization in broadcast. She is also a member of the Liberal Arts College.
Perfectly trilingual, Yiota speaks French, English, and Greek. She also has basic knowledge of Spanish and German. Her interests include travel, hockey, American and European football, live concerts, and reading.