Interim Director · Fractional Executive · AI Adoption & Venture Growth

Turning AI ambition into transformation, execution and growth.

I help corporates, public-private ecosystems and technology ventures turn AI ambition and strategy into execution: the use cases, operating models, data and AI infrastructure, programs and adoption loops that move real value. Strategy put to work, not another deck.

Available for interim, fractional & advisory assignments
AI adoption & transformation · Program leadership · Venture growth · Use cases & data/AI operating models · Working sessions & executive alignment
Discuss a mandate LinkedIn
or email willem@ventureplanner.nl
Willem Knaap
Willem Knaap in conversation on camera
In conversationon camera
In conversationon camera
Willem Knaap moderating a panel at Food4Future in Bilbao
ModeratingFood4Future, Bilbao
ModeratingFood4Future, Bilbao
Willem Knaap speaking on stage at the FT TNW Conference
SpeakingFT · TNW
SpeakingFT · TNW Conference
Willem Knaap in a working session with founders
Working sessionwith founders
Working sessionwith founders
0
years
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programs & ventures
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keynote stages
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regulated sectors
Experience across
KickstartAIRabobankINGPeaks.comStartupbootcampAhold DelhaizeKLMNSAegonVan Lanschot KempenKraft HeinzMondelezShellUnileverEIT FoodFMEMinistry of Economic AffairsBZKJustice & SecurityNationale PolitieLUMC KickstartAIRabobankINGPeaks.comStartupbootcampAhold DelhaizeKLMNSAegonVan Lanschot KempenKraft HeinzMondelezShellUnileverEIT FoodFMEMinistry of Economic AffairsBZKJustice & SecurityNationale PolitieLUMC
01What I do

A senior operator who turns ambition into execution.

Technology rarely decides the outcome. People, incentives, ownership, trust and execution do. The assignments below come back to one thing: making complex technology land in practice.

01 · AI Adoption & Scaling

From pilots to production.

Problem
AI initiatives stall between experiment and enterprise reality.
I do
Design the adoption architecture: the framework, governance, use-case selection, capability and change that scaling actually needs.
Outcome
Use cases that scale, with measurable value and a path to production.
02 · Venture Growth & GTM

From product to traction.

Problem
Strong technology, fragmented commercial motion.
I do
Sharpen positioning and ICP, build enterprise-grade GTM, partnerships and investor narrative.
Outcome
A venture that closes deals and scales, rather than one that keeps pitching.
03 · Corporate Development

Building the route to scale.

Problem
Partnership and venture moves get stuck in process.
I do
Structure partnership strategy, operating models and decision rights so deals get done.
Outcome
Partnerships that compound, not announcements that fade.
04 · Public-Private Program Design

Where government and enterprise meet.

Problem
Public-private AI ambition outpaces the operating model.
I do
Design programs, governance and partner architecture across ministries, partners and corporates.
Outcome
Programs that move from intent to instruments, funding and execution.
05 · Additional domains
Complex technology
commercialisation.

Where deep technology meets the market.

Adjacent work across sustainability compliance and data infrastructure, including Digital Product Passport and CSRD readiness, where technology, regulation and commercial reality all have to land at once.

02How I work

How I work inside a mandate.

Strategy is usually the easy part. What decides the outcome is the operating system underneath it: who owns what, how decisions get made, and the rhythm that turns intent into delivery.

01

Assess and frame

Start from where the organisation actually is, often a blank page rather than chaos. Map the ambition, the constraints, the stakeholders and where real value can sit.

02

Design the operating model

Objectives, governance, decision rights and roles, with the data and AI landscape underneath. The structure that makes delivery possible.

03

Select the use cases

Choose where value is real and provable. Define and prioritise the use cases, so effort goes to what matters instead of oversized solutions without a case.

04

Build, pilot and align

Frameworks, ways of working and a working first delivery, measured against the goal. Programs run on people, so I align interests, ownership and timing as it is built.

05

Adopt, scale and embed

From pilot to production, embedded in teams with feedback loops, clear ownership and a clean handover.

03Selected work

A track record on the harder problems.

Now · KickstartAI

Director Strategic AI Programs & Partnerships

Design and execution of public-private AI adoption programs with founding partners Ahold Delhaize, ING, KLM and NS, and the Dutch public sector. Author of the KickstartAI Adoption Framework and Adoption Canvas.

Public-private · Government · Enterprise
Venture Planner

Founder & Managing Partner

Fractional executive mandates for technology ventures including GlassmedicalAI, mintBlue, Machine2Learn and proba.earth, across AI, sustainability, Digital Product Passport, CSRD and complex technology commercialisation.

Fractional · GTM · Partnerships
Rabobank

Head of Open Innovation · Senior Venture Builder

Innovation governance and portfolio management frameworks, and the Data4Food program. Co-founded Peaks.com and led a team of thirty.

Governance · Venture building · Fintech
Startupbootcamp · Innoleaps

Programs at the corporate and venture interface

Acceleration, corporate venturing and innovation programs with founders, investors and international ecosystems across food, energy and technology.

Corporates · Founders · Ecosystems
04Perspective

Where perspective becomes execution.

History is context. The more you understand where something comes from, the better you can see what it can become. I learned to look that way through art and music, long before I brought it to organisations, programs and AI.

Where I learned to look

Art teaches observation

I have gone to museums since I was a child, raised around ateliers, secondhand bookshops and exhibitions by my father, an art historian, and now passing it on to my own children. In front of a work I read the composition, the material and the craftsmanship, the choices the maker committed to and the things they left out on purpose. All of it says something about the work and the person behind it. I read a project, a team or an organisation the same way: not only what is there, but why it came to be, what is missing, and what it would take to make it better.

Museum interiors and ateliers: the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, the Rijksmuseum, the Vatican Museums, Tate Modern, Galleria Borghese and Kunstsammlung NRW01Art
What I listen for

Music teaches movement

Music works the same way. I do not only hear the song, I listen to the writing, the composition, the voice, the performance and the production, and to the influences and context underneath them. The Beatles, Hendrix, Elvis, Coldplay, hip-hop, Kendrick Lamar: almost everything stands on what came before, and where a movement started tells you where it can still go. Part of it is simply enjoying craft and originality, knowing when something is genuinely new, sometimes for a whole audience, sometimes only for a small community. It is the same attention I bring to influence, timing and execution at work.

Music as cultural evolution: Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Kendrick Lamar, Coldplay, the Beatles, Robert Johnson, Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix02Music
Craft turns perspective into execution

None of this is decoration. Art and music are how I keep practising the things my work runs on: reading context, forming a point of view, recognising craft and getting something to actually work. Ideas are not enough and strategy is not enough. The value is in understanding where something comes from, seeing what it can become, and then building it in the real world: organisations, programs, ventures and AI adoption.

05Mandates

Engagement models.

Selective work, typically two to four days a week.

01

Fractional Executive

Embedded senior capacity for strategy, commercial and program execution, working alongside the team.

02

Interim Director

Time-bound leadership of programs, partnerships, ventures or innovation functions.

03

Strategic Advisor

Senior advisory to boards, founders and leadership teams on AI adoption, ventures and corporate development.

04

AI Adoption Program Lead

Design and delivery of enterprise and public-private AI adoption programs, frameworks and governance.

05

Venture Growth / Fractional CCO

Commercial strategy, partnerships and investor narrative for technology ventures.

06

Corporate Development & Partnerships

Partnership strategy, venture moves and operating model design inside corporates.

Selective availability for senior fractional, interim and advisory mandates, typically two to four days a week.
Discuss a mandate
06Get in touch

If you are moving AI, technology or venture strategy from intent to adoption, let's talk.

A short conversation usually tells both of us whether there's something to build together.

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