Pieter Swarts

Mr. Pieter Swarts, 51 years old, is since April 2012 Chief Procurement Officer of KPN. Mr. Pieter Swarts leads the global CPO department and reports directly to the Board of Management. KPN is the leading telecommunications and ICT service provider in The Netherlands with €8.5 billion revenue, 17.000 employees, 15 million customers, and main operations in Belgium, the United States and The Netherlands. The total procurement spend is about € 3.5 billion. After studying Business Administration at the HTS-Bedrijfskunde, in Enschede, the Netherlands, Pieter began his career in 1988 in the Chemical Industry as Buyer working for Dow Chemical in Stade, Germany. In 1992 he moved to Belgium to work in the European procurement headquarter, as commodity buyer for raw materials. After three years, Pieter was promoted into the position of Logistics Manager for the Styrofoam business in the Rhine Center, a combined plant in France and Germany. In 1996 he has won the Dow Logistics team award for implementing a more efficient and cost effective way of freight management. In 1998 he became certified for Integrated Resource Management. A year later he was given an assignment as Supply Chain Manager for Dow’s Synthetic Elastomers Business in Frankfurt, Germany. In 2000, Pieter returned to the Netherlands to take up the position of Director of Procurement at ArvinMeritor’s European Procurement Headquarter in Amsterdam. ArvinMeritor is a premier $7.0 billion global supplier of a broad range of integrated systems, modules and components to the motor vehicle industry. In 2001 he was promoted into Senior Director responsible for the Light Vehicle Division worldwide and European Procurement Organization. In June 2005, Pieter was appointed Director Procurement at Maxeda. Maxeda, formerly known as Vendex KBB, was taken private by a consortium led by KKR in 2004 and was at that time the largest non-food retailer in the Benelux. In this role his main focus was on establishing synergy savings between the different retail formats through leveraging volume and procurement knowledge. In 2010 Pieter transformed the Maxeda Procurement Department into Procumulator, a stand-alone business serving multiple customers. In April 2012 Pieter started as the Chief Procurement Officer of KPN. In the last two years a back to the basics was introduced with the main focus om pre-deal and deal making. Significant cost reductions have been realized with a lean and focused organization. Nowadays Pieter and his team is focusing on procurement driven innovation to support KPN’s topline. Pieter Swarts holds a bachelors degree in Marketing and Engineering and serves as Captain in the Dutch Military Police reserves.