Since its incorporation in March 2002, Defim - owned and operated by Dennis van Vugt - has carried out various assignments either on an interim management or on a (change) project basis. Connecting people to pursue the delivery of exceptional results, and balancing the interests of multiple stakeholders have been key recurring themes in Dennis’ professional career.

Having first developed his financial and analytical skills as senior manager within a large international audit firm, Arthur Andersen, he then moved on to work in the telecommunications industry in the late nineties before launching Defim in 2002. Through his Defim projects, Dennis gradually moved from financial into more general management and operational roles, while in parallel shifting his focus from the telecommunication industry to the real estate industry.

In 2011 he became a member of the European Executive Committee of CBRE Global Investors as CFO and COO for the EMEA region, a position he has held for 5 years. During this period he did not perform any projects for Defim. Subsequently, Dennis restarted his interim management business in 2017 working for Amvest as interim CFO and managing various projects, including the strategic restructuring process which led to the launch of the Amvest Development Fund (ADF). Dennis then joined Amvest as statutory director and CFO in January 2019. As a result, Defim did not carry out any new Defim engagements until he resigned from his role at Amvest in May 2025.

In September 2026, Dennis started as CFRO (Chief Financial & Risk Officer) for Daiwa House Modular Europe.

In parallel, his activities in Defim now have shifted to a more supervisory as well as advisory nature. From August 2026 onwards, Dennis acts as a Supervisory Board member for Zorggroep De Laren. Zorggroep De Laren operates a number of villas in the Netherlands, where senior citizens with care needs can live in their own spacious apartments under the shared roof of the villa. Also, Dennis is a member of the POM committee, which annually advises the Council for Culture (Raad voor Cultuur) on requests from organisations to obtain the status of 'professionele organisatie voor monumentenbehoud' (POM).