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About Dennis
Dennis van Vugt (1971), born and raised in Tilburg, studied Business Economics at the University of Tilburg, graduating cum laude in 1993.
He then joined Arthur Andersen's audit practice in Amsterdam, where he worked for over 6 years— of which the last two-and-a-half as audit manager. During this period he worked predominantly for clients in the telecommunication- and internet industry, and was involved in two IPO's and various debt offerings in the Dutch and US capital markets. Dennis became a Dutch CPA ("Registeraccountant") in 1996.
In March 2000 Dennis joined chello broadband N.V., a company that offers broadband internet services via the cable networks of UPC. As Financial Controller he was closely involved in the planned IPO for chello on Euronext (former AEX) and NASDAQ. Subsequently he was primarily involved in the due diligence, dealstructuring and the planned integration of chello with the international (non-US) division of Excite@Home. From November 2000 onwards Dennis was responsible for managing the financial functions for chello in Schiphol-Rijk, more specifically accounting, reporting, cash management, tax and (temporarily) human resources. In 2001 chello merged with UPC's media and tv-activities to become UPC Media. On August 1st 2001 Dennis was promoted to Vice-President Corporate Finance of UPC Media.
On 1 March 2002 he started his own company, Defim, specialised in financial interim management and advice. Defim carried out more than twenty projects for some ten different customers in the Netherlands, France and Germany, mainly in the period 2002-2011. For more information about the contents of these projects we refer to the "Defim" section of this website.
On 1 November 2011, Dennis joined CBRE Global Investors as CFO/COO EMEA. CBRE Global Investors EMEA was established in 2011 as the merger company of the former CBRE Investors business in Europe and the UK and the former ING Real Estate Investment Management activities, the latter having been acquired from ING by CBRE at that time. In his role as CFO/COO EMEA, Dennis was a member of the European Executive Committee and (jointly) responsible for the team of 500+ investment professionals in Europe and the UK. The EMEA team has been managing between EUR 25-30 billion of Assets under Management during this period on behalf of large pension funds, insurance companies and other institutional investors in real estate. Dennis also was a permanent member of the EMEA Investment Committee, and in addition he was appointed as member of the Global Leadership Team of CBRE Global Investors from December 2013 onwards. During the five-year period, Dennis co-led the integration of the two formerly separate businesses and played an important role in transforming the business model away from the prior country-led model into a client-focused model catered for growth.
Having performed a number of interim projects for Amvest, a Dutch developer and investment manager in residential real estate, from 2017 onwards, Dennis subsequently accepted a position as statutory director and CFO for Amvest in 2019. Until his departure in May 2025, he was co-responsible for the Amvest management organisation, managing its development and investment funds, which grew from around 60 people to over 110 people during this period. As a member of the Amvest board, Dennis contributed a.o. to the newly developed Amvest Impact Framework - which supports the company's strategy to create and manage residential areas in a socially and ecologically responsible manner. He also helped to restructure the company in order for it to be able to accept new clients, leveraging on its large pipeline of projects in the Amvest Development Fund.
Dennis is married, has two daughters and lives in Amstelveen. He is passionate about football, understanding different cultures, and enjoying life in general. Since 2024, he acts as a member of the POM committee for the Raad voor Cultuur.
