Profile: Jaap van de Weg

Jaap van de Weg

From big brands to better ones

Jaap van de Weg is a marketing strategist and change manager at BR-ND People (Amsterdam, B Corp since 2018). He helps mission-driven organisations create brand strategy and then turn it into behaviour: what people feel, say, choose and do. With 20+ years leading marketing across FMCG and drinks and an MSc from Erasmus University Rotterdam, he combines building strategy programmes at board level with hands-on execution. He works in Dutch, English and French.

Most marketers with twenty years at companies like Suntory, Douwe Egberts, Vattenfall and British American Tobacco would coast. Jaap did the opposite: he founded MESAMIS, an alcohol-free spirits brand distilled in Amsterdam, to prove that taste, not alcohol, should be the norm in drinking. He built it from purpose to packaging to 250+ premium bars and shops, from the Waldorf Astoria to the corner off-licence. That's the range he brings; the strategy on the whiteboard and the crate through the back door.

• Twenty years, real P&L. From Marketing Director at Suntory (50+ markets across Europe, Africa and the Caribbean) to executive roles at British American Tobacco in London, Helsinki and Zug, Jaap has led international teams and delivered results with them. Walking the talk.
• Founder who ships. Through MESAMIS and senior interim roles (Sebomi), he turns strategy into things that exist: brands, portfolios, route-to-market and sponsorships like the Nuon Solar Team, NOC*NSF and the Grand Non-Alc Cocktail Challenge with Fedde Le Grand.
• Change that sticks. Real change asks something of everyone. Jaap inspires multicultural teams around a shared goal and keeps them moving through co-creation and clear KPIs; insights followed by action.

Because if the people are the brand, strategy is something you do together.