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WS Audiology is a global leader in the hearing aid industry

Executive committee

Group CEO

Eric Bernard

Eric Bernard started his career at the LVMH Group. He joined Essilor International in 1994 where he spent 25 years in country, regional, and global leadership roles and was a member of its executive committee for nine years until joining WSA in June 2019. He has lived in Japan, Singapore, the US, Australia, and China and currently resides in Denmark.

Group CFO

Marianne Wiinholt

Marianne Wiinholt joined WS Audiology in April 2022 from Ørsted, the global leader in off-shore wind, where she was the CFO since 2013. Prior to Ørsted she worked in senior roles at Borealis and Arthur Andersen. She is currently a board member and head of the Audit Committees of both Coloplast and Norsk Hydro.

CMO and President OTC

Maarten Barmentlo

Maarten Barmentlo held positions as SVP Marketing at Sivantos, CEO at Euro-Diesel, and Group VP Marketing at Sonova. He holds a PhD in Physics.

Chief Operating Officer

Karl Braitberg

Karl Braitberg joined WSA in November 2023. He has more than 30 years of experience of leading operations, supply chain, and cloud services functions for companies such as Palm, Cisco, Oracle, and Google. He most recently worked as a Consultant with Bain & Company.

Chief Technology Officer

Joerg Brandscheid

Joerg Brandscheid joined WS Audiology in November 2023 from Polestar. He has led global R&D organizations of various renowned companies in China, Germany, and Sweden. He holds a degree in general electrical engineering from TU Bingen.

President Region Americas

Carsten Buhl

Carsten Buhl held positions as President and CEO at Otometrics and as Executive Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer at Ambu A/S. He holds a Master of Law from Copenhagen University as well as an E*MBA.

President Region APAC

Olivier Chupin

Olivier Chupin held leadership positions at Essilor Group as VP for North Europe, and at BBGR as Managing Director. He is a graduate of INSEAD Advanced Management Program, ESSCA Business School, and holds a degree in Marketing.

Chief HR Officer

Nicolai Jensen

Nicolai Jensen held positions as SVP HR at Sivantos, VP HR for Carlsberg Group, and Head of HR and Sales OPS Asia Pacific at GN Store Nord. He holds a master’s degree in Human Resource Management.

President Region EMEA

Annemarie van Neck

Annemarie van Neck joins WSA from Coloplast, where she was Senior Vice President for emerging markets. She holds a Master of Science in Economics from the University of Groningen, and an MBA from INSEAD.

Board of directors

Chair

Lars Rasmussen

Lars Rasmussen is a seasoned leader in life sciences. He served as Coloplast’s President & CEO from 2008 – 2018 and was a member of Coloplast’s executive management from 2001 – 2018. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Coloplast A/S, Lundbeck A/S and the Danish Committee for Good Corporate Governance. He is also Board member at Copenhagen University and Chair of the Danish Governmental Life Science Advisory Board.

Vice-chair

Jan Tøpholm

Jan Tøpholm is a professional board member and Chair of T&W Medical, which is the main investment vehicle of the Tøpholm and Westermann families and the majority shareholder in WS Audiology. He is a co-owner of WS Audiology and currently active on the boards of several companies controlled by the families and served as Chair of Widex from 2013-2021 and CEO of the company from 1985-2013. Jan Tøpholm was also a board member of A.P. Moller - Maersk from 2001-2014.

Malou Aamund

Malou Aamund served as Managing Director of Google Denmark from 2016-2022. Prior to that, she worked in several leading positions in Microsoft from 2011 - 2016 including as COO and CMO of the Danish company and Business Group Leader of Microsoft Western Europe.   From 2007-2011, she was a Member of Parliament in Denmark, and prior to that she held management positions in IBM.   Malou Aamund is Chair of Thinkproject and she is a board member of KIRKBI A/S, the LEGO Foundation, DSV and Matas. 

Egbert van Acht

Egbert van Acht is an independent board member, advisor, and investor in a range of Consumer Health and Digital Health companies in Europe, Asia, and the US. Focus on scale-up activities and driving accelerated, profitable growth. He served as marketing director at Procter & Gamble and in a range of leadership positions at the Philips Group between 2002 and 2018, most recently as CEO of the Personal Health Business and as member of the Group Executive Committee. Egbert van Acht is a member of the Advisory Council of LatentView, a global digital analytics consulting and solutions firm. 

Jes Munk Hansen

Jes Munk Hansen has served as CEO & President of TERMA Group, which provides mission-critical solutions for the defense and aerospace industry, since 2019 after holding executive positions at OSRAM from 2013-2019, most recently as CEO of OSRAM USA and Head of OSRAM Global Sales Function.    Prior to that, he served as CEO & President of Grundfos North American activities, among others. Jes Munk Hansen is vice chairman of the Confederation of Danish Industry.  

Kristiaan Nieuwenburg

Kristiaan Nieuwenburg is Partner and Head of Performance for Private Capital at EQT. He has been with the company since 2013, where he is a member of the Equity Partners Investment and Portfolio Committees. He is also Chairman of the EQT Foundation’s Investment Committee. Previously, Kristiaan started EQT’s Private Equity investment activities in the Western European region and served as Chairman of EQT’s US operations. Prior to joining EQT, Kristiaan worked at IK Investment Partners.

Karen Prange

Karen Prange is a professional board member and senior advisor to EQT. She served as CEO of Global Animal Health, Medical and Dental Surgical Group at Henry Schein and a member of the Executive Committee from 2016-2018 after working as Senior Vice President of Boston Scientific and President of the company’s Urology & Women’s Health division from 2012-2016.   Prior to that, Karen Prange held management positions at Johnson & Johnson and Cordis. She is currently a board member of ViewRay, AtriCure, Nevro and Embecta. 

Anthony Santospirito

Anthony Santospirito joined EQT Group in 2022 and is a partner in the Private Equity business line. Prior to joining EQT, Anthony worked at Cinven in London. Prior to Cinven, Anthony worked at Morgan Stanley in the Investment Banking Division, also based in London. Anthony holds a BA in mathematics from Oxford University. 

Julian Tøpholm 

Julian Tøpholm is a senior advisor at T&W Medical and a co-owner of WS Audiology. He has previously held senior positions at Widex A/S.   He is a board member of T&W Medical, which is the main investment vehicle of the Tøpholm and Westermann and the majority shareholder in WS Audiology. 

Adam Westermann

Adam Westermann is Vice President Global Innovation in R&D at WS Audiology. He is also co-owner of WS Audiology.   He has held various positions in R&D at Widex and WS Audiology since 2015 after working at the National Acoustics Laboratories in Australia as a PhD candidate and postdoctoral researcher from 2011-2015.   Adam Westermann is a board member of T&W Medical, which is the main investment vehicle of the Tøpholm and Westermann families and the majority shareholder in WS Audiology.