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Jeroen van der Toolen

CATEGORY
The Real Estate Personality of the Year, Poland
Jeroen van der Toolen is the head of Ghelamco in CEE region and has been responsible for all company’s operations for 12 years. Jeroen van der Toolen brought bold vision and innovative strategy to company’s operations and expanded Ghelamco’s field of activity to new market sectors. Creating functional urban tissue that serves the local community and benefits for the city became one of Jeroen van der Toolen's priorities. That's why he created foundation „Sztuka w Mieście”, namely to improve the quality of urban space through cultural and artistic events. The flagship example of this strategy is the Warsaw Spire office complex with a unique arrangement of Plac Europejski.
Candidate’s name
Jeroen van der Toolen
Current position
Managing Director Ghelamco CEE
Company’s name
Ghelamco Poland
Work experience in this position
Jeroen joined Ghelamco as Managing Director for Poland in 2003, presiding over three times growth in the developer’s business and securing its status as a leading and well recognized provider of modern business space within the region.

Since the company expanded its activities to the East European Countries, Jeroen van der Toolen has been involved in the co-creation of Ghelamco’s offices in Russia and Ukraine and in 2006 he was appointed Managing Director for Central and Eastern Europe. As a provider of modern business space, Ghelamco reached a position of the market leader with over 1,1 million square meters delivered up to date, and the value of sold projects exceeding 1.3 billion EUR.
Description of business activity (profile, market sectors served, etc.)
Ghelamco Poland is the leader of the commercial property market in Poland and a pioneer in sustainable construction, public space design, smart buildings and innovations. Over the past years the company constantly strengthens its leading position as an investor, developer and general contractor by delivering over 1,100,000 sq m of best-in-class office, residential, commercial and warehouse space. As a visionary in the industry, for years Ghelamco has continued to implement pioneering concepts of innovative, technologically advanced buildings which set new trends on the property market in Poland.

The company’s flagship investment is Warsaw Spire with Plac Europejski, awarded a title of the best office building in the world in a prestigious competition MIPIM Awards 2017. Currently, its largest project under construction is The Warsaw HUB in new business center of Warsaw.
Size of the company managed by the candidate (headcount, regions of activity)
The Ghelamco Poland team is made up of more than 170 motivated professionals of real estate and construction fields.
The y-o-y increase in profits/income generated last year
EUR 18 million for Ghelamco Group
Career path (Previous employers, professional progress, when was the candidate promoted to the current position, etc.)
Jeroen graduated studies in the Business Economics at Vrije Univerisiteit Amsterdam. Before joining Ghelamco, he worked for the Unilever Moscow office and DTZ. In 1997 he did also a project for Rabobank in Ukraine. Jeroen joined Ghelamco as Managing Director for Poland in 2003, in 2006 he was appointed Managing Director for Central and Eastern Europe.
Biggest business achievements, especially those made last year
During the last year, under the leadership of Jeroen van der Toolen, Ghelamco sold 50% stake in Warsaw Spire tower, buildings B and C (side buildings of Warsaw Spire complex) and Przystanek mBank in Łódź. Value of all the transactions was approx. EUR 435 million. The company expanded operations to regional real estate markets in Łódź, Kraków and Katowice, and continue to develop flagship investments in Warsaw. Last year was also a time of big leases: IHG took 21,000 sqm in The Warsaw HUB, Standard Chartered chose the project for its global service centre, whereas the office building .big has been entirely leased to State Street, which occupies 9,000 sqm. Confirmation of company’s successes are also numerous awards granted to Ghelamco within last year, among others, Architectural Award of the City of the Mayor of Warsaw, 2018 CEEQA Awards, Lider Dostepnosci Award, Book of Lists Award or European Property Awards 2018.
Contributions made to the improvement of the CEE commercial property market
Jeroen van der Toolen is the co-creator of the success of Ghelamco Poland in the CEE region as one of the largest market players which set the highest standards on commercial real estate. His greatest achievement is the Warsaw Spire project with Plac Europejski – the highest and most modern office building in this part of Europe, which was the first to gain international recognition, receiving real estate Oscar: MIPIM Awards 2017. Thus, Ghelamco has brought completely new standards on the market, building the first office complex with a publicly available city square. Another project that introduces new standards to the market is the multifunctional The Warsaw HUB complex being under construction in Warsaw's Wola district.
Other industry awards and prizes
2018 CEEQA Industry professional of the Year