Hiring a marketing leader
Head of Marketing, Marketing Director or Demand Gen Director. Long-term ownership, close to the team and the work.
See my experience
Antwerp · Belgium & the Netherlands · Hybrid · NL / FR / EN
B2B marketing leadership.
Clearer brand strategy.
Stronger commercial performance.
I’m Phil Ruttens, a B2B marketing leader for technical and tech companies in Belgium and the Netherlands. I help sales and marketing choose shared priorities, clarify complex offers, and plan focused go-to-market work.
Selected experience
Where should we start?
Interim or project work
A defined mandate, project or workshop. Agree the scope, working days and responsibilities together.
Ways to work
When should we talk?
Four situations where senior marketing direction can help.
Sales is established. Marketing is starting.
- Sales: Sales reps serve existing accounts.
- Marketing: No marketing lead yet, or a first hire is being made.
Set buyer priorities, messaging and useful sales tools.
Sales and marketing pull in different directions.
- Sales: An established team owns accounts and opportunities.
- Marketing: A lead, team or agency is active, but account priorities differ.
Agree account focus, ABM activity and handoffs.
A lean team needs senior direction.
- Sales: Sales reps or a commercial leader own follow-up.
- Marketing: A marketing lead, specialists or agency handle delivery.
Set priorities, decisions and ownership.
A technical offer needs a clearer route to market.
- Sales: A team sells to technical and commercial buyers.
- Marketing: A team exists or is being built around the product.
Connect technical proof, buyer needs and campaigns.
No sales reps yet? Founder-led sales can be discussed. We first need a named owner for account follow-up before scoping ABM.
Selected experience
Tyk
Situation. An API-management scale-up building its marketing organisation.
My role. CMO, February 2022–August 2025. Marketing leadership, team and P&L ownership.
Evidence. Team grew from 10 to 20; £6m+ marketing P&L. These describe team size and budget scope.
Selected experience →AYA Energy
Situation. An energy company building its go-to-market approach.
My role. Designed and drove a 13-week programme covering positioning, sales enablement, campaigns and CRM intelligence.
Evidence. The existing recommendation from Louis Langerock describes the programme and its first three weeks. No revenue uplift is claimed.
Selected experience →EREA Energy Engineering
Situation. A decision about an external agency.
My role. Agency-selection brief, criteria, evaluation and decision.
Evidence. Selection against a written brief and stated criteria. No growth figure is claimed.
Selected experience →People I’ve worked with
“Within three weeks, he designed and drove a full 13-week programme covering ICP positioning, sales enablement, campaign execution and CRM intelligence.”“Phil operates at the intersection of creativity and data; an experienced marketer, accomplished operations expert and senior leader.”“Philippe was instrumental in transforming the marketing function at Iron Mountain into a data-driven and revenue focused function.”
How I lead
Get close to the evidence
Talk to buyers, sales and the people doing the work before deciding what needs to change.
Make the priorities clear
Choose what matters now. Give the team clear decisions and ownership.
Stay close to delivery
I lead teams and agencies, and take on specific hands-on work where it helps.
Build capability
Leave a system and an operating rhythm people can keep running.