Rob Thielen

Robertus H. L. M. "Rob" Thielen (born 1961) is a Dutch entrepreneur and investor, working primarily in Europe and the CIS. He is chairman and founder of Waterland Private Equity, and co-founding partner of Russia-based private equity group, Elbrus Capital.

Thielen graduated in tax law at the University of San Diego in California, USA, and obtained a degree in tax law at the Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, the Netherlands.

He worked as a turn-around management consultant with the Investment Management & Consulting Group (IMCG) and with the International Corporate Finance Group of ABN AMRO Bank.

Thielen was a partner and shareholder of RWP Corporate Finance advisors, which was later acquired by Investec group. He was also general manager of his family owned fashion retail group.

He is chairman and founder of Waterland Private Equity Investments, an independent private equity group which focuses its investments on Austria, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland. Waterland has been involved in about 300 transactions in 54 industries in 17 countries with an equity base of around €2,5 billion. The company owned Intertrust Group, a firm specialised in tax avoidance, until it sold that firm in 2012 for an estimated €400 million.

He is also co-founding partner of Elbrus Capital, a Russia-based private equity group. Its equity base is around $1,0 billion.

Thielen has served as a non-executive member of the board of RPS plc, an LSE quoted company active in environmental consultancy; and a non-executive board member of arxes NCC AG, an IT service provider quoted at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. He currently is an advisor to the non-executive director of Hampstead Global Fund, a hedge fund formerly listed on the Irish Stock Exchange.

He contributes to Forbes.com covering international finance and investment trends.

In 2011 Thielen gave his fiance a cheque for €1 million that was to be paid after their marriage. Thielen broke off their engagement when he was informed that she had worked as a prostitute. Theielen was ordered to honour the cheque by a court in Monaco; but their ruling was later overturned.

Thielen donated £50,000 to the British Conservative Party in April 2016.

VVD politician Hans van Baalen has mentioned Thielen as one of the sponsors of this 2014 campaign for the European Parliament.

Thielen also sponsors the ShadowView Foundation and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Thielen was also a member of the visiting faculty of the Rotterdam School of Management (Erasmus University), where he taught on mergers and acquisitions on the RSM MBA program.

In 2011, Thielen won the annual APEC ‘Private Equity Man of the Year’ Award, an award for Private Equity leaders established by the Amsterdam Private Equity Club.

In 2009, he was ranked 170 in the Quote 500 list of richest Dutch people; in 2013 he was placed at number 94 in the Netherlands Quote 500.