Effective October 1, Tom Christenson will become the new CEO of TBAuctions. As a result of a carefully planned succession due to the incumbent’s CEO retirement, Tom takes over the role of Herberth Samsom who led TBAuctions for the past eight years. In those eight years, TBAuctions’ hammer sales grew from € 100 million to € 1.2 billion in Europe and online auctioning became a relevant sales channel in the B2B market. “I am pleased that we have found a very good successor for Samsom”, says Mark Nieuwendijk, Chairman of the Board of TBAuctions, “Tom is an experienced B2B platform professional who will be able to further accelerate the growth of TBAuctions in Europe and beyond.”

Christenson holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science from Colgate University and a master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College. His positions included General Manager of Seller Fulfilled Prime at Amazon, General Manager at Uber Freight Europe, and Chief Operating Officer at sennder Technologies GmbH after the acquisition of Uber Freight. Christenson is American and has been living in the Netherlands for nearly four years. “With my international platform experience, I hope to make an important contribution to the further growth of TBAuctions as a leading online B2B auction player,” says Christenson. “The B2B online auction penetration in Europe is less than 3%, so the growth opportunities are enormous. Online auctioning is not only a very efficient and transparent process, it also contributes to the growth of the circular economy. Product life cycles are extended and thus emissions released during the production of new machines and products are prevented. TBAuctions’ credo of not letting anything of value go to waste really appeals to me.”

Strong growth, a combination of organic growth and acquisitions
The rapid growth of TBAuctions is caused by several factors, according to Christenson. ”First of all, online auctioning in the B2B market is increasingly seen as a fully-fledged distribution channel. And TBAuctions itself has contributed considerably to this. An important part of the growth is therefore organic, but with the help of our main shareholders Castik Capital and Summa Equity, TBAuctions can accelerate the transformation of this industry through strategic acquisitions in Europe. In addition, both equity partners are focused on sustainability, an important driver of TBAuctions.” Nieuwendijk adds: “The biggest game changer is the online auction platform ATLAS, developed by TBAuctions itself. The technology behind this makes it possible to scale up almost infinitely and to quickly integrate acquired auction brands onto the platform. We are very grateful to Herberth Samsom, who has made a very important contribution to this success over the past eight years. And we see it as a very big advantage that he continues his knowledge and experience as a Non-Executive Director within our board.”