As chairman of the management team, Willem is ultimately responsible for the investment policy. As a private investor, he started investing in companies that had made significant (commodity) discoveries in 2005. This makes him one of the pioneers in “Discovery Investing”. Willem is also the author of seven books on economics and financial markets. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the London economic think tank OMFIF. Willem is the founder and major shareholder in Commodity Discovery Management B.V., the manager of our fund.
Terence van der Hout has been working with Willem Middelkoop in discovery investing for almost fifteen years. After studying political science, he held various financial positions at ING and Rabobank. He has worked at the Commodity Discovery Fund as a financial analyst since 2011. After joining the fund’s management, in 2016, his responsibilities have now shifted towards compliance and regulation in relation to the fund.
With a keen eye for detail and efficiency, Caroline has played a crucial role in our fund for the last ten years. She oversees a well-functioning internal organization, provides sales support and, together with Terence van der Hout, keeps a close eye on everything related to compliance regulations. Caroline is easily approachable, very capable of bouncing ideas off, and is always willing to improve our services. She maintains close communications with Bolder Funds Services (Netherlands) B.V. (formerly Circle Partners), our administrator.
Due to the strong growth of the fund, Rob Brouns joined the CDF team in 2021. Rob managed investment funds at MN, Cordaid IM and ACTIAM, where he built up broad experience as an investment manager. He knows our sector well as a private investor. In addition, his 'quant' background helps us to perform better through data analysis. Rob's focus is mainly in the area of risk management.
After completing a master's degree in International Business Management and holding various commercial positions, Casper has been active on multiple fronts within the Fund as Assistant Fund Manager since 2022. For instance, he provides the Fund Managers with technical analysis and deals with research, process optimization, and transaction processing. As Commercial Manager, Casper also plays a coordinating role within the IR team in sales, marketing and investor relations.
With Ben, we have over 30 years of in-house investment expertise. Ben started on the options exchange in 1988, first as a stock exchange employee, then as a floor broker for various asset managers, and subsequently as a market maker. He then worked at a clearing house, which settled the completed transactions. Ben has worked as a senior trader for the fund since 2011, responsible for trading, clearing and back office activities that are initiated in our own trading room.
Dr Neil Adshead brings over 30 years of experience in the mineral exploration and mining sectors to the CDFund team, where he holds the position of Technical Advisor. Neil has worked as a Portfolio Manager and Investment Strategist at Sprott and as a Senior Mining Analyst at Passport Capital. He started his career at Placer Dome, with exploration, mining and managerial roles in Canada, Australia and Papua New Guinea. Neil has initiated and tracked dozens of equity investments and has visited hundreds of mineral properties and mines around the world.
As a private investor, Martin has managed a portfolio of mining exploration stocks since 1995. He is a mechanical engineer who spent years working as a project manager in heavy manufacturing industries. Since September 2020, Martin has been researching mining exploration companies for the CD Fund. He is constantly searching for companies who are in the process of making significant commodity discoveries.
Samson was the lead investment manager on the commodities and mining equities aspect of an internal fund of an Asset Management Company in Hong Kong between 2009 & 2013, able to outperforming the benchmark every year; he joined Thomson Reuters GFMS in 2013, as the senior Precious Metals Analyst covering the Chinese market, until 2020. He is also the author of ‘Finding the next ten bagger – a fund manager sharing his insights in the mining industry’ in China sharing his insights on exploration equities, in 2019. He joined our fund in 2021.
Nicolas has always had a great fondness for macroeconomics. In addition, as an investor, he has followed the mining sector from a distance for years. His background in the banking sector (Rabobank and Van Lanschot), extended with years of experience in relationship management for high net worth individuals (biotech and energy), makes him a versatile discussion partner for existing and new participants. In collaboration with Rene and Caroline, he coordinates all Investor Relations.
Since the autumn of 2020, René has been responsible for investment relations at the CD Fund. As a teenager, René bought a piece of gold as a first investment. After that, his interest in financial markets never disappeared. Professionally, he has always been active in sales and marketing positions. As René has known Willem since 1980, he is able to explain the background of our investment philosophy like no other. He is also a good person to spar with for the participants in our fund.
From the young age of 13 Maximiliaan attended his first stock market class. Always interested in markets, a recent fascination with investing in metals brought him in contact with the Commodity Discovery Fund. Max joined the fund in September 2023 to assist the Investor Relations team. Having an international upbringing and a varied academic and commercial background, he is a jack-of-all-trades discussion partner for current and prospective participants.
Since 2005, Arjan has been working as an independent compliance advisor in financial supervision regulation for both fund managers and asset managers. After completing his postgraduate training as a Chartered Accountant, Arjan spent six years as a supervisor at the AFM and DNB. In 2009 he completed the postgraduate training for Executive Master of Compliance at the VU. Arjan has been involved with the fund as a compliance advisor since 2017 and has fulfilled the role of external compliance officer since 2020.
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