In the past 25 years Chiel has started over 10 companies and solutions, mostly in fintech. He is most known as a zero-to-one entrepreneur, mobile payments thought leader, and board room advisor on fintech and startups. Chiel is an award-winning author, tech aficionado, and holds multiple patents.

Today, Chiel is active in the role of Chair Governance of Uon.Earth Collective. As a founding board member and statutory director, he is responsible for the governance and day-to-day management of the initiative.

Since 2000 Chiel has been active as a (co)founder of 10 companies and solutions. He started Innopay (boutique consulting firm in digital transactions), iDEAL (Dutch online payment method with over 70% market share), AcceptEmail (digital billing, patented tech), The Paypers (global news portal on payments), and Maxcode (software development sourcing in Romania). See also venturepark.nl‍ ‍

After his studies in Mechanical Engineering, Chiel started as a management trainee at Flight Operations, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. After a key role in setting up KLM’s Operations Control Center, he decided in 2000 it was time to become an entrepreneur. 

In 2019 his book “Everything Transaction” become Dutch Management Book of the Year, in 2020 AcceptEmail was acquired by Serrala Solutions in Germany, and in 2024 Innopay was acquired by Oliver Wyman in the US.