How Tony’s Chocolonely is Championing Slave-Free Chocolate
Join Tony’s Chocolonely CEO Henk Jan Beltman and Clement Pointillart from their investment partners Verlinvest, a 2-billions euro fund investing in trailblazing, impactful companies to hear more how this incredible chocolate brand (No 1 in the Netherlands and quickly expanding globally) is challenging the entire chocolate industry to go slavery-free and partnering with Pharrell to champion Black Entrepreneurship.
Henk Jan Beltman
Chief Chocolate Officer, Tony’s Chocolonely
After a career with Heineken, Vrumona and Innocent Drinks, in 2007 Henk Jan approached Tony’s Chocolonely. He wanted to lead a company making a positive impact, and that is how Henk Jan ended up with Tony’s Chocolonely in 2010. His ambition is to pursue the mission for a slave-free chocolate industry. Tony’s Chocolonely is now well established on the chocolate map and, step by step, more countries are following. There is an office in Amsterdam, New York City, London and now also in Hamburg and Salzburg, and Tony’s has made it to The Nordics, Asia, Dubai and more of Europe too. Henk Jan’s dream is about to come true; building a chocolate factory where people can make their own chocolate and will be informed about the concerning situation in the chocolate industry. An actual choco-experience with a rollercoaster!
Tony’s goal is not to make just their chocolate slave free, but all chocolate worldwide.
Crazy about chocolate, serious about people.
Clément Pointillart
Executive Director, Verlinvest USA
Clément joined Verlinvest in 2012 after spending four years at Lazard Frères as an Investment Banker in their Mergers & Acquisitions and Restructuring Practices, both in Paris and New York.
As Executive Director at Verlinvest, Clément leads the US office and is part of the Consumer Products and Retail practice. He currently serves or has served on the board of several portfolio companies including Oatly, Chewy, Vita Coco, hint, Valtech and Frichti.
Clément holds a BA in Finance and Strategy from IEP de Paris, Science Po.