Senior Management

Sander Gielen - CEO for Dutch Caribbean
Sander Gielen began his career in the 90’s with Heineken Brewery as a Commercial trainee in Holland. During his time with Heineken he worked on the Amstel Brand in both Holland and Spain where he helped to expand the Amstel brand in those markets. He then went on to spend time as an Account Director with Young & Rubican in Barcelona. When he returned to Holland he took up a position of Marketing Manager for Hi, part of the KPN Mobile Group. Hi is a completely youth focused brand and Sander was quickly promoted to Director of Hi. After 3 years, Sander went on to work for Telfort, the fourth Telecoms player in the market which was taken over by KPN Group in the position of Marketing Director. In this position Sander, amongst other areas was responsible for the successful launch of Telfort broadband.

Sander joined Digicel in April of 2012 as CEO for the Dutch Caribbean branch where he manages the daily operational activities of the company. Sander with a Dutch nationality speaks 4 languages fluently - Dutch, English, German and Spanish. Sander possesses a Masters degree in Economics at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

Remko van der Veldt - General Manager Aruba

Since September 2011 Remko is General Manager Aruba having joined Digicel in March 2006 as Head of Sales & Distribution for Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. In February 2009 Remko was appointed as General Manager Bonaire & Sales Director for the Dutch Caribbean.

In November 2009 Remko and his family moved to Panama. During his term in Panama Remko rolled out Digicel in the Western provinces of Panama and became later responsible for the daily operations of all the 4 regional offices in Panama as Head of Regionalization contributing to the significant growth of Digicel in Panama. In January 2011 Remko was appointed as Consumer Sales Director in Panama.

In his current position, he is responsible for the Digicel’s operation in Aruba and works with the Dutch Caribbean team to ensure company’s goals are achieved.

Before joining Digicel Remko worked in several sales & marketing position in Vodafone and Orange in The Netherlands and brings in more than 12 years of Telecommunication experience.

Conor Curley - Chief Financial Officer Dutch Caribbean

Conor Curley joined Digicel in February 2009 as Group Projects Finance Manager. In June 2009, Conor was appointed to the role of Finance Director for the Suriname operation, and in September 2011 became Chief Financial Officer for the Dutch Caribbean operation.

Conor has twelve years of auditing, financial control and financial management experience. He graduated from Dublin City University, Ireland in 2000, with a Masters Degree in Accounting. Conor qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG, and has also worked for other large international companies including General Motors and Smurfit Kappa Group plc.

Alan Bates - Sales Director Digicel Dutch Caribbean

Alan has a highly successful track record in the Cellular and Fixed Telecommunications Industry which spans over 13 years. Having worked with Digicel since 2003, he has held many roles, most recently as Country Manager in British Virgin Islands since 2008 where he managed the launch and daily operations of Digicel, BVI. Prior to working in BVI, he held the position of Sales Director for Digicel Bermuda where he played an instrumental role as part of the team that led Digicel to the number one position in that particular market.

Alan is very familiar with the Dutch Caribbean having previously held positions as Head of Sales and Distribution for Digicel Aruba from 2003 -2005 and Head of Sales and Distribution for the Dutch Caribbean region in 2006. Prior to joining Digicel, he worked as a consultant and held a number of senior sales and management positions in the Irish telecommunications company ESAT Telecom

Nelson Pereira - CTO Digicel Dutch Caribbean

Nelson Pereira was appointed CTO Digicel Dutch Caribbean (DC) in March 2005.

Prior to Digicel’s acquisition of Curacao Telecom (CT) in March 2005, and his appointment as CTO Digicel’s DC, he has been leading the technical operations of CT as Technical Manager since December 2001. Previous to his Technical Manager assignment he performed as Core network engineer for a period of 2 year.

In his capacity as CTO, Nelson brings coherence in the Technical and IT approach, innovative Telco-grade services and solutions to the end-user, efficient applications to the internal clients, optimizing time and costs as well as raising revenues.

Nelson has been instrumental in making Curacao Telecom the first to market GSM and GSM roaming services on Curacao. He leaded the design, development and rollout of products and technologies for Curacao Telecom’s services and networks, which has been later acquired by Digicel.

Nelson has over 10 years of Telecommunications experience and holds a Bachelor degree in Electrical & Communication Engineering and a Master degree in Business Administration in General Management.