Executive Team

Richard Hardiman is our Chief Executive Officer and a director of RanMarine. He was appointed as our full-time Chief Executive Officer in July 2020. From April 2016 to the present day, Richard has been responsible for the delivery of product development and growth strategy for our business. In addition, He has been responsible for raising equity finance for our Company’s growth. His current duties include delivering shareholder value, company growth strategy, and providing development plans to ensure greater growth in the marketplace. Mr. Hardiman attended the Graduate School of Business at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Anton Hemelaar is our Chief Financial Officer and a director of RanMarine. He is responsible for all finance, tax, legal and compliance matters. From September 2018 until September 2022, Mr. Hemelaar was Vice President Finance at the HomeAdvisor International division of IAC Inc. (Nasdaq: IAC). In that role, he established the finance and control function of his business unit. Prior to that time, Anton was the European Finance Director for Applied Materials Inc. (Nasdaq: AMAT) for eight years. He began his career as an auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Mr. Hemelaar holds a Master’s degree in Economics and is a qualified Dutch accountant.

Bart de Vries is our Chief Operating Officer since August 2023. He is responsible for the day to day operations, production of RanMarine’s products and related services. Previously he was a VP  Product at Serrala and Managing Director of Serrala Solutions BV and COO of its predecessors AcceptEmail B.V and AcceptEasy from 2014 to 2023, a SAAS company delivering electronic billing and payments. Prior to that Mr. De Vries worked for almost 2 decades in finance at NIBC, ABN AMRO and RBS in Amsterdam and Hong Kong. Mr. de Vries has a BA from Middlebury College and an MBA from Cornell University.

Esther Lokhorst has as our Chief Customer Officer since March of 2023. Prior to this new role, Esther was our Chief Operating Officer since 2017. Esther has been involved in, among other things, managing production and monitoring procurement for both procurement and R&D projects. She is involved in business development, manages the client Experience, and all grant applications. From 2015-2019, Ms. Lokhorst was the Program Manager and Operations Manager at Accelerator PortXL. There, Ms. Lokhorst was responsible for the design and implementation of the program as well as the communication content with respect to the program both in Rotterdam and internationally. Ms. Lokhorst holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Centre College and Master of Business Administration from The Open University in the United Kingdom.

Alistair Longman has served as our Product Officer since March of 2023. Prior to this he was our Chief Technology Officer since January 2021. From October 2019 to December 2020, Alistair served as a business analyst within the information technology group of Sungevity Netherlands B.V. There, he created and organized the requirements for ICT development projects and functional and quality assurance. He also handled project and change management duties. Prior to that, from March 2016 to September 2019, Mr. Longman served as the managing director of Cords Cable Manufacturers PTY Ltd. In that role, he acted in a general manager capacity where he managed functions of the business ranging from human resources and sales to information technology and production logistics. Mr. Longman holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in English and Psychology from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Darren Kirby has been our Global Sales Head since March of 2023.  Darren started at RanMarine in May 2022 as Sales Director, providing leadership within the sales and business development competencies. Prior to starting at RanMarine, Darren spent a year as the sales manager for A.F. Blakemore & Son Ltd in the United Kingdom, where he was responsible for sales and business development within the business-to-business (“B2B”) and business-to-consumer (“B2C”) and B2C media sector. From July 2016 - November 2020, he occupied the function of Director of Business Development at Technique Media (Pty) Ltd in Cape Town, South Africa. As a founder of this media sales business, Darren worked across diverse industry sectors promoting innovative media platforms (billboards, digital media and transit media). Mr. Kirby holds tertiary level diplomas in Communication and Media Studies and Marketing Management.

Patrick Baransky joined RanMarine in February 2023 as Global Head of Marketing, responsible for developing and executing effective strategies that align with the company's overall goals and objectives across all regions and channels. Previously, he managed outbound logistics for vanMoof e-bikes, was Country and Partner Manager for Dimension Data's UCI Professional Cycling team from 2016-2019, leading their day-to-day Netherlands operations. Before emigrating to the Netherlands, he held the Group Sponsorship Manager position at Nedbank Limited in South Africa. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Recreation and Sports Management from the University of Pretoria, an associate degree in Management Development from Stellenbosch University, and European Sponsorship Association accreditation from ESA in London UK.