Tom Van de Voorde

Who they are

Tom Van de Voorde is Managing Partner and Head of Smart Industries at Gimv — a Belgian private equity investor who also publishes poetry collections in Dutch and has translated Wallace Stevens, Michael Palmer, and Tomaž Šalamun.

Person

Tom studied Germanic Languages and Arts Sciences at Rijksuniversiteit Gent — an unusual foundation for a private equity career, but it shapes everything about how he operates. He joined Gimv in 2007 and has stayed for nearly two decades, growing into Managing Partner and Head of Smart Industries while sitting on the Investment Committee. The through-line is rigorous attention to language and culture running alongside a hard-nosed focus on industrial technology investment. Outside the fund, he is a published poet: his work appears through Em. Querido's Uitgeverij in Amsterdam (since 2020), he is featured on Poetry International and Versopolis Review, and in 2025 he presented his collection 'De elementen' at VIERNULVIER in Ghent. He has also translated American poetry — Wallace Stevens and Michael Palmer — into Dutch, and Slovenian poet Tomaž Šalamun alongside co-translator Staša Pavlović. His themes in writing span contemporary environments, memory, identity, and cultural figures — not incidental interests but a sustained parallel practice alongside two decades in finance.

Network

No direct edge data is available from the network probe. His named collaborator in translation work is Staša Pavlović, with whom he co-translated Tomaž Šalamun's poetry. Institutionally, his work is promoted through Flanders Literature and published via Em. Querido's Uitgeverij in Amsterdam.

Staša Pavlović· Co-translator (Tomaž Šalamun poetry project)

How they likely show up

Long tenure at Gimv since 2007 → likely thinks in multi-year investment cycles, not short-term deal flow.
Reached Managing Partner and Investment Committee membership from within → suggests institutional loyalty and a preference for depth over lateral moves.
Sustained parallel career as a published poet and literary translator → signals comfort operating across very different cognitive registers; probably brings an unusual degree of patience with ambiguity.
Translated poets as syntactically complex as Wallace Stevens and Michael Palmer → suggests high tolerance for precision and nuance in language, which may carry into how he reads term sheets and investment theses.
Occasional LinkedIn poster on Smart Industries and Gimv themes → not a volume broadcaster; when he does post, it is deliberate and tied to a specific announcement or portfolio moment.
Focus area is 'Smart Industries' within a generalist PE firm → Possibly — he has carved out a defined thesis within Gimv rather than spreading across sectors, suggesting he values concentrated conviction.

Conversation tips

→ Ask about the 'De elementen' collection specifically — presenting it at VIERNULVIER in 2025 is recent and personal; showing you know the title signals you did real homework.
→ Don't treat the poetry as a quirky hobby — it is a two-decade parallel career with a serious Amsterdam publisher; engage with it as a second professional identity, not a curiosity.
→ If you want to open on the investment side, anchor to Smart Industries by name — that is his defined mandate at Gimv and the topic he posts about deliberately.
→ Reference the translation work if you have any familiarity with Wallace Stevens or Tomaž Šalamun — it signals intellectual range and will likely open a genuine conversation rather than a pitch dynamic.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on 'De elementen' — he presented this poetry collection at VIERNULVIER in Ghent in 2025, and it's his most recent public creative moment; naming it by title immediately separates you from anyone who only read his LinkedIn.
Bring up the Tomaž Šalamun translations — co-translating Slovenian poetry with Staša Pavlović is a specific, uncommon project that sits at the intersection of his literary and European cultural interests; it's a natural entry point for a real conversation.
Reference his nearly two decades at Gimv — joining in 2007 and building to Managing Partner and Investment Committee member is an unusually long arc for PE; asking what has kept him there will surface how he thinks about institutional commitment and sector conviction.

Discovery questions

You've built the Smart Industries focus from within a generalist PE firm — how has that thesis evolved over the years you've been running it?
Translating Wallace Stevens and Michael Palmer into Dutch is technically demanding work — what draws you to those particular poets, and does that precision in language carry into how you read investment documents?
You've been at Gimv since 2007 across very different market cycles — what's changed most about how you evaluate industrial technology companies now versus when you started?

Avoid

Don't treat his literary career as a warm-up anecdote before getting to 'real' business — it is a sustained, published, institutionally recognised practice and framing it as a hobby will close the conversation down fast.

Make it yours