Global Chief Legal Officer | Xebia | Netherlands
Ruud van Herpen is Global Chief Legal Officer and a member of the Executive Team at Xebia, a globalinformation technology consultancy company operating in 16 countries. Over more than 30 years, he has
built legal departments from the ground up across the information technology and other sectors, most
notably guiding RES Software through its acquisition by Ivanti, and leading Xebia through ten acquisitions
and two divestitures, one of which raised over $100 million in Series B funding.
He started and led a five-year initiative, largely completed in 2025, to build a fully AI-driven and automated
legal department at Xebia. He is now leading its second phase, further enhancing the legal department
processes with agentic AI tools. He has presented this transformation to international audiences at the
European Company Lawyer Association (ECLA) in Dublin, Madrid and Paris and as keynote speaker at the
In-House Counsel Conference at King’s Inns, Dublin. He was named one of the Netherlands’ 100 most
influential General Counsel and Heads of Legal (Legal 100, 2026) and was a nominee for the General Counsel
NL Award 2025–2026.
Alongside his in-house career, Ruud is an experienced corporate mediator, MfN-certified. He co-founded
and chaired the Dutch Mediators Association, after which he received the title of honorary president, and
currently chairs SGOA, the Dutch foundation for dispute resolution in IT and automation.
