Q&Company is a legal & commercial advisory firm with a special focus for energy technology start-up and scale-up companies. The firm is led by Bert Dequae, a seasoned energy lawyer, who combined his engineering and legal education into various technical, legal and commercial functions with large oil&gas companies, renewable energy companies and a venture capital fund. Q&Company, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, services the legal and commercial needs of small to medium size energy and technology companies, with specialization in mergers and acquisitions, due diligence, audits, corporate governance and compliance.
Prior to founding Q&Company, Bert spent 22 years in various technical, commercial and legal positions. Bert started in 1995 as a Petroleum Engineer at Shell, working off- and onshore in the Netherlands, Namibia and the United Kingdom. In 2001 he became a Commercial Advisor in Shell’s Middle East new business development group. At the end of 2004, after a brief secondment to a London City law firm, Bert became a Senior Legal Counsel at Shell International, advising on technology venture capital transactions and upstream petroleum contracts in Pakistan and Brazil. From 2007 through 2012 Bert was General Counsel and Investment Principal in a $1.3 billion energy technology fund, including Royal Dutch Shell, Coller Capital and ADIA as its major investors. As General Counsel, Bert advised on M&A transactions as well as ongoing legal issues within a portfolio of some 30 energy technology companies. By the end of 2012, Bert joined Total in Paris as a Senior Legal Counsel, followed by legal&commercial postings in Indonesia and the Netherlands.
In 2018, Bert founded Q&Company and started advising energy and technology companies. Bert holds both an LLB (Hons) Law Degree from the University of London and a M.Sc. in Geosciences from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.
Jan holds a law degree from the University of Brussels (VUB). After a career start in private practice, Jan joined Shell as a Senior Legal Advisor. Over the past 27 years Jan became a legal expert in both the downstream and upstream energy sectors, including positions as (i) Head Legal Affairs (Shell Downstream Rotterdam), (ii) Country Legal Director in France and (iii) Managing Counsel for Shell upstream exploration activities in Africa.
