Van Eerd studied business administration in Utrecht and the United States. He joined Jumbo in 1992, the family grocery business founded by his father Karel van Eerd, starting as a product manager in the bread department before rising to supermarket manager and then general manager in 1996. He was appointed to the board as general manager in 2002. Under his leadership Jumbo expanded aggressively through strategic acquisitions including Super de Boer and C1000, establishing it as one of the Netherlands' dominant grocery retailers.
In September 2022 van Eerd was implicated in a large-scale money laundering investigation. The FIOD raided his home and the Jumbo head office in Veghel, uncovering โฌ448,000 in cash โ part of it concealed inside a plastic bag in a refrigerator, primarily in five-hundred-euro banknotes. Van Eerd was arrested and interrogated for five days. He stepped down from Jumbo initially on a temporary basis, but in March 2023 his departure became permanent when Ton van Veen was appointed interim CEO and then permanent chairman. The trial began in September 2024. On 7 August 2025, van Eerd was found guilty of money laundering, accepting bribes, and forgery and sentenced to two years in prison.
Van Eerd began racing in 1993 and became Benelux Formula Renault champion in 1996. He competed in a range of series in the 2000s and early 2010s including Formula Ford, EuroBOSS (finishing third overall in both 2011 and 2016), and the BOSS GP. He also participated in rally events including the Dakar Rally. He has appeared regularly at historic events, contesting multiple runnings of the Historic Grand Prix of Monaco in period Formula One machinery.
In 2017 van Eerd co-founded Racing Team Nederland, which entered the European Le Mans Series and the FIA World Endurance Championship with a Dallara P217 and later an Oreca 07 Gibson. Teammates over that period included Jan Lammers, Rubens Barrichello, Giedo van der Garde, Nyck de Vries, and Job van Uitert.
The team's first major result came in the 2019โ20 WEC season, when van Eerd, van der Garde, and de Vries won the 6 Hours of Fuji โ the team's first WEC race victory. At Le Mans the team competed in the LMP2 class across multiple editions from 2017 through 2021.
In the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship van Eerd competed in the LMP2 Pro/Am sub-category. He and his co-drivers won four Pro/Am class wins across the season, finishing first in the LMP2 Pro/Am championship standings. He also competed in the 2022 IMSA SportsCar Championship, collecting podium results in the LMP2 class at Watkins Glen and other rounds.
| Year | Series | Best result | |------|--------|-------------| | 2011 | BOSS GP โ Open Class | 3rd in championship | | 2016 | BOSS GP โ Open Class | 3rd in championship | | 2019โ20 | FIA WEC โ LMP2 | 6 Hours of Fuji class win | | 2021 | FIA WEC โ LMP2 Pro/Am | Champion |
Van Eerd holds an FIA Bronze driver categorisation.
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