ABOUT

A career built across the complete strategic arc

My Dutch background and international career both shape how I work. Born and educated in the Netherlands, I am now based in Barcelona, Spain.

My career has taken me through two extended periods in London, senior roles in several European countries and work with organisations across markets and cultures. That journey has shaped the way I think and work today.

Moving upstream

I have a Master's Degree in Business Economics, then built my career from the ground up: advertising and communication strategy, then brand strategy, then corporate strategy and organisational alignment.

Advertising taught me how easily a good idea can lose its meaning by the time it reaches a customer.

Brand strategy taught me the opposite: get a brand's DNA right and it stops being decoration. It becomes a shared source of character and inspiration. It helps people judge what fits, create greater consistency and build a more distinctive connection with employees, customers and other stakeholders.

Corporate strategy creates a clear line of sight to people’s roles and priorities. When people understand where the organisation is going, why it matters and what it asks of them, direction becomes motivation and action.

Having worked across that whole chain, I know what a direction actually needs to survive in daily reality.

London trained

Two extended periods, from 1997 to 2000 and 2008 to 2013, took me inside some of London’s leading international consultancies. I worked with and learned from some of the best people in the branding and strategy industry.

London showed me what becomes possible when creative imagination is matched by strategic discipline. Ideas can be bold, but they must also be relevant, precise and capable of working in the real world. That combination still sets the standard for my own work.

Fluent across markets and cultures

I've built and led work with people across dozens of countries, from a 130-country NGO matrix to advisory and campaign work spanning Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia and India.

Operating at that scale doesn't really need me to adjust to it. It's how I already work.

And I'm just as much at home with a smaller, locally-focused organisation looking for a fresh, outside perspective.

That international fluency becomes a practical asset when an organisation is entering a new market, bringing businesses or teams in different countries together, or asking regional and overseas operations to work from one shared direction.

Canadian companies turning more deliberately toward Europe are one example.

The challenge is rarely language alone. Markets and cultures interpret customers, priorities and opportunities differently.

I help organisations understand those differences, find common ground and translate strategic direction into choices that make sense locally.

Why I do this

I chose Business Economics because I believe business is one of the clearest ways to have a real impact in the world. I then specialised in marketing and market research because they bring business and psychology together, applied to real situations and real people.

That combination is still what I enjoy most. Watching a leadership team move from a difficult, unclear situation toward real clarity is the moment I find most satisfying in this work.

Brand as something people actually feel

When I first moved to London, I became fascinated by the power of brand. Far beyond marketing, it can give an organisation a shared language and create a genuine connection with people both inside and outside it.

I have often worked with organisations divided into silos, different departments barely speaking the same language, or speaking at all.

As the strategy and brand work progressed, something shared started to surface. And it was not invented. Rather than defining themselves by their differences, people recognised what had been there all along.

Athena

Ancient Greek civilisation still shapes culture, architecture and philosophy more than 2,000 years later. That kind of lasting impact is what I build toward: strategy and brand work grounded in solid thinking, flexible enough to adapt, grow and endure.

Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and strategy, won through cleverness rather than force, seeing what others missed and choosing the smarter path.

That's the same instinct I bring to my own work: think clearly, decide well, and focus effort where it can make the greatest difference.

Athena is my patron of strategic thinking, and the reason behind the name.