ABOUT
A career built across the complete strategic arc
From advertising to brand to corporate strategy, and from The Netherlands to London via several stops to Barcelona, here is how that journey shaped the way I work today.
From the ground up
I studied Business Economics in Groningen, 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 loses 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 something people can use to decide.
Corporate strategy shapes brand strategy. Brand strategy shapes communication, experience and behaviour. Having worked across that whole chain, I know what a direction actually needs to survive in daily reality.
London trained
Two extended periods, 1997 to 2000 and 2008 to 2013, both inside leading international consultancies, working alongside people who set a genuinely high bar. London taught me precision: every idea had to earn its place. That's the standard I still hold my own work to.
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Brand as something people actually feel
Somewhere in that journey I fell in love with what brand can actually do, not a logo or a tone of voice, but something that genuinely speaks the language of the people inside an organisation.
I once worked with a company split into silos, different departments barely speaking the same language. As the brand work progressed, something shared started to surface, not invented, just finally named. Instead of comparing differences, they recognised what had been there the whole time.
How brand guides decisions
Business strategy sets direction. Brand strategy translates it into a promise one that guides product, marketing, partnerships, culture, and even how the story gets told to investors.
That promise rests on a brand's DNA: the beliefs, personality and principles that make it distinctive, and the connection between what people care about and what the organisation can credibly offer.
Why I do this
I chose Business Economics because I believe business is one of the clearest ways to have real impact, and marketing and market research for the combination of business and psychology, 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.
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 fluency becomes a practical asset whenever an organisation is building a relationship with a market it doesn't know as well as it thinks.
Canadian companies turning more deliberately toward Europe are one example.
Understanding how a market thinks and decides matters more than simply translating for it.
This is where the fluency comes from:
real projects, real markets, real people.
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 let good judgement do more than effort alone ever could.
Athena is my patron of strategic thinking, and the reason behind the name.
What clients say
PROCESS
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“I never realised brand work could feel this practical. It helped us see how every decision, from product to tone of voice, shapes how people see us.”
“The sessions brought everyone together. It was not just about design, but about who we are and how we show up.
That shared understanding made a real difference.”
RESULTS
“Everything started to connect: our story, visuals, and actions now feel part of one system.
Customers notice it, and so do investors.”
“It’s amazing how much richer and differentiating our content has become since the brand work.
It’s no longer about a short paragraph describing a problem and solution. It’s a story that connects with people, across every channel.”
ATHENA ASSOCIATES
“They challenged us beyond the obvious to define what we stand for. It now shows in everything we do: from how we speak to the customer experience at every touchpoint.
It all adds up to trust and recognition.”
“An exceptional experience. They are knowledgeable, creative, and refreshingly down-to-earth.Their way of working is practical, lean, and flexible. They understand what a startup will need later and build it in early, so growth becomes smoother and results show sooner.”
Our experience spans a wide range of industries, such as:
healthcare
pharmaceuticals
education
finance & insurance
technology
energy
NGOs
airlines
logistics
construction
retail & consumer goods
culture
entertainment
and the public sector
Due to the strategic and confidential nature of our work, we do not list client names on our website. References are available upon request.
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