Two Homes. One Mission: Help People Thrive.

After working in advertising and event management at the start of my career, I joined Dutch telecom operator KPN as a Marketing Manager. I later became a Brand Manager and was then appointed Proposition/Innovation Manager for its TV division. This journey taught me two things: how to design the right product-audience match, and how to energise the people who build it.

Because my partner and I had travelled widely across Asia — and knew India well — I didn’t hesitate when KPN offered me the opportunity to help transform its India based tech workforce: from Waterfall to Agile/Scrum, and ultimately DevOps. I lived and worked in Pune from 2016 to 2021. Five intense, successful years — then back to the Netherlands.

During my first India assignment, I met the founders and shareholders of my current employer, WorldEmp. We stayed in touch, and in 2022 the conversations became serious. Since early 2023, I’ve been back in India as Managing Director, expanding the India operations — with a simple operating model: empowering teams to thrive.

I now have two places I call home: mostly Pune, Maharashtra (right in the heart of the city), and regularly the Netherlands — where we still have a house in the beautiful Betuwe. In India, we’re not traditional expats: yes, we have expat friends, but our strongest bonds are also with locals. That’s the real India.

I lead through Rhineland principles and OKRs: ownership, clarity, and employee wellbeing — “work hard, play harder”. I’m stubbornly anti micromanagement, and I often return to one hard quote: “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time”. So I start by learning who’s on board — then unlocking underused strengths. My professional toolkit centres on psychological safety, inclusiveness, feedforward, storytelling, self learning, and making others shine.