Femke Jacobs
CIO at NN Insurance Belgium

I always have been a tech lady so studying IT was a natural choice. Later I combined this with business administration and since the day I start working I love the edge of business and IT. Twenty years ago my first position was IT consultant and gradually I grew towards C-level. Currently I work as a CIO of an insurance company where I am responsible for the whole of IT and part of the management board. People characterize me with words as drive, care and focus.

Around 2000 it was rare to see women in IT roles. And even today there are clearly more man. So it’s my mission to empower and support woman.

Topics: Leadership & Personal growth

Betsy Lindsey
Co-founder and CFO of Aircision

Betsy Lindsey is Co-founder and Chief Financial Officer of Aircision. A CERN Spinoff, Aircision has developed a next generation free space optics device for the backhaul of telecommunication. Betsy is a financial advisor and investor with a great passion for innovation and deep-tech. In the United States and Hong Kong, she worked in banking with technology startups and scaleups at Silicon Valley Bank and Wells Fargo Bank. In total, she brings over 20 years of international high-tech finance management and investment experience to the table. Prior to joining Aircision, Betsy was the Managing Director of Investor Relations at HighTechXL, a deep tech venture builder based in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. She’s guided over 60 teams through the fundraising process and growth phase of their development.  

Topics: How to innovate and network in an ecosystem & entrepreneurship

Bianca Hammen
Senior IT Operations Manager Voice at Shell

Bianca Hammen joined Shell in June 2020 as Senior IT Operations Manager Voice. She is responsible for voice services, processes and products in order to provide secure and reliable enterprise wide IT services for Shell globally. She leads the voice operations center with a focus on operational availability, reliability, and security for the voice services.

Prior to Shell, Bianca worked for 19 years at AT&T in a variety of roles. Her first role was Capture Manager where she worked with virtual teams to provide solutions solving telecom infrastructure issues. As a Client Service Director, she led diverse portfolio teams in support of the clients’ operational environment. Bianca worked clients’ work-center transformation, operational integration including: ITIL process, procedures definition and implementation. In her last role as Principle Architect she was responsible for creating solutions and driving the strategy around IoT and Mobility. 

Bianca holds a Master of Science degree in Manufacturing Management and Bachelor in Electronics. Bianca is passionate to see more women in technology and was a founding board member of AT&T’s European Women Network, where she mentored several female colleagues across the globe, and she supports several STEM activities in her local community. Bianca lives in the South of The Netherlands, is married and has 2 sons.

Topics: How to survive in a male-dominated workplace & work-life balance

Martine Dubling
Recruitment Manager and Program Manager at Sioux Technologies 

As the girl between the boys I grew up in a small town in Fryslân. After achieving my Software Engineering degree at the University I moved to the big city of Eindhoven. This is where the high-tech magic happens. I learned about Software & System Engineering and became a proud mom of a beautiful daughter. I passionately share the stories of our technical company Sioux Technologies and what we do to make the world a little better every day, so that our children can grow up on a beautiful planet.

I believe that if you want something, you have to go for it. I believe that life will reward you for what you contribute. Being one of the first woman in a management position within our company, I know that this starts with hard work, and especially smart work. But it is also crucial to be kind and sincere, then others will help you to make your dreams come true!  Never stop dreaming and believing in yourself. You are responsible for your own happiness. Live your life full and learn how to create and grab your chances.

Topics: Leadership & How to survive in a male-dominated workplace

Mags Welten & Claire Visée
TU Delft Career & Counselling Services team

Mags Welten is a member of the TU Delft Career & Counselling Services team. She supports students, PhDs and Postdocs defining their next career step. She gets to the core of what individuals want, what might be holding them back and what they need to do to move forward. She is an experienced Human Resources professional and latterly, professionally trained as a career coach. In addition to working at the Technical University of Delft, Mags has a private coaching practice and is a Learning Coach for INSEAD’s course “Leading organisations during disruptive times”. Being of British origin Mags coaches in English. She fully understands the challenges working and living in an international environment brings.

Claire Visée has been one of the Career Counsellor's at the TU Delft Career Centre since 2014. As a TU Delft alum, she understands what it means to be an engineer and what it entails to enter today's labour market. Currently she coaches BSc and MSc students in exploring their career options and job search strategies. In addition, she is the lead contact in account management for the Career Centre with international and national companies.

Topics: Career advice & Personal growth

Cheryl & Terry Boyd
Founders Dispatches Europe

Cheryl Boyd and Terry Boyd are co-founders and co-CEOs of Dispatches Media, which includes Dispatches Europe and ancillary companies. Along with a group of international investors, they founded Dispatches in Eindhoven in 2016, a communications company aimed at the global expat audience of about 17 million people. Before Dispatches, they founded Insider Louisville in 2010, one of the first pure-play digital media companies in the United States. A venture capitalist acquired IL in 2013.

Kentucky natives, the Boyds have been married since 1991 and have lived in Turkey, Germany and the Netherlands. Both have backgrounds in media, and Cheryl Boyd has an extensive background in corporate sales and corporate events. She worked with Humana and other large clients, including the European team during the Ryder Cup in 2008, Breeders Cup and other international events. 

Topics: How to innovate and network in an ecosystem & entrepreneurship

Saskia van der Velden
Benelux Senior Manager People & Organization | Leading Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging in EuroNorth at Dassault Systèmes

Saskia is a hands-on HR Strategist with 20+ years of HR and Communications working experiences. She has a passion for the development and connection of people in an organization with an eye for the customer and the result. Her approach is pragmatic, proactive and solution-oriented. An employed entrepreneur. Specifically interested in STEM and Diversity & Inclusion.

Topics: How to survive in a male-dominated workplace & career advice

Claudia Caparelli 
QA/RA Manager at Bambi Medical

Claudia Caparelli, 33 years old, born and raised in the South of Italy and currently living in Eindhoven.

"I graduated with a Master Degree in Biomedical Engineering in Rome and after an experience in Italy working in the technical department of a hospital for medical device maintenance and purchases, I moved to the Netherlands, 4 and a half years ago. I joined the adventure of Bambi Medical, a startup company based in the High Tech Campus. Bambi Medical develops a product for monitoring premature babies in hospital and I am part of the technical team and I’m responsible for managing the Quality System. I have started my journey at Bambi when the company was just founded and now we are at level of product maturity, so quite happy that I was able to contribute to a new technology from the beginning! Personally, I’m very creative and social person, in my free time I like to cook and to make DIY projects."

Topics: Personal growth & How to survive in a male-dominated workplace

Margot Nijkamp
Co-founder of ESTI, Ecosystem Thinking Institute

Margot Nijkamp-Diesfeldt is the co-founder of ESTI – Ecosystem Thinking Institute and is specialized in the human factor in open innovation. Margot’s career is characterized by the start-ups of organizations like Packard Bell Europe, Intermec EMEA, Emergency One and applied research institute Holst Centre. Margot has a background in Human Resources, Business Economics and Communications. Margot was involved in these organizations from the start on an MT-level. At the start-up of the Holst Centre in 2005, Margot developed a specific HR-strategy to let talent flourish in open innovation. After 5 years Holst Centre had been built up to 240 international talents, she set up the OpenSme program for niche markets by SME-companies. She is the creator of the EcoSystem Game, a game to learn the inner workings of ecosystems by experiencing it. Margot has done extensive research into the open innovation possibilities between education and the labor market and wrote a book “Samenscholing Geboden”, which is currently being translated into English.

Writing novels and poetry under pseudonym is her great escape. 

Topics: Leadership & How to innovate and network in an ecosystem

Lilly Rosier
Business Analyst at Shimano

I am a person who loves change. I have 20 years of experience of working in a male dominated environment, championing IT enabled business change. About 2.5 years ago I moved from the UK to the Netherlands, and changed my domain of expertise from B2C to B2B. A business analyst by profession, I enjoy meeting new people, I am passionate about learning and discovering new technologies, and enabling better ways of working. Since autumn last year, I have started and am now leading a Business Analysis Community of Practice at Shimano Europe.

Topics: How to survive in a male-dominated workplace & how to innovate and network in an ecosystem

Afke Blanksma
Co-founder Wizzymaps

I am Afke Blanksma co-founder of Wizzymaps. We unlock available data and connect it to a smart map to ensure the perfect customer journey. This prevents crowds and stimulates dispersion and social distancing. Happy to work for among others: High Tech Campus Eindhoven, Philips, Johan Cruijff ArenA, KNVB and Dolfinarium.

My role model is Muhammad Yunus; inventor microfinance and Nobel prize winner. He inspired me by his vision on how you can contribute to a more diverse and inclusive society through entrepreneurship and innovation. This is one of the reasons why I also teach economics at Huygens College; a vmbo (secondary) school in Amsterdam and I am in the board of Els Borst Netwerk Amsterdam. The aim of this network is to increase the number of women in politics.

In my spare time I love to go out with my family. I am a mother of two teenage girls.

Topics: Entrepreneurship & How to innovate and network in an ecosystem

Fleur Besters
Founder Tech Playgrounds & studio Fleur Besters

Fleur Besters (1977) wanted to become a journalist at the age of eight. "Curiosity and looking beyond your own backyard, those were always my motives. In total I worked as a newspaper journalist for about 18 years, 16 of which at the Eindhovens Dagblad. First ten years as a police reporter, during which I taught myself all forms of social media and blogging. Based on this expertise, I was asked to internally train groups of journalism students to become cross-media reporters. When that project ended, I still worked as a news manager and I started innovating within the publishing house.

During another reorganization in 2015, I made my job available in a split second and I started Studio Fleur Besters as an independent entrepreneur. Within this I am the owner of the travel website Reisbijbel and I have created my own job as a driver of the Tech Playgrounds for Lumens. I also take the expertise that I have gained in this area with regard to education and technological companies to the Kempen. Since 2019 I have been Program Manager Education for the Kempisch Ondernemers Platform. In addition to these two roles, I am involved in solicited and unsolicited projects in the city, aimed at offering opportunities to young people and young adults, within the Brainport ecosystem."

Topics: Entrepreneurship & work-life balance

Jackie Schooleman
Disruptive Product Designer

Disruptive Product Designer, Serial Enterpreneur, Changemaker. 
Always thinking of new concepts, designing new products and services to help people. Designer of VPI Reveal, YARQ, alleenvoorjou.org, Bosmakkers en 3Dprintzorglab.nl

Topics: How to innovate and network in an ecosystem & leadership

Maron Galama
Partner & co-founder Bluetivity

Curious to find out more about What makes You unique? What special values you can bring to a team/company? What particular skills and competences you already do have, but you are not yet fully aware of? Let’s meet! I am Maron Galama a depth psychologist with over 20 years of business experience. As a depth psychologist, I like to combine getting to the core by taking a deep dive and at the same time looking for practical possibilities that will bring you more clarity in your career. 

What you will get: 
- Recognize Your Uniqueness and Embrace it 
- Enable yourself to grow more confidently
- Enhance your Selfconfidence 

Topics: Personal growth

Guus Frericks
Founder and CEO at HighTechXL

Entrepreneurial, results-oriented international business leader with strong strategic, analytical, commercial and people management skills. Proven track-record in starting up and growing new global businesses in emerging, dynamic and complex high tech domains. Champion of high-tech startups across the globe. Building successful companies is my passion.

Topics: Entrepreneurship & How to innovate and network in an ecosystem

Lotte Geertsen
Director TMC Entrepreneurial Lab

I am an optimist who organizes, connects and likes to build bridges. As a business innovation architect, I develop with future-oriented strategies, particularly in the areas of technology, entrepreneurship and creativity. I develop business out of ideas. In addition, I wonder about technology and human interaction, and I believe that people make innovation happen. I like to build ecosystems with stakeholders and work for a better world of tomorrow. 

Topics: Entrepreneurship & Personal growth

Mechteld Petersen
Marketing and Innovation strategist

I help organizations making impact by creating a value-driven organization. I do this by developing a marketing and innovation vision which is translated into a roadmap with concrete actions and projects: the marketing and innovation strategy. Direction, focus and action! In addition, personal leadership has always fascinated me. How can you get more out of people so that they can become leaders. A leader who makes impact by moving people in the right direction. Each in its own proactive and entrepreneurial way. I have 20 years of experience in the field of Marketing, Branding, Innovation and leadership for companies such as Mars, Brabantia, MaxiCosi / Dorel and Elho in various management positions. 

Topics: Leadership & How to innovate and network in an ecosystem

Bilim Atli-Veltin
Senior Scientist at TNO

Dr. Bilim Atli-Veltin (PhD Penn State, 2009) is Senior Scientist at TNO in the Buildings, Infrastructure and Maritime unit, and Visiting Scientist at TU Delft Aerospace Engineering. Her research interests are next-gen lightweight LNG, LH2 tanks and cryogenic performance of thermoplastics. She is recipient of the “Young Excellent Researcher” award at TNO. She has BSc, MSc and PhD degrees from Aerospace Engineering with specialization in crashworthiness of helicopters. After graduating  from The Pennsylvania State University in the US, she moved to the Netherlands to pursue her carrier. She has been working in the Oil & Gas and Maritime & Offshore domains. She has several journal articles and conference proceedings, and member of national and international technical committees. She is married, and mother of two children. 

Topics: Career advice & How to survive in a male-dominated work environment

Nur America
Strategy advisor, Business Transformation Expert

I am the founder and Director of Newness, a consultancy company. I built extensive business experience in industry on the innovation of high-tech products, multidisciplinary product creation processes until mass production, new business development, and building strategic partnerships with an international scope at large multinational companies. I have expertise on devising and executing business plans, marketing strategy, market and technology driven business model innovation, making IP agreements, and new ways to go-to-market. I have knowledge on digital technologies, artificial intelligence, IoT, blockchain, and communication technologies. My strength is creating business opportunities with innovations deploying these technologies.  

My entrepreneurial mindset, international business experience in the industry, knowledge of market and technology trends, and applying lean methodology to start a new business have been instrumental in mentoring startups at various startup acceleration programs. Furthermore, I am an expert evaluator for the Horizon 2020 program of European Commission. I hold B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Computer Engineering. 

Topics: Entrepreneurship & work-life balance

Sepideh Khandan Del
Technical Project Lead at SMART Photonics

Sepideh was born and raised in Mashhad, Iran. In 2010 she moved to Stockholm, Sweden to peruse her master studies in Materials Science at KTH-Royal Institute of Technology. Over the years, she gained experience in the field of Micro/Nanotechnology in different research institutes in the USA and Germany. In 2018, she moved to the Netherlands to join TNO as a senior Process Engineer and since August 2020 she is working as a Technical Project Lead at Smart Photonics, a leading company in the field of InP-based Integrated Photonic Circuits.

In addition, she is an ambassador for Female Tech Heroes, as well as Expats Spouses Initiative.

Topics: Career advice & Personal growth

Yolanda van Dinther
Director Software Development at Thermo Fischer Scientific

Yolanda van Dinther is Director Software Development in the Electron Microscopy division of Thermo Fisher Scientific (formerly known as FEI) leading Digital Transformation.

She has been working in various leadership roles since 2001, ranging from software to system development across a variety of high-tech companies in the consumer electronics, healthcare, semiconductors, automotive, life sciences and printing industries.
“I enjoy working with teams of professionals and bringing the organization to the next level, delivering on challenging assignments with a can-do mindset.” 

Yolanda holds a MSc degree in Computer Science from the University of Technology in Eindhoven and a Post Bachelor’s degree in Counseling Psychology.

Topics: Leadership & How to survive in a male-dominated work environment

Madeleen Stamm
Career coach

For nearly 10 years now, Madeleen supported thousands of engineers in their career choices. First as a career coach for MSc, PDEng and PhD at TU Delft, followed by her role as tech recruiter in the Brainport area. As a mom of three and firm believer that ambitious women change lives, her company Sowings is focused on empowering women in the workplace and beyond.  

Topics: Work-life balance & personal growth 

Núria Barceló i Peiró
R&D IT Program Manager at NXP Semiconductors

Broad experience with working in different cultures within the IT industry. Latest positions are related to Identity and Access Management, working in different positions from software consultant to providing consulting services or leading an IAM team for the last past 20 years.

I have previously lived in Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Madrid, near Zurich and finally now in Eindhoven. Thanks to that I can speak, and more important, understand several languages. I'm trying to make workplace more diverse and inclusive, specially to and for women. 

Topics: Personal Growth & How to survive in a male-dominated workplace

Moyra Mc Manus 
Director in ASML’s Strategic Sourcing organization

Dr. Moyra K. Mc Manus is a Director in ASML’s Strategic Sourcing organization and is responsible for the Category Management of light sources for ASML’s lithography and metrology systems.  

Moyra obtained a Phd in Physics and joined IBM Research in 1998 where she worked for 15 years on developing diagnostics techniques for the debug and characterization of 6 generations of enterprise and high performance processors. She led several multi-functional and cross business teams during the development of the Blue Gene supercomputer, which was ranked #1 in the world in June of 2012. She joined ASML in 2015 and held positions in strategy and marketing prior to setting in place a group for pathfinding exploration in semiconductor patterning at imec where she led a team of industry experts tasked with understanding ASML’s customer’s long term roadmaps in order to better understand future lithography and metrology requirements. Moyra has 6 patents and 30 refereed research articles and continues to be interested in the development of high performance IT systems and their applications.

Topics: Career advice & leadership

Helen Kardan
Senior Account Manager Japan at ASML

Helen Kardan received a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and M.Sc. in Computer Sciences from Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. After working for several years in various positions in innovation management and business development in high-tech industries, including Semiconductor and Flexible Electronics, she joined ASML as part of New Business Development team responsible for identifying new business domains for ASML’s future roadmaps as well as supporting high-tech eco-system and start-ups in the Eindhoven region. Since 2021 she has a new position at ASML: sr. account manager Japan.

In all her functions she actively promotes diversity and inclusion as a driving force for collaboration and innovation, supporting initiatives that redefine leadership and new approaches to match the needs of current high tech industry. 

Topics: How to survive in a male-dominated workplace & How to innovate and network in an ecosystem

Gareth Thomas 
CEO of VersionBay

Gareth Thomas is one of the Co-Founders of VersionBay with the vision to empower companies to make the most of their software stacks. He is mainly responsible for Business Development, Sales and Marketing. Gareth is very passionate about technology and is fueled by enthusiastic new ideas and thoughts. The decision to start VersionBay is due to his continuous will to embrace change, to adapt and to live life with no regrets. Gareth was born in Johannesburg but has lived in 7 different countries, of which his favorite country was Macau. He loves traveling and exploring new places with different people. One of the most marking moments in his life was when he traveled alone to New York. While walking in the streets of Manhattan he realized that anything would be possible if you really want it.

"Most people are always impressed when I share my story of how and why I started a company. Typically the next step is a personal justification why others haven’t done it. I find myself often trying to explain how the startup world works and I am more than happy to help people break those conceptions about how hard/easy it is to create a company."

Topics: Entrepreneurship & Leadership

Jannie van den Broek
Director of Value, Access and Policy at Amgen

In her 23+ years in the pharmaceutical industry, Jannie has held various roles, at different companies, with increasing responsibility. Started as a sales representative in primary care and moving to specialty care quickly. Then made the step to marketing and strategic positions such as Business Development Manager and Brand Lead. 5 years ago, Jannie was asked to build a solid value strategy for the Dutch affiliate of Amgen, and ever since has been instrumental in driving the transformation of the Dutch affiliate towards a Value Based Healthcare company.   
 
Jannie holds a Master degree in Movement Sciences from Maastricht University, with additional specialization certificates in (child) rehabilitation from the VU University in Amsterdam. After this scientific training, she worked as a researcher for a short while before switching to business. Her profile is best characterized as a quick thinker with strong analytical skills and a helicopter view separating essentials from side issues, providing focus and direction. She combines a visionary, entrepreneurial attitude with a “can-do” mentality and functions optimally when building vision and strategy, and leading a team to effectuate strategic choices, being successful through and with the team.

Topics: Leadership & How to innovate and network in an ecosystem

Folkert Huysinga
Organizational behaviour and change manager, founder of Hearttarget

Owner of Hearttarget.nl & proud partner of Askmepartners.com & HOFP.nl. Doing what I like to do, being encouraged to challenge myself with constant opportunity to develop new skills and deepen those that I already have. I facilitate transformational team workshops. Next to that I offer team & individual development programs and I lead global change programs. As an interim manager I step in teams where temporary management is needed: from project- and event management to procurement and M&A / Post Merger Integration (PMI) management as well as change management processes.

Topics: Leadership & personal growth

Clara Otero Perez
Senior Director of System Innovations at NXP Semiconductors

Clara Otero Pérez is Director Systems Innovations for Automotive at NXP Semiconductor in Eindhoven (NL). She is responsible for scouting new systems and applications where NXP’s products would play a role and build proof of concepts and demonstrators for those new applications such as cooperative connected car, autonomous driving and UAV. 

After graduating in Physics by the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, she started to work for Philips Research in Eindhoven (NL) as a research scientist in the field of real-time systems and multimedia processors. In 2006 she moved to NXP and started working on automotive and secure connectivity related projects. In 2008 she became department manager driving innovation activities both internal as well as with partners in subsidy projects in the areas of IoT, connected car and cooperative mobility.

Topics: Personal growth & career advice

Beata Wandachowicz-Krason
Director in Supplier Risk Management at Philips

I’m the Director of Procurement Risk Management in Royal Philips, a leading health technology company, currently delivering solutions to fight Covid-19. I’m currently leading Procurement Risk Management program, which received internal Procurement & Supplier Quality Award in 2019 and is shortlisted for World Procurement Award 2020 by Procurement Leaders organization. In my  16 years of experience, I spent half of my career working for Philips in Poland and half in the Netherlands, holding various positions in Finance and Procurement. I led ~2 B Euro Supply Chain Finance program, became a partner for SCF Community in the Netherlands, coordinated research studies on new supply chain financing models, was a numerous speaker and a panelist at SCF Forum in Amsterdam and was a member of the judging panel for inaugural SCF Awards for FinTech and Bank solutions.  

As a genuine leader, I continuously seeks ways to improve processes in complex structures and develop people in multi-layered organizations. I have a lot of passion for innovating new ways of working, being visionary, staying close to breakthrough and disruptive solutions. Personally I’m future-oriented, love to see beyond today. I’m inspired by thought-leaders, futurists and great innovators in different aspects of exponential technology, sociology and psychology. I am a true believer that growth and development happens out of your comfort zone, so staying curious, open-minded and courageous is key to life-long learning and personal success. I am also passionate about Inclusion & Diversity, especially growth and promotion of female role models. I organized the first Philips International Women's Day 2018, engaging 40 locations and 6500 thousand employees across the globe. I’m also a mentor for early career women in Philips, mentor a local Women4Women program in Brainport Eindhoven in the Netherlands. 

Topics: Leadership & personal growth