About

I am an innovator specialized in Creative Leadership for Complex Societal Challenges. I strive to shape systemic change that improves health and wellbeing by harnessing the power of design. In my work I take an entrepreneurial, participatory approach where I synthesize design practices with knowledge from innovation sciences and (social) psychology. I love to work on complex problems that require entrepreneurship, creativity and participation to make systemic change a reality.

What I do

Making a Change
As a designer I’m passionate about change. I get inspired by meaningful transformations in the form of disruptive business, powerful leadership, new technologies or other initiatives that change the game. I get my energy from envisioning potential futures and exploring how we can translate these visions into a reality.

Creative Collaboration
I enjoy working with people and I consider collaboration an essential ingredient for design. In my work, I try to shape a creative synergy where a highly diverse group of people can be inspired and learn from each other. I think an atmosphere of creativity and openness in collaboration is critical for success. Moreover, the involvement of stakeholders in the design process, is essential to drive change. Designers should foster empathy and openness in participation to shape an understanding of the problem space. By sharing perspectives, we can make sense of complexity.

Design Leadership
I enjoy working on complex problems that require creativity, participation and leadership. I believe that design leadership plays an important role in societal challenges. By using empathy and creativity, design leaders can navigate through uncertainty and complexity. However, I think that design leadership requires more than design skills and entrepreneurship. With the ambition to realize systemic change, I aim to combine design, systems thinking, and leadership with knowledge on (social) psychology and innovation sciences.

Education

BSc
During my Bachelor Industrial Product Design I developed fundamental skills as an Industrial Product Designer. I learned to orchestrate creative processes and became interested in formgiving, concept development and innovation. My first internship at the Amsterdam based design agency Springtime fueled my hard skills and ambition and with the minors Allround Design and Innovation Methods & Management, I extended my knowledge in concept development and innovation strategy. I got enthusiastic about strategic design and learned to host creative workshops. During my thesis, I combined my strengths in a strategic design project at Jacobs Douwe Egberts. Altogether, I learned to strategically manage a creative process, embody values, orchestrate experiences, and I developed a rich sensitivity for aesthetics.

MSc
Ever since I first enrolled at the TU/e the combination of creativity and leadership strongly inspired me. I took the Design Leadership and Entrepreneurship specialization track and I developed an entrepreneurial design approach by adopting principles from Lean and Hypothesis Driven Entrepreneurship. During the first year of the Master, I developed my academic abilities as a design researcher, I learned to design interactive technologies with (and for) data & intelligence and, I experienced what intercultural sensitivity means in practice and how fundamental it is to deeply empathize with the ones you are designing for. In my second year, I explored the domain of Systemic Design to approach societal challenges at a larger scale which allowed me to extend my thinking and doing towards a macro level and scale my impact as designer. The domain of Systemic Design became a rich inspiration and allowed me to synthesize design and leadership in a meaningful way. Setting up a theoretical framework during my Final Master Project at Philips allowed me to extensively explore the domains of systems thinking, creativity, and leadership and practically implement them in my work. Altogether, I combined the things that inspire me, (leadership & systemic change) with the things that I find important (health & wellbeing), in a manner that I can build on my strengths (social, creative & empathic) to become a Designer that specializes in Creative Leadership for Complex Societal Challenges to drive Systemic Change that Improves Health and Wellbeing