What attracted you to Sibelco?
There were multiple elements that caught my eye when I came across Sibelco as a potential employer. First of all, being able to work in a multinational business environment where you can get to know colleagues from all over the world and have a taste of their different cultures. Second, I could very much identify with the values Sibelco reflects such as integrity, respect and ownership as well as having sustainability and health & safety as fundamental part of the vision. Lastly, I found the job description itself very appealing: having the freedom to explore and grow your capabilities within different functions and settings is a major benefit.
What was your first impression after joining Sibelco?
When I joined Sibelco, I was coming straight from university with still a lot of experience to gain. From the start, the willingness from colleagues to help and support one another really stood out. Not only my direct colleagues, but also people from all around the company, happily made time to teach me about Sibelco businesses. This open culture and transfer of knowledge across functions and geographies has made it a very interesting learning environment and helped me adopt best practises more easily.
What does your career path look like?
After finishing my master in Business Engineering from the Catholic University of Leuven, I started at Sibelco in the Commercial Graduate Program in November 2019. The program allowed me to explore multiple commercial functions, to discover the best fit between myself and a job. My first rotation of six months was with the Commercial Excellence team where I was involved in optimizing the pricing tools such as PRO and developing a digital training platform for CRM. Next, I moved on to the Strategic Marketing department, which taught me a lot about market scoping, opportunity identification and driving projects forward for execution. After a short passage of a couple months with the Commercial Marketing team, which gave me insights on the more tactical side of marketing, I started in my current function as Strategy Analyst within the Strategy & Business Development team. my colleagues and I take care of strategy development, execution facilitation and monitoring.
How do you relax after a busy day at work?
After a long day of mainly sitting behind the computer, I enjoy being outdoors for a couple of hours. Whether it is by going to my soccer practices -which provide me with some much needed exercise a couple of times a week-,or going for a walk with my dog, who particularly seemed to like the extra attention he received as a silver lining to the Covid impact.
What/who inspires you?
Seeing people come together and take action on a cause near to their heart. Whether it’s a fundraiser from my football team or for example the climate protests. I find they send out a feeling of community, which has become more and more important, especially during the pandemic. It also gives a sense of empowerment, that even small actions can have a meaningful impact.
What should every Sibelco employee know about you?
I was born and raised in Kasterlee, a small town in the ‘Kempen’ in Belgium, which is most famous for its pumpkin games such as the pumpkin regatta. Both in my personal and professional life, I love to travel and discover new cultures. That’s why I happily took the opportunity to spend six months in Australia during my masters study. Besides travelling, you can always interest me with a tactical board game, but be aware that I am a sore loser.
