A path, not a list of jobs.

I'm Dutch, and I've lived outside the Netherlands since 1997. At 15 I started in the dish pit of an event venue. When you start at the bottom, you learn where a business really sticks — housekeeping, service and the kitchen often know exactly what's not working. From 1997 I went to Ritz-Carlton — Atlanta, Washington D.C., Boston, Miami. I was part of the Wolfsburg opening. Horst Schulze was a key role model for me: high standards in service, without losing respect for the people who deliver it.

At 31 I took my first hotel director role in Euskirchen. Then Capella in Germany and the US, and about ten years as General Manager of the SIDE Design Hotel Hamburg. My own house, my own numbers, my own responsibility.

Today I'm COO and board member of Vorreiter AG, a hotel group with its own properties. Since 2023 I've been building the company with my partners. I've run hotels, built teams, worked through takeovers, and owned the numbers.

I also teach hotel management at the Bodensee Campus, and topics in leadership, service quality and digitalisation. And I work hands-on with AI, websites, sales, marketing and CRM — as part of my work, not as a buzzword list.

Not former hospitality, now AI. But: when you've worked in the operation, you see faster where technology really helps and where it just creates work.

I'm not a developer. But I know what a CRM inquiry, a clear follow-up and a through-line website move in the day-to-day. Good leadership and sensible digital workflows give people more room for good work and real encounters. That's exactly where I come in.

I'm Dutch and I live in Germany. I speak German, Dutch and English like a native. When you're at home in two countries, you see both cultures from the inside.

The German side: thorough, structured, with a high standard on reliability. The Dutch side: direct, pragmatic, with a matter-of-fact ease that can read as bold at first.

Both have their place. And often it's exactly the view from the other side that helps.

I like being in the operation. Not in the conference room, but where it happens. When what you planned actually runs, it still makes me happy. And when it doesn't, I stay until it does.

Listen first, then change. I learn every day and I'm willing to question my own views. Service doesn't come from memorised phrases, but from attention, reliability and real encounters.