Brand, marketing, retail & customer experience | Digital Service Design & Business Development

I’m a freelance advisor for creative, conceptual and strategic brand and communication development (all touchpoints, from retail to digital): starting from a pragmatic analysis (consumer, market, product, competition, distribution…), I work out a clear and workable strategy with original views, fresh ideas and proposals for relevant, up-to-date design and communication techniques. My clients vary from government and corporate enterprises to smaller companies, especially retail and restaurants. I’m also a guest speaker and teacher for all subjects listed above.

Major projects: MAS Antwerpen (2011 opening), vtm (2011 Werk aan de Winkel), S.M.A.K Gent (2012 Track), Bolides (2013 launch), Restaurants Món (2014 Antwerpen, 2016 Wilrijk), Fermet/De Fermetisten (2015), Atelier Millevaches (2016), Salons van Edel (2017), Pÿur in Germany (creation and launch of new shops, 2017-2018).

I teach Retail & Business Development to 3rd-year Marketing Bachelors: it’s an intensive practical course where they learn retail (offline and offline) basics, project management, and business development.
The students work on a real retail project, adding value, learning project management, focusing on analysis and (creative and strategic) advice. Retailers in and around Antwerp: please contact me.
Projects 2017: iBike, Connections, Hallmark@De Standaard Boekhandel, Crayola, Urban Window, Theo (Somers Optiek)

I teach Digital Service Design and I coach several groups of postgraduates in Digital Marketing & Communications at EMS Brussels. This course has grown to become an important practical experience in which the students work their way through a service design process. They work in project teams around one topic: Mobility (2015-16), Retail (2016-17) and Education (2017-18).

I deliver brand, communication and (retail) marketing strategies and concepts. I’m a coach and a teacher. Above all I’m a non-conformist with a very open mind who sees creative solutions and who likes giving customers a rewarding experience.

I started my career in 1994, simultaneously as a teacher of English and as a copywriter at the Belgian Road Safety Institute, where I became the campaign responsible for mass media campaigns like ‘Bob’. In 1997 I became the press officer of a Secretary of State where I acted both as the spokeswoman and the communication counsellor. In 1999 I re-oriented myself from non-profit and government communication towards commercial and brand communication at Mobistar (Orange) where I took several roles, allowing me to scan the full spectrum of retail marketing and marketing communication. I became the Director of Brand & Commercial Communication, leading the brand through its most challenging moments until then, surrounded by a great bunch of people! After more than ten years, I moved on.. to wider horizons as a freelance consultant, offering coaching, advice and concept creation to agencies and advertisers, retailers and start-ups. I coached local retailers for a TV show, I participated in the launch of MAS in Antwerp and TRACK for S.M.A.K. in Ghent. At the same time I started teaching at KdG Hogeschool and EHSAL Management School. I launched a start-up (De Fermetisten) in 2015 but had to abandon the project in 2016. Since then, I further developed Schrijfwerken.

In 1998-1999 I undertook an 8-month trip through outback Australia resulting in a non-fiction novel. The second big trip was a 3-month hiking adventure through New Zealand in 2003.
I have two sons.

I have a master degree in English and postgraduate degrees in Literature and Teaching. During my years at Mobistar I followed several high-level training programmes, I did a manager’s and a director’s assessment with Hudson.

My MBTI profile is ENTP

• Belgian Road Safety Institute
• Belgian minister Jan Peeters
• Mobistar (Orange)
• MAS
• vtm (Werk aan de Winkel)
• TRACK for S.M.A.K.
• De Fermetisten
• Món
• Atelier Millevaches
• Loft 4C
• Neurobionics
• Salons van Edel
• Pÿur (Berlin)
• Comeos
• UNIZO
• Turnleaf
• E5-mode
• B.I.G.H.
• …