Hi there, I am Marijke.

I come from the south of the Netherlands, where I grew up with my parents Ietje and Ger, my big brother Maarten and my sister Mariette. During my high school years I was an enthusiastic swimmer, I remember doing the morning training at 6.15 six days a week. No idea how that happened, nowadays it’s a struggle to drag myself out of bed at 7.30.

After my diploma, I moved to Rotterdam to start University. After two years of struggling with boredom, I finally admitted Dutch Law wasn’t my thing. In the meantime I did find another way to spend my days, namely in the rowing boat. I rediscovered discipline and trained again 10 times a week. After my own rowing career (although career sounds more spectacular than it was), I coached teams for two more years. I love the competitiveness and team spirit that goes with it.

In the meantime I started – and finished – to study Psychology in Leiden. In the final year, I chose masters in Social & Organizational Psychology, I did my internship at ING Human Resources. And one thing led to the other.

I followed the general management traineeship, saw many sides of the company (Marketing, Channels) and found my first “real” job at Product management. Since the recent reorganization I am allowed to call myself “Chapter Lead,” in the “Tribe Payment Services.” When I try to explain that to my friends and family, I tend not to get through to the end of my sentence as they start laughing at my face. And I can’t blame them, those terms sounds silly when you hear them outside of the jungle book cartoon. But the great thing is that they mix together so nicely!

I still live in Rotterdam, I love that city. Still love to do sport (running, cycling, whatever) but love to have food & drinks with friends even more.

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