I’m the new Fons Elbersen. I’m immediately reminded of an article in NRC (Dutch newspaper) about workplace behaviour, where a director introduces the new intern by saying, “This is the new Anne,” as if people are interchangeable. But everyone brings something unique to the table. I come from outside UM, having spent years working in the cultural sector. Fons, my predecessor and a former journalist, was very focused on media relations and did a fantastic job managing the cyber-attack. It was important to be transparent about what happened; I fully support that approach. However, media relations isn’t my speciality. We have three excellent team members for that. My background is in business administration, and I focus on strategic communication: how the university presents itself to the outside world, to potential students and staff. My goal is to shape that.
My go-to order at the snack bar is… Phew, I can’t remember the last time I went to a snack bar. Oh, wait, yes, it was in Maastricht, on a lovely evening the week before INKOM. My partner and I shared a paper cone of chips with zoervleisch and Belgian mayonnaise from a place on De Kommel.
What’s hard about love? [Pauses] You have to keep talking to each other, keep communicating. That’s not always easy; sometimes you get too caught up in the daily grind. I live in Maastricht Monday to Thursday and work from home in Amsterdam on Fridays. I try to reserve weekends for family and friends. I don’t feel like I’m missing much by being away more often. When I’m with Orris, I give him my full attention. When I was self-employed, the lines between work and personal life got incredibly blurred. Now, when I’m home, I’m truly present. And it’s quite refreshing to alternate between spending time with Victoria and Orris and having time to myself.
What upsets you? The current political climate, with its complete lack of empathy for others’ perspectives. Politicians who stoke conflict instead of resolving it, forgetting that they serve as role models, and preach values they don’t practise.
When was the last time you laughed out loud? Last weekend. My father was celebrating his 71st birthday with the whole family – my mother, brother, sisters, in-laws and seven grandchildren. It was his last birthday; he’s dying of a metastatic brain tumour. Everything feels heightened because of that. When we sang Lang zal hij leven [“Long shall he live”], we couldn’t help but laugh, despite everything. He laughed, too.
What were you like as a child? I was curious and sweet, and I loved playing football. I dreamt of going pro, but I wasn’t good enough. I realised that when I didn’t make the Under-10s first team. I come from a typical middle-class family. My parents ran a delicatessen. I’m the youngest by years – my sisters (identical twins) are six years older, and my brother is eight years older. Everyone was always busy, so I learnt to be self-reliant, deciding who to play with and where. We were independent from an early age, each carving out our own paths, but we’re there for each other when needed.
The hardest part of my job is... navigating an organisation that can be opaque. What I mean by that is that I’m not used to being responsible for things without having full control over them. For example, sometimes I have to deliver results without having a say in the budget.
What would you change about yourself? [Thinks] Honestly, nothing. I’m a content person. I’m learning a lot in this role. That’s been a recurring theme in my life: I’ve always sought out places and situations where I can learn a lot. I used to work in the cultural sector, where, just like at UM, the focus is very much on content. My clients were often small and working with limited budgets, so they were very creative and resourceful. I hope to bring some of that inventiveness to UM.
What’s your greatest weakness? Impatience. I have so many ideas and I want to get started on them right away, but I need to be patient and respect the fact that a university that has been around for almost fifty years has developed its own way of doing things. I’d like to make faster progress, for example when it comes to the website and other forms of digital communication. We’ve recently made improvements to the website, which I’m happy about, but there’s still a lot to do. I plan to bring in an external digital strategist.
My patience is tested both at work and at home. If we oversleep and Orris needs to go to the babysitter, I’m in a rush, but try explaining that to a three-year-old who just wants to play with his toy cars. I prefer to live life on my own terms, but that’s just not how it works with a toddler, or [laughs] in an organisation with 4500 employees.
Guilty pleasure? I spent a year in Moscow (2013–2014, just before the annexation of Crimea) working as a research fellow in urban strategy at the Strelka Institute. I made lots of friends there and became fascinated by Russian culture. Here in the Netherlands, people seem very open but aren’t necessarily so. In Russia, it’s the opposite: once you get to know them, they truly open their hearts and homes to you. You get invited for home-cooked meals, have long conversations deep into the night, go out together… Since the war in Ukraine – which I strongly condemn – my fascination with Russian culture feels like a bit of a guilty pleasure.