Impact. That is my motivation, every single day. Helping people and organizations get more out of themselves, working with organizations that are running up against their own limits – where what is possible has yet to fully emerge.
What I bring is a combination of knowledge and experience. The experience I draw on was gained in a demanding environment: nearly 25 years in international law, more than twelve of them as a partner. I know what it means to work under pressure, with high expectations, significant stakes and an undercurrent that is not always easy to name or address. People don’t need to explain that world to me: the dynamics, the patterns, the effects of pressure – both positive and negative. Been there, done that, including the reactive and directive ways of working that can surface under stress and that rarely help.
I didn’t leave the legal profession because I was done with it. It was more that I had become fascinated by its dynamics – and by what I had been doing alongside my employment law work for years, as part of an international group of partners: working on mental health, leadership and culture. CORE People grew out of that fascination, and out of the conviction that things can genuinely be better.
In that same period, I learned a great deal about the positive and negative sides of stress – where it drives performance and where it undermines it. After founding CORE People in 2022, I deepened my understanding of the science of stress and translated it into everyday practice: what does stress do to cognition and behavior? How do you make it manageable – pressure as a driver of performance?
What drives me is both the conviction and the lived experience that things can be different. That people and organizations can achieve so much more when there is room for conscious choice, honest conversation, genuine connection and shared ownership. I work at the intersection of leadership, team dynamics and organizational culture – with a specific focus on pressure and what it does to people and systems. The impact I want to make requires an environment with ambition: people and organizations who are not aiming for slightly better, but for truly different – top level performance. That is what I do through CORE People, including as part of The School of Stress and Allied Forces.
Behavior change requires people who recognize themselves in what is being asked of them – and who see it as a challenge worth taking on. That is where you’ll find me: as a consultant, coach, trainer and external confidential counselor (vertrouwenspersoon), someone who thinks alongside people and organizations about how to genuinely unlock their potential and then put it to work. And who knows that things can be different – and how.
