Advocating for progressive portrayal and designing a barrier free world for People with Disabilities, as the often forgotten cohort in companies' DEI efforts. Helping brands lose their fear of telling universal stories through the lens of disability.On a wider scale, making sense of the human experience and bringing this to the heart of the decision making process to help brands innovate, communicate and grow.

We use the fundamental concepts of Applied Empathy and Design Thinking to help brands create a sustainable connection with the people that buy their products or services. Treating consumers not as the target, but as equal co-pilots in a brand’s eco-system. Contact me when you want:• To see the world from your audience’s POV• To understand which cultural trends shape the eco-system your brand lives in• To reposition or refresh a legacy brand for an existing or new audience• To accelerate thinking around innovation & create minimum viable concepts • To see how design can strategically support your brand and business• To create impact by identifying the right story, creative idea & executing it in the right way

Specialist in generating insight to inspire the design and innovation process, using an approach based on the principles of Design Thinking, a human-centred ethos that guides creative development Understanding consumers' relationship with design across touch-points, using implicit behavioural research techniques across multiple disciplines, including packaging, visual brand language, product innovation and strategy

Using Applied Empathy to inspire & propel brand and design teams forward based on rich consumer insights, strategic market intelligence, and trend forecastingStrategyInsightsInnovationCommunication & Activation

Driving global innovation, strategy and communication creationSkilled facilitator leading innovation & ideation sessions across all Unilever brandsNew product and brand development, in particular in these spaces: Full of Good, Health, Wellness and Naturals.New business models, (digital) launch strategies & start-upsTrends & Thought LeadershipInsights & Foresight

Innate Motion is a global consulting company, specialized in building brands with purpose, and co-authors of the Unilever Sustainable Living Brands model• Put purpose at the heart of brands through representing the voice of the consumer, inspiring empathy skills within internal teams and positioning for life (not for the shelf).• Facilitated multi-disciplinary sprint workshops, including consumer co-creation, to craft a new purpose-led brand positioning, detect whitespaces for innovation, or finetune and localize communication and activation

I kickstarted a previously non-existing Government Tourism Board for an unknown destination. Under my leadership, tourism to Flanders increased by +10% in 2010 and 2011, and +5.5% in 2012, exceeding the European average.By tackling preconceptions ("Belgium is boring"), we raised awareness ("I don't know where Flanders is") and built a contemporary and dynamic New York office around a core team with a strong focus on communication strategy, social media, business development, sales and PR. Being smart and on-strategy paid off. We consistently used themes and touch-points - gastronomy & beer, culture & heritage, cycling, fashion - to generate interest, drive travel and create brand ambassadors for Flanders. Our very first campaign was titled "Flanders, it's in Belgium." We gave the brand Flanders a face, we walked and talked like a challenger brand, but at least we were an underdog with personality!Achievements include: Co-founder of the annual Belgian Restaurant Week in New York, successful launch of the Red Star Line Museum in Antwerp, telling the stories of more than 2 million immigrants who left Europe VIA ANTWERP.Vice-Chairman of the US Operations Group of the European Travel Commission.The European Travel Commission (ETC) is the organisation responsible for the promotion of Europe as a tourist destination. ETC has been operating for more than 60 years. It was established in 1948, and operates as a non profit-making international organization, joining together the local representatives of the 33 member countries.

Consultancy in Branding, Strategy, Consumer Research and Communication.- Guided a consumer intelligence & big data analytics company through a repositioning, re-branding and re-naming exercise, leading to increased growth. In 2013 Enqio was acquired by NGData.- Assisted the Strategic Advisory Cell to the Flemish Government to establish a campaign concept for its presidency of the European Union.- Co-created with a design company a new full-service brand concept for a realty website (like Zillow, Trulia), encompassing services beyond home and appartement search and offering design, inspection & other ancillary services.

Leveraged consumer and cultural insights in Belgium’s top creative agency to inspire creatives and increase the success of (new) business efforts.Clients and brands I worked on over the years: Senseo (single serve coffee system), Nearly New Car (Mercedes) Biscoff/Jules Destrooper (baked goods), Dexia/Mercator (banking & insurance), Duvel/Kriek Bellevue (beers), Brussels Airlines/Virgin Express, Gaia (animal rights), Doctors without Vacation (non-profit), Canvas/Ketnet (TV channels), Radio 1/Studio Brussels (radio stations), Flair/Feeling (women's magazines), Governmental Promotion of the dairy/bakery/flower growing industries, , Iceland Health (Food supplements), Schweppes.Effie Winner for Lotus (Biscoff) campaign to launch peperkoek (gingerbread)

Worked at Censydiam (pre and post acquisition by Synovate) - Centre for Systematic Diagnostics in Marketing. Conducted multi-country, cross-cultural motivational consumer research, in order to grow brands by connecting with deeper human motivations. Expert in all aspects of qualitative research, from designing a research journey, to moderation (ethnographies, focus groups, individual interviews), using techniques derived from psychology (projection, psycho-drawing, dream exercises...) to elicit more unconscious and subconscious motivations underlying human behavior.Using the Censydiam proprietary methodology and human psychological model to provide insights to clients on brand positioning, motivational segmentation, brand innovation and new product development, communication/packaging/naming testing, portfolio management and white space development.Helped launch the Synovate Censydiam branch office in London in 2001-2002 as the Qualitative Lead. Responsibilities included: coaching and mentoring a team of qualitative researchers, supervising project execution and quality control, managing integrated research projects for global key accounts.Oversaw projects in 25 countries worldwide for global clients:• The Coca-Cola Company (Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, Dasani, Aquarius, NPD), Heineken Intl (Heineken, Amstel (light), Coors), Unilever (Becel), Friesland Dairy, Campina, Masterfoods, Van Melle-Perfetti (Mentos, Skittles, Fruitella), Guylian, Volvo, Toyota, Communications: Nokia