During her stay in Mexico Marie-Thérèse compared different cities and noticed how arts and culture influence the well-being and liveliness of the city. Once established in Rotterdam she made it her mission to utilize the innovative strength of the creative industry for inclusive city development.She supported Artpark - free-zone for art and architecture - as business manager with developing business model scenarios, planning, promotion and presentations. Artpark is a plan for (temporary) urban development and innovation with cross-overs in arts, architecture, culture and business, with space for leisure and knowledge sharing. The initiative consciously invites the diverse population living in and visiting the surroundings of the park to create liveliness in the area.With the persistence of the economic crisis Marie-Thérèse introduced the concept of Corporate Social Collaboration by which young cultural organizations are matched with businesses to mutually strengthen each other by combining the different point of views of each organization.Linked to her international project MTic-design she joined forces with MadeIn4Havens with the goal to locally produce the products that are designed by the international collaboration of MTic-design: innovate globally, produce locally. She supported this initiative to foster the creative crafts industry in Rotterdam. Her activities were amongst others: strengthening the mission and vision for inclusive city development, business modeling, presenting, networking, proposal writing for subsidies, organizational planning and social entrepreneurship.

Shaping and development of business for the Slimme Regenton (smart rain barrel), a smart, flexible and design solution for climate adaption of cities, developed by design Studio Bas Sala.

The MTic-design knowledge exchange program between The Netherlands and Colombia is a collaboration of Woltering Works with Studio Bas Sala. It seeks to develop innovative products together and to share and create design knowledge for both professional and educational purposes. Apart from design knowledge, new ways of co-creation and innovation by mixing cultures resulted from the project. The program gives an impulse to the creative industry in participating countries, establishes relations between participants and fosters cultural enrichment in general. This approach is applicable for innovation in other industries as well, with the solution and action based designer mindset at the core. More on www.mtic-design.nl

Delfshaven is a collection of neighborhoods in Rotterdam with approximately 80,000 inhabitants. As replacement for the district councils, area committees were intended to function less politically and more actively involved in the districts. Being the eyes and ears of the neighbourhoods, they were connected to the city council as well as the administration (a peculiar double hat). The role of active involvement and link to the city government seemed very interesting to me. However, the political reality is too difficult to really let the message of the neighborhoods get through to the decision-makers. Nevertheless, throughout the period I remained sharp on local interests and democratic legitimacy with critical and solution driven advices aimed at the interests of residents, companies and organisations.Focus areas: urban development, arts & cultural heritage, local economy & employment, (social) entrepreneurship, innovation, climate adaptation, diversity, democratic legitimacy.

For Theatre Embassy Marie-Thérèse researched, analysed and supported the publication with regard to the 'DNA' of cultural organizations in Honduras and Costa Rica as part of the program Global Theatre Connection. She also helped cultural organization Arte Acción in Tegucigalpa, Honduras with their business plan, and was co-author of the publication "Behind the scenes, Cultural entrepreneurship in developing countries".

Supervision of the large cultural institutions of a local government: establishing a good relationship on a strategic level in order to achieve results worthy the subsidies the institutions receive. Also supervision of several cultural projects subsidized by the local government.

IERC provides all services that are related to education. Marie-Thérèse supported the director with the strategy and provided training in communication skills for a Mexican company.

Strategic planning: design and planning of strategy implementation resulting from solid problem analysis & solving, or from changes caused by privatization, legislation, new business.Other tasks: business analysis, business case development, project management, change consultancy, risk management (performing audits on large proposals and projects).Courses (amongst others): business & information architecture, project management, facilitating workshops, problem solving / team building, team buying / team selling, communication skills, business process innovation (redesign), personal development, information analysis, iterative application design, etc. With this experience Marie-Thérèse knows how to define innovative strategies, bridge strategy and implementation and get changes accepted by the organization. She can also give solid advice about the feasibility of proposals as well as auditing current and finished projects.Marie-Thérèse worked in the sectors: Energy, Travel, Public Transport, Finance, (semi)Public sector, Telecom & Services