It's not that it was always my dream to build a career in this field. Actually, I got into the industry through my sport after my studies. I played premier league hockey for ten years, one of the club's sponsors was credit insurer Atradius and the club's president worked there. I was looking for work, they were looking for candidates. So one and one was two.
Punctual and precise
My tasks at Xolv are diverse, from Finance and HR to sales, marketing and our major customers. That variety suits me, I am a very structured worker, love deadlines and keeping appointments. When I start work in the morning, I first make sure that all client matters are taken care of, which always takes precedence over internal matters. Those follow later in the day. Despite my punctuality and precise work, I have also made a huge blunder on occasion. It was a long time ago and it was solved immediately as best as possible, but it still wakes me up sometimes. An e-mail went to all the top brokers, instead of the selection from that list. You have to know that that was in the early days of the mail era... You couldn't retrieve mails yet. That was really sweating. I had to email everyone to ask very nicely if they didn't want to do anything with the info in the mail. I always double-checked everything, but you can imagine I've been doing extra checks since then!
What you see...
I am like a fish in the water at Xolv, as a person and as an entrepreneur I am very loyal, building and maintaining long-term relationships is my number one priority. First and foremost, we work in line with the market and I notice that many of our customers remain loyal to us because of this. We fit together as it were. In that respect, my no-nonsense attitude, what you see is what you get, helps. I come from a real entrepreneurial family; my father owned a garage. 'Just act normal, you'll be crazy enough' is how I grew up. And I am grateful for that, I feel at home everywhere and don't feel too bad or too good for anything. I just like to work hard and have a lot of fun at the same time. Enjoying life, drinking a good glass of wine with friends and laughing, travelling, eating good food. But also enjoying sports. Playing hockey has been, honestly because in my head I am still the premier league player... but my body thinks otherwise, hahaha. Now I go cycling regularly, play padel, enjoy playing golf and also do some cardio training. Sports will always have a role in my life. Just like insurance!
