Dare to chair
This year’s network event with Mirella Visser on 12 September is a wrap! The evening took place in the artistic and historic art’otel and proved to be a great success. The night started with a welcome speech by our chair, Béatrice Meulen, in which she also introduced Mirella Visser as our new Friend of TopFem. Mirella held an interactive session with a room full of ambitious students and young professionals. Mirella told us about her experiences during her career, as well as her perceptions on leadership and the future.
Mirella started her career at ING, where she succeeded to break
the ceiling, as the first female board director in Asia. She continued to have an insightful and rich career, where she worked at KMPG and founded the Centre for Inclusive Leadership. Mirella is especially passionate about female leadership, which led her to co-found several networking organizations for business women, including the European Professonal Women’s Network.
Mirella shared with us that it is important to take the lead, and always jump at any opportunity you get. You need to “dare to chair”, to bring about tangible change. She also mentioned that, being part of a system, means you need to change yourself, before you can bring about change in a system.
Taking a look forward into the future of digital revolution, Mirella expressed her concern for the current low presence of women in technology at the brink of the next digital revolution. Having a technical background is essential for benefiting from the challenges that are presented in the next digital revolution. Mirella also shared her personal views with us, and presented and signed her work. After Mirella’s interactive lecture, we continued getting acquainted and sharing experiences, of course with drinks! We look back on a successful evening, being enriched with a canvass of views and ambitions.
