Utrecht, 11 September 2023 - Marloes van den Berg has been appointed Chief People & Sustainability Officer of Royal Jaarbeurs with effect from 1 September 2023. With this, the Utrecht-based Jaarbeurs bundles and combines its HR and sustainability activities.
Marloes van den Berg brings to her new position more than 15 years of experience in project management, event management, leadership and change management. As Chief Sustainability Officer since September 2020. Van den Berg started as a management trainee in 2005 and attended Jaarbeurss training/talent programme. For years, she committed herself as project and development manager at VNU Exhibitions Europe, part of Jaarbeurs. From 2017 to 2020, she served as Commercial Director within the organisation. Van den Berg studied International Business at Maastricht University.
Sustainable future through people's wellbeing
Jaarbeurs is continuously taking steps to be Europe's most sustainable organiser and facilitator by 2030. Jeroen van Hooff, CEO Royal Jaarbeurs: "To realise this ambition, we desperately need our own employees. After all, sustainability is always about people and HR is one of the five themes within our sustainability strategy. We are therefore making a conscious choice to merge the positions of Chief People Officer and Chief Sustainabililty Officer into one combined position."
This is the first time Jaarbeurs has combined the two disciplines. Marloes van den Berg: "I am very honoured to take on this new role within Jaarbeurs. In my former role as Chief Sustainability Officer, in recent years I increasingly came across themes that interface or overlap with our HR policy. These include diversity, inclusion, vitality and sustainable mobility. I look forward to using my (commercial) experiences from my previous positions to create a sustainable inclusive organisation in which I focus on talent development."
Connecting leadership between customers, suppliers, visitors and employees
According to Van den Berg, sustainability is about behavioural change. Marloes: "Behavioural change does not happen by itself. Connective leadership is very important in this. I am talking about all stakeholders of Jaarbeurs: customers, suppliers, visitors and our own employees. Internally, we have to stand together for our own sustainability ambitions and plans. In this way, we can convince and entice our customers, suppliers and visitors to take up the gauntlet together. I am looking forward to applying my experience in sustainability, change management and industry and organisational knowledge in this new position. For me, a unique opportunity to engage in both the well-being of our own people and the promotion of sustainable practices in our own operations." Van Hooff continues: "Our people and sustainability are the two most powerful elements that run through all activities at Jaarbeurs. Both elements are necessary to find solutions to the most pressing problems of our time. With Marloes' years of experience in change management and her extensive knowledge of sustainability, I am convinced that she will further help Jaarbeurs in its mission to be a leading sustainable organisation."
Board composition
The management team of Royal Jaarbeurs consists of six members:
- Jeroen van Hooff - Chief Executive Officer
- Pascal van Gool - Chief Financial Officer
- Heiko M. Stutzinger - Chief Operations Officer
- Marloes van den Berg - Chief People & Sustainability Officer
- Corine Bos - Head of IT
- Menno Overtoom - Head of Venue & Operations
