Hello, my name is Diane, and I am the new intern at BR-ND People. Here is a quick introduction of who I am as a person!

In my everyday life, I love to do sports, cooking, baking, reading, spending time in nature, being creative through calligraphy and art, and spending time with friends and family. I am definitely an extrovert, and much prefer cooking and creating for others than just for myself and being able to share these moments with others. Hence why I’ve shared a few of my favourite quotes with you today.

I am firm believer in the goodness of people, the wonders we all hold within ourselves if given the right opportunity and one of my favourite books is Humankind (De Meeste Mensen Deugen) by Rutger Bregman. That is also why I would love to work in HR or organisational culture, and put the human back at the centre of organisations. After my bachelor at Hotelschool the Hague, I want to pursue a masters in Managing People, Knowledge and Change in Lund University, but possibly gain some work experience before that. I want to be able to learn from the classroom and research, but also from real-life experience.

Throughout my childhood I have been lucky enough to discover different cultures, making me a very curious person at heart, wanting to learn more about others and about the world I am in. Something I took away from it is that hospitality is universal, and we can all make the world a slightly better place. So that is what I strive for in my everyday life, at whatever scale that is. As such, some of my strongest values are transparency, sustainability, equality, integrity and freedom.

We should take more time to check on each other, spend an extra five minutes talking to someone new, and learning from one another. I’ll share one topic I am very passionate about: gender equality in decision-making positions. Currently, I am writing my bachelor thesis on the topic of female executives in the Dutch lodging industry, looking at it from an ethical perspective, in opposition to the neoliberal arguments which currently dominate the debate. I think it is key to get in different perspectives and points of view to make decisions which benefit to the society at large and not just a few, so I am exploring the potential of feminist stakeholder theory in this context. This focuses on making use of collaboration, decentralisation, empowerment, webs of relations and solidarity in business instead of competition, control, conflict, power and objectivity. I think it’s a fascinating topic!

One final ray of positivity to leave you with “Throw kindness around like confetti”!