Rapid Growth Through Unstoppable Positive Energy and Passion for Hard Work.
Born in Amsterdam, I moved to the United States in 2014 and started my professional journey the following year. I joined San Francisco’s first coworking space, Paisoma, as the Director of Construction and Experience Design. After a successful launch at Parisoma, I was recruited to join the world’s first VR/AR dedicated coworking office and event hub, Upload SF. As Upload’s General Manager, I caught the “VR Bug” and found my home within the immersive tech community as a facilitator of growth for many startups in the industry.
From there, I focused on growing the community through scaling distribution, whether it be hardware, content, or infrastructure for VR attractions. At Exit Reality, I led hardware distribution and infrastructure manufacturing. I recruited and led the team into new markets, such as LBE and experiential marketing in 2016. During my tenure at Exit Reality, I recognized the need to bridge the gap between LBE venues and the VR attraction manufacturers, so I launched LBE News to facilitate those connections. While at HTC Vive, I focused on the Vive X Accelerator Program to discover and uplift talent. Additionally, I facilitated partnerships for Viveport with a concentrated effort on content distribution and acquisition.
Most recently, I joined the AR creative startup Enklu. As the Director of Productions, I opened E.den, an Augmented Reality Lab, right in the heart of San Francisco. With a goal of lowering the barrier of entry for AR content creation, Enklu provides hardware, hands-on support, and an easy to use drag-and-drop content creation platform all included for its members. Within one month of opening E.den, I hosted over 90 creators, focused on enterprise, entertainment, and personal content creation.
Throughout my career, my passion for organizing events and bringing people together has blossomed. I find joy in the conversations and ideas that arise when industry members are brought together at one of my events. As a leader, growing teams, discovering talent, and developing strategic partnerships are the parts of the journey where I thrive. VR and AR are situated perfectly at the crossroads of art and technology, and I could not be more excited to be a driving force within the industry.
