Edelman Amsterdam announces the arrival of several new senior team members who will further strengthen the agency’s ability to provide strategic communications and marketing services to current and future clients. These new hires, on the heels of another recent expansion wave of the team, are the latest in a line of additions to the Dutch Edelman operation and mark an important milestone in the transformation of the agency in the Dutch marketplace.
“Edelman has fundamentally changed its approach to the business in an effort to help clients take advantage of a rapidly changing global and local communications and marketing environment in order to achieve their business objectives.” said Arent Jan (AJ) Hesselink, who started as General Manager of Edelman Amsterdam just over a year ago. “Now that we have built the capabilities to deliver truly integrated strategic communications marketing services, we are able to take the next step and bring in the right client leaders to drive forward this way of working for all our clients”.
The team will report to Chief Client Officer Steve Heywood. He said: “Our clients deserve the best, and after an extensive search we are delighted to welcome our new client leadership team who truly represent best-in-class talent. In partnership with our clients, we will deliver exceptional integrated campaigns which earn attention across channels and drive meaningful business outcomes for the leading brands and organisations we are proud to represent.”
The new client leadership team for Edelman Amsterdam comprises two external hires and an internal promotion. They are:
Eeva Raaijmakers, a corporate communications veteran joining from Royal Philips, where she spent a decade in senior global corporate communications roles. Eeva will lead all corporate communications, or B2B communications activities at Edelman. Before Philips, Eeva worked at KPMG as a communication manager and at Ricoh Europe.
Lauren Valbert, an experienced international communications professional with a deep appreciation for and experience in communications for the tech industry and start-ups. Lauren started her career with leading agencies in the US and moved to the Netherlands in 1999 with JWT/ Imagio. In her subsequent cross-border, highly international career, Lauren has been active in the tech-start-up scene and consultancy world. Lauren will lead healthcare, technology and health tech activities at Edelman.
Margriet de Ruijter is an 11-year Edelman veteran. Most recently she led the design and deployment of a world-first enterprise resource planning tool at Edelman and prior to this built up extensive client service experience as an associate director at Edelman Amsterdam and previously as leader of Zeno, Daniel J Edelman’s conflict brand. Margriet will lead all B2C activities.
In addition to this new client leadership team, Edelman Amsterdam has the pleasure of welcoming even more team members across all capabilities:
Martin Klok, our new Digital strategist, who is highly experienced in both B2C and B2B as consultant, project manager and digital specialist. He has a background in marketing communications and joins us from several companies including Linden & Barbosa, Winkelman Van Hessen, Cohn & Wolfe and Eneco Groep.
Mariam El Chami gained her communications expertise working with multi-national brands in various sectors. Mariam has been part of the Edelman family for some years now, previously working in the UAE. She will now join the team in Amsterdam as an Account Manager. Prior to Edelman she has worked for Weber Shandwick.
Edelman also welcomes emerging talents Kiki Norbruis (Account Executive), Maartje van Engelen (Senior Account Executive) & Shara Ravestein (Junior Designer) to new roles within its integrated client service team.