Saskia

From Mountain Peaks to Scientific Geeks

After graduating from the Lycée International in 2005, I did what any reasonable 18-year-old with a snowboard addiction would do: I stayed in France. Much to my parents’ despair, the lure of the mountains (and the adrenaline that came with them) outweighed the appeal of a big British university. 

For a brief moment, I considered drama school — I loved the stage and the energy of performance — but decided to keep my flair for theatrics safely off my CV. Instead, I found another stage: hospitality. I loved the action, the buzz of a busy service, and the idea that — like in theatre — you could create a whole world for an evening, where food, atmosphere, and a few well-timed smiles could make people genuinely happy. 

I enrolled at Vatel Lyon, an international business school specialising in hospitality. It was fast-paced, hands-on, and anything but boring — exactly what I wanted. My bilingualism turned out to be a secret weapon too, opening doors to bigger responsibilities during internships (along with longer nights and plenty of coffee). 

In 2008, I joined Hyatt Hotels in event management — a job that was both thrilling and slightly insane. The financial crisis hit just as I was starting out, which meant hours that made marathon runners look lazy. We pulled together with an amazing spirit of solidarity... and then, once the economy improved, management thought we should just keep going like that. Spoiler alert: I had other ideas. 

Much like my earlier decision to leave theatre as a hobby, I eventually realised I preferred enjoying good food and beautiful hotels from a comfy chair — as a guest rather than staff. 

In search of a more perfumed life, I moved to the Netherlands and joined a perfume creation company, International Flavours and Fragrances (IFF), developing scents for everything from fine fragrances to laundry detergents (and even toilet cleaners — glamorous, I know). After a few years, love (and my husband) swept me off to Belgium, where I pivoted into the digital world, creating my own marketing consulting company and working with Google and other Belgian companies. 

Somewhere between having two daughters and a few existential crises about capitalism, I decided I wanted to do something more meaningful. For the past three years, I've been managing director of the Royal Belgian Society of Rheumatology — a non-profit advancing scientific research and education for Belgian rheumatologists. These days, instead of managing diva perfumers and FIFA-playing developers, I get to wrangle brilliantly nerdy doctors and researchers — who, despite being knee-deep in arthritis research, still find time for the occasional diva moment, thus ensuring I am not totally out of my comfort zone. 

Looking back, my career has been more eclectic than linear, moving through different roles and industries without too much angst about "staying in my lane." I credit the British Section for fostering the open-mindedness that's been invaluable. 

If I had one piece of advice (without preaching), it would be this: it’s absolutely fine if your 18-year-old self doesn’t have everything figured out. Frankly, mine was mostly thinking about snowboarding.