Meet Aniek — Amsterdam local, oat-milk cappuccino lover, married to an Irishman, and proud mom of two girls (ages 3 and 5 — “almost six,” if you ask her daughter). She loves hitting the gym and has recently rediscovered her passion for swimming. She likes Amsterdam for its outdoor lifestyle and because family is never far away — her parents live just a short bike ride away… as does the Irish expat shop where she stocks up on her must-have Irish butter. 🚲 🏋️ ☕️ 🏊🏼‍♀️ 🇮🇪

Aniek, who do you admire? 

I think that would be my parents. I’m very close to them — is that a cliché? I just think I’d consider myself lucky to be like them on every level, whether it’s in friendship, marriage, or work ethic. They’ve been very happily married for almost 50 years, and my dad built a company that they work at together. Their life is what I aspire to follow. 

What achievement in your work are you most proud of?

 I'm actually really proud of the customer success team. We work very hard but we also have a lot of fun together - we're really strong together. I think the customer success team at Younium is like no other team I've ever worked for.  

And then there is obviously the gratitude from the customers. Whenever I come from a call where we fixed a long issue for our customers and they can keep working smoothly - those are my highlights.

 Do you have any fears? 🕷️

Oh, I’ve got plenty, haha. I’m not a big fan of driving — I much prefer being chauffeured. But the funny thing is, I ride an e-bike in Amsterdam and sometimes fly down the streets like a complete lunatic, totally fearless!

And I’m such a typical girl when it comes to spiders and anything creepy-crawly. I can handle bees and wasps just fine, but spiders? I really, really don’t like them.

Could you name three things you always keep in your fridge? 

Oat milk. If there's no oat milk in my fridge I'm gonna get cranky really quickly because I LOVE my own little cappuccino. Then Irish butter. My husband’s Irish, and according to him, there’s no butter quite like Irish butter — and I’ve totally jumped on that bandwagon. We even go to a special expat shop here just to get our butter. And finally, protein chocolate mousse — I’m such a snacker!

What’s your favorite memory with your team? 💭

Oh, I have quite a few! The funniest ones are hard to explain — you really had to be there to get it. We’ve had so many laughs over the years; once, we even laughed so much that we scared other customers away from the bar we were in! We also did ceramic painting together, which was such a blast. There are so many moments I could mention, but really, it all comes down to whenever we’re together, we just end up having the best time.