Every week a board member or consultant will talk you through a small biography, and more importantly, a little insight into their life, what parts of their agenda are devoted to time, and what parts aren’t.

For this week’s edition, it’s time for me to take over this blog and give you some insights into my life.

My name is Michelle den Hartog and I am this year’s travel planner. I grew up in a small city called Montfoort near Utrecht. Since I was a small kid, I always wanted to travel the world, which is why I decided to go to Nieuwegein to follow bilingual education. During those six years I have been abroad at least ten times, but for the sure the most amazing journey was my trip to South-Africa along with a friend to do voluntary work at a Cheetah Rehabilation Farm. We had to feed and walk baby cheetah’s who were repelled by their moms, which was for sure an astonishing experience. After high school, I moved all the way to the south of the country, to Maastricht, to do my bachelor’s in International Business. After getting my degree, I had no clue what to do next, so I decided to go to Tokyo to do an internship for two months followed by a month of backpacking in Thailand and Singapore. When I got back, I started another internship but this time in Amersfoort at John Frieda for half a year. Happily, I met some great people there who helped me with making my master’s choice.

This is why I ended up in Tilburg to study Marketing Management. I started with this master in September, which means that I am currently writing my thesis and that my adventure in Tilburg is about to end soon. Fortunately, I still have TIME to keep me stuck into student life. Another intern at John Frieda did TIME herself in 2017 and she told me how great the project was. She and two of my mentors of the introduction week convinced me to apply for the project which I did as soon as the master started. TIME is an amazing project whereby you get to know great people and companies. As a Travel Planner it is my duty to make sure that everything for the trip is arranged perfectly. This includes arranging the VISA’s for Shanghai as well as the plane tickets and apartments, and way more of course.

TIME is a great project that takes up a lot of my time, but of course I also have some free time. I like to spend my time with friends, going on holiday or visiting festivals.

Curious about the project? I am always in for a good conversation and of course, you can also send me a message on LinkedIn!

Until next time!