Good day,

Thank you for considering me for this position. I value your time and appreciate the time taken to review my application.

After living and working in Austin, Texas for ten years, I came back to Belgium in September 2020. Since then, I have been working as a freelance Branding & Marketing Consultant for organizations such as University Ghent, Greenyard, etc. I am currently welcoming opportunities to be a part of company again, as I have missed being part of a bigger structure with engaged colleagues.

After an international internship as a Graphic Designer at Alliance Abroad Group, an international exchange company, I was offered a full-time position and a working visa. As I enjoyed Austin, a fast-growing city filled with live music and taco’s, I stayed for eight more years. After working as a Marketing Specialist and Graphic designer for three years, I was promoted to the Director of Marketing. It is the experience in this last position that is relevant for Rise.

During my time as the Director of Marketing, I oversaw a talented marketing team consisting out of a Graphic Designer, a Digital Marketing Manager and a Social Media/ Community Manager. In collaboration with the Sales team, we ensured that the business goals were met. We strived to deliver effective marketing with stable growth, clear KPI’s and ROI while building constructive packages that are easily applicable to new business ideas and developments.

With constant communication with offices all over the world, the implementation of digital tools was crucial, even before COVID-19. Introducing tools such as Trello, Monday.com, HubSpot, Teams and Slack made it realistic for our team to create accountability and transparency while being time efficient. Due to these tools and agile project management processes, I was able to move marketing efforts forward and monitor the team’ functionality while giving the team the freedom to develop and succeed without micromanagement.

Next to leading my own team, I was also a part of an ambitious team of Directors. This consisted out of six Directors (Programs, Sales, Marketing, Compliance, HR and IT). Together, we were the second level of leadership within the company and were responsible for the strategy and functionality of our respective teams. A close collaboration with the Director of Sales came to life on this level.

As a team, we were supported and trained by a business coach. Next to regular monthly meetings, we came together every quarter to attend leadership workshops in addition to strategic and financial meetings with the President and CEO of Alliance Abroad. Transparency with each other and the C-level was crucial for continued constructive growth and the success of the company.

As I am at the beginning of a new adventure, I am very interested in this job opportunity at Rise. I hope to explore future collaboration.

Sincerely,

Sanne de Mûelenaere