Ellen has been working at bol as CHRO since August 2018. She prefers to use the title CP&O: Chief People& Officer, because she believes that people are not resources. They are people and so much more. Ellen is responsible for the People& department, which consists of Talent Acquisition, Organizational Development, Strategy & Operations, Policies & Rewards and Real Estate & Workplace Management.

Ellen and her team create a distinctive culture of ultimate collaboration, learning together and celebrating successes. Here, bol employees are given the space to bring ideas to life, share knowledge, dare, do and pioneer, to change retail together. As CP&O of the largest and most valued online retail tech platform in the Netherlands and Belgium, Ellen is building a future-proof, agile, diverse and inclusive organization in a fast-growing and dynamic market.

Ellen has worked for 17 years in HR Leadership roles at KPN, Unilever and Rabobank. After three years as a management trainee at KPN, she was asked to come and work at Unilever. At Unilever, Ellen led the turnaround of the Vlaardingen plant, making it a healthy plant and ready to compete in the European market. She also led the restructuring of the Corporate Centre, HR Transformation, a global transformation programme that made HR impactful and a fuel for growth, and outsourcing all transactional services to Accenture (Prague).

In January 2008, she joined Rabobank as Head of HR Rabobank Netherlands. She had a leading role in the HR team that helped the bank through the critical issues and priorities of the financial crisis. However, she quickly realised that this was not the right place for her, but stayed for four more years and finally left in 2012.

Ellen decided to focus her career on what she loved most and what she had learned during all those years at Phoenix Opleidingen: facilitating executives and executive teams who wanted to improve their leadership and organisational development and effectiveness. She started her own company and soon had far too much work to handle alone and became Lead Partner of the Droomfabriek. Ellen has worked on numerous client projects, combining individual development, organizational development and defining business goals, and led a wide variety of programs and seminars in various sectors in Europe. For 7 years (besides Nike, Unilever, BCG, DSM, National Police, KPN, EnZa, etc.) bol was one of her clients. And bol was her favorite.

In May 2018, Ellen proposed to bol to appoint a CHRO to its board. The then CEO offered Ellen the position, but she initially declined, her company was doing very well and she was not looking for a career move. However, in August 2018 she started ad interim as CP&O and in October 2018 she decided to accept the offer.

When Ellen is not busy creating successful teams where people enjoy working, she likes to spend time with her husband and three children; together they like to do sports and travel the world. She enjoys nature by running and playing golf.

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