Elise Bijkerk

I am Elise and I was born in the Netherlands not far from the German border. As a child, we often moved and therefore I am not able to call one specific town my home. It is rather the Netherlands.

Maybe due to moving as a child but also due to my curiosity in other cultures and countries, I knew from when I was quite young that I wanted to travel the world and live abroad. My first real experience was during my studies when I got to spend 1 year in the US. Later during work, I grabbed the opportunity to move to Barcelona and also lived in Copenhagen. Now I live with my family in Düsseldorf, Germany.

I spent most of my career in the food business (Danone, Arla Foods). I love to create consumer food products that help to change how people eat for the better. I have always had an interest in healthy food, both for myself and professionally. In later years the need to make sure food products are also made sustainably became more and more important.

In general, I want to use my international food experience to lead change and transformation in how people eat in the future so it can be part of solving some of the environmental challenges.

Outside work I love to run. Ideally by the sea, but right now I need to settle for running along the Rhein river, which is also beautiful. I enjoy spending time with family and friends and love to travel and experience different cultures and food. One of my favourite cities is Barcelona but am also a fan of Berlin. I appreciate interior design especially Nordic design where beauty and aesthetics meets simplicity.

Creating new ideas is something that gives me a lot of energy. I once designed my own shoe brand, but it never made it to the market.