Mieke de Schepper: The Highest Ranking Woman in the Next50 2023
McKinsey, Philips, Expedia, Amadeus, Trustpilot: what does not fit the bill? The first two are traditional stepping stones to a portfolio of Supervisory positions, the other three are platform organizations. These, by the way, also lead to Supervisory positions: in new sectors. In the portfolio of Mieke De Schepper, Dutch with Belgian parents, they go together sisterly: last year, the CCO of review site Trustpilot became Supervisory Board member of both online meal delivery company Just Eat Takeaway.com (where her appointment diversity wise was to pave the way for that of former-Ahold Delhaize top Executive Dick Boer) and hotel search engine Trivago.
Singapore pitch
De Schepper (1975) started her career after TU Delft (including a year at MIT) at consulting firm McKinsey. After an MBA at Insead, she left for Singapore, initially for two years. She met her husband there and worked for Philips for ten years, most recently as managing director & country manager Singapore, Brunei, Myanmar and Mongolia. This was followed by positions at travel site Expedia and Amadeus, the B2B platform for airlines, hotels and travel agencies. In recent years, she has lived and worked not only in several countries in Asia, but also in Latin America, the United States and Europe. She is now back in Amsterdam for Trustpilot.
Never give up
De Schepper's ambition is to rise to the absolute top, according to Belgian magazine Sparkle. She is inspired by Winston Churchill's quotes: ‘His statements speak to me more than his person. Never, never, never give up, for example, totally my motto.' A fitting motto too to advance to the Top 100 Supervisory Board members, it seems to us.
This article is published in Management Scope 03 2023.