Please note that online registration has closed. If you would still like to join, please send an email to alumni.sbe@vu.nl and we will be happy to help!
Marketing is evolving rapidly. AI is reshaping creativity. Sustainability expectations are rising. Performance pressure is intensifying.
In this environment, how do we lead responsibly, without losing sight of the people behind the data?
Join us on campus as alumni, faculty, and practitioners come together to explore what it means to put humans first in today’s marketing practice. Because marketing doesn’t just move markets — it shapes behaviour, experiences, and impact.
Step back from the day-to-day and reflect on a central question: what changes when we consciously place human dignity, lived experience, and long-term responsibility at the centre of our decisions?
Marketing with Purpose: Putting Humans First
Keynote: Social Capital: An Augmented Reality?
Organizations increasingly operate in environments shaped by AI, data, automation, and continuous performance pressure. Yet at the heart of organizations remain people.
In this talk, professor Mirella Kleijnen reflects on the role of social capital in an increasingly “augmented” world. Drawing on her experiences as Dean, researcher, and educator, she explores how trust, relationships, and human connection shape organizations, learning communities, and customer experiences — and why these become even more important, rather than less, in times of technological acceleration and growing complexity.
Combining personal reflections with insights from customer experience management and leadership, the talk invites alumni to reflect on what it means to keep people truly at the centre of the systems and organizations we build.
Alumni Panel: Purpose under Pressure, moderated by Prof. Peeter Verlegh
Following the keynote, Prof. Peeter Verlegh will lead a conversation with MSc Marketing alumni working at the intersection of commercial performance and broader impact.
Together, they will discuss:
- How purpose translates into real organisational decisions
- The tension between short-term results and long-term value
- What “putting humans first” looks like under commercial pressure
- Honest reflections on career paths and leadership trade-offs
Melissa de Kant (The Nice Company) and Dionne van Dijk (DEPT) bring complementary perspectives shaped by different organisational contexts and roles. Spanning brand building and global social media strategy, their experiences offer insight into how purpose is interpreted, challenged, and acted upon in practice.
Dr. Aylin Aydinli, Programme Director of VU's MSc in Marketing, will also join the panel to bring the educational lens: how do we prepare the next generation of marketers to lead in an increasingly complex landscape?
Current MSc Marketing student Anna rounds out the panel, sharing what the generation set to shape the next decade of marketing expects from their careers, the companies they join, and the leaders they look to.
Reconnect over networking drinks
After the programme, there will be ample opportunity to reconnect with former classmates, meet alumni from other cohorts, and continue the conversation with faculty over drinks and a light buffet.
For this event, we kindly request a small participation fee of €12.50.
Please register before 20 May!