On Saturday 11 November, graduated Bachelor students of Erasmus School of Economics received their diploma during a festive ceremony in the Auditorium on campus Woudestein. This year, 407 students received their diploma, which resulted both days in an Auditorium full to capacity with family and friends.
For both ceremonies, an inspirational speaker was invited. This year, both alumni Sheila Sitalsing and Jolanda Poots-Bijl gave an inspirational speech.
After graduating Sheila Sitalsing didn’t choose for a career as an economist or manager. She started as a reporter at the Rotterdams Daily. After working at Elsevier, including a job as a reporter at the European Union, she started at the Volkskrant in 2004. She worked as the chief of the economics department and as a reporter in the field of politics. Right now she only writes columns on a freelance basis for the paper, which she combines with appearances in several Dutch political and news related programmes. In 2013 she won the Heldring Prize for best Dutch columnist, the jury honored her knowledge and sense of humor.
Jolanda Poots-Bijl is renowned in the Dutch financial business. After obtaining both her Business Economics and Controlling degree, she started as Financial Manager at Enper in 1992. After 6 years she left the company to start as a Senior Manager Consulting at Accenture. In 2002 it was again time for a new challenge, something that would happen more often in the years following. Consecutively she worked as a CFO for: ProRail, Conexxion, Volker Wessels and Ordina, Since 2016 she is the CFO of Van Oord, the Rotterdam based leading international contractor specialising in dredging, marine engineering and offshore projects (oil, gas and wind).
