Thanks to the experiences and challenges of international life, Ann is now able to give excellent advice and bring useful insight on all aspects of expat life to expats but more specifically to their spouses.

In spite of all the changes that international life entails, Ann also managed to build up professional experience. Her career started in 1989 at the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill where she became assistant program manager responsible for the marketing, organization and evaluation of short-term seminars for executives from the U.S.A., Canada and Central America.

In the 3 years she was back in Belgium, she started as the executive secretary of the Human Resources Department and was later transferred to the Audio and Video Sales Department at the multinational Philips Consumer Products. She decided she wanted more responsibility and became office manager at the family owned company A&V Electronics that imported and distributed high-end consumer and professional audio and video equipment until she and her husband moved abroad again.

In the 8 years she lived in South America, she did short-term temporary jobs at the Royal Embassy of The Netherlands in Caracas, where she replaced the First Secretary’s personal assistant, and at the Embassy of Belgium in Bogotá, where she replaced both the Ambassador’s personal assistant and the assistant of cultural and educational affairs several times. Meanwhile she was also active in the board of Bogotá Accueil, an association for French speaking people, and of La Obra Colombo-Belga, a fundraising charity association to help children in need in Bogotá.

In the next 5 years in Belgium she became management assistant at A.V. Gumuchdjian, a polished diamond trading company in Antwerp, and was also appointed administrative assistant of the Belgian Association of Traders in Polished Diamonds.

Although she decided not to work in China, she was active in the board of the Belgian association in Shanghai where she helped organize different kinds of weekly activities for its approximately 350 members, welcomed new members and got them familiarized with life in Shanghai.

With her passion for music, Ann decided to dedicate her time in the U.S.A. to GUSTO!, a successful yearly fundraiser event to expand the number of scholarships for talented music students at the Columbus State University Schwob School of Music and was asked to become member of the Patrons of Music Steering Committee of that same institution to give advice on branding, advertising and fundraising.

Back in Belgium, she and her husband founded Patroklos Belgium mid 2014 and since 2015 she is independent part-time office manager at Pollux Consulting, a consulting company specialized in landfill engineering and management.

Ann’s interests and hobbies include a.o. languages, music (especially jazz, Latin jazz and classical music), literature, art, tennis, walking, traveling and cooking.

e-mail: ann@patroklos-be.com