Lieke Schepers

“An open, curious, enthusiastic, driven person”. That is how Lieke Schepers describes herself. She is 43 years old, lives in Apeldoorn, together with her three children and her husband Michiel. Besides this, she has an impressive career as a CEO of Yacht Group. How did she get here, what does her life look like, and what are her future plans? “As a kid, I wanted to become a ballerina, politician, or anything in between”, she laughs. Up until now, although all within the Randstad Group, Lieke has had a rather diverse career path. After studying Organizational Psychology in Groningen, she got a job as a staffing consultant. She went from staffing to professionals, to consultancy, acquisition and integration, and eventually to the responsibility of the whole Yacht company.

Taking risks

In order to get to this point in her career, Lieke had to “jump into deep water” more often than not. This, however, provided her with opportunities to learn, grow and explore, which makes it an interesting journey. With good mentors and sponsors, Lieke felt supported along the way. “I had people who could inspire me, but who were also there when I fell. People who gave me the trust and confidence to grow, stand up, rise, and move on”. She believes that you can learn something from anyone. Now that she is older, she hopes to give back to people the same way she was helped in her early career. Together with others, she aims to “create an environment where people can be their true selves”.

Adding value

In her professional life, Lieke gets energy from achieving results and from contributing to society. She likes to see her team in the heart of the client’s organisation, contributing and dedicating themselves to the companies moving forward in these times when major societal tasks are also on the plate of organizations (e.g. digital transformation, climate challenge, social issues, changing labour market) Even when projects are difficult and involve large and complex transformations, the team puts in all effort to achieve results. Being able to contribute to this gives Lieke her daily dose of motivation. Working for Yacht is, according to Lieke, “challenging, fun, and fulfilling”. With a lot of room to learn and grow, employees are constantly challenged to make a difference for their clients. Therefore, the Yacht mindset is “Pushing Horizons”. Getting out of your comfort zone, learning, being creative and being yourself is the key to success at Yacht.

Realisation

After being in an accident last year, Lieke was not able to work for a while. Before this, she would always go the extra mile, sometimes at the cost of her private life. Being in the accident forced her to bring more balance into her life. Now, she’s better at saying no, both at home and in the office. She likes to find the right balance between both aspects of life. So yes, “I work full-time but I also take care of birthday presents for my kids’ friends”. Lieke and her family like to contribute to society, so they are aiming to become this year energy-neutral with her household. Again, a very results-driven approach.

Learning by doing

With such an impressive function, you would expect Lieke to have had clear goals from a young age onwards. However, the opposite is true. “I have never planned my career upfront. I step into the unknown, learn new things.” This is exactly what exposed Lieke to all kinds of opportunities during her career. Since her accident, she is more consciously living in the moment, and at the moment mostly just “happy to be back again”. Being satisfied with where she is right now does not mean that she is not driven to contribute, she is just not working towards a next step. “At the moment, this is good. If you have been in a situation where you were not able to join for a while, you start to really appreciate what you have. Participating in a great company that makes social impact every day gives me a lot of job happiness and satisfaction”. She smiles “I enjoy that even more now than before my accident. I’m trying to hold on to that for now and then we’ll see what beautiful things the future brings.”

Qualities

To others wanting to build a career, Lieke advises to “stay close to yourself, and to what makes you unique, because unique qualities are exactly what we need to move forward together”. Her second piece of advice is to “gather good people around you”. A mentor or sponsor within or even outside the company. They can be anyone from whom you can learn, or who can give you confidence. “People who will be there when you are facing challenges”. And in finding your way, failing is okay, as long as you dare to make mistakes and learn from them. Because “if you learn, we all learn”.

Find out more about the participation of Lieke Schepers in the Role Model Campaign here.

Want to read more stories? Visit this page for an overview of all our Role Models from the Role Model Campaign 2023.