Veerle started her career as a social entrepreneur herself, supporting the homeless in her hometown Utrecht, the Netherlands. Throughout her bachelor’s and double-degree master’s in European Governance, Veerle has deepened her understanding of social enterprise by following one of the first academic minors on social entrepreneurship & social innovation. Subsequently, combining her passion for social enterprise and European integration, Veerle completed a traineeship at the European Commission’s DG GROW, in the unit working on Social Economy. Currently at EN, Veerle works with leading social enterprise support organizations, governments and various international institutions on a daily basis to advance the social enterprise sector across Europe, and globally. As head of Policy & EU Relations Veerle manages EN’s work on policy & advocacy, EU Funding , OECD/EC Better Entrepreneurship Policy Tool , EU3Digital, RRESI project , and RESET project. Veerle has recently taken on a part-time role as Lead Consultant at the World Economic Forum and Schwab Foundation. In close collaboration with Catalyst 2030 and other members of the COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurs, Veerle will be supporting the Foundation and the Forum in promoting enabling policies for the social economy.

“We did not come to fear the future, we came here to shape it.” – Barack Obama