Meet the Team: Aniek van Rijn

Rotterdam Square is a team of five dedicated women, working together to build the innovative Life Sciences & Health ecosystem within the Rotterdam region. We’d like to introduce you to our team, getting to know the faces behind ‘Rotterdam Square’. Meet Aniek van Rijn, our Marketing & Communications Officer.

Could you first introduce yourself?

Hi! I’m Aniek van Rijn and since March I’m the Marketing & Communications Officer at Rotterdam Square. This means I’m responsible for all our communications activities: maintaining our website, social media, newsletters, etc. – all to brand Rotterdam Square and create awareness of our organization as well as the Life Sciences & Health ecosystem within the Rotterdam region and the Erasmus MC Campus. I also support my colleagues when organizing our events.

What is your background?

In June 2022, I graduated from Inholland Rotterdam and received my bachelor’s degree in Communications. I decided to put off working for a little while to first fulfill my biggest dream: living in New York City. As an addition to having studied Communications, I took marketing, branding and design classes for one semester at Pratt Institute, a private university mainly known for its programs in architecture, graphic design, interior design, and industrial design. For almost five months I got to enjoy this big, diverse, vibrant city – it was amazing. Funny enough, these things are what I love about Rotterdam as well and why I wanted to work here after I returned home.

Soon after coming back to the Netherlands, I got this job at Rotterdam Square, traded my view on the Empire State Building to the lovely Euromast, putting everything that I’ve learned over the past few years into practice. It’s been very interesting learning about Life Sciences & Health, getting to know people in the community and building a new organization from the ground up. Having this job in a small team gives me a great variety of responsibilities and creative freedom, which I enjoy very much.

What motivates you in your job?

My job is very versatile. I like not having to work on the same thing all the time. I write, design, help with organizing events – everything I’m passionate about. And for a greater goal: accelerating healthcare innovations that ultimately help patients, now and in the future. Even though I don’t have a medical background, I feel this is my way to still contribute to the world of Life Sciences & Health.