About the turning points in my life
Born in Venezuela
My life has seen many changes. Some changes where anticipated and even planned, others came as a complete surprise. I was born in Venezuela, where I lived for six years until my father was transferred by Shell to Iran. In both countries I enjoyed a carefree youth until age eighth when we moved back to the Netherlands in the winter. I was not too happy with this change. It was terrible. How could people live in this cold? I shivered against the fence in my schoolyard, while my schoolmates were running around shrieking with fun.As a result of the cold and because I couldn’t write or do arithmetic, I was the only one in my class who was held back a year. After this local low point in my young life, things soon began to go better. My brother Michael and my parents pulled me through. A positive point to repeating the year was that I shared the same class with my brother. Also, I discovered my mother’s typewriter, which I used to write fairy tales and other imaginary stories.
Living in a rural area
Again there was a major move: from the west of the Netherlands, where my school friends and family lived, to the north of the Netherlands, Assen, where we knew nobody. It seemed like exile to me. However, in due course life turned out to be nice there as well. I went to high school and apart from the common unrest of puberty; I had a good time with lots of friends. Unfortunately, it didn’t go as well for Michael. I was too preoccupied with myself to notice that he was suffering from school bullying. Later, he told me he seriously contemplated suicide at the time.
The next big change was planned. I went to study general economics at the University of Groningen and to do that I had to move to Groningen. For the first time in my life I lived on my own. The first day I survived on frozen spinach, but thanks to a student introduction period my cooking skills soon improved. Now cooking is one of my hobbies. I was active in student life and I was member of the inaugural committee for the Albertus Magnus student society.
Studying in the big city
Halfway through my life as a student I moved in with my partner in Assen. At that time I also got my first real job: assistant teacher at the Legal Section of the economic faculty. I thought the most exciting part of it was lecturing. I prepared my lectures thoroughly, but unfortunately my subject proved to be unpopular. There were only two students in my class. Ten years later, when I returned to the university as assistant professor, things were totally different. Students were almost battling at the enrolment bureau to sign up for one of my courses International Finance or Financial Derivatives.
Unemployment, love pains and a 'fast track' career
After my graduation I went some time without a job. At that time, the unemployment rate for academics was very high, not least amongst general economists. This was another rock bottom in my life, but fortunately I eventually could start working at a bank. As account manager with Crédit Lyonnais Bank Nederland in Nijmegen I had to visit and bring in new clients. After a year at the head office in Rotterdam, I was promoted to senior account manager in Groningen. Although I did well in this job, it was not what I wanted to do in the long term. I changed jobs and took up teaching my previously mentioned subjects at the university. In 1997, I finished my Ph.D. thesis and received my doctorate in economic sciences.
Before achieving this, I went through some intense life experiences. Without going into much detail, I can mention a few: the death of my mother and later of my brother, fostering a fifteen year old teenager, the end of my long term relationship, a very disappointing love affair, the exciting move to Amsterdam and my job at the Dutch Central Bank.
With my knowledge of financial products and market risks I quickly became banking supervisor. I was asked to advice central banks in East Europe and I was admitted to an international cooperation group of supervisors. Because of this I traveled a lot: from Brazil to the US, and from Australia to Japan and much in between. It was a wonderful period, in which I met a lot of nice people.