How it all started.

Once upon a time…….during a global pandemic, whilst working from a hotel room in Amsterdam Sonja Wekema and Daphne Laan came up with the idea to go into business together.

The Board Whisperers was born.

Both of us had a seat in the supervisory committee of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and we had been asked to write a scientific article. We were fed up with working from home during the Covid lock-down so we rented a hotel room to work alongside each other. We’ve known each other for a while and have worked for over two decades in large FMCG, IT, Telecoms, Technology, Social Impact, Energy and the Public Sector as business & people focused leaders, trusted board advisors and facilitators of change. - Sonja Wekema

During our years in business we have sat on leadership teams, boards and committees and seen how leadership strategy often fails when the right attitudes, diversity and culture are not present, either in the leadership team itself or in teams executing strategy. After all it is the people that make it happen, the strategy just guides. We were both frustrated with sitting in on discussions where there was little diversity, a lack of female presence and where important subjects were left unsaid, stifling progress and creating inertia. The focus was also always on strategy but rarely considered the people that were going to execute it. So, we decided to do something about it and create The Board Whisperers to push boundaries, offer leaders and their teams a fresh perspective enabling teams to thrive and strategy to succeed. - Daphne Laan