The story of Emma den Held
As an energetic, social, and curious person, Emma feels right at home at Invest-NL. She works daily on meaningful investments that will make our world future-proof. And that gives her great satisfaction.
At Invest-NL, Emma works as an Investment Manager: "I am responsible for sourcing, structuring, and executing new investments within the Agrifood, Bio-based & Circular Economy team." Emma intentionally chose Invest-NL because of its mission: "At Invest-NL, it’s mainly about impact and less about return. Of course, that is a unique positioning in the financial world. We look ahead and try to make the world future-proof in that way."
When a position became available for Investment Manager, I immediately applied.
Emma was already familiar with Invest-NL from her previous job: “During the financing of a new factory for Avantium, I worked closely as a co-financier with Invest-NL. I was impressed by their approach and got to know a few people working at Invest-NL. Afterwards, I came to have a coffee at their office in Amsterdam. When a position for Investment Manager became available, I applied immediately. It can happen so quickly.”
Enjoyment in her work has always been important to Emma. Even in her previous roles, that was the case: “Often, it involved helping entrepreneurs and companies implement their plans. Now that I work at Invest-NL, the focus is entirely on start-ups and scale-ups that contribute to society, such as in the energy transition or circular economy. That gives me a lot of satisfaction.”
We believe that it can and should be better. And we put that into practice.
Proud of your work. It sounds so simple. Emma: “Yes, and it is nonetheless true. At Invest-NL, we work with driven, enthusiastic, and intelligent people. We come from diverse backgrounds, which allows us to complement each other well in the work we do, and we share a common drive. We believe that it must and can be better. By investing, we can truly make a difference. And we put this into practice. For example, you can see that through our investment, other parties also get involved. That’s something to be proud of.”
I believe that we in the Netherlands should take the lead , because you can't expect that from everyone.
Ultimately, it’s about motivations in life. For Emma, this begins with living more consciously, like reusing and recycling products, and inspiring others to do the same. But it’s much more than that: “It’s important that we involve society as a whole in the transition to a CO2-neutral and circular economy, because then we all benefit. I am committed to that. I believe that the Netherlands should take the lead, because it’s simply not realistic to expect everyone to do so. Many people around the world face other concerns, such as food shortages or war. Meanwhile, they might have to deal first with the impacts of climate change.”