Meet the Alumni Relations team

Sue Martin
Director Alumni Relations

Before moving into in Higher Education, Sue worked for the UK government for many years in the UK Border Force and as a diplomat with postings to Nigeria and Cyprus. From 2008, she held a variety of roles at the universities of Southampton and Reading, overseeing student recruitment, faculty management, business change, alumni relations and leading volunteering and fundraising campaigns. Sue believes in the virtuous circle of alumni engagement: students choose a particular institution because they are inspired by its graduates, and go on to become engaged and inspiring alumni themselves. In 2018, Sue joined RSM as Director of Corporate and Alumni Relations, taking on the additional role as Director of Alumni Relations for the whole of Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2020. Sue has three daughters, a fondness for classic rock music and once beat one of our vice deans in a (friendly) boxing match.

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Karen de Man
Alumni Relations Officer

Karen holds a BSc International Business and Languages from Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. She also studied and interned in the USA for one and a half years. Much of her professional career was spent in international education, and prior to this role she worked as Communications Advisor Alumni & Career at Nuffic, the Dutch organisation for internationalisation in education. In the team, Karen is responsible for relations with ESSB, ISS, IHS, Erasmus MC, Erasmus University College and EGSH, as well as our international alumni communities. Every other week Karen volunteers at AAP Animal Advocacy & Protection as a translator and behind-the-scenes tour guide at their shelter in Almere.

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Jan Geerts
Alumni Relations Officer

Jan grew up in Dordrecht and upon completing his first year of his studies French language and literature he enrolled in the European Studies programme at the University of Amsterdam. He never achieved his childhood dream of becoming ambassador in Paris, but he did very much enjoy working in an international environment for many years. As communications advisor at the Haagse Hogeschool he saw the potential of alumni relations and in 2013 he was appointed the first full-time advisor alumni relations at a Dutch vocational education institution. In the Erasmus Alumni Relations Team Jan is responsible for the collaboration with ESE, ESHPM, ESPhil, ERIM, ESHCC and ESL. Additionally, he supports our international communities with Karen. Jan is an experienced speaker and trainer in the realm of relation management and is currently chairman of the expert community International Alumni Relations of the EAIE. He plays bass guitar and is crazy about football, cooking and Italy.

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Han Hu
Alumni data analytics and research officer

Han has already had quite the academic career; she studied Journalism at the Shanxi University, a Master's in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics in Bejing and she is completing a PhD in Sociolinguistics at Leiden University in 2022. She feels at home in Rotterdam, where she worked for the municipality and two foundations (Nieuw Thuis Rotterdam, De Verre Bergen). The knowledge she gained about analysing large datasets is very useful for her role at EUR, where she is reponsible for managing the alumni data and researching, analysing and enriching alumni's details. When Han takes a break from online meetings, she likes to take a tour of her 50 (!) house plants. Studying leaves under a magnifying glass is her go-to moment of zen.

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Bonita Qaiser
Alumni Relations Officer

Prior to her role in the Erasmus Alumni Relations Team, Bonita worked for the scale-up HousingAnywhere where she was a Promotion Coordinator and Relations Manager. She has an MA in International Relations from Utrecht University, has experience working with volunteers and as a communication specialist in an NGO and brings her passion for people to the team. Bonita is project lead for various projects, including Lifelong Learning and Student Engagement, which includes a mentoring initiative. Bonita absolutely loves nature and animals and has recently adopted a dog from the shelter!

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Bharat Kumaraswami
Database Manager

Bharat was born and raised in the south of India, where his interest in digital systems sparked him to study IT engineering. After his studies, he pursued a career in multiple industries, including Sales, Management and Database Management. He moved to the Netherlands for his Masters in Business Administration at RSM, and ended up working for the business school. Since 2018 he has been managing, analysing and reporting on alumni data whilst using his IT skills to boost efficiency - first for RSM, now for both RSM and EUR. In the team, Bharat is best know for his trips to Has. He will never miss out on a chance to get a kapsalon.

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Kim Elferink
Alumni Relations Coordinator

Kim joined the Erasmus Alumni Relations Team in 2021. After she had completed her MSc Applied Communication Science at the Wageningen University and Research Centre she worked for Omnicon PR Group and took care of the communication needs of various famous consumer brands. After this job, she desired adventure: she travelled around the world for over half a year, passing through Mongolia and China, Indonesia and Australia, to pass through New-Zealand and end up on Fiji. And now? Now she is building communities with alumni, supporting and organising events and she is responsible for various fundraising activities and other projects of the Erasmus Alumni Relations team. In her spare time, Kim likes to be active: both with paintbrushes on a canvas as with her stick on the field hockey pitch.

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Vanessa Temminck
Events Manager

The affinity with organising events surfaced for Vanessa after her education in tourism, where organising travels and events started to merge. She definitely chose for the latter and gained a lot of experience for international organisations like Europol, before ending up in higher education. Now, she is full-time event manager in the Erasmus Alumni Relations Team. She organises and coordinates in-person, online and hybrid events in collaboration with her teammates. When she's not working, you can find her in the fresh mountain air, whether on her snowboard or in the Scandinavian mountains.

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Sieme de Wolf
Student Assistant

Writing, data management, connecting with alumni on social media and more: Sieme's tasks as student assistant are incredibly diverse. That’s what makes working with alumni good fun, as they work on a wide array of interesting projects all around the globe – sourcing quite interesting conversations. Sieme is currently studying a Master's programme in Philosophy, following his Bachelor's in the same field that he graduated from in 2021. Before that, he studied journalism. Furthermore, he currently (remotely) follows religious studies in Nijmegen. Sieme believes in the power of healthy food. He even has a sweater and a t-shirt with a carrot on it, and eats multiple of these a day. The carrots, not the clothing.

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Patrikas Rudys
Student Assistant

Patrikas was born and spent his first 19 years of life in the port city of Klaipeda, Lithuania, where he has discovered an affinity with the business world. He has also participated in several international youth summer camps, through which he has realized a desire to live and study in a highly international environment. Patrikas is now a third-year IBA student at RSM and he strives to make a positive impact on Erasmus University. Patrikas believes that joining the Alumni Relations team is a perfect opportunity to realize this goal of his. In his spare time, Patrikas loves to play chess - so feel free to challenge him!

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