Ariane van Mancius

About Ariane van Mancius

17-02-1975, Ariane van der Krol-van Mancius was born in Haarlem under the Aquarius sign. 5 weeks later Van Mancius exchanged the cold Netherlands for warm Dubai. She grew up in a Dutch expat enclave because her father had been instructed to dredge the Creek. She had a beautiful and stable first five years of her life.

At the age of 5 Van Mancius moved back to the Netherlands, where she would continue to spend her entire childhood. In elementary school she gets into flower arrangement, which she has a knack for, to everyones surprise. In her free time she picks and sells flowers.

Her mother encourages the creative work of her two daughters, which would later result in an annual collection of hair products, brooches etc. that the sisters are selling at the annual fair in their town. They always sell everything because they look closely at what their classmates are doing. This also provides the first basis for their interest in trend watching.

After obtaining her degree in Hospitality Management in Maastricht, Van Mancius starts a revolving sushi bar in the heart of Amsterdam. She likes the creative part of the setup of the restaurant; concept, reconstruction, service equipment. The actual running of the restaurant operation is not her favourite task, however. She misses the creative part. She quits her job after 2 years to explore new career opportunities.

Van Mancius loves shopping, and her surroundings suggest becoming a personal shopper or stylist. This is exactly what Van Mancius needed to go into procurement / product development. She applies for a number of vacancies and she is hired by Helios MPPD, a family-owned business in airline catering products in the heart of Amsterdam. Van Mancius fits perfectly in her new role and stays with the company for more than 13 years. On 26-03-2012 the company is sold to gategroup, a Swiss-owned multinational.

The wonderful position of Van Mancius is exchanged for a new role within a large listed company. Deep in her heart she knows that the end of her aviation career may be at hand. She gives herself a year to try but realises that creativity cannot be anchored in such a large P & L driven organisation in the long term. She quits her job and takes a little sabbatical with her husband and three small children.

Van Mancius challenges herself to follow her heart. Creating beautiful products is something she finds really exciting. She loves creative teamwork and she is good at linking ideas, people and suppliers. She is often called a liaison officer. She loves to be creative in business solutions in order to get the best result and cost savings. She sees what happens before it happens and happy to help.

Van Mancius starts her new company Now|New|Next to help companies with product management/product innovation, incorporating her years of design experience. She works for small companies and multi nationals in different channels; retail, petrol, foodservice and airline. She also created multiple food and packiging brands herself.

As a speaker van Mancius puts all her experience in the food, beverage and packing industry into practice. With her company she captures and structures the six most important trends and packs them in a highly visual presentation. She speaks about creative thinking in food/beverage/packaging and hospitality and reveals secrets on how to achieve successful innovations.