CEO of Marie-Stella-Maris
Kika Buhrmann is the CEO of Marie-Stella-Maris, the Dutch premium lifestyle and care brand with a mission: clean drinking water for everyone, worldwide. Certified B Corp, actively expanding across Europe, and proof that "profit" and "purpose" are not opposites, but each other's best argument.
Our consultants would be happy to advise you on how best to tailor the narrative to your specific target audience.
Kika Buhrmann is CEO of Marie-Stella-Maris, the Dutch premium lifestyle and care brand with a mission: clean drinking water for everyone, worldwide. Certified B Corp, actively expanding throughout Europe, and proof that “profit” and “purpose” are not opposites, but each other’s best argument.
Previously, she spent 17 years at Nespresso, with stops in Spain, Switzerland, the US, and the Netherlands: from the local leadership team in Spain, through a global role for the Out-of-Home Business in Switzerland, to Vice-President Sales Nespresso USA, and finally CEO of Nespresso Netherlands.
She grew up in Brazil and then lived and worked in Spain, Switzerland, the US, and the Netherlands, and before the age of 25, she had already founded her own headhunting firm in Barcelona. International leadership is not a buzzword from a LinkedIn post for her, but a lifestyle, formed by starting over as often as taking big steps.
Additionally, Kika was a board advisor for a vertical farming scale-up and for Sheltersuit, the Dutch non-profit that makes warming clothing for the homeless and refugees, where she guided the organisation in its ambition to enter the American market.
Kika speaks about leadership, international entrepreneurship, and running companies that take both profit and a higher purpose seriously, from multinationals to scale-ups, from publicly listed companies to non-profits. She regularly speaks for businesses and conferences and has a trademark: she says out loud what other leaders only admit in private.
After years on the ground in multiple countries, sectors, and time zones, and running a household with three children and two international careers, she no longer believes in work-life balance (“a myth”), time management (“you can’t manage time, only energy”) or the career ladder (“ladders only have one direction; life does not”). In its place came her own, sharp view of leadership, tested in practice, not in a theory book, characterised by radical transparency: no hidden agendas, no polished half-truths, just calling things as they are.
No PowerPoint wisdoms. Just stories, insights, and a dose of humour from someone who simply did it.
Keeping work and private life in balance doesn’t exist, says Kika, and that’s not bad news. Time management is an outdated concept; energy is the real currency. Instead of balance, she believes in life harmony: the peaks and troughs that actually need each other to make your life feel full and vibrant. Drawing on her own experience (three children, two international careers, one household), she shows how to consciously use your energy instead of blindly filling up your time, and what that harmony looks like in practice. Recognisable, practical, and completely without the guilt that the topic usually brings.
Ladders only go one way; careers do not. Kika shares why she consciously took sideways steps and even steps back at times, including when she was warned it was career suicide, and what those choices brought her. A refreshing perspective on growth for anyone who feels stuck in the idea that the next title is the only correct goal.
There is no best leadership style, only your own. Kika challenges the well-known leadership models (authentic, servant, vulnerable) and shows why they ultimately all come down to the same thing: consciously choosing who you want to be, instead of following a format. With her trademark radical transparency as a common thread: no hidden agendas, but calling things as they are.
Disrupted supply chains, AI, geopolitical tension: the only constant is change, and no one knows what form it will take. Kika shares how she learned to become comfortable with discomfort, including during her time as VP Sales in the US amidst Covid and the social unrest surrounding Black Lives Matter. An honest story about leading without having all the answers, and becoming stronger because of it.
Raised in Brazil, an entrepreneur in Spain before she was 25, leadership roles in Switzerland and the US, back to the Netherlands: Kika’s career itself proves that international leadership is not about a line on LinkedIn, but about starting over and over again. She shares what twenty years of changing countries, cultures, and teams taught her about adaptability, language, and building credibility without a local network, relevant for any organisation that wants to grow or think internationally.
Request pricing and availability, without obligation. Our consultants will be happy to help you personally.
Our specialists are ready to match the right expertise to your goals.
Get the latest insights and trends from top experts delivered straight to your inbox every month.
