M.Sc. Marlon Huysmans

About Marlon Huysmans

Marlon Huysmans was Sustainability Director at OVG, the Netherlands’ market leader in office development, until November 1st 2011. After graduating cum laude from the Eindhoven University of Technology (1999) she worked for the construction company Slavenburg for nine years. At the age of 25 she was appointed to the board as Deputy-Director, where her responsibilities included Business Development. Now, ten years later, she has devoted herself to sustainable real estate development, innovation and change management. When she joined OVG as Sustainability Director in March 2008, this position lead her to be one of the co-founders of the first online sustainability knowledge networks for the construction industry (duurzaamgebouwd.nl). In December 2009 DWIRE nominated her ‘Real Estate Woman of the Year’ for her commitment to innovation and sustainability in the sector. She enjoys working in areas where she can really make a difference, combining her architectural background as an engineer with the communication skills and inspiration to set others in motion. She sometimes jokingly refers to herself as ‘the only engineer with two left hands’. From a family of engineers, the profession was part of her life from an early age and she subconsciously decided to link technology to simplicity and its benefit for people and society. No surprise therefore that Huysmans ultimately placed her focus on sustainability and making people the measure for real estate.

She goes so far as to propose that women feel more strongly about sustainability than men do. Mostly due to their – inbuilt – long-term vision, which cannot always be earned back in the short-term on budgetary returns. Besides, we already have the technology for sustainability; it is the people who form the key to success. So the work lies with people and women are extremely good at themes like understanding the consumer or people management on the work floor. Huysmans firmly believes in the stereotypical differences between the sexes and that we should allow these to be demonstrated and utilized on the work floor. Particularly in sectors with an imbalance, obviously. She is impassioned about subjects such as ‘developing leadership in young women’, ‘the attractiveness of companies for women’ and ‘the optimal deployment of the company’s female capital’. This was a reason she took on the additional position as Board Member during the creation of the first national Businesswomen’s Federation, to stimulate female entrepreneurship.

In October 2011 Marlon Huysmans became an independent entrepreneur, under the no-nonsense name of MH Projects, which concentrates on consultancy relating to the sustainable development of cities and companies. She also joined the Supervisory Board of the Woonwenz Housing Corporation in January 2012.

What she loves most is to use her energy in change processes in the construction and real estate sector, wherever smart managers are open to new insights and business cases, genuinely want to deal with dilemmas and are seeking inspiration to take their company and the people involved to a higher level.