Naomi van den Berg

YEP period 2021 - 2022, batch 22

Young Expert at African Clean Energy - Uganda

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First position after YEP

Business Manager Sustainable Supply Chains at Port of Rotterdam, Netherlands

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YEP Role

Working as a Field Office Manager with the Uganda Management team to set up new sales teams and retail locations. Also recognizing opportunities and efficiencies within sales strategy, foolproofing 'remote location' data collection and identifying pitfalls, customer acquisition, and retention strategies, Sustainable Fuels supply chain and sales strategies, Tech Adoption and Training and training and implementing new data collection and payment tools.

Skills
In all my activities, I most enjoy the connection with people, from random encounters on the bus to the neighbors and co-workers. This allows me to connect with people in different roles and with different (cultural) backgrounds on a personal level, which gives me a lot of energy. Also, through my different roles, I have learned how to break something complex down and structure discussions, findings and plans. I like to present and think about the best way to get a story across to different audiences.

Background

Nationality: Dutch

Education: Bachelor of Marine Technology, Delft University of Technology. Master Ship and Offshore structures, Delft University of Technology.

Experience before YEP

With my background in engineering, I have had the opportunity to work in many different roles at Damen Shipyards in a very international context. I started with the general traineeship to broaden my horizon and skillset and then moved to become a Design and Proposal engineer for two different departments. This provides me with both operational experience as an assistant project manager in a ship repair yard, as well as strategic and commercial experience setting up cooperations with shipyards all across the globe and creating Damen’s first digital subscription services.

The reason for joining the YEP program, however, was an experience still in university, where spent three months in Tanzania as part of the minor program “International Entrepreneurship and Development”  fell in love with East Africa. Ever since then, I have wanted to make a true impact on this continent and I am happy to have started that journey with YEP and ACE.