Anneke de Vries
Head teacher · Manages 45 staff
Not taking new mentees right now
- Role
- Head Teacher · Amsterdam Primary 12
- Based in
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Experience
- 24 years in education & academia
- Speaks
- Dutch, English
In her words
I became a head at 34 and spent two years being called the deputy. Very useful on managing people older than you, and on the specific loneliness of being the one who decides.
What she can help with
Path to Management
Positioning yourself as management material and earning the first people role.
First Hires & Managing a Team
Becoming someone's boss for the first time when you built the job yourself.
Ageism & Mid-Career Barriers
Staying valued and advancing past 40 in youth-biased cultures.
Leadership Presence
Owning the room with clarity, calm, and credible authority.
Difficult Colleagues & Politics
Navigating conflict, office politics, and hard personalities.
Others who cover similar ground
Mei Lin Wong
Supply chain director · APAC region
I manage warehouses, ports and a lot of men who have been doing this for thirty years. Good on inheriting a team that did not choose you, and on being the youngest person in every negotiation.
Aisha Bello
Clinical lead · Runs a 40-midwife unit
I run a unit where the work does not pause for anyone's confidence crisis. Good with rota politics, being the youngest person promoted over people who trained you, and shift work with small children at home.
Fatima Al-Rashid
Executive chef · Three kitchens, 80 staff
Professional kitchens run on shouting and I refuse to. It took me years to prove that a calm pass is a faster pass. Ask me about brigade politics, hours that eat your life, and running a kitchen your way.