WITH A COMBINED NETWORK OF OVER 8.000 ‘4TU’ GRADUATES IN THE UNITED STATES, ALUMNI ARE NOT ONLY VALUABLE CONTACTS FOR EACH OTHER BUT ALSO UNIQUE ACCESS POINTS TO EXCITING ORGANIZATIONS!
This April over 200 local alumni signed up for special ‘behind the scenes’ gatherings in Boston, Chicago & San Jose at three pioneering companies: autonomous vehicle company Motional, global financial technology platform Adyen and ASML’s Silicon Valley R&D facility. The special gatherings were hosted by the UT, TU Delft, TU/e and Wageningen University alumni offices as part of a 2023 USA DEAN Alumni Tour after organizing previous tours in 2014 & 2018.
Each of the events included talks by local alumni from the host companies about their career paths and current jobs, updates from the universities and concluded with a networking 'borrel'. The 4TU hosts were Anouk Dijkstal (TU Delft), Joe Laufer (UT) & Denise Spiekerman (WUR).
One of the immediate outcomes of the current tour has been the recruitment of 20+ volunteers among local alumni who will act as organizers and hosts of future activities in the four cities as well as contact points for visiting staff and students from 4TU universities. The promotions around the activities also provided an opportunity for targeted contact with over 2.000 UT, TUD, TU/e and Wageningen graduates and raised awareness regarding both the USA based alumni network as well as possible engagement paths with their alma maters including education (i.e. guest speakers & mentoring), research (i.e. job openings, partnerships with companies) and fundraising (i.e. student scholarships, crowdfunding) .
For an impression of both the alumni events of the current tour as well as other activities undertaken during the visit see the daily updates below originally posted by UT alumni officer Joe Laufer on Linkedin.
- 17/4 Visit with World Bank alumni (Washington DC)
Ever considered a career at the World Bank? You might after speaking to 4TU alumni like the three who hosted us for lunch today in Washington DC! Thanks to Bramka Arga Jafino, Siet Meijer & Nian Sadiq for sharing their job experiences plus advice for students interested in working at the World Bank (tip#1 tap into your professors!)
We are ever more excited now for upcoming alumni events planned later this year in Geneva, New York & Washington DC focused on the nearly 400 4TU alumni working at international organizations like CERN, the United Nations and the World Bank.
#utwente #tudelft #tueindhoven #wur #4TU #accessyourworldwideUTnetwork #alumniNL
- 18/4 NAF, UN & Other meetings (New York City)
Made the most out of today's New York 'minute' ❤️!
Just finished a visit to The Netherland-America Foundation for a chat with director Willemijn Keizer and also an introduction to the office dog Blue :) The NAF's University of Twente Friends Fund enables our alumni in the USA to make tax deductible gifts to the UT (https://lnkd.in/evXr2GWa)
Before that stopped by the NL Consulate General for a meeting with startup liaison Jorn Poldermans to explore how Twente entrepreneurs could better leverage the support offered through various programs like the ScaleNL Accelerator. (https://lnkd.in/eup6yJm9)
We also enjoyed a special lunch with 4TU alumni Rob Lafeber, Carlos Montenegro Pinto & Sabrina S. (thanks!) who spoke about their work at the UN and together with WUR colleague Denise Spiekerman even had a chance to get a peak inside the United Nations Secretariat Building. Interested in also working there? Here's a tip - get a foot in the door through the UN Volunteers Program (https://www.unv.org/)
The day started with a slight detour to Connecticut for a gezellig cup of coffee with fellow UT'er and one of the leaders of the 4TU alumni network in New York City Willem Sutherland - looking forward to catching up again soon!
Next stop, Boston for our 4TU alumni event tomorrow evening at Motional followed by another gathering on Thursday in Chicago at Adyen
- 19/4 4TU alumni event @ Motional (Boston)
How about hosting an alumni event? We approached 4TU alumni Bruno & Boaz Floor with that question only a few weeks ago and they replied enthusiastically - let's explore the options and see what our company thinks!
Fast forward to now, the morning after an amazing evening gathering for nearly 50 local alumni in Boston at Motional with opening words by the NL innovation attache Mart Duitemeijer, talks by our two 'insiders' for a fascinating glimpse behind the development work going into the company's self driving robotaxis, and a concluding gezellig borrel!
You can identify a successful 4TU alumni event when, as in this case, participants remain an hour after the official end time, simply enjoying interacting with each other :)
A big thanks to Mikaela Noble & Khaoula Ouakar for their help with the logistics as well as the Motional staff volunteers who were on standby support status.
Bruno & Boaz, we really enjoyed working with you both over the past few weeks and appreciate you making it possible for us to host our alumni gathering at Motional's HQ in Boston, as well as share your personal stories.
#utwente #tudelft #tueindhoven #wur #4tu #alumniNL
4TU DEAN event team: Anouk Dijkstal, Joe Laufer & Denise Spiekerman van Weezelenburg
- 20/4 4TU alumni event @ Adyen (Chicago)
NL fintech Adyen, a wonderful example of global scale Dutch innovation, was the perfect host for our first ever 4TU alumni event in Chicago last night!
With alumnus Bert Wolters, an early 'insider' at the company as the evening's speaker, participants got a front 'couch' seat to some interesting stories as well as insights into the Adyen work culture where, "We talk straight without being rude".
Hard to believe that the Chicago office which serves as the company's North American tech hub was set up less than a year ago!
New connections were made during the ending borrel mixer and while we weren't able to serve traditional bitterballen the Chicago pizza was a great alternative :) With a group of new local volunteers now in place it will be exciting to see what activities will follow 💓
Many thanks to all the Adyen staff for their help with organizing this successful event as well as to our alumnus host Bert Wolters!
#utwente #tudelft #tueindhoven #wur #4TU #alumniNL
4TU DEAN event team: Anouk Dijkstal, Leonie Kalkman, Joe Laufer, Jasper Peterich & Denise Spiekerman van Weezelenburg
- 21/4 Visit to an UT'er working at McDonald's Global HQ (Chicago)
Hamburger University? Chicago? It has to be McDonald's Global HQ! Thanks to UT alumnus Lukas Steiniger for arranging access and giving me a fun tour on my last morning in the city.
Lukas is a global marketing manager at the company and among his recent projects is listed on the credits for McDonald's advertising campaign during last year's World Cup that carried the tagline, 'Wanna go to McDonald’s?' (watch it here --> https://lnkd.in/ejVFYdGz)
Amazing to think that Lukas's career at McDonald's started as an internship with their German subsidiary while still a Twente student and a funny fact is that we both lived in the Matenweg block of student flats on campus :)
Inspiring to meet UT graduates like Lukas making their mark in the world! #trots
- 24/4 Visit to the Nordic Innovation House (Palo Alto)
Collaboration is in our 4TU DNA! With +1000 alumni in the SF Bay Area we are always on the lookout for interesting partners who can add value to the network.
This afternoon for example together with TU colleagues Anouk Dijkstal & Denise Spiekerman van Weezelenburg, we visited the Nordic Innovation House - Silicon Valley in Palo Alto which is a home base for local and visiting Danish, Finn, Icelandic, Norwegian & Swedish entrepreneurs and heard from Kirsten Berken about their activities and community. Perhaps it’s time also for a 4TU.Federation alumni house in the Bay Area?
Dutch embassies and consulates are regular partners in our alumni activities and earlier this morning we also enjoyed catching up with Walter van der Weiden and David van Maaren from the Netherlands Consulate in San Francisco. We discussed a few particularly interesting initiatives like the wonderful Holland in the Valley Internship program that matches students to companies for Summer assignments in Silicon Valley and ScaleNL for Dutch tech entrepreneurs.
Next stop, tonight's alumni borrel in San Francisco!
- 24/4 4TU alumni drinks (San Francisco)
Monday is usually not the best for hosting events although San Francisco is definitely an exception based on last night's gezellig 4TU DEAN alumni borrel!
Our last gathering in the city was in 2018 so it was great to be back and have a room full of enthusiastic alumni yet again enjoying each other's company. With a new group of local volunteers now forming, we are excited to see what upcoming activities will be organized over the next few months.
Thanks to everyone who joined us and looking forward to seeing some of you again tonight at our event at ASML Silicon Valley.
#utwente #tudelft #tueindhoven #wur #4TU #alumniNL
4TU DEAN event team: Anouk Dijkstal, Leonie Kalkman, Joe Laufer, Jasper Peterich & Denise Spiekerman van Weezelenburg
- 25/4 4TU alumni event @ ASML Silicon Valley (San Jose)
ASML 'powered' by 4TU graduates! Over 5000 of our alumni are employed at ASML including CTO Martin van den Brink, Senior VP Technology Jos Benschop as well as the three amazing speakers who were part of last night's 4TU DEAN alumni gathering at the company's Silicon Valley campus.
It was a great conclusion to this edition of the USA alumni tour which showcased the impact of 4TU graduates within some of the most innovative companies in the world and many thanks to Marc Kea (TUD), Pieter Scheijgrond (TU/e) & Robin Tijssen (UT) for talking about their career path and work at ASML. The evening also included opening words by Innovation Counselor & Twente alumnus Taake Manning from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the USA as well as a brief introduction to ASML by Ronald Goossens.
Organizing an alumni event within an ASML facility is a complex process and would not have been possible without the support of both our alumni Pieter, Robin, Ronald (honorary alumnus 😉 ) as well as Dana Pulliam Gharda from ASML University Relations & Talent Engagement - dankjewel! The bitterballen were also very appreciated ❤️
It was wonderful seeing everyone in-person! Thanks for joining and helping us make this alumni gathering a success 🍻
#utwente #tudelft #tueindhoven #wur #4TU #alumniNL
4TU DEAN event team: Anouk Dijkstal, Leonie Kalkman, Joe Laufer, Jasper Peterich & Denise Spiekerman van Weezelenburg
- 27-28/04 Meetings with UT alumni (SF Bay Area)
A peek into Nvidia’s new HQ; Experiences co-founding a successful start-up in the Valley; Finding the best croissants in SF; How networking opens up opportunities; Challenges of recruiting new talent. Just some of the highlights from my meetings with local alumni yesterday and today in San Francisco before returning to Twente tomorrow.
Thanks to UT’ers Vincent Duindam (top right), Tom Engbersen (bottom left), Björn Harink (not in photo), William Steenbergen (bottom right) & Martijn Tideman (top left) for making time to see me! It was great chatting and just wish I had time to speak with more alumni but looking forward to hopefully seeing many of you back on campus for visits later this year - the coffee is on us!
When was the last time you reached out to a fellow UT alumnus? Use Linkedin's alumni tool to find someone interesting in your city --> https://lnkd.in/e4DFjJ-c
Alumni participants for the four events came from a range of organizations including: Accenture, Adyen, Amgen, Amyris, Analog Devices, Apple, Aptitude SW, ASML, Boston University, Cargill, Ericsson, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, GE Healthcare, Genentech, Google, Harvard University, IBM, Intel Corporation, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Linkedin, Mars Wrigley, Marvell, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Meta Platforms, MilliporeSigma, Motional, NASA Ames Research Center, Nestle Health Science, Northwestern University, Nouryon, NVIDIA, SEMTECH, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Siemens Healthineers, Sila Nanotechnologies, Stanford University, Syngenta, Unilever (Dollar Shave Club), United Nations, University of California, Berkeley, Vicarious Surgical, V-Silicon, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.
4TU DEAN alumni communities were first launched back in 2014 and today are active in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Nordics, Spain, Switzerland and the USA. This unique network encompasses over 33,000 engineers and is a testimony of the global impact and reach of the four technical universities of the Netherlands.
In 2023 DEAN alumni events will also take place in Switzerland, the UK & the additional US locations Houston, Washington DC & New York. Gatherings are organized by the UT, TUD, TU/e and Wageningen University alumni offices often in collaboration with partners like the 4TU Federation, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
For more information about the DEAN alumni network visit: https://www.4tu.nl/en/about_4tu/alumni/
