Stories
MEET ELIZE – CREWING MANAGER
My name is Elize and I am working as a Crewing Manager within Anthony Veder. I am married and a proud mom of two beautiful children; Sophia and Dean.
When I am not working, I like spending time with family and friends, enjoying nice food, reading, dancing and travelling.
Being born and raised in Curacao, I grew up in a very colorful and culturally diverse environment.
On this small island over 50 different nationalities are represented, each with their values, traditions and diverse backgrounds. There are four languages which you grow up to speak fluently (Papiamentu, Dutch, English and Spanish).
Because of this, I have always been very interested in people, other countries, other cultures and different languages.
The combination of the above, my technical affinity and not wanting a 9 to 5 job made me decide to pursue a career at sea.
I started at Anthony Veder in 2012 as an apprentice on board the Coral Methane and sailed for 5 years on several vessels within the fleet before switching to the office.
Being a Deck Officer, I felt a strong sense of responsibility, independence and freedom (especially when at the open Sea, looking at a beautiful sunrise or sunset).
The dynamic and challenging environment on board provides exciting opportunities to develop a broad set of skills. You are trained to maintain a high safety standard, on navigation and on cargo operations.
But you also develop skills on leadership, communication, teamwork, problem solving, listening to and understanding of others.
In my current role, I continue to work and connect with people from a lot of different places in the world on a daily basis. This interaction gives me a lot of positive energy and makes me love my job.
Working in the office also gives me the chance to work together with several departments within Anthony Veder. I am responsible for monitoring and contributing to the development of the seafarers in my cluster by evaluations, personal development plans and identifying training needs.
Besides that, I am involved in projects and initiatives such as sustainable employability, DEI and conferences.
Unfortunately, in the maritime industry, there is still a large gap in the proportions of women versus men.
With this article I hope to inspire and motivate at least one woman to also pursue a career in the maritime sector (on board or ashore).
It is a thrilling sector to work in, not just for men but also for women.