About us
A former Managing Director of the Heineken Experience in Amsterdam, Dirk knows how to move organizations and people. With his broad experience in hospitality, tourism and beyond, he has the skills to transform businesses and people. Dirk is an impactful leader, speaker and consultant.
Start at Heineken
Dirk started his career as a Logistics Manager at the German Steel Multinational ThyssenKrupp (1997). His career at Heineken began in 2000. He eventually became General Manager of the Heineken Event Services, a position in which he was responsible for all national and international Heineken events. His best practice: turning the Event Services from a supporting department into an independent profitable company. It became one of the elite troops of Heineken!
In 2010 he was named Managing Director of the Heineken Experience in Amsterdam. Under his supervision, the Heineken Experience almost tripled the number of visitors in six years to over a million in 2017. The Heineken Experience now is the biggest attraction in Amsterdam.
Between 2018 and 2020 Dirk headed the Tourism Group International, which is the biggest content owning tour operator of Amsterdam. Dirk’s main assignment as its CEO was to turn Tours & Tickets into an international organization. Tourism Group International is now an organization operating in Sweden, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.
The next chapter
In 2020 Dirk founded his business consultancy; DLCheers B.V. He advises several attractions and is a member of the board for the World Food Experience in Ede and for the Van Gogh Homeland Experience in Brabant. DLCheers designs, advises, builds teams, trains general managers and provides interim management based on skills, knowledge, experience and passion! DLCheers is ‘hospitality beyond expectations’.
What else do you need to know about Dirk? He loves to sing along with the Rolling Stones and INXS, but when nobody is around he secretly listens to the Frozen soundtrack and bands like Bros and Milli Vanilli. He has been married for 20-plus years and he has a son and a daughter. The family owns two dogs, one sheep, a guinea pig and a hamster.
In the words of others: “Dirk’s energy is contagious!” Want to know more about Dirk, or meet up with him? Get in touch and let’s take it from there!