There’s more to Bligh Bank than wind turbines, explains the person at the hub of the Vestas office.
Out on the water it’s salt spray and diesel fumes, winches and safety harnesses. A male-dominated world where multi-tasking is not a priority.
Back in the office, meanwhile, Project Assistant Geesje de Vries gets on with the real jobs. “I don’t work on the operational part of the project,” she says. “I just co-ordinate everything else: booking hotels and rental cars, fuel, sorting out IT support, organising security, ordering office supplies….” It’s a long list.
Netherlands-born Geesje sees no downside to working in Belgium for a Danish company with a multicultural workforce: “We have many different nationalities here, so how do we manage to work together? By listening to one another and making sure we all have the same goals.”
There are no real language difficulties on site, she says, and the need for translation doesn’t go beyond the news items about the project that appear on Belgian TV, or occasional documents from a sub-contractor.
“It helps that Dutch and Flemish people normally understand one another pretty well, and of course we have English to fall back on,” Geesje says. “The mix of backgrounds makes a great working environment.”
“In fact I wouldn’t mind living in Zeebrugge,” Geesje says. “It’s not a big place, but there’s lots to do here in the summer and the local people are really friendly.” One suspects they are simply echoing her enthusiasm.
Geesje joined Vestas four years ago and soon found her niche as a fixer, working first in the Netherlands and then in Denmark: “As soon as a new contract is signed, I’m one of the first people to visit the new area and start collecting contacts in all the local businesses we will need to work with.”
“I feel like an ambassador for Vestas. I really like telling people that Vestas is coming and what the project will mean for them. I’ve never had a bad experience doing that,” says the fixer.
