Van der Linden becomes new PPS Professional Woman of the Year
Dr Eline van der Linden is the new Professional Woman of the Year, a title conferred by local insurer of professional people, the Professional Provident Society.
The Professional Provident Society, or PPS Insurance Namibia as the company is now structured, is a subsidiary of Sanlam specialising in the insurance needs of tertiary qualified persons with a 4-year university degree or higher.
Honouring the contribution by women, PPS Insurance annually name, in their opinion, the highest achiever among professional women. This was only the second time the award was made.
The awards breakfast was attended by women from across all business sectors. The breakfast focused on encouraging women to balance their professional success with taking caring of themselves and sharing their success with others.
According to PPS Insurance Namibia’s Chief Operating Officer, Ms. Sybil Somaes, Dr Van der Linden was chosen because of her dynamic experience as a consultant for different government ministries and international agencies, her entrepreneurial spirit and mostly importantly for founding the Down Syndrome Association of Namibia.
“Dr Van der Linden has faced challenges head on and has achieved formidable accomplishments in industries and job titles traditionally dominated by men. She owns and runs Omuramba Impact Investing CC, developing business opportunities for private equity investments that intentionally seek to generate social and/or economic impact along with a financial return. She is also a part-time member of the Corporate Advisory Reform Unit in the Ministry of Public Enterprises, helping with the transformation of public enterprises to reduce their burden on the government’s budget.
Dr Van der Linden came to Namibia in 1990 as a volunteer student from Holland and has never left, putting down roots and becoming a respected Namibian, widely recognised for both her professional and her social contributions.
In 2015 she successfully concluded the implementation of the US$304.5 million Millennium Challenge Account Namibia Compact (2009-2015) with investments in the education, agriculture and tourism sectors.
“I am truly humbled to receive this award and must add that whatever I want to achieve in this life – be it with work, in my house, my business, with my kids and even when it comes to love – I take a business-like approach to it, and believe I have a much better chance to succeed. The end result I am aiming for is of course different: making an impact in social or economic terms, making money, creating something beautiful, helping my kids to make the right choices for themselves in life, and having meaningful relationships. However, the toolbox I use in business comes in super handy in the rest of my life too” said the good doctor.
