Siegrid Althuizen has built her career around business growth, transformation and entrepreneurship, from leading established media companies in the Netherlands to co-founding a strategic branding and innovation firm in the Middle East. Along the way, she has experienced how quickly industries can change, how difficult it can be to let go of familiar ways of working and how much leadership matters when the future is uncertain.
One conviction has stayed with her: people do their best work when they are trusted to think for themselves, take responsibility and question established ideas.
After more than a decade as CEO of Skyne, the Middle East-based firm she co-founded, Althuizen has handed over day-to-day leadership while remaining involved in its strategic direction and growth. Her work also extends to new ventures, partnerships and business opportunities across the region.
Learning to lead through change
Before Skyne, Althuizen held senior leadership positions in media in the Netherlands. She was responsible for businesses and teams during a period when digital technology was transforming the publishing industry.
It was a demanding time to be a leader. Established business models were under pressure, and decisions about the future affected people who had spent much of their working lives in the industry.
Those experiences influenced how she thinks about change. A decision may make perfect sense commercially, but that does not make it easy for the people involved. She learned the importance of being clear about difficult choices while giving people the confidence and responsibility to help shape what comes next.
Her thinking was also influenced by Ricardo Semler’s ideas about trust and autonomy. Rather than expecting leaders to have all the answers, she believes in creating an environment where people can contribute their own ideas and challenge established thinking.
At Skyne, she carried that experience into a different industry, helping build a company working with businesses and government-related organisations across the Gulf. Today, that experience shapes her perspective on governance and the role of boards in guiding businesses through growth, change and difficult decisions.
An entrepreneurial perspective
Althuizen’s career has never followed a single industry or discipline. From media and publishing to strategy, design and innovation, she has been interested in how businesses develop and what happens when established assumptions no longer hold.
Having experienced the transition from print to digital and the subsequent rise of the internet first-hand, she recognises some familiar questions in today’s conversations about artificial intelligence. What will change? Which capabilities will remain valuable? And how should businesses respond before circumstances force them to?
She is interested in the possibilities that new technologies create, but also in the judgement required to decide which opportunities are worth pursuing.
That combination of curiosity and practical experience has shaped her approach to entrepreneurship. She enjoys developing ideas, finding the right people and building something new, while recognising that enthusiasm alone is never enough to make a business work.
Building connections across markets
Having lived and worked in the Middle East for many years, Althuizen has developed close relationships across the Gulf’s business community.
Through Skyne, she has worked with international companies entering the region and regional organisations seeking to strengthen their position or expand abroad. The experience has given her an appreciation for the differences in business culture, decision-making and ambition.
She also co-founded the Dutch Design Center in Dubai, bringing together creative talent, businesses and educational institutions from different backgrounds.
During the pandemic, she launched Go-Lokal, an initiative supporting local businesses in the UAE. She also spent four years mentoring entrepreneurs through the Dubai Business Women Council.
These initiatives came from the same instinct that has influenced much of her career: an interest in people, an eye for possibilities and the willingness to get involved rather than simply discuss an idea.
Looking ahead
The Gulf continues to change rapidly, with established companies exploring new markets, family businesses considering their next generation of leadership and technology creating new questions for almost every industry.
For Althuizen, these developments make the region an interesting place to work. She is particularly drawn to situations where businesses need to reconsider their direction, develop new capabilities or make decisions that will shape their future.
Her experience in executive leadership has taught her that difficult decisions, uncertainty and competing interests are an inevitable part of running a business.
Today, her focus is on what comes next: new businesses, strategic partnerships and opportunities to help companies navigate growth and transformation.
