Liane Vlaskamp

The first Alumni Success Story is written by: Liane Vlaskamp
Liane Vlaskamp, one of the founders and the first chairman of RISK ‘89/’90 (nowadays FSG), is now CEO of the Royal NBA, the professional body for accountants in the Netherlands, The Royal Netherlands Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Pioneering
In a literal sense, a pioneer is one who enters uncharted territory, usually with the intention of settling there, with the expectation that others will follow. In a figurative sense, a pioneer is someone who becomes active in a particular field. Many readers may now think of European explorers who crossed the oceans, but you can also think of the first inhabitants of, for example, new settlements such as Almere or Lelystad, or the first computer nerds.

In that sense, 35 years ago, I was also allowed to pioneer together with other students, at the founding of one of the predecessors of the current FSG, the association RISK. And that pioneering was also mostly fun, discovering how to set up an association, making mistakes, getting back up and trying to build something together.

Despite several moves and clean-up attempts, I still have a modest box with a small layer of dust, in which my memories of the Groningen days are stored. The contents of this box help to refresh my memory and a smile appears when leafing through the copy of the deed of incorporation, the first budget of 3,480 guilders (1,580 euros) and a lustrum magazine in which the first years of the association are described.

In the summer of 1989, the first ideas arose among the department lecturers and professors of the FBA section (nowadays FEB) and the student assistants, including myself, to set up a study association for students of FBA, Finance, Investment and Accounting. Prof. dr. Bouma gave us, as student assistants, the confidence to actually convert these ideas into the establishment of an association and not to lose sight of the collaboration with the then Economic Faculty Association (EFV, one of the predecessors of the current EBF). In the academic year '89/'90 the association was officially founded on December 12, 1989, I was allowed to form the board together with the members of the first hour, Marian, Jacco, Fedde and Severijn, and I was given the chairman's position.

The pioneering consisted of talking to our fellow students of the EFV, for whom it was just a hassle that a new association would be formed. The pioneering involved approaching sponsors and selling a new association only on the basis of good ideas and great plans. The pioneering involved the establishment of an association with a real conversation with a notary. We pioneered together with the expectation that others would follow us. And that happened: in the founding year, the target number of 100 members was more than reached, we received our first sponsorship money in the account so that we could organize events and the EFV made room in its statutes for the establishment of sub-associations.

In conversation with Frank, the current chairman of FSG, we looked back on the early days, but I also listened to the ins and outs of the association in the present time. A time in which everything looks professional and businesslike, a time in which pioneering may have faded into the background, now that there is a flourishing association of about 2000 members. Leading such a large association also requires professionalism and organizational talent. In my career, as an accountant, IT auditor
and in the management of large organizational units, I have always been able to retain a piece of the pioneering spirit from my student days, and in particular the curiosity for other solutions and the dynamics of change. I wish the same for current students when they enter the FSG association dynamics and make their ideas and dreams come true in their future careers.