Commercial Officer

About Joris Winkelman

My name is Joris Winkelman, Commercial Officer of the 48th EFR-Board. After having completed my Bachelor degree IBA, I wanted to gain some practical experience before starting my master in finance. I was told that being active within the EFR is an ideal way to broaden yourself in many aspects. Now, a couple of months down the road, I can confirm this claim: a year within the EFR enables you to develop your personal skills in a professional and challenging way.

About the Commercial Officer position

The Commercial Officer of the EFR is responsible for the external affairs. Due to our centralised commercial structure, this means that all contacts with companies and sponsors fall under your responsibility. In practice this comes down to visiting a broad range of different companies, managing relationships and negotiating contracts.  

The main tasks of the Commercial Officer are to finance all the EFR-activities, to represent the interests of the different companies, to manage the company network, and to support the commercial committee members of the EFR. 

The Commerrcial Officer constantly faces different wishes of organisations. By supporting companies in their recruitment challenges and involving them in EFR's activities, the ultimate goal is a win-win-situation. By doing so you have to be actively involved with all activities and events, in order to represent the interests of these external parties. Every decision made must be subjected to your critical commercial point of view.  

A Commercial Officer is verbally strong, is able to write formally, is a good listener, is representative, likes to communicate and is able to negotiate. All the company visits and contact moments have as an effect that you get to know a wide range of different companies. You will be subjected to quite some time pressure, since the Commercial Officer is one of the busiest board members. Nevertheless, a year as Commercial Officer is a great challenge and gives you the opportunity to develop yourself in a many ways.