What kind of work do you do exactly?

We’re responsible for the financial side of things at EB. This includes the Faculty Office, the Education Service Center, the Amsterdam School of Economics (ASE), the Amsterdam Business School (ABS), the Executive Programmes and any projects involving our academic staff. Over the entire year we periodically prepare and analyse our financial status. We monitor if our developments are in line with the projections. This is then documented during the budget cycle in which, together with the organisation, we try to create a clear picture of the plans for the upcoming year. An important part of this is the allocation of the research and education budgets we receive from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. We also keep the accounts of the various research projects. These are usually funded by external parties and and we bear responsibility for financial accountability of the expenditures. Besides these tasks, F&C also provides administrative support and we assist with the calculation of necessary investments and the preparation of predictive models for new EB initiatives.

How many people are in your team and what are their roles?

We currently have 4 people in our team:

• André Oosten: Controller
• Olav Berendes: Controller
• Ramon Vermeij: Project controller
• Krista van Zijl: Trainee Controller

Has you work changed much over the years?

The work itself hasn’t changed much, but this past year we streamlined and improved our processes. Due to the general trend towards digitisation, we’re looking at how we can incorporate that by, for example, implementing it in our reports and information. We expect that the financial activities will change in the coming years thanks to the digitisation of many administrative processes.

What kind of impact has COVID-19 had on your work?

When the COVID-19 pandemic started, the F&C team had to pull out all the stops in an attempt to create an accurate picture of the financial repercussions of the crisis. By calculating a variety of future scenarios, we succeeded in dispelling the major crisis-related concerns. Besides that, the biggest change has been working remotely. We’re proud that all of us managed to do our regular work activities from home!

What are you both working on at the moment?

The year-end closing is almost finished and that’s given us more time to work on our own projects. The closing of the first quarter is also coming up, so we’ve started preparing for that as well.