Simone is founder and CEO of TheNextWomen.com, the Female Business Brand publishing the First Women’s Internet Business Magazine with a global readership. She is also Vice President, Europe, of Astia, a community of experts committed to building women leaders and accelerating the funding and growth of high-potential, high-growth, women-led start-ups. Its innovative programs ensure women-led companies gain access to capital, achieve and sustain high growth, and develop the executive leadership of the founding team. Astia has programs in Silicon Valley (HQ), New York, London (covering Europe) and India. The European Astia program is developing under the leadership of Simone Brummelhuis.
For many years, Brummelhuis was Managing Director of the successful restaurant site IENS. Through successfully attracting many restaurant visitors who generate the content of the site, IENS has grown to become the most consulted user-generated restaurant guide in the Netherlands. Besides IENSs Simone is also owner of the European Museum Guide. Together with Marianne van Leeuwen she also presents the program She on the popular internet station Blueshots.tv.
Simone used to work as a lawyer with various firms in Amsterdam and New York and has an MA in law from the University of Amsterdam and an LLM from Columbia University School of Law. The first company that Simone created was the B2B publisher Brummbooks, with the series of books “Een neus voor …” (“A nose for, …”). From there she went on to specialize further in community websites, user-generated content, and (online) product development within the publishing industry.
Simone is one of the most influential people in the world of enterprise under fifty years of age and is much in demand as a chairperson.
