HERA United strengthens founding team with Barbara Barend and Susan van Geenen
AMSTERDAM, November 21, 2024 – HERA United is expanding its founding team and management with Barbara Barend and Susan van Geenen. Since the beginning of this year, Barend and Van Geenen have been closely involved in the development of the Netherlands’ first independent professional women’s football club. Now they are officially joining the management, alongside founder Marieke Visser. With their arrival, HERA United takes an important step towards joining professional football in the Netherlands.
In brief:
Barbara Barend and Susan van Geenen strengthen HERA United’s founding team;
Together with founder Marieke Visser, they form the three-person management of the first professional football club for women;
HERA United hereby prepares to join professional football as a professional club in the 2025/2026 season.
Three-person management
By joining forces, Barend, Van Geenen and Visser want HERA United to grow not only on a sporting level, but also to further build a financially healthy organization and a strong brand that is attractive to companies and sponsors. Solid partnerships and sufficient financing are important goals in securing the club’s future. As the first independent professional women’s football club, HERA United wants to accelerate talent development for girls and invest sustainably in the potential of girls’ and women’s football.
Marieke Visser: “Our mission to raise the bar in women’s football stands or falls with having the right people in our organization. Over the past year, we have achieved an enormous amount with a small but dedicated team. Now it’s time to lay a solid foundation for a successful future. I strongly believe in ‘the power of three’: as an equal management team, we each bring our own values, experience and qualities. Together we are incredibly strong.”
Shared dream realized
Barend and Van Geenen together bring an extensive background in sports and media to HERA United. Van Geenen held leadership roles at renowned organizations such as Disney, FOX, SBS, Feyenoord and Nike. Barend is a familiar face in sports journalism. She presented the youth program Zappsport, worked at Eredivisie Live, and founded the media company Helden, which she sold last year. In addition to her role at HERA United, Barend remains actively involved with Helden behind the scenes.
Barbara Barend: “What started as a shared dream of Marieke Visser and myself is becoming reality at record speed. We have worked together with so much energy and pleasure over the past year, now it’s time to formalize our roles and tasks. In my role I focus on building a strong football organization, together with Vera Pauw as advisor.”
Susan van Geenen: “The combination of sport, media and innovation is a common thread in my life, and this comes together again in HERA United. Women’s football is growing worldwide and we want the Netherlands as a football country to lead the way. This requires positive change and I can’t wait to realize this with the team, all investors and partners. As a management member, I am responsible for the organization, commercial partnerships and the financial foundation.”
First women’s professional football club
In July, HERA United announced a partnership with Telstar Women. Through investments in the teams and facilities, HERA United is strengthening Telstar Women this season. As soon as the KNVB gives the green light and HERA United can apply for independent BVO status, HERA United will independently take over all women’s football activities from Telstar. Part of this partnership is a joint youth academy that gives young talents the opportunity to develop and progress to HERA United’s Reserves (First Division) and Eredivisie team.
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About Barbara Barend
Barbara Barend is a sports journalist and entrepreneur. She began her career as a columnist for Het Parool and then presented several sports programs for TROS, RTL and what is now ESPN. In 2009, she founded the sports glossy Helden together with her father. In 2023, she sold Helden to Roularta Media Nederland. In 2022, she started project V for accelerating equal opportunities in football for girls. And this is how the dream for her own professional football club for women was born. Barend played football throughout her youth and represented the Dutch girls’ national team.
About Susan van Geenen
Susan van Geenen is a strategist, executive and entrepreneur. She worked as a marketer at Nike and Feyenoord and as Commercial Director at SBS and FOX for sports & entertainment TV channels. At Disney, Susan was responsible for launching Disney+ and managing the TV portfolio. Until she started as an entrepreneur in 2023. As an investor and executive, she guides various sports companies and young entrepreneurs at Oxford University.
About Marieke Visser
Marieke Visser is an entrepreneur and writer. In 2022, she began developing the plans for HERA United. Previously, she founded the consultancy The Female Trail, specializing in inclusion, diversity and female leadership. She wrote the children’s books ‘Mama is minister-president’ (Mom is Prime Minister), which became a bestseller, and ‘Mama is profvoetballer’ (Mom is a Professional Footballer), based on the conviction that more female role models are needed. Before that, she worked for 15 years as a communication strategist and PR consultant for companies such as Coca-Cola, Univé and ABN AMRO. First on the agency side, then she made the switch as marketing director to the OK-app: an Amsterdam (fin-tech) start-up.
About HERA United
HERA United is more than a football club for women; it is a movement committed to equal opportunities. As the number 1 popular sport, football is a reflection of our society. HERA United was founded to give women’s football the investment and boost it deserves. www.hera-united.nl
photo credits: REINIER RVDA