As ETL GLOBAL celebrates 10 years of empowering SMEs, the spotlight turns to the people behind its expansion. In this interview, Vanessa Spaans, Master Partner of ETL GLOBAL in the Netherlands, reflects on her path from law to leadership, her role in shaping the network’s Dutch presence, and the mindset that continues to guide her work.
Early Life and Career Beginnings
Vanessa moved around frequently during her childhood, traveling to various countries due to her father’s international career. These early experiences gave her exposure to different ways of life and a broader sense of the world. Still, she always found herself returning to The Hague, the city where she was born and where she continues to live today. “It’s the perfect mix. It has the energy of a city, but also the peace of the sea. I’ve travelled a lot, but The Hague has always been home.”
Her father was involved in cross-border acquisitions for an international insurance company, and the stories he brought home from work regularly sparked Vanessa’s curiosity. “He worked in different countries. I heard those stories at home all the time.” That exposure made international business feel natural from an early age and became one of her biggest influences. Her mother was just as significant. “She was very clear about one thing: I had to be independent. Have a job. Make my own money. That stayed with me.”
Building Her Career in Law
From the start of her academic journey, she found herself drawn to disciplines that required careful thought and problem-solving. Law stood out as a field that not only matched her strengths but also challenged her in ways she found stimulating. That curiosity led her to Leiden University, known for its strong legal programme. Studying there marked the beginning of a professional journey that would eventually take her far beyond traditional legal work.
After completing her studies, she began working at a well-established law firm. However, she soon realised that it wasn’t quite the right fit. “I liked the intellectual part of it. The detail. But I didn’t like litigation. It’s very reactive. People come to you when they’re already in trouble. I wanted to do something more constructive.” At the same time, she began thinking about what kind of professional life she really wanted. The idea of becoming an entrepreneur started to appeal to her more and more. “It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be employed, but I really wanted to build something of my own.”
In 1999, things started to shift in that direction when she was invited to join an accountancy group to set up an in-house legal department. She joined as a salary partner and started the practice from scratch at a very young age. “This was my first opportunity to take on significant responsibility, creating and managing the firm’s legal department myself, closely integrated with its business operations.”
The role gave her exposure to a side of business most lawyers rarely get to see. This expanded even further when one of her partners invited her to join him on M&A transactions. “He taught me the financial side, and I already had the legal part. I loved it.” She enjoyed creating deals where everyone left satisfied. “The goal is to build something fair and lasting, something where both sides feel they’ve reached a good outcome. That’s when it really feels like you’ve done something worthwhile.”
She continued developing the legal department while focusing more and more on transactions. Over the years, her practice grew to include labour and contract law, and eventually, she became an equity partner and joined the firm’s board. “It helped me see the full picture: how firms are run, what they need to grow, what their limitations are.”
Vanessa Spaans at the 2019 ETL GLOBAL Conference held in Mallorca.
Identifying a Structural Problem
By 2008, she started noticing larger issues in the sector. Recruitment was becoming more difficult, as fewer young professionals were entering the field, and compliance requirements kept growing. “We worked with small and mid-sized firms with 10, 20, maybe 40 people. If someone left, it was difficult to replace them. IT investment was becoming essential, but it was expensive. It was too much for many small offices to handle alone.”
She then began exploring new ways to help firms operate more efficiently and adapt to the growing pressures they were facing. “We needed to find a way to create a bigger group, one that could carry those costs together or access advantages smaller firms couldn’t reach alone.” At the same time, more SME clients, especially the larger ones, were becoming international. This required firms to expand their capabilities and collaborate across borders.
Recognising these challenges, Vanessa decided to lead her firm’s entry into the international network Ecovis. “I worked very closely with the management. I learned a lot, and I could also see what was happening in other countries.” Her firm stayed for around seven or eight years in the network, and during that time, deepened her understanding of what made certain models work, and what didn’t. “At the time, most mergers involved fully integrating smaller firms into larger ones. Overnight, you’d lose your firm’s identity: new branding, new systems, and often new leadership. The original management would usually step aside quite soon. That was just the way these networks operated back then, but it wasn’t something that appealed to me. I felt there had to be a better way to handle these transitions.”
The idea of staying independent, while still joining forces with others, started to take root. She began looking for alternatives that would protect the character of individual firms while allowing them to collaborate and scale.
Discovering ETL GLOBAL
Vanessa first came across ETL GLOBAL through her contacts in Germany. She was intrigued by how the network was structured, not as a traditional top-down organisation, but as a partnership model where firms could remain independent while benefiting from shared resources and international reach. “I learned how it worked, and I thought this could be exactly what we needed.”
To her, this model was perfectly suited to the Dutch approach to business. “People here are proud and entrepreneurial and always have been. So the idea of selling your company, keeping your name and identity, continuing to run it your way, but having access to something bigger? It made total sense.”
She met with Dr. Christian Gorny and Mr. Franz-Josef Wernze, and those early conversations left a strong impression. Their discussions reflected a genuine interest in long-term relationships, something Vanessa immediately related to. Convinced that this kind of structure could offer something genuinely new in the Dutch market, she took the lead in bringing ETL GLOBAL to the Netherlands.
Starting from Zero and Building Forward
When ETL Nederland officially launched in 2017, Vanessa found herself starting from scratch. The model was still unfamiliar in the country, and she had to introduce it one firm at a time. “At the beginning, it was just me. I had to explain the model to everyone. Often people would say, ‘It sounds too good to be true.’” To address the scepticism, she pointed to the network’s proven success abroad and encouraged potential partners to reach out directly to existing member firms.
Some initial integrations followed, but the real shift came in 2018, when Konings Maters, a well-known and respected firm in the Netherlands, joined the network. “That changed everything. It gave us visibility and credibility. When other firms saw that, they started taking us seriously.” Since then, ETL Nederland has grown into a national network of more than 40 member offices across the country that generates over € 100 million in turnover and is regularly recognised in major industry rankings for its impact and growth.
Even with this rapid expansion, they have remained true to their initial values. What stands out to Vanessa is the balance the network strikes: local independence combined with global support. “There’s no micromanagement. People are expected to deliver, but no one tells you how to do your job.” She credits much of this to the leadership tone set by Mr. Wernze and Dr. Gorny. “There’s mutual respect. Everyone works from their own strength. Communication is straightforward and the atmosphere is friendly and relaxed yet highly professional.”
Vanessa also highlights how much of this environment is reinforced by the people she brought with her from the beginning. “Brenda van den Burg-Brands and I have worked together since 1999. Jan Willem van den Dries I have known since 2003. He was just completing his education at the time and has been a trusted colleague ever since. They’ve both been there from the start. They know how I work, and we’ve built a level of trust that’s rare to find.” Over time, what began as professional collaboration turned into real friendship, not just with her close Dutch team, but also with colleagues across the network. “Christian Gorny, Rosa Martínez, Juan Bermúdez, Sara and Peter Brassington…they’re my friends. They’re dear to my heart and they mean a lot to me.”
“At ETL GLOBAL there’s mutual respect. Everyone works from their own strength. Communication is straightforward and the atmosphere is friendly and relaxed yet highly professional.”
Life Beyond Work
Vanessa admits that her job takes up a lot of her time. She doesn’t have a regular 9-to-5 schedule, and the demands are constant. “The past years have been about building. The work is intense, and there’s a lot to manage,” she says. But she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Still, she always tries to make time for the things she enjoys. Music and dancing have always been part of her life. She even considered pursuing ballet more seriously at one point. “I did classical ballet as a child. I almost took it further. Now I just dance for fun.” In her spare time, she enjoys reading and spending time with her partner, family and friends, especially around a good meal. “When there’s time, those are the moments I really appreciate.”
She’s a mother of two, her daughter and son are now young adults, and she credits her own mother for helping her during that crucial time, when she was also working hard on building the network. “When my kids were small, my mum helped so much. I wouldn’t have been able to manage without her. Both to my father and my mother, I’m very grateful for creating that kind of support.”
This experience influenced how she sees the balance between work and family today. Vanessa believes no one should have to choose between building a career and raising a family. “If someone needs to work three or four days a week (man or woman) that must be accepted without limiting their career. If someone’s delivering, they should be trusted to decide how they work. It’s better for them and also for the company.”
Advice for the Next Generation
If there’s one thing Vanessa emphasises, it’s the importance of being yourself. “You don’t have to fit into some mould. Be yourself. That’s how you find your strength, and people respect that.” She advices young professionals to not to hold back their ideas just because they’re new. “If you’ve got a good idea, speak up. You don’t need to wait ten years. If it’s useful, people will take it seriously. The sooner you try something, the more you learn. It’s a good way to grow.”
She believes ETL GLOBAL is a good environment for that kind of authenticity. “There’s space here to try things. That keeps us moving forward. We’ve seen it time and again people with drive and ideas are listened to.”
And after more than two decades in business?
“I’ve never regretted doing this. It’s still the best job I’ve ever had. Because it allows me to build, to work with people I respect, and to keep learning. That combination is hard to beat.”
A look back at ETL GLOBAL Conferences
