A celebration of 20 years of partner support

A celebration of 20 years of partner support Twenty years ago, the idea that a company would go out of its way to support the partners of expats on assignment was rather unusual. In 1993, Heineken became one of the first corporations to offer such assistance with the creation of the Heineken Partner Network (HPN), the organisation which would later become Global Connection.

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n 30 May, 2013, we celebrated two incredible decades of partner support. Thanks to the generosity of Heineken, we held the festivities at the Heineken Experience in Amsterdam, with Ellen Jansma, Global Mobility Manager, as our gracious host. Our only regret was that we were able to invite just a fraction of the thousands of people we’ve been fortunate to work with over the years.

Later in the evening, HPN founder Ingeborg Hooft Graafland entertained the crowd with the story of the Heineken Partner Network’s rocky beginnings and subsequent growth.

Jacqueline van Haaften, Managing Director of Global Connection, spoke warmly of her involvement in HPN and its evolution into an independent company. Ellen Jansma shared an update on the new Heineken Partner Support Program, which is already a remarkable success.

Knowledge sharing

Award presentation

The afternoon began with a partner support policy workshop for Global Mobility professionals. Presentations by industry leaders were combined with a more in-depth look at the issues during break-out sessions. To provide an insider’s view of the needs of expat partners, a Global Connection member was part of each break-out group. Their contributions added depth and resonance to the discussions, and were well received by the other attendees.

One of the day’s many highlights was the award given in recognition of Global Connection’s commitment to partner support. The award was presented to Jacqueline on behalf of twenty-five assigning organisations.

Let the festivities begin Once the workshop came to a close, guests were invited to a reception in honour of our 20th anniversary. We were delighted to bring together a diverse group of former HPN committee members, Global Connection employees, Global Connection Coordinators past and present, clients, potential clients, and industry experts.

The best is yet to come We at Global Connection are proud to have been at the vanguard of partner support for the past twenty years.

As global mobility continues to increase and the partner support industry faces new challenges and opportunities, we look forward to the next twenty years of helping our members make the most of their expat experiences. 

The age of y it iv t c e n n o c n u I

n 1993, Global Connection member Katja van Nielen was living in a beach villa in Vung Tàu, Vietnam, on her very first overseas posting. The biggest difference between being an expat then and now, she says, is technology. At the time, the World Wide Web was still in its infancy, accounting for just one per cent of traffic on the Internet. Personal computers ran on Windows 3.0 and used 3.5 inch floppy disks. “There were no emails and no online banking,” Katja says. “Everything was done through mail (which was difficult in countries with inefficient postal services), fax (a prerogative of some offices) and telephone (mostly extremely expensive).”

Assumptions In contrast to the constant state of hyper-connectivity we live with today, there were no mobile phones in 1993. This led to some missed opportunities. “I was working as an interpreter in a Scottish company and heard that my husband had returned that morning after two weeks on the offshore rig,” Katja says. “I automatically assumed he would come home for lunch, but he

Christmas ‘93 in Vung Tau

assumed that we’d meet for lunch in a hotel. As a result, we didn’t see each other until the evening, and I was very angry that his assumptions were not the same as mine.”

Amazing differences These days, a lot has changed. Katja, a Russian native, has since lived in Venezuela, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Singapore, Cambodia, Russia, and now Finland. The floppy disk is dead, the fax is a relic of the past, and snail mail is a shadow of its former self.

Skype, Instant Messaging, and smart phones have revolutionised global communications, making it much easier to stay in touch with friends and family around the world. Looking back, Katja is amazed at the difference. “I don’t know how we existed,” she says with a wry smile, “but we did. And we had lots of fun.”

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, Vietnam

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