A NEW DAY WITH Vincent Dorrestein

– I’m Vincent Dorrestein and I’m one year younger than CellMark itself. I’m married with four kids – two boys and two girls. I live in the Netherlands, in the area of the beautiful tulip fields and I currently do order management within CellMark. I check which sales and purchase orders we have and how to best connect them to optimize the results. On top of that, I do some logistics for Benelux and Eastern Europe, and I just started as a team leader for the Order & Logistics Coordinators.

I started working at CellMark in December 2019, just before COVID kicked in. So, it’s almost six years now. It was special… We found out that we grew too fast and needed a bigger office, and we found one. And at that point, the pandemic started. From coming to the office every day, to working from home every day was a big change. But I guess now everybody is used to the hybrid role and working from home. So, it’s a fun change. Today, I don’t think we can imagine being in the office for five days a week.

I have recently taken on a new role at CellMark, and as always, the transition has been exciting, difficult, and challenging. I’m very happy with my new role, and I’m also very lucky with the team and with the wonderful people we have. To start off the day, we have a daily check-in meeting at 10 in the morning just to see how everybody is doing. It’s a great way to set a positive tone and create a focused, uplifting start, and to identify any concerns we should address before we begin the day.

I really enjoy seeing more of the team these days. Previously, it felt like we were all working on our own little islands. We’ve grown rapidly over the past five years, and while everyone has been working hard, it’s mostly been in isolation. Now, we’re actively trying to change that by dividing the team into smaller groups to help build new connections and strengthen collaboration. Personally, I used to work as an Order & Logistics Coordinator, but stepping into the team leader role has made the work even more enjoyable for me.

If I could switch job with someone for a day, I would love to be a wildlife photographer someday. It would be amazing to spend time out in nature, capturing beautiful moments, and getting paid for it would be a dream come true. I would love to go to the U.S. to the main parks or the big nature sites. I’ve only been in the U.S. once, thanks to CellMark, but I would really like to go back.