Meet the team

Emmanuelle Verhagen is Senior Partner at DUIN.partners and holds an MSc. in Commercial Sciences with majors in both Finance and Marketing. This was complemented with an MBA from SDA Bocconi, where they majored in Value Management and System Dynamics.

Emmanuelle's experience is rooted in global market research and brand consulting building bridges between humans and brands in over 50 countries. They have a track record of delivering data-driven and values-based transformative solutions for clients across various industries and regions.

As a Barrett Certified Consultant, a Certified Co-Active Leadership Practitioner, and a Deep Democracy Facilitator, Emmanuelle blends organisational development expertise, strategic thinking, and cultural transformation to create thriving and resilient cultures that align with the goals and vision of the organisations Emmanuelle serves.

Passionate about advancing equity, diversity, inclusion, and human rights, Emmanuelle volunteers as a board member and/or advisor for several advocacy and social justice initiatives, such as Intersekse Vlaanderen, çavaria and Amnesty International. 

They also walk the talk, quite literally, as actor/director in a variety of theatrical initiatives be it stage play, clowning or improvisation. Always in an purpose driven context as a human right activist.

Emmanuelle lectures change management in the Sustainability Leadership Programme of the KULeuven.

In 2022, Emmanuelle was recognized as a Responsible Leader by the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt.

Annelies Bellens is Senior Partner at DUIN.partners. After graduating in Pharmaceutical Sciences, she spent the first 10 years of her career managing several pharmacies. With a heart for both patients and staff, not only the scientific background in pharmacy could captivate her, but also the business side of the healthcare industry, including both people management and sales and marketing activities. Next to which she enjoyed developing the business towards working with residential care homes and institutions for people with disabilities. 

During the following 5 years, her personal growth within the pharmaceutical business, which covered in the meantime more than 70 pharmacies, led Annelies to focus more on managing the business as a whole, backing up her knowledge with a variety of new skills and insights such as: project management (Vlerick), Scaled Agile Framework Practice Consultant (Gladwell Academy), Executive Masterclass B2B Marketing&Sales (Vlerick), Corporate Performance Management (EHSAL), and a masterclass Change Management (Antwerp Management School). Lifelong learning and always improving your knowledge keeps her professional sparkle alive!

When Zorg&Farma became part of goed®, Belgium’s largest healthcare retailer, Annelies took on the role as Head of the Organisational Development Department. Her position allowed her to deep dive in the various aspects of strategy, structure, processes, systems and culture as a foundational for a thriving business. A key insight during her 5-year tenure was the importance of especially culture and leadership in situations of merging and restructuring. With a keen eye on corporate wellbeing Annelies is a broad-minded expert within the field of transformations.

Davide Castorina is Associate Partner at DUIN.partners and holds a MSc in Economics and Management of Government and International Organizations at Bocconi University in Milan.

Davide gained a strong international business acumen working in Milan, London, and Paris. He covered for several years the role of International Marketing Director at Universal Pictures leading and coaching eleven local teams in implementing effective sales and marketing plans.

Over the past 10 years, Davide leveraged on his experience in the multinational context to support a wide range of businesses from multi-billion dollar multinationals to start-ups as a consultant.

During his collaboration with the US-based international sales consultancy Whitten & Roy, he gained excelled in executing business diagnostics in a difficult urban and rural contexts, recruiting, training and managing a pool of consultants that operate as a team in supporting market-disrupting businesses whose mission is eradicating poverty in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Davide is passionate about bringing academia, consultancies, and businesses together to discuss new business paradigms; Davide often shares his experience by speaking at international conferences like the InFocus Forum at the United Nations in Geneva.

He supports the associative world in his role as President of the Focolari Movement Foundation in France whose mission is to lead and support activities of general interest like education, culture, environment and social.

Davide is an adjunct professor at IESEG and teaches several disciplines to undergraduate and postgraduate students about sales management, consumer behaviours, CRM and customer loyalty. He is also a lecturer at ESSEC in Paris where he teaches Sales & Negotiation.