At home anywhere in the world, Advisory Board Member Sytske Seyffert operates from her base in the Netherlands.
Sytske Seyffert, Head of Change & Engagement at Evos and long-time advocate of reputation management, reflects on her unconventional career path and her involvement with Linq Advisors.
A career that began in engineering might not sound like the obvious route into strategic communications, but for Sytske Seyffert, it offered the perfect foundation.
Now head of Change & Engagement at Evos, a major player in the storage of liquid bulk products, Seyffert spent nearly two decades at Tata Steel, rising from technical roles into public affairs and corporate communications. Along the way, she helped shape major strategic projects – from navigating the complex reputational challenges of a European industry under pressure to high-stakes rebrands. She is also a member of SER Topvrouwen, a prominent women’s network in the Netherlands.
“Coming from the operational side gave me a solid understanding of what really drives a business,” she says. “But it was working closely with people and seeing the impact of perceptions that drew me into reputation.”
It was a shift that happened early – and deliberately. While still a student, Seyffert worked in Rotterdam’s Corporate Communications Centre, where she first crossed paths with Dennis Larsen, now Managing Director of Linq Advisors. “As colleagues, we just clicked,” she recalls. “Even back then, Dennis was championing reputation as a serious business discipline. It was exciting – revolutionary, even.”
They stayed in touch across the years, collaborating on several projects, including reputation work for ING, the multinational bank. When the opportunity came to support Linq’s mission, she says it felt like a natural next step. “I’ve known Dennis for 25 years, and I’ve seen how consistently he’s pushed for this field to be taken seriously. I share that ambition.”
Seyffert has always believed reputation is core to business strategy – not a communications afterthought. “We live in a world awash with data, but where people are struggling to tell what’s true. In that context, managing perception is fundamental. Perception shapes reality.”
That belief informs her approach at Linq, where she advises boards and executive teams on how to embed reputation into their strategies from the outset. “You need more than metrics. Data is vital, but it won’t move hearts or shift narratives on its own. There has to be a consistent storyline – one that resonates.”
What attracted her to Linq is its clarity of purpose. “It’s a fresh perspective,” she says.
“Too many firms bolt reputation advice onto other offerings. Reputation is not a core service. But Linq starts with it. It’s about offering high-level, data-backed guidance that still has emotional intelligence.”
Her focus lies in key areas: strategy deployment and activation support – helping clients turn high-level plans into actions that build and protect their standing in the market.
“I like working with people at that tipping point – when a business is evolving, and its leaders need to bring others with them. That’s where reputation strategy can make all the difference.”