We are pleased to announce that Nico Voskamp will begin as Bits of Freedom's first managing director starting on February 1, 2025. Over the past years, Nico has played an essential role in the Bits of Freedom team.

Bits of Freedom has grown over recent years. While growth has never been an end in itself, it has been a necessity: digitization reaches every corner of society, its impact is increasing, and more and more tech policy is being made. We just hired our sixteenth employee, yet we still can’t do everything we want to.

Last year, under the leadership of our director Evelyn Austin, the team worked on a new, ambitious multi-annual strategy. This strategy foresees, in addition to a shift in focus and changes in our working methods, further growth of the organization to about 23 employees and permanent internship positions and student jobs.

To facilitate this growth, and in line with our evolving thinking about leadership, we decided to split the director’s role into an executive director who will focus on external strategy, and a managing director who will focus on internal strategy. Read more about the thinking behind our new shared leadership model.We are pleased that Evelyn will remain as the executive director, and we believe that Nico is the ideal first managing director.

In recent years, working as our partnerships and development officer, Nico was responsible for improvements in our donor software and the donor flow on our website. He also introduced an online tip widget that makes it easier and more attractive for people to make one-off donations. Nico furthermore revitalized our webshop (featuring quirky products such as blackout liquid, a supporter’s scarf, and a stupid doorbell) and played a crucial role in restructuring our public-facing communications. In his free time, Nico does volunteer work and he completed his Master’s in Business Process Management & IT at the Open University in 2023, with a thesis on algorithmic decision-making.

Nico began his career at the crowdfunding platform Voordekunst, where he supported creators and cultural institutions with their funding questions. He then worked in commercial roles at various companies.

Together with the current team and former employees, our volunteers and supporters, Bits of Freedom has achieved great results and we look to the future with confidence. The application process for the managing director role was an internal procedure, with the possibility to open the position externally if no suitable internal candidates were found. That turned out not to be necessary. Nico convinced us with his vision and ideas on financial strategy, growth transitions, and his heart for personnel, and together we reached an agreement for the coming years. We wish Nico the best of luck and look forward to a great collaboration!