In the media industry, it takes guts and gumption to stand out from the competition and Annemarie van Gaal certainly has both traits in abundant measure. She is an influential Dutch entrepreneur, investor and author as well as television personality whose investments in the media industry continue to make their mark.
Van Gaal started her career as an executive assistant at United Dutch Publishers in 1985 and she soon rose up in the ranks as a project manager in one of the company's subsidiaries. In 1990, she was assigned to Russia as manager of the Moscow Illustrated Press but the venture fizzled out by the next year.
By 1992, van Gaal manifested her guts and gumption in the dog-eat-dog publishing world by co-establishing her own company, Independent Media. With her innovative approaches, the company achieved fast growth from just $1.5 million turnover in 1992 to nearly $80 million in 1998; employees increased from 15 to 700 in the same period.
No surprise then that Independent Media has garnered multiple award under van Gaal's leadership, such as the East Europe Prize for Enterprises, the Best International Publishing award from IPC, and the best Business in Russia from the American Chamber of Commerce.
Truly, van Gaal has made a publishing empire in her own right. Independent Media is the recognized leader of the publishing industry in both Russia and Ukraine with a wide range of publications including trade journals, consumer magazines, and newspapers. Popular names include the Russian editions for Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Men's Health, and Good Housekeeping.
Van Gaal also became the General Director for the Telegraaf Magazine Group (TTG) upon her relocation to The Netherlands. However, she had to step down from the post due to a conflict of interest but she is still an active member of the company.
But why stop there? Van Gaal also has her own publishing house and real estate company as well as a private equity investor.
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