About me

I’m a freelance Brand Director in the tech-for-impact space by day and a writer by night.

I work with ambitious companies creating impact for millions of people across Africa, including MESH, M-KOPA, Flutterwave and Shujaaz.

Most people know me from my yellow book, Brand The Change, a practical guide that has helped thousands of social entrepreneurs and changemakers build brands people actually care about.

I trained as a designer at the Royal Academy of Art, and sharpened my craft at some of the Netherlands’ leading brand agencies, including Studio Dumbar and Lava, before becoming a Creative Director at Interbrand.

In 2013, I founded Brand The Change, where we trained thousands of social entrepreneurs and marketers in brand building skills.

I aspire to be a monotasker, but life is too short.

I teach/mentor at accelerators and universities across the world, including GrowthAfrica, Harvard i-lab, Design Academy Eindhoven, and Hong-Ik University.

My work has taken me across four continents and deeply shaped how I think about culture, entrepreneurship and the role brands play in people’s everyday lives.

Since 2015, Kenya has been home, where I live with my husband Gautam, our small human, and two annoying cats.

Anne Miltenburg, brand director, author and educator, at her office in Kenya, leaning against a desk with arms crossed

Follow me on Linkedin for all things brand and content-related.

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Personal

Born and raised in the Netherlands, I’ve lived and/or worked in 12 countries: 🇦🇺Australia, 🇺🇸 USA, 🇲🇱 Mali, 🇫🇷 France, 🇰🇷 Korea, 🇬🇧 UK, 🇹🇼 Taiwan, 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia, 🇹🇳 Tunisia, 🇯🇴 Jordan. I call 🇰🇪 Kenya home since 2015.

Career Achievements

I was put in charge of the rebrand of the largest phone company in the Netherlands at age 25 (and we both survived to tell the tale).

I quit a perfectly good role as a creative director at Interbrand and moved to Kenya to set up Brand The Change.

I built a team, a community, and a group of certified trainers to spread our work worldwide. My method and tools are used by more than 10,000 people worldwide.

I’ve written two books: the highly rated classic brand guidebook, Brand The Change, published worldwide and translated to Arabic and Korean, and a graphic novel memoir published under a pseudonym.

I ran two successful crowdfunding campaigns, raising $120,000 for creative projects.

Awards

🏆🏆🏆 In my previous life as a designer, I won a European Design Award, an ADCN pencil, and was shortlisted for the prestigious Chaumont Poster Biennale.

I love to spot fresh design work - I served as a scout and jury member for the Dutch Design Awards for four years.

teaching

I love to learn, and the best way to learn is to teach.

I’ve taught at renown universities like the Design Academy (Eindhoven), Hong-Ik University (Seoul), the Hult International Business School (Boston) and the University of Venice.

I create learning experiences for some pretty awesome causes: women entering the job market in Saudi Arabia, young micro entrepreneurs in Kenya on TikTok, and I even got the Dutch Ministry of Defense to re-imagine itself as the Ministry of Peace (if only for a day).

Board memberships

I served on the board of the Dutch Designers Association for three years, and was a member of the industry advisory committee for the Willem de Kooning Academy, helping to establish their Master in Design program.

I am also proud to be on the Board of Advisors for Book Bunk, a not-for-profit restoring Nairobi’s iconic libraries.

Press + Public speaking

I’m really chuffed that world class platforms like Skoll, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Eye and the Huffington Post publish my writing.

Every now and then I do some public speaking. My favorite stages are at the Harvard iLab, Happy Startup School, Amani Institute and Acumen.

My TED talk has about 9,000 views, my husband’s has 1 million+. Marriage is not a competition, but he is winning.