Linkedin has opened their first continental European office in The Netherlands and has appointed Female Internet Hero Eugenie van Wiechen as its Country Manager. Linkedin is the world’s largest professional network with more than 55 million members globally and 1 million members in The Netherlands, one of their most engaged and fastest growing markets. By way of introducing herself, she wrote on the Linkedin blog:

As I dug deeper into LinkedIn’s proposition to professionals around the world, it made plain sense why my peers have taken to online professional networking.

Eugenie, described by her colleagues as a "charismatic, highly driven, loyal and intelligent marketing professional", heads up a new team of local advertising and recruitment specialists to grow Linkedin’s business comprised of user subscriptions, advertising sales and enterprise software licensing for the Dutch hiring market. She also will be establishing strategic local partnerships in the Netherlands. Already a successful partnership is the one with Nyenrode Business University and the Dutch Financial Times in which thousands of professionals are competing for mini MBA's and one full MBA.

Eugenie van Wiechen has apparently decided to continue her career in internet based business, after her first move into that direction as Managing Director at Marktplaats.nl/eBay.nl. In this position, which she only held 1,5 years, she was responsible for the overall management and growth of Marktplaats.nl, the Dutch market leader in online classifieds. Between 2003 and 2008 the new Linkedin country manager, with a Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Amsterdam and a masters from INSEAD, held a number of positions at publishing house Sanoma Uitgevers, after a career in 1995 with McKinsey & Company in Amsterdam as a Management Consultant.