The little bottle I always carry
- 10 hours ago
- 3 min read
In this portion of "Community Members Portrayed", we're pleased to feature our member Marije Rhebergen, who currently works at VP Capital, making positive impacts through investments.
Whenever I leave home, there is one thing I never forget to take with me: a tiny glass bottle.
Inside is a small piece of gold, suspended in river water from Bolivia. It has travelled with me
for years, reminding me why I chose the path I did. At eighteen, I lived with a host family in Ecuador and shared a classroom with 54 girls from low-income families. Despite the challenges they faced, they focused on the opportunities education could create.
Experiencing inequality firsthand, and witnessing Indigenous communities fighting to protect their land from oil companies, opened my eyes to the connection between social justice, economic development, and environmental protection - leading me back to the Netherlands to study both Environmental Sciences and Development Economics.
Entrepreneurship is not just about generating income. It’s about creating confidence, dignity, and opportunities
A few years later, I returned to Latin America, this time to work with local entrepreneurs in
Bolivia. One of them was Doña Elvira, an Indigenous woman raising five children on her
own.
She owned and ran what was, at first glance, an ordinary convenience store in a poorer
district of Tarija. But it was much more than that—it was a place for women to gather,
exchange ideas, support each other, and celebrate their successes together. Elvira had built
a community.
Never stop looking for the gold beneath the surface
Another person I met in Bolivia, Nilo, gave me a lifelong lesson. Nilo grew up in Potosí,
where he worked in the mines with his father. In their spare time, they searched for tiny
pieces of gold in the river. Later, international mining companies took over, forcing
Indigenous families like his to leave their ancestral land. After rebuilding his life in Tarija,
another tragedy struck: he fell from scaffolding, broke his back, and became paralysed from
the waist down. Despite the obstacles, Nilo focused on what was still possible.
Together with his wife, he started a small sewing business and dedicated himself to creating
opportunities for women and girls in his community. When I said goodbye, he handed me the
little bottle I still carry today. Inside was one of the tiny pieces of gold he had found with his
father years earlier. “Never stop looking for the gold beneath the surface,” he told me.
Finance is far more than a source of capital: it can accelerate innovation, enable entrepreneurs to adopt sustainable technologies, and help entire industries transition towards a more sustainable future
Back in the Netherlands, I became increasingly fascinated by one question: how can finance
become part of the solution rather than part of the problem? During thirteen years as Head
of Sustainability at a global vendor finance company, DLL Group, I had the opportunity to
build and lead the company’s sustainability strategy and help integrate sustainability into
financing decisions. That experience cemented my belief that where capital flows truly
matters.
The starting point is always impact
Today, as Director Impact & Communications at VP Capital, everything comes together. VP
Capital is an impact-first family office that believes capital should be a force for positive
change. Across our entire portfolio, from venture capital and private equity to listed equities, real estate, and philanthropy, we deliberately seek opportunities that contribute to solvingsociety’s greatest challenges, from biodiversity and climate to social equality. Financial returns matter. They enable us to create long-term positive change, but they are not where the conversation begins. We first ask where capital can make the greatest positive impact,
and then how we can build resilient investments around that ambition. For me, that is much
more than an investment philosophy. It feels like the natural continuation of a journey that
began many years ago in Latin America.
Meaningful investments always begin with believing in people and their potential
That is also why I feel so connected to Women in Sustainable Finance. WISF is much more
than a professional network. It is a community of women who challenge, encourage, and
learn from one another - proving that lasting change happens when different perspectives
come together with a shared ambition for a better future.
The little bottle is still in my bag. Everywhere I go, it reminds me to keep looking for the gold
beneath the surface -in people, in ideas, and in our shared potential to create opportunities
for others.
