Marie-Louise Hermsen

Biography

Being a passionate loveaholic, Marlou is on a mission to change the world. With a Master’s in Global Health, she found her purpose of empowering young people to reach their full potential and bring positive change to the world through World Merit and has been part of building the organisation since the very start in 2013. As the COO, she is leading all aspects of the organization, including a growing global community of 120,000+ changemakers. Across 125+ Country Offices and 500,000+ acts of merit, World Merit has achieved a reach of over 7,5 million people globally.

Marlou is a creative person who is not afraid of a challenge. Her drive and passion for setting up new initiatives has, among others, led to the founding of her own organization and company. Marlou founded Run for Life in 2010, a Dutch organisation where people commit to running the New York City Marathon in order to raise money for the Cancer Society. To date, Run for Life knows more than 100 runners and has raised over €125.000,-. Marlou is also the founder of By One Collection, she is on the Advisory Team of Rhize and a Trustee of Postcards for Peace.

She is heavily focused on the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, like everyone should be.