The European quarter of Brussels is home to trade associations from the banal to the exotic, representing every imaginable commercial interest from animal fats to parquet flooring and salt producers. But these associations have an alternative to maintaining their own office in Brussels to represent them to the EU institutions. They can turn to a specialist association management company. 

Dani Kolb has been working for one of them, Kellen Europe, since 2005.

Companies such as Kellen offer associations the services to ensure their views are heard in Brussels, including all the related administration. Because management companies have the infrastructure in place, the result can be cheaper than setting up or running an office. Flexibility is greater, too: service companies can carry out short-term projects, obviating the need for associations to take on permanent staff.

In practice, this means that an association management professional can be working for several different associations at the same time in different business areas. Kolb says this is part of the interesting challenge in her line of work. “I find it exciting working for a new client, diving into a new industry,” she says.

She contrasts this with an in-house job, such as with the European chemicals association: “If you’re working for Cefic, you’re dealing with chemicals all the time.” Her current clients include associations for facilities management, healthcare information management, records storage, chemicals and electric batteries.

European studies
Originally from Bad Kreuznach in Rhineland-Palatinate, Kolb studied European business and management at the University of Applied Science in Bielefeld. Her course included a seminar on European studies, which led her to take a master’s in European studies at Hanover University.

A research scholarship for her master’s thesis on the EU’s constitution enabled her to come to Brussels, where she worked for Elmar Brok, a German centre-right MEP who was a European Parliament representative on the European Convention. Kolb chose the ill-fated treaty that resulted as the subject of her master’s thesis.

“When I came for my research fellowship, I fell in love with Brussels,” she says. Kolb did not return to Germany but completed her master’s in Brussels while looking for a job.

In 2004, Kolb had a work experience placement in the European Commission’s department for employment and social affairs, in the speechwriting unit for commissioner Stavros Dimas and for Odile Quintin, the director-general.

Later that year, Kolb entered the world of association management, providing maternity cover for AGEP Association Management where she was in charge of the Union of European Soft Drinks Associations (UNESDA). She got a full-time position at Kellen in May 2005, starting as a consultant and later being promoted to manager.

How to say ‘No’
Working for an association rather than a single corporate client poses the challenge of getting what is often a disparate membership to agree a common policy line. Kolb admits that it often takes longer to get an association to form a view. But, she says, one of the skills that association management professionals offer is the ability to get agreement from all members.

Kolb says that one of the most interesting parts of her job is devising long-term strategies for industries. This involves dealing directly with companies’ boards and chief executives rather than only the EU affairs specialists within companies. As many of the organisations she works for have an international, rather than simply European, membership, Kolb says that diplomacy and intercultural understanding are crucial to her work. “You don’t want to offend a Japanese member by saying ‘No’ to his face. For a German or an American member you have to be able to say ‘No’,” she says.