Merijn de Boer
Director of Operations
Merijn started his first business after graduating in Communications & Public Administration. After running his own text writing agency he wrote four books, founded a game studio and worked at Softonic in Barcelona. He combined this senior editor job with consultancy on marketing, mobile technology and editorial formulas.
Back in the Netherlands, he combined a passion for game design with helping NGOs grow and professionalize. Besides his work at Indietopia, Merijn advises (mostly) foundations on innovation and online marketing.
From talking to clients to writing subsidy plans and setting up museum exhibits, Merijn makes sure the team at Indietopia always have interesting projects to bite their teeth into.
Kristiyan Petrov
Project Manager
Kristiyan completed his business intelligence internship at Indietopia, working on Google Ads, and creating business templates and a new website. His skill set proved so impressive, he is now part of our team as a junior project manager. With a 360 camera he shot most of the footage for the game ‘Become a virtual Groninger‘ and he is responsible for making 3D-scans of churches. Kris uses his technical skills for all kinds of projects and he loves coaching interns to apply and improve their skills. He later participated in the creation of Arranged Realism and Ede Staal: mijn Groningen – mien Grunnen as a Project Manager
Hedwig Hibma
PR & Communication
Creative copywriter, experienced in writing concert and album reviews, SEO texts about hotels and social media posts about trips. Fast learner and problem solver. At Indietopia, Hedwig takes care of marketing, events, PR, social media, content for the website and Google Ads. She also manages social media channels for collab partner Fablab.
Jesse Blekkenhorst
Program Manager (Indietopia Accelerator)
This enthusiastic jack of all trades has experience as a teacher and in event / projectmanagement. He helps writing subsidy plans, works on projects with students and on collaborations with universities.
Gerda van Til
Administration & HR
Gerda is broadly educated in Communication & Information and HRM. She is an avid traveller who loves city and round trips. At Indietopia she supports the team in the administrative and human resource department.
Justin Krogman
Junior Developer
Justin is a critical thinker, storyteller, and creative problem solver with experience in game and level design for serious and entertainment games as well as drone flight for photogrammetry scanning. He’s currently earning his bachelors degree in Communication and Multimedia Design with a major in Game Design. After his internship at Indietopia he was hired as a Junior Developer. His current work revolves around designing and developing digital products for clients, while also coaching interns to aid in their personal development and successful completion of their projects and assignments.
Mendel Bouman
Founder and ambassador
Mendel started out as a system/server/network manager. After functioning as a project manager at Bombardier for ProRail, he worked at Electronic Arts Cologne. Since 2006 he has been working in the game industry. He contributed to ‘Triple A’-projects, such as Harry Potter and FIFA, and numerous succesful Indie games.
In 2014 he founded Indietopia, to support young entrepreneurs in the North of the Netherlands with his knowledge. This was a firm base for the Indietopia Accelerator. In March 2020 Mendel left our team, although he will remain an Indietopia Ambassador, work at our publishing branch and operate as a coach for game developers.
