Emotional Well-Being in the Veterinary Profession

The last few years we receive many questions from veterinary practices on how to deal with recruitment and retaining of competent staff, how to keep people motivated, deal with work-life balance and keep the stress levels of yourself and your colleagues under control.

Practices face many challenges. Societies changed and leading the new generations is different than it used to be.

During the Business Summit ‘Emotional Well-Being in the Veterinary Practice’ we will address these topics.

We have some of the best speakers in the field:

Martine van Zijll Langhout

Her passion for wildlife and nature conservation took Martine to many parts of the world. Before she started her current position as head of the veterinary department at ARTIS Amsterdam Royal Zoo, she lived and worked for six years in the African rainforest and bush. As a wildlife veterinarian she worked with most wildlife species, including rhino's, gorilla's, lions and elephants. In 2020 she wrote a book about what we humans can learn from the wilderness about ourselves (Over Leven in het Wild). After completing a degree in professional coaching, she is also working as a life coach and she is leading natural leadership trails in the wilderness in Botswana.

Brian Faulkner

Brian graduated from Edinburgh Vet School in 1995 and worked in mixed practice before studying for an MBA at Nottingham Business School in 2001. He has set up and developed 8 veterinary practices from start-ups during and currently leads and works as a clinician in his current practice Aldeburgh Vets. Brian completed a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology, as well as General Practice certificates in Business and Professional Studies and Small Animal Medicine. He was The UK’s Petplan Vet of the Year in 2008. He is Associate Professor in Veterinary Business at Nottingham University Vet School and in July 2020 he was awarded the title Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (FRCVS) in recognition of outstanding contributions to the veterinary profession. In 2017 Brian ran 10 marathons in 10 consecutive days all across the UK and Ireland and then in August 2020 Brian ran 31 marathons in 31 days from John O’Groats to Lands End to raise almost £150,000 for the Brooke Animal Hospital and Street Vet charities. In 2022 he was also awarded the RCVS Inspiration Award for his work with charity and support for colleagues within the profession.

Elli Kalemtzaki

With 20 years in the veterinary industry and veterinary marketing in a region of 18 markets and extensive experience in coaching and leading workshops across Central Europe and the Middle East, Elli is passionate about helping veterinary professionals break out of the busy trap, create a more profitable veterinary practice, secure lifelong clients, and enjoy a work life balance.

Elli is a graduate of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and holds a postgraduate degree from the National School of Public Health in Athens, Greece. She is also a Professional Coach certified by Adler International, Toronto, Canada since 2010 and a Certified Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic programming since 2012. She is a member of the Board of the Hellenic Veterinary Medical Society and a member of the WSAVA Professional Wellness Group since 2021.

Mike Pownall

Prior to becoming a veterinarian, Dr. Mike Pownall worked as a farrier for seven years. His interest in equine lameness led him to attend the Ontario Veterinary College, graduating in 2001. In 2002 he and his wife, Dr. Melissa McKee, started McKee-Pownall Equine Services. Their organization is represented by 3 equine veterinary clinics with 13 vets and 35 support staff spread across the Greater Toronto Area and one practice in Wellington, Florida. He is also a partner with Oculus Insights offering business management and education to veterinarians throughout the world. Dr. Pownall received his MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, and was the class valedictorian. He presents internationally on business strategy, human resources, pricing, and marketing for veterinarians. He also contributes to numerous journals on business management topics. He is also the managing director of Oculus Insights Canada and host of the very popular veterinary podcast: “Hire the Smile”.

Jenny Moffett

Jenny Moffett is a graduate of the Royal Veterinary College, UK, and has held academic roles as Director of Communication Skills at Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine, St. Kitts, and BVSci Programme Director at the School of Veterinary Medicine, Surrey, UK. Currently, Jenny is an educationalist based at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Health Professions’ Education Centre (HPEC). Jenny is undertaking a PhD at Utrecht University that focuses on how healthcare students learn to manage the uncertainty that they face in professional practice.

Florentine Timmenga:

graduated from the Utrecht University with the Master Equine Healthcare in the fall of 2022.  As part of her Master program, she did a 4-month internship in 2021 at the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE) where she focused mainly on the analysis and processing of the FVE/WVA/ZOETIS mental health & DEI Survey 2021, which was published in 2022 (Timmenga et al., 2022).  Next to her studies, she competed several years at national level as rowing athlete. Currently, she is fulfilling an internship at Paardenkliniek Wolvega and is board-member of the Young Vet Committee of the KNMvD.

Joop Loomans

Joop started his career as a practitioner. He is the director of Oculus Insights Europe, a company that aims to help practices with organizational questions and challenges. In addition to his veterinary work in practice, Joop has always been interested in the organization of the teams he worked with. Job satisfaction and mutual involvement are important starting points for him. How can the veterinarian and the professional group contribute to the health and happiness of people and animals? And how does our profession remain attractive to young people and financially healthy? Within Oculus, he provides support to individual veterinarians or practices in finding answers to such questions. He can draw on his practical experience as an employee, as a practice owner, as a manager, teacher and researcher of a university clinic and as founder and manager of a clinic in China.

Bob van der Heijden:

After having worked for 16 years as a horse vet, Bob decided to use his knowledge and skills to coach other practices. His education as an NLP coach, conflict manager and NLP trainer helped him to do this effectively. Since 2020 Bob is co-owner of Oculus Insights Europe and especially focused on how to use game design to increase effectiveness in communication and team work.

Rob Kieboom

After working as a veterinarian in practice and the pharmaceutical industry, Rob concentrated on leadership development. He trains and coaches teams and leaders in a wide variety of industries on all continents. Rob mainly focuses on leadership, coaching and team effectiveness. Greatest Passions: Multicultural collaboration, servant leadership, creating and leading high-productivity teams, team diversity.