Women in Tanks: Sandra De Bont

Director of VOTOB Academy, Sandra De Bont, shares her journey as a Woman in Tanks... After eight years as the director of VOTOB, the Dutch tank association, Sandra de Bont resigned in 2020, to focus on VOTOB Academy. The VOTOB Academy’s mission is to promote the exchange of knowledge in the tank storage sector – it’s a mission that De Bont feels very strongly about. ‘A real highlight for me has been that all the tank companies in the Netherlands and across Europe are connected, with a shared focus on safety and human capital,’ says De Bont. She has been an accelerator for this changing attitude. ‘It’s a balance between these companies being competitors and collaborating for better safety practices.’ In 2013, De Bont helped accelerate the use of the safety maturity tool in the tank storage sector. ‘This looks at three elements; hardware (physical assets), software (digital platforms) and mindware (people),’ she says. Now, in 2023, her focus is on securing and exchanging knowledge within the sector at an international level, and on the pursuit of consistently skilled employees. Challenges of the Pandemic in Tank Storage  In De Bont’s second month at the...