I’m Ros de Vries, an avid sailor and writer. I’ve served 8+ years with the American Red Cross, as a Blood Transportation Specialist and Disaster Responder. In 2021 and 2022, I was awarded the President’s Volunteer Service Award.

In the marketing industry, I’m known as Ros Hodgekiss, the Customer Outreach Programs Manager at Siemens EDA. As a 15-year veteran of the email marketing industry and with 100’s of articles on email marketing, design and code, I rank as a “Top Email Marketing Thought Leader” by Litmus.

I also launched Email Academy and led a team of email marketing experts for Campaign Monitor / Marigold.

⛵ View my Sailing Resume

In 2022, I was the Commodore at Island Yacht Club. Since 2020, I have: a) relaunched the IYC website; b) helped produce the first virtual IYC Women’s Sailing Seminar (2020), and; c) organized the in-person Women’s Sailing Seminar in September, 2022. Island Yacht Club runs racing and social events all year around, both from Alameda Marina and online.

In the last few years, I’ve progressed from crewing in Bay and offshore races, to owning and racing my own boat – a Santa Cruz 27, Medusa (#145). My personal vision is to make sailing accessible to others, through being a good role model for sailors from non-traditional backgrounds, building community and removing barriers to getting out on the water. Much of my creative work – including articles and photography for Latitude 38 magazine – is focused on everyday people finding happiness through sailing. You can follow my stories from the San Francisco Bay sailboat racing scene via instagram.com/yarrcat.

⛵ Latest story! A halyard to the sublime: Kant and the Three Bridge Fiasco (1/31/24)

I live in sunny Alameda, California with my talented husband, Nathan de Vries.

My professional specialist areas and achievements include:

• Customer Engagement – At Siemens, I currently manage email newsletter communications and webinar programs for 5+ EDA software products.
• Customer Experience (CX) – At Campaign Monitor, I launched and deployed a global CX team, to drive retention and growth for high-value, self-service customers.
• Project management and leadership – I launched Campaign Monitor’s customer support portal and knowledge base. In FY18, we dramatically reduced IRT and case resolution times.
• Digital marketing – As an early-stage employee, I helped grow Campaign Monitor to 40k+ paying customers, through social media & community management, plus the development of guides and resources. Here is some of my creative work.

Ros has excelled in every task we’ve worked on together and has crushed every goal I’ve thrown her way. She’s not only been on time, on task, and on budget, but her delivery always comes with creativity, character, and a faultless attention to detail.

Benton Cummings, M&A Integrations Strategy, CM Group

I love to talk! My favorite topics are:

• Sailing – Drop the hook, I’m listening!
• Writing – I share personal sailing stories on Medium.
• Travel – I’ve been to 30+ countries and have lived in both Australia and the Philippines. I speak Spanish and English (obviously).
• The outdoors – Including non-trivial cycling, skiing, hiking and running.
• Things that make you happy.

Interested? Please get in touch.