Portret van Sana Sellami, foto door Nadia El Makhfi

Hi, I'm Sana.

A short introduction

I see where things grate. And I don't leave it unnamed.

Strategist, speaker, author. Mother of four. For ten years I've worked with executive teams, leaders and HR. Not with workshops that feel nice. With programs that visibly change how people work every day.

Read my story ↓

Ten years in boardrooms, HR meetings, and leadership teams

In Belgium and the Netherlands

Different worlds, same patterns

Strategist & Inclusion Expert

Ten years in boardrooms, HR meetings, and leadership teams

In Belgium and the Netherlands

Different worlds, same patterns

Strategist & Inclusion Expert

01 Essay · Why I do this Antwerp, 2026

For a long time, I thought this was about knowledge.

If people just understood how it worked, they'd act differently. Then I learned: that's not true.

After my PhD, I was tired of always being "the only one". Academia ate at my confidence. That constant feeling of not being smart enough. Not quite fitting. Not quite obvious. Until I thought: I'm not going to spend my life on this.

I moved to the public sector. Three years at Belgium's Central Council for the Economy. There I saw what plays out inside that kind of system: people with knowledge, with good intentions, in the right place. And still I ran into something I've never forgotten. Systems can know perfectly well what's going wrong, and still not move.

From then on, I became suspicious of solutions that arrive too quickly. Not because solutions aren't needed, but because they often work like an anaesthetic. We do "something", so we no longer have to look at the actual problem.

Good intentions aren't a strategy.

· from the book, autumn 2026

The core

The real problem is rarely in intentions. It's in what you organise, reward, let pass, and normalise every day.

02 The conversation · In six chapters 2009 → heden

In conversation with Sana.

A conversation about her path, her family, and what drives her work. From a PhD in Antwerp to her own inclusion practice. Along the way: four children, a few marathons, and a handful of convictions that aren't going anywhere.

Five years of research, and still.

2009 → 2015

→

University of Antwerp · PhD

Sana grows up in Huizen, a village near Hilversum, with two younger brothers and parents who kept telling her: you can do this. At eighteen, she marries and moves to Antwerp.

"One of my childhood dreams was to be a lawyer, so I signed up for law right away. I quit after about five weeks. There was one subject that gripped me: sociology."

What pulled her away

I was tired of always being the only one.

"Five years of research, seven publications. And still I left. Academia ate at my confidence."

What she saw there, she never forgot.

2015 → 2018

→

Central Council for the Economy

From research to one of Belgium's most important policy bodies. Three years inside the machine, convinced she could move something.

"I saw what plays out there. People with knowledge, with good intentions, in the right place. And still I ran into something I never forgot."

What she learned there

Systems can know perfectly well what's wrong, and still not move.

"From then on I became suspicious of fast solutions. They often work like an anaesthetic."

III

When 'yes' means something else.

2018 → 2021

→

NextGenIty

The step out of policy, into consulting. No more research into how something should work. Just seeing what happens. In boardrooms and HR meetings.

"This is where I learned how much distance there is between what people say and what they actually do. How someone says yes and means something else."

A term she hates

"Fixing the minority". As if the problem sits with the minority.

"Inclusion isn't about 'fixing' people. It's about how you organise systems."

Companies want quick. I refuse.

2021 → 2023

→

Untitled Workers Club · own practice from 2022

At UWC Sana works with scale-ups and international clients. Here she sharpens her approach. From 2022 she runs her own practice alongside.

"Companies ask me about quick wins all the time. They don't exist. Take the time to do the work properly."

What she repeats in every conversation

There are no quick wins for inclusive business.

"Workshops that feel nice change nothing. Inclusion has to be embedded in your culture, not sitting as a project next to your work."

What I know now, after ten years.

2023 → heden

→

Sana Sellami BV · Inclusion That Works™

Since 2023 full-time on her own. Strategic programs, keynotes, training. Plus visiting lecturer at Thomas More (since 2020), board member at University of Antwerp and the RBFA Diversity Board. She's writing her first book: Inclusion Doesn't Work.

"My own practice lets me shape everything myself. It's not the strategies that make the difference. Not the charters. It's the moments when someone says yes and means something else."

Ten years on, she knows this

The real problem is rarely in intentions. It's in what you organise every day.

"In what you reward, let pass, normalise. That's where the work is. And that's exactly where it rarely gets done, because it's slow and hard to measure."

"With four children it won't be easy."

Personal · Antwerp

→

Mother of four · Marathon runner

Married young, four children, a home in Antwerp. Between work, Sana runs. Marathons, halves, an hour through the woods when the week gets too loud.

"Four children in, I know motherhood taught me more about leadership than any training. Because every day you run into the fact that 'being right' isn't the same as 'being heard'."

What she once heard in a job interview

"With four children it won't be easy."

"At first I thought he meant the pandemic. Turned out he meant my four children. That's why I do this work. I don't want my children running into the same walls I kept hitting."

The book

Inclusion doesn't work.

My first book is published autumn 2026 by Pelckmans. No handbook. No five tips. A different way of looking, for anyone who senses something here isn't right but can't yet name it.

Discover the book ↗

On stage

Speaker and facilitator

Three keynotes and three fireside conversations, in NL and EN. For leadership retreats, national conferences, or an internal day where your organisation wants an honest conversation about what lies underneath.

See the keynotes ↗

04 In the press · Press kit Articles · Podcasts