UTRECHT, NETHERLANDS, June 2026 — Alpine Hearing Protection, a global leader in hearing protection and ear care solutions, has announced the appointment of Karen van Delst as its new Head of People.
Karen joins Alpine with more than a decade of Human Resources and people leadership experience, bringing a strong track record of building scalable organizations, leading transformation initiatives, and developing people-centric cultures that enable business growth. In her new role, she will lead Alpine’s people strategy, talent development, organizational effectiveness, leadership capability, and culture initiatives as the company continues its ambitious growth journey.
Karen was attracted to Alpine by its meaningful mission, strong product portfolio, and commitment to making healthy hearing a norm for people around the world. As she begins her new role, she looks forward to empowering employees, strengthening organizational culture, and enabling teams to perform at their highest potential.
Prior to joining Alpine, Karen served as Senior Policy Advisor – People & Organization at the Province of Utrecht, where she contributed to strategic people and organizational initiatives within the public sector.
Before that, she spent nearly eight years with Sogelink Nederland, formerly Geodan and GOconnectIT, where she played a pivotal role in scaling the organization during a period of significant expansion. As HR Director, she successfully positioned HR as a strategic function within the executive leadership team while supporting the company’s growth from approximately 45 to 250 employees.
During her tenure, she led a team of HR and office professionals and spearheaded several transformational initiatives, including HR process automation, employer branding, organizational culture development, job architecture implementation, workforce planning, and modernization of the employee lifecycle and performance management framework. She also served as a trusted advisor to leadership and employee representative bodies, helping create alignment between business objectives and people strategy.
Earlier roles at Sogelink included Senior HR Manager and HR Manager, where she led multiple merger and acquisition integrations, managed complex employee relations and organizational change initiatives, and built foundational HR structures and policies to support sustainable growth.
Karen also gained consulting experience with Adimon BV, where she supported HR transformation projects and served in interim People Business Partner roles. Prior to that, she held the position of HR Manager at OSN Nederland, where she established the organization’s HR function and played a key role in integrating organizations following a major corporate merger.
Throughout her career, Karen has developed expertise across organizational development, talent management, leadership support, culture transformation, HR technology, change management, employer branding, and merger integration. Her experience in scaling organizations and creating high-performance cultures aligns closely with Alpine’s ambitions as it continues expanding internationally.
Her appointment reflects Alpine’s commitment to investing in its people and strengthening the organizational foundations required to support continued innovation and growth.
About Alpine Hearing Protection
Alpine Hearing Protection is a global leader in hearing protection and ear care solutions. For more than 25 years, Alpine has been dedicated to helping people protect their hearing through innovative, comfortable, and reusable products designed for a wide range of lifestyles and environments. Driven by its mission to make healthy hearing a norm for everyone, Alpine combines scientific expertise, user-focused design, and global accessibility to create products that empower individuals to take control of their hearing health while fully embracing life’s experiences.
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