Captain Planet Foundation Board
Marieke van de Rakt
Emilia Capital — Co-Founder & Partner
Former CEO, Yoast
Marieke has worked in digital entrepreneurship and online education for more than fifteen years. She co-founded and led Yoast, which became one of the best-known SEO companies in the world. She also built Yoast Academy, an online learning platform that has trained more than 350,000 students in online marketing. After Yoast was acquired by Newfold Digital in 2022, she shifted her focus to backing the next generation of purpose-driven companies.
Marieke is now co-founder and partner at Emilia Capital, where she invests in and supports mission-driven businesses and helps founders sharpen their strategy, brand, and message. She also lectures in Online Marketing at Fontys International Business School in the Netherlands, teaching a diverse, international group of students.
Her work reaches beyond business. Marieke is an elected member of the municipal council in her hometown of Wijchen, for a green-progressive party. There she helps turn sustainability, biodiversity, and anti-poverty goals into local policy. The same thread runs through everything she does: turning purpose into practice, in a company, a classroom, or a community.
Marieke holds a PhD in the social sciences from Radboud University and lives in the Netherlands. She advises the Captain Planet Foundation Board.