Ellen Depoorter, a Studio Director at Pompei A.D., joined the firm in 2000. Her work on behalf of clients includes Urban Outfitters in the United States and Europe, HealthSpring HMOs and Old Navy. Depoorter especially enjoys her work at Pompei A.D. because the variation of her clients and daily tasks makes every day a challenge, and every day she grows professionally.

Depoorter finds inspiration in art more than in architecture. The German painter Gerhard Richter, internationally renowned for his photograph-paintings with allusions to minimalism, especially influenced her as a young girl. She also admires the work of Luc Tuymans, a painter from Depoorter’s home country of Belgium. Following her creative instincts, Depoorter enrolled in the five-year civil engineering program at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (the Catholic University of Leuven), graduating in 1996 with a Master of Architecture degree. She remained in Antwerp, Belgium for two years, working at Poponcini & Lootens, one of Belgium’s best architectural firms, while studying fine art. She received a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1998 from Saint Lucas in Brussels. Soon after, she took a holiday to New York City and decided to stay.