What did you do before you came to WesselinkVanZijst?

It's been a while! Since I've been working for WesselinkVanZijst since the summer of 2015, I've already celebrated my first anniversary. Before that, I worked at Adviestalent, a traineeship by Twynstra Gudde. That's where I did my first stakeholder management job for Rijkswaterstaat (A15 MaVA) and fell in love with SOM. And that love has never faded.

Before Twynstra Gudde, I worked in the business world for a while at International Flavors and Fragrances. That aligned well with my academic background. I completed my bachelor's degree in International Business at Tilburg University and the Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid. Afterward, I pursued a master's degree in Strategic Management at Tilburg University. Looking back, both of my theses focused on negotiation and alliance formation. But at the time, I couldn't imagine making a career out of it.

What do you mainly focus on at WesselinkVanZijst?

My work primarily consists of undertaking excellent projects for a diverse range of clients. These include Vitens, Defense, Rotterdam The Hague Airport, Utrecht University, Alliander, and various municipalities, but also, for example, the Dutch Local Public Broadcasters Foundation. In addition, I provide training one day a week on average. This ranges from Basic Environmental Management Training to workshops on Joint Fact Finding.

In addition to consulting and training, I work internally on Marketing and Communications, where setting up this website was a major part. I am also on the Consulting team, which maintains an overview of our consulting portfolio and determines the strategy. Making initial contact for new consulting requests is an important part of this, for example.

Amidst all this, I'm trying to make enough time for knowledge development. That's going pretty well. Together with colleagues Bas Liebeek because we are hosting the podcast Test on the SOM. In it, we speak monthly with a guest from the field about the challenges in our work. For me, this is one of the highlights of every month! I also get energy from writing about our profession. For example, I co-wrote the practical book Strategic Environmental Management with Hans van Zijst, and I have a few smaller publications to my name, such as this article on Transparency and a booklet on Joint Fact Finding.

What drives you in your work?

I'm a real process enthusiast: I love and find it interesting to think about how people interact, negotiate, cooperate, and make decisions. Especially when significant interests are at stake, because that affects people and organizations to the core. For me, it's a core value that these interests are handled with care. It's therefore an eyesore to see how often this is done carelessly. Not always consciously, but sometimes it is.

This means that large, complex, and important issues remain unresolved, and problems are not being solved. If they are solved, it leaves a significant mess in the stakeholder landscape. Consequently, subsequent problems with those same stakeholders proceed much more slowly and are resolved even later. This needs to be done better and more carefully. I am happy to champion this. That's what drives me.

The more complex the process, the more I enjoy it. When the content is difficult, interests seem irreconcilable, or when parties can no longer get along, that's when the challenge is greatest and the issue most interesting to me.

What do you like to do most when you're not at work?

I consider myself a true family man. Outside of work, I prefer to be with my wife and children. I enjoy the more everyday things in life, like watching a movie, eating, and playing games. But I also greatly enjoy tinkering around the house and in the garden. I'm not very good at sitting still or doing nothing. People often expect me to have a busy social life in my free time, since I often work with groups and am on stage. But I prefer to just stay home on the weekends and find peace in sports and playing the piano.