From early AI to transformationVan AI naar transformatie

Selected examples from my digital innovation, operations and transformation career demonstrate the leadership capabilities I now bring to AI. These are not presented as completed enterprise AI transformation client projects.

• Wisdom / Ordina (1998–2001; later Sopra Steria): led early digital and e-business delivery projects using iterative DSDM approaches, connecting business needs, technology and stakeholders as internet-based applications emerged.
• Amsterdam-Amstelland Police (2001–2003): established and managed a knowledge centre, including a business plan, service development, resources and multiple knowledge-management initiatives.
• DPG Media / Sanoma (2010–2012): worked across digital media, websites, e-commerce and mobile initiatives, while developing project management and learning capabilities.
• VR JAM (2022): helped establish the Dutch operation alongside the CEO, including recruiting and onboarding a local team, suppliers and operational processes.
• AMS-IX (2022–2024): supported product, technology, migration and organisational change initiatives, strengthening alignment and cross-team delivery.
• Alliander (2024–2026): worked in a complex SAP/DevOps environment on portfolio visibility, prioritisation, team collaboration and a new Work Management System platform team.

The common thread: understand the whole system, connect people and decisions, make dependencies visible and turn technology-enabled innovation into workable organisational change.

The AI relevance is the transfer of those capabilities, complemented by current AI-specific knowledge. No unverified AI client outcomes or performance figures are claimed.

See better. Decide better. Execute better. I start with three questions:

1. What are we trying to achieve?
2. What is preventing us from achieving it?
3. What needs to change so execution happens?

I use systems thinking and pattern recognition to make priorities, relationships, dependencies, decision-making, flow and accountability visible. By connecting leaders, business owners, product and technology experts and teams, I help create alignment and translate complex challenges into clear choices, realistic roadmaps and action.

Agile is a way of working I particularly enjoy. My approach combines multidisciplinary collaboration, empowered teams, transparency, iterative delivery, empirical feedback and continuous improvement. I help remove impediments, manage cross-team dependencies and strengthen ownership, capability and predictable flow.

I have led multi-team Agile delivery and trained and mentored Agile professionals. Scrum, Kanban and scaling methods are applied pragmatically when useful, never as goals in themselves.

For AI transformation, I also evaluate non-AI alternatives, human–AI work design, risk-based governance, adoption and measured business value.

My fascination with computers began around the age of twelve, with a Commodore VIC-20 home computer. In the years that followed, dial-up bulletin board systems (BBS) introduced me to electronic messaging and early online communities, long before the web became mainstream.

Science fiction, from Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica to stories of robots and intelligent machines, sparked my curiosity about what technology might one day make possible.

That interest eventually led me to study Artificial Intelligence at the University of Amsterdam in the 1990s, in one of the Netherlands’ early university AI programmes. During my studies, I worked with intelligent systems and neural networks.

I then led early internet, software and e-business projects, followed by roles in knowledge management, operations, digital portfolios, programmes and enterprise transformation.

I have used iterative and Agile delivery approaches since 1998 and have delivered Agile training, coaching and mentoring since 2010. Since 2003 I have led eXcelleRes.

Across successive waves of technology, my contribution has been to connect business and technology, organise people and decisions, and translate innovation into adopted organisational capabilities and measurable outcomes. Earlier digital transformation engagements are not presented as completed AI transformation projects.

AI introduces specific challenges: reliability, human judgement, workflow design, data and security boundaries, delegated agent authority, and proof of incremental value. I address these with stakeholders and relevant specialists.

AI ValueForge and AACF are working approaches developed through eXcelleRes ModelForge to structure value and assurance decisions; illustrative analyses and pilots are not represented as independently verified client outcomes. Explore the AI transformation approach or read my analysis.