HAL Portfolio Leadership Development Program

Het was weer een geslaagde LDP mentorlunch bij Brasserie Park | Brasserie Groep. Tijdens deze lunch krijgen de mentoren een update van het programma en bespreken we met elkaar waar we het programma kunnen aanscherpen. Een mooie afsluiting van een geslaagd jaar!

Jet Sibinga Mulder 🚀 In April 2023 I joined the HAL Leadership Development Program, where my first assignment was at Top Employers Institute in Amsterdam. Together with the management team I was responsible for sixteen ‘Operational Excellence Projects’, which amongst others included the implementation of a new financial IT system, piloting a new pricing strategy and further developing the reporting standards of the company in line with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. 🔨 In January 2024 as part of my second assignment I transitioned to Timber and Building Supplies Holland N.V in Zaandam, a holding company of fifteen subsidiaries which are leading sellers of timber and building supplies in the Netherlands. As Project Manager Data Acceleration my task was to replace static financial reports into dynamic Microsoft Power BI dashboards. This has given the management team better day-to-day insight in the performance of the group. In addition, I was asked to engage in further developing the strategy of the company. This assignment appealed in such a positive way for both the management team and myself that as of August 2024 I permanently joined TABS Holland as Manager Strategy and Transformation. ⭐ Why I would recommend young professionals to participate in the HAL Leadership Development Program is the opportunity to work closely with experienced management teams. This enables you personally to have a high level of responsibility and therefore a steep learning-curve, while the projects you work on make significant impact on an organisation. Many thanks to Barry Lassche for letting me take part in the HAL Leadership Development Program and to Bert van Veldhuizen and René van 't Hof for the great collaboration and opportunity at TABS Holland.

🏭 In September 2023, Tobias de Lange commenced his first assignment under the HAL Leadership Development Program (LDP) at Atlas Professionals. After seven months, he successfully completed the program and transitioned into a permanent role as Management Board Executive at Atlas Professionals. With over 350 employees, more than 3,000 professionals, and a presence in 30+ countries, Atlas supplies highly qualified personnel to the international oil & gas, marine, and renewable energy sectors. Operating under the brand names Atlas Professionals and NextWave Partners, the company generates a combined revenue exceeding EUR 200 million. 👨💼 "As Management Board Executive, my primary focus is on projects related to business transformation. With the ambitious goal of increasing the company’s EBIT by a factor of five over the next four years through organic growth, enhancing productivity is a key priority. As this objective cannot be achieved via just optimizing the cost base and streamlining operations, a lot of these projects are linked to attracting new business, further diversifying the portfolio of services we provide to our customers and expanding our global footprint. Initiatives linked to this are exemplified by the recent establishment of teams covering the Middle East and Africa. Internally, a notable initiative to increase productivity has been the introduction of a self-financing incentive scheme within Atlas that measures productivity and rewards high performers, aligning their contributions with the company’s success. For me, the variety of projects linked to the transformation of Atlas is what made working here specifically interesting in the first year since I’ve joined as it gives you a chance develop a better understanding of the business model, while adding value via the projects you’re involved with in the meantime.” ⭐ "The HAL LDP offers a unique blend of experiences as it allows participants to work with smaller, more agile companies while benefiting from the extensive ecosystem of training, mentorship, and peer support provided by HAL. The programme’s emphasis on self-starting and making a direct tangible impact within portfolio companies challenged me to go further than just analysis, but to put my findings straight into practice and carrying responsibility for the results of these actions.”   Atlas CEO Neil Tregarthen: “It is vitally important that the operating businesses using the LDP resource, commit to providing real, credible, on the job experiential learning and allow the individual to not only plan value enhancing initiatives, but also allow them to help deliver, such that they can see the outcomes of their efforts. Tobias was very keen to undertake work that could be measured and given the transformation project I had just started as the new CEO, that confidence and willingness was hugely valuable to me." 

Maurits Knoop 🚀 My HAL LDP journey began with my first assignment at Prodrive Technologies. Prodrive is a rapidly growing high-tech company based in the Eindhoven region, with a turnover of approximately 500 million EUR and a workforce of 2500 employees. It creates critical products, providing highly engineered solutions in various technical domains. During my tenure, I focused on several key areas. In the initial months, we segmented and analyzed the financial performance of the EV charging business. By actively involving the teams in this process, we identified key areas for improvement and managed to swiftly enhance the profitability of this division. Furthermore, we developed and implemented growth strategies to expand rapidly into untapped European markets. In Prodrive's power conversion division, we applied a similar approach as in the EV charging business, focusing on scrutinizing costs, margins, and resource allocation. Through efficient restructuring, we have established the right foundation to facilitate growth in both revenue and profitability for this division in the years ahead. I have enjoyed my time here, working alongside the dedicated and talented people of Prodrive. Soon, I will be starting at another HAL portfolio company, more about which will follow later. Marc Uleman, CEO of Prodrive Technologies: “I would like to thank Maurits for his valuable contributions during the last 11 months. His work has helped the Prodrive teams to make the necessary changes and create the conditions for profitable growth. I would also like to thank Barry Lassche of HAL, that by personally driving this in-house talent program has made this experience possible. I am looking forward to more members of the HAL LDP team joining Prodrive to help support our growth and wish Maurits all the best for his next assignment.”

Vorige week was onze jaarlijkse LDP Strategy Day, waarbij deelnemers van het LDP en hun mentoren samenkomen voor een enerverende middag.  Pieter Janssen, oprichter en CTO van Prodrive, gaf een zeer inspirerende presentatie over innovatie en het ontstaan van Prodrive. Hierna werd in verschillende groepen een nagedacht over een ‘nightmare competitor’ voor Peblar, het laadpalen bedrijf van Prodrive. De dag werd afgesloten met een gezellige borrel en diner. Het was wederom een zeer geslaagde en interessante middag en avond. Met dank aan Sam Mogendorff, Maurits Knoop, Bram Maarleveld en Vanessa de Bie, die deze dag hebben georganiseerd.

Vorige week was onze jaarlijkse LDP Strategy Day, waarbij deelnemers van het LDP en hun mentoren samenkomen voor een enerverende middag.  Pieter Janssen, oprichter en CTO van Prodrive, gaf een zeer inspirerende presentatie over innovatie en het ontstaan van Prodrive. Hierna werd in verschillende groepen een nagedacht over een ‘nightmare competitor’ voor Peblar, het laadpalen bedrijf van Prodrive. De dag werd afgesloten met een gezellige borrel en diner. Het was wederom een zeer geslaagde en interessante middag en avond. Met dank aan Sam Mogendorff, Maurits Knoop, Bram Maarleveld en Vanessa de Bie, die deze dag hebben georganiseerd.

⭐ David Plink is the CEO of Top Employers Institute, a purpose-driven company focused on inspiring and enabling organisations around the globe to become Top Employers. Certification and insights are the key to the value they deliver to clients. 👨💼 “The Leadership Development Program from HAL aligns 100% with our company’s beliefs as development of people is at the core of every employer. Therefore, we immediately embraced the opportunity to have members from the HAL LDP program on board. From the moment HAL became a shareholder of Top Employers Institute in 2021, we’ve continuously had one member of the LDP program on board, focusing on strategy, market development, analysis and crucial projects. Currently three years into the joint journey, we are working with our fourth LDP member Marit Verkuijlen. 💼 The development of our multiyear strategy, go-to-market in the US, creation of our Product Team, the set up of our ESG reporting, Operational Excellence projects and the Digital Transformation of our financial team and systems have so far been the most significant projects our LDPers worked on. Assigned for a specific timeframe, yet fully part of our team and culture. The combination of analytical skills, relevant experience, a fresh perspective and always a good personal fit have been the ingredients for the success of each LDP assignment.” 📣 Interested in the HAL Portfolio Leadership Development Program? Please contact Vanessa de Bie at vdbie@halinvestments.nl or reach out to one of the program’s participants. #leadershipdevelopment #youngtalent #youngleaders #portfoliomanagement #executionexcellence

De deelnemers aan het Leadership Development Programma hebben de mogelijkheid om naast de trainingsdagen ook deel te nemen aan interessante bijeenkomsten. Zo was er vorige week vrijdag door de LDP organisatiecommissie Tobias de Lange Barend van Marwijk Kooy en Sophie Louise Koopmans een inspirerende lezing van Theo de Raad over leiderschap georganiseerd in Café van Leeuwen in Amsterdam. De belangrijkste les die de deelnemers meekregen was “medewerkers zijn het hart van de organisatie”. Na de lezing was er een gezellig borrel, waarbij huidig en oud LDP’ers weer even konden bijpraten. In april staat onze jaarlijkse LDP Strategy Day weer gepland, daar kijken wij nu alweer naar uit.

🏭 In March 2023, Floris Meijer started his second assignment of the HAL Leadership Development Program (LDP) as Strategy Manager at Astrimex Three months later, he exited the program and permanently joined the company as Managing Director. With over 50 employees in offices in Utrecht and Leek, Astrimex provides construction specialists with a wide range of ceiling and wall products from its own production site and warehouses. It is part of Timber and Building Supplies Holland N.V (TABS Holland) a group of 15 companies active in the supply of timber and building materials, with over 1700 FTE and EUR1.027 revenue in 2022. 👨💼 "As Managing Director I am ultimately responsible for the company and its (financial) results. I spent my first weeks in this new role talking to all my colleagues, as I believe that only happy employees can satisfy our customers in the best possible way. These conversations have led to a number of improvements. A good example is the ‘Company Update’ we now organize every two months, and in which we give a 20-minute update to the whole organization on important topics. Surveys show that these meetings are highly appreciated. After being mainly involved in internal processes in the first few months the focus shifted outwards, mostly to our clients. In our conversations with them, we discovered that some of our internal projects were not solving our clients’ biggest challenges. Consequently, we decided to stop some of our projects and redirected the company’s resources to projects with most client impact.” ⭐ When asked what he values most about the LDP, Floris says "A valuable aspect of the LDP is that there are no clear boundaries. Participants are expected to independently find their way and make a real difference within HAL's portfolio companies. As a result, I stepped out of my comfort zone and learned how to deal with entirely new situations and create structure. This can be challenging at times but if you manage to succeed, you will benefit from the flexibility that the program offers and you can quickly take unique steps." 📣 Interested in the HAL Portfolio Leadership Development Program? Please contact Vanessa de Bie at vdbie@halinvestments.nl or reach out to one of the program's participants. #leadershipdevelopment #youngtalent #youngleaders #portfoliomanagement #executionexcellence