Board Member Gordon Baxendale on the Quarterly Board Meeting in Dubai
The Lovinklaan Foundation – the largest shareholder in Arcadis – is led by employees of Arcadis. The board currently consists of seven Arcadians from different divisions and countries around the globe. They balance their day-to-day workload with their responsibilities for the Foundation; contributing to the continuity of the enterprise and helping Arcadians grow and reach their full potential. In addition to work on Foundation programs and communications by e-mail and multiple Skype calls, the board meets face-to-face each quarter to discuss developments, make strategic decisions and meet local participants.
Gordon Baxendale shares his thoughts on the first board meeting of the new year which took place in Dubai (UAE) from February 11-14 2019. Gordon Baxendale is a board member of the Lovinklaan Foundation, and also Business Leader in Program, Cost and Asset Management in Australia.
We were very impressed by this interesting, remarkable city, where 10 members of the senior management met with us to engage in knowledge sharing. They have told us about the region, the challenges they have been through, their strategic focus, their drive to Make Every Project Count and digital communication. Over 100 people were present at the office to join the presentation, and more than 300 staff members from Abu Dhabi, Qatar and KSA attended the meeting online, allowing for great interaction. Speaking to 20 program participants from Dubai and Abu Dhabi provided us with useful feedback. Everyone showed great involvement and wanted to contribute to improvement.
Diversity & Inclusion
We’ve held Diversity & Inclusion sessions in the offices we visited over the past 12 months, to see how D&I is implemented in different countries and offices. Our global D&I review was finalized during this board meeting and we are currently mapping out opportunities to improve D&I in our programs as well as exploring possible options of developing a D&I-focused program. Furthermore, we continued our work to evaluate each program that the Lovinklaan Foundation supports, in this case Shelter, where we explore of opportunities future opportunities for the programs.
Digital transformation
Our pilot program Expedition DNA has been rolled out and has proven to be very successful. This was particularly noticeable in the Middle East. Over 400 people from this region have completed Basecamp already. This has elicited a true digital transformation among our Middle Eastern staff. We are very proud that one of our programs can have such an effect on our people and our company.
Board updates
The Board invited Bram Mommers to explain more about Vision 2030 and how that should contribute to the continuity of the enterprise.
To conclude, as was previously announced in the last board update, board members M.O. Lai and Cintia Salles will be completing their last term in June of this year after six years of membership. The Q2 board meeting will be their last one. Their input and contribution to the board has been invaluable and they will be greatly missed. The nominations for their successors have been initiated and interviews will take place this month.