Board Member Cintia Philippi Salles on the Quarterly Board Meeting in Berlin

17 mei 2019

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.

Board member Cintia Philippi Salles shares her thoughts on the second quarterly board meeting of this year which took place in Berlin (Germany) from April 8-11, 2019. Cintia is not only a board member of the Lovinklaan Foundation, but also Environmental Management and Sustainability Manager in Brazil.

In Berlin, it was great to see the pride and passion our German colleagues have for all their work, as well as the ripple effect Expedition DNA has on their work. Over 60 people joined us at the staff presentation, and it was recorded, making it available for all other ACE offices. We also had a lunch with twelve very engaged program participants, with whom we had great discussions. There was a lot of interest in and respect for Lovinklaan and its activities. We had good interaction with the leadership team, who were incredibly welcoming and engaging, showing us various projects that Arcadis is currently working on. Finally, we had an interesting site visit, organized by the city executive and the project manager of the Deutsche Rentenversicherung. All in all, Germany has shown us that it provides for good market opportunities, their perspective is good and that a lot of investments in potential projects are being made.

Deep diving into Lovinklaan’s programs

We’ve used this meeting to take a deep dive into our Quest program. As Quest fits perfectly into Lovinklaan’s mission to boost knowledge exchange, we have voted to renew the Quest program for another year.

We’ve also identified some areas of future improvement. For example, we are looking into ways to use Quest data to improve future programs.

Board updates

The board discussed the annual report, general observations and AGMS issues. We also invited external speakers to talk about digitalization, consulting broader markets in the digital space and insights into the competition. This seamlessly fitted into the digital transformation that Arcadis is now in the middle of.

To conclude, as was previously announced in the last board update, board members M.O. Lai and myself will be completing our terms by the end of June 2019. After a round of nominations, we’ve selected two candidates, from Latin-America and from Asia, who will be appointed in July.

First of all, I want to thank M.O. for serving as a wonderful board member for the past six years. He has been a great addition to the board and we highly appreciate his dedication and passion for Lovinklaan.

As I am now too almost completing my term as a board member, I would like to express my gratitude for having been given this wonderful opportunity. Being a board member has given me the chance to build the Quest program even further. It’s great to see that the program has become so successful and that it allowed so many people to travel across the globe and visit other Arcadis offices and meet with colleagues from different countries. I’d encourage every Arcadian to not only participate in Quest, but also in other Lovinklaan programs, as they are a true enhancement to your professional life. Thank you to all board members and fellow Arcadians, you have made my time as a board member unforgettable and invaluable.

 

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