Quest: a great opportunity to learn more about the worldwide expertise of ARCADIS and meet colleagues you didn’t even know exist. One of the focus areas of ARCADIS at this moment is globalization. This also applies for the rail-signaling department in the Netherlands, where I currently work. The Quest program gives you the opportunity to find out if there are some possibilities for departments all over the world, to collaborate with in the future. That’s why I wanted to go on a quest; to find out if there was some market opportunity for rail signaling outside of the Netherlands.The first step was to find a destination. If you search on the arcadisquest.com website you find out that ARCADIS is everywhere. At that moment I found out about the center of excellence rail. Rail in the Netherlands is appointed as center of excellence and North America and England are mentioned as the focus areas where ARCADIS sees possibilities to expand their rail activities. With this knowledge I started to look for a host in the United States. At the same time I heard the news that ARCADIS won the quotation for the California Hi-speed line. The first Hi-speed line in the US, a really interesting fact for our department. And so the destination Los Angeles was set. However my host Paul Dalida in Los Angeles asked me to join a committee meeting about Hi-speed rail systems organized by AREMA (American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association). For me; as being specialized in […]
Thank you for applying for Global Shapers: Generation 2015. These last few weeks proved to be very exciting. In total 413 amazing applications were submitted. Yammer, Twitter and our Facebook page exploded! Thanks for sharing your excitement about Global Shapers: Generation … Continue reading →
My experience of Global Shapers: Generation 2014 (GS 2014), was incredibly awesome. The fact that you get to know 99 other young professionals that are just like you, with similar questions and concerns, is great. For me, the experience transported … Continue reading →
The most interesting part of my quest to Bangalore is the difference in the outside and the inside. Every place is outside is busy, filthy, and unwelcoming. But it can’t be further from the opposite inside the office here. The office is meticulously clean, and although it is full and everyone is busy, it is a quiet hum of collaboration rather than the chaos of outside. And the team has been very welcoming. Ashish has been a great host. We have had time discuss many things on my list of objectives, but he has also taken time to introduce me to as many people as possible. The kitchen staff bring me coffee and water to my desk without me even having to ask. And they also have food catered for lunch every day, and yesterday’s curry dal was fantastic. I cannot wait to see what today brings.
In the past week the 10 nominees for the Application Battle have been posted online. From each region the best application was chosen. Here you can view the best video’s and pdf files. The author of the published application is … Continue reading →
The last applicant to be nominated for the Application Battle is… Katrijn Dirix (ARCADIS Continental Europe)! Katrijn, welcome to Global Shapers: Generation 2015! Katrijn submitted a visual, she created a comic! Please find here application here: If you browser doesn’t support the … Continue reading →
In May 2015, I undertook an ARCADIS Quest to Singapore and Hong Kong from the UK. I had two main objectives in my Quest. I wanted to learn how Arcadis is managing programs of work around the world as Program Managers and how different Project Management Offices (PMOs) are being run globally. I wanted to bring the learnings back to the UK to feed into the program which I am working on in the UK. When I had decided on my key topic areas, I spoke to a wide range of people. I spoke with those who had undertaken Quests and to my Line Managers in the UK to focus on what structure the Quest might take and how I could get the most out of the program in the time allowed. This led me to focus on my ideas and so I got in touch with Oliver Barrow from Singapore to discuss what shape the week could take. I asked Oliver if he wanted be my host as we are both working in similar roles in a PMO. This helped me to submit my application with clear objectives. This clarity in objectives was crucial in the structure of my Quest whilst I was away and in using the information that I had gathered after the Quest. Learning goals Oliver and I had several calls as we moved towards the Quest dates to agree on the meetings and planning and then… the big day arrived! I met and discussed programs and PMOs with an astounding number of people […]
The first time I had heard of the E-Factory was when I received an email in my inbox congratulating me on being selected as a participant. What is it all about I hear you ask? As ARCADIS presented its strategy … Continue reading →
As an environmental engineer, I believe that we can work in a balance between the economic development and sustainable environmental development. Working on landfill projects is a market that is growing in Brazil and Latin American to help improve the balance between development and the environment. This will decrease groundwater contamination within neighborhood areas near industrial and municipal landfills. The solid waste engineers in ARCADIS US have a lot of experience in the landfill engineering and remediation. To take advantage of this knowledge and the new landfill market within Brazil, it seemed logical to utilize the Quest program. Learning about the American market, client development/marketing, projects planning, and technical knowledge in the construction and closure of industrial and municipal landfills would be valuable to the ARCADIS Logos team in São Paulo, Brazil. My manager and I made contact with John Holm and Todd Farmen, from ARCADIS US to discuss the many synergies. After 2 months of scheduling and projects planning, we had the approval of my manager Lucas Fonseca, my director Andre Rebouças, and my host John Holm as well the Lovinklaan Foundation. I traveled to Cincinnati, OH on 15/08/2014 for 12 hours. I was very excited because it was a great opportunity to discover, for the first time, the US and also learn more about the solid waste market that ARCADIS Logos is starting to enter. I was very well received by my host and other staff from ARCADIS US. In the office, John showed me their landfill current projects, discussed the environmental laws in […]
I am Craig Kecheran and I joined ARCADIS in August 2007 (merging with EC Harris in January 2013). I’m a Graduate Cost Consultant based in the Edinburgh, UK office, working within the Property sector. Following on from high school, my aim … Continue reading →