Derkjan van der Leest

Where he came from?

The Netherlands, after 20 years of PwC and 12 years Strategic Management Centre

Why he joined Reconsulting?

To provide clients with the ability to realise their aspirations.

What I’m all about at work

Consulting where strategy meets leadership and change.

Best part of the job

When a client really appreciates the impact we’ve made together.

Beyond work I get a buzz from

Family, jazz music and Italian cooking and travelling through the congested Netherlands in a fast sports car.

Trying to make organisations a better place to live and work for individuals who are inspired to explore their full potential

Born and raised in the Netherlands, Derkjan was educated as a mechanical engineer at Twente Polytechnic University. After jobs on a project for unemployed youth at the university and a management development programme for Exxon Chemicals, he switched to consulting to get more freedom to explore his potential. He joined Coopers and Van Dien, one of the predecessors of what was later to become PriceWaterhouseCoopers. As partner he was responsible for the Strategy and Change practice in the Netherlands and in Northern Europe.

After completing his PhD on commitment in international companies, he set up a collaboration with the Ashridge Strategic Management Centre (Andrew Campbell, Michael Goold) and started the Strategic Management Centre in the Netherlands in 2001. This boardroom consulting firm combined consulting activities with research in the area of strategy realisation. His research has resulted in a management book about ways to improve the realisation of strategic objectives. Over this period, he has worked with the management of various listed and non-listed corporations in several industries such as Randstad, Shell, TNT, Unilever, Vopak, newspaper and leisure companies, but also in government.

Together with Pim Bouwman and Marilieke Engbers he started Reconsulting in the Netherlands in 2015. Their goal is to help companies boost their agility and enable them to achieve their full potential in their strategic endeavors. Next to his work as a board room consultant, Derkjan is an esteemed professor in Strategy Realisation at the Free University in Amsterdam.

Derkjan lives in Amsterdam with his wife and five children. Alongside his working interests he loves to play jazz music (tenor saxophone and flute) and is an enthusiastic cook of Italian food.