Roger Vreugdenhil is Director Advisory Services, Asia Pacific at Stantec New Zealand and one of our newly elected ACE New Zealand Board members. We’re delighted to welcome Roger to the ACE Board and asked him about his career and what he brings to the role.
Tell us about your career
I am a sense-making strategist and a collaborative futures team builder who honed my consulting leadership across multiple nations.
Following a Master of Engineering degree from Caltech and a Doctorate from the University of Canterbury, my consulting career was initially focused on dams, which morphed into risk management and led me into management consulting.
I have spent my career navigating complex challenges and building teams to deliver transformative projects in New Zealand, Australia, North America and the Middle East. I am currently Director Advisory Services, Asia Pacific, for Stantec, leading teams to respond to evolving client needs, shaping innovative local solutions while leveraging global expertise. Prior to my current role, I was Managing Director for Stantec in New Zealand.
I am passionate about consulting and the role consultants play to solve pressing societal problems. I am most at home facilitating teams to solve complex problems and leading conversations rich in insight and purposeful action.
I am committed to honouring and growing people within the work environment and communities, as a long-term supporter of several indigenous not-for-profit organisations and a former board member for Prison Network in Melbourne Australia.
I am married to Joanna and have two adult daughters.
What strengths do you bring to the ACE Board?
- Local and global experience – I have a depth and breadth of consulting experience, locally and globally, including executive and board leadership experience in multiple countries and teams;
- Strategic and visionary thinking – I think from a systems perspective, with a deep understanding of organisational sense making and strategy formation;
- Collaborative change leadership – I have a strong understanding of group dynamics and how less rational factors impact how people work and what can be achieved. I am able to challenge and build consensus;
- An innovative consulting toolkit – my experience integrates multiple knowledges and disciplines, and I am a skilled facilitator of groups and transformations.
The above strengths reside within my fundamental commitment to honouring people and organisations, and growing them within a mana-enhancing kaupapa.
What is your strategic vision for ACE New Zealand?
ACE New Zealand is committed to elevating the voices, expertise and readiness of New Zealand consultants in the built and natural environment through advocacy, empowerment and leadership. My strategic vision for ACE builds on this mission across three fronts:
- Amplify investment in Aotearoatanga through impactful advocacy on key issues relating to New Zealand’s future, and how consulting voices and services can be leveraged towards describing and reaching that desired future;
- Widen the ACE network through new partnerships and collaborations, including with strategic consultancies and academic institutions, to broaden the thinking and potential alliances for ACE member organisations;
- Raise our collective consulting acumen to equip consultants with social and technical frameworks, acknowledging that all work is about change and that organisations don’t change, people do.
Tell us something interesting about yourself
Music is a big part of my life. I seem to have a recordable memory for music – I can “play” a song in my mind as if it was playing on a sound system and can turn different instruments and vocals “on” and “off”. Somewhat bizarre, but it has always been my normal!