New CEO and COO for Alliander
Otto has been working at Alliander since 2017 and as director of Corporate & Social Affairs since 2018. Before that he held various positions at the organizational consultancy firms TEN HAVE Change Management and Twynstra Gudde. Otto has been appointed for an indefinite period and will take over the management of the company from Ingrid Thijssen after the General Meeting of Shareholders on 20 May.
Annemarie Jorritsma, chairman of the Supervisory Board of Alliander: “In recent years, Maarten Otto has made a major contribution to the development of Alliander, strengthening our social position in the political-administrative debate and sharpening our corporate strategy. He also has broad experience in realizing major change challenges in complex social environments. We therefore see in him a very suitable successor of Ingrid Thijssen.”
Maarten Otto: “I feel privileged to get started in this new role. Alliander, as a network company, plays a crucial role in our society. The transition to a sustainable energy system will demand a lot from our organization in the coming decades and will entail complex issues. I’m looking forward contributing to this. “
Expansion of Executive Board with COO
Last year it became much more clear what it takes to achieve the climate goals by 2030. There is now an exponential increase in heavy connections and the integration of many large-scale wind and solar parks where the grid is the thinnest. That entails a lot of extra work. In order to achieve the climate goals, there is a major challenge on the operational side of our organization.
No explicit administrative responsibility is currently vested within the Executive Board for the operational functioning of the organization. The Supervisory Board has decided that this requires attention in a specific role and will invest this task with a new Chief Operation Officer (COO).
Marlies Visser will perform this function and will join the Executive Board of Alliander. Visser has been working at Alliander since 2014 in the position of Director of Operations at Liander. Previously, she worked for almost ten years at the Dutch Railways as operations manager. She has been appointed indefinitely and will start on May 1, 2020.
Annemarie Jorritsma: “Marlies Visser has extensive experience in managing the company’s operations. She knows better than anyone what Alliander stands for. In doing so, she thinks and acts, for example in the relationship with contractors, off the beaten track. Last but not least, we are proud that both positions are filled by talents from our own company. We wish them both all the best in their new roles. ”
Marlies Visser: “The energy transition brings enormous challenges. There will be so much extra work coming our way in the coming decades that we have to make every effort to realize those changes in time. I gladly accept this challenge to work on this in my new role together with our professionals and partners.”
The Executive Board also consists of Walter Bien (Chief Financial Officer) and Daan Schut (Chief Transition Officer).