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About us

We strive for co-creation, in which we make optimal use of everyone’s knowledge. We have our own skills, but clients remain the specialists in their own field. That’s why we combine our collective skills and knowledge to work towards the best results.

Paul de Ruijter

Director

Jolanda van Heijningen

Deputy director and senior project manager

Renate Kenter

Senior strategy consultant, facilitator and instructor

Friso van Nimwegen

Strategy consultant and writer

Sharda Tewari

Trendwatcher, project manager and trainer

Reinier Hattink

Strategy consultant, facilitator and trainer

Femke Pennink

Writer and researcher

Kwint Kramer

Junior strategy consultant

Jannie Pruimers-Lanenga

Financial administrator

Iris Lijkendijk

Junior researcher

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Paul de Ruijter

Director

MSc Paul de Ruijter (Business Engineering, University of Twente) has been involved in scenario and strategy projects for over 25 years. He developed his expertise at Shell Group Planning in London, at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in Amsterdam and at Global Business Network in the United States.

Since 1996, together with his team, Paul has been invoved in international strategy projects with clients ranging from cities, NGO’s, ministries, industry associations, multinationals and global institutions. Moreover, Paul is distinguished Lecturer at Nyenrode University, where he emphazises the importance of putting the future on the agenda among professionals and directors.

Find out more about Paul.

Jolanda van Heijningen

Deputy director and senior project manager

As senior consultant and deputy director, Jolanda van Heijningen (Economics & Linguistics, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences) keeps track of De Ruijter Strategy’s project portfolio. In addition to managing projects and writing and editing strategic reports, she is also the first point of contact for clients.

Since 2003, Jolanda has worked on foresight and strategy projects for (among others) pension funds, ministries, local governments, housing associations, and the Dutch Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers, mostly in the role of project manager and writer.

Before joining De Ruijter Strategy in 2003, Jolanda worked as a copywriter and direct marketing specialist at Yves Rocher and Fortis Bank, where she learned that a well thought-out course of action, clear communication and attention to details can make or break the end result of a project. This insight still serves her well in her day-to-day work for De Ruijter Strategy.

In her free time, Jolanda enjoys life with her family, both in the Netherlands and abroad.

Renate Kenter

Senior strategy consultant, facilitator and instructor

Renate Kenter (Political Science, University of Amsterdam) has been working at De Ruijter Strategy since 2005, as a strategy consultant, instructor and facilitator.

She has extensive experience in designing and facilitating scenario-to-strategy projects in both the public and private sector (including municipalities, ministries, water authorities, health care institutions, industry associations and educational institutions). Before joining De Ruijter Strategy, Renate worked for the Center of Organizational Learning and Change (OLC) at Nyenrode Business University.

She thoroughly enjoys the process of facilitating a (strategic) dialogue between people with varying perspectives and backgrounds, and setting organizations in motion as a result. In this way, she has helped create many constructive links throughout the years, between public administrators, civilians, municipal councils, professionals, managers, directors, scientists, etc. In addition, Renate teaches scenario thinking at the VU Amsterdam, Delft Top Tech, Nyenrode Business University, SIOO and the University of Amsterdam.

She lives near Amsterdam and likes to spend her free time travelling and enjoying nature with her husband and dog.

Find out more about Renate.

Friso van Nimwegen

Strategy consultant and writer

Friso van Nimwegen (History, Leiden University) has been working at De Ruijter Strategy since 2021. As strategy consultant, he helps organisations to get a better understanding of their environment and teaches them to think smartly about the future. His expertise resides in bringing data and insights together in one navigable and provocative story about the future. He worked on projects for United Nations, the Ministry of Justice and Security, provence Noord-Holland and several different municipalities among others. Morover, Friso gives (guest) lectures about scenario thinking and strategy.

Before joining De Ruijter Strategy, Friso was active as historian and published articles about Dutch Politics in the 18th century. In 2019 he received the Elsevier/Vrienden van de Witt price for his thesis. In addition, he was working as a writing coach at Leiden University. In his free time he likes bouldering, learning new languages and spends his time singing in the nicest choir in Utrecht.

Sharda Tewari

Trendwatcher, project manager and trainer

Sharda Tewari (Urban Planning, University of Amsterdam) has been working at De Ruijter Strategy since 2022. With her broad interest and multidisciplinary background, Sharda is always on the look for the newest developments and tendencies in society and identifies their long-term effects.

Before Sharda joined De Ruijter Strategy, she had been working in the field of urban development for almost 20 years. She worked for municipalities, housing associations, property managements, as project manager, proces manager, staff member and advisor. In this way, she learned the intricacies of project management and advisory and developed a rather broad knowledge on the public and semi-public industry.

Find out more about Sharda.

Reinier Hattink

Strategy consultant, facilitator and trainer

Drs. Reinier Hattink studied Social Economic History at Leiden University, Intelligence studies at University of Amsterdam and was trained at scenario writing at the New York Film Academy. Since 2023, Reinier has been working as consultant, facilitator and trainer at De Ruijter Strategy. Before joining De Ruijter Strategy, he worked as strategic advisor at the Ministry of Defense. Reinier remains connected to the armed forces as reservist.

Reinier’s interests reside in the field of safety issues, geopolitics and mega trends. Despite these topics being out of our control, they still have a significant impact on all of us. Reinier enjoyes helping people, businesses and organisations with gaining insight on the effects of these topics and teaching how to react upon them.

His broad background and great interests make him a lateral thinker capable of transcending domains. Reinier has a lot of experience in desigining and guiding war games and other serious games. These creative ways of working help participants discover new ways ahead and be better prepared for what is to come. His motto: being well prepared is better than hoping that things will work out; hoping is a bad strategy for the future.

Find out more about Reinier.

Femke Pennink

Writer and researcher

Femke Pennink (Linguistics, Leiden University) started working for De Ruijter Strategy in 2023. As a writer and researcher, Femke brings the external environment into perspective. Moreover, she translates trends and (un)certainties into prospective visions for several organisations.

Due to her background in both physics and linguistics, she has a multidisciplinary approach, enabling her to connect the dots between diverse subjects and topics.

She has worked on projects for Staat van de Uitvoering, Waterschap Drents Overijsselse Delta, Zorginstituut Nederland and Nederlandse Zorgautoriteit, among others.

Before Femke joined De Ruijter Strategy, she completed her internship at Linguatech, a translation agency, where she gained experience writing original content and editing texts. During her free time, Femke spends most of her time reading, from literary fiction to novels and from non-fiction to poetry. In addition, you will find her swimming in the sea throughout the whole year.

Kwint Kramer

Junior strategy consultant

Kwint Kramer started his academic career with a double degree Business Studies Marketing at InHolland and International Sales & Marketing at Business Academy Aarhus in Denmark. Afterwards, he continued his academic career with the Msc BA Leadership & Management at University of Amsterdam to gain more insights into strategy implementation.

Since 2024, Kwint is working as a junior strategy consultant at De Ruijter Strategy. He contributes to projects by reflecting on business plans, data analyses, visualisations, reporting and facilitating at workshops. In his free time, Kwint likes surfing, swimming and practicing sports or spending time with friends.

Jannie Pruimers-Lanenga

Financial administrator

As a freelancer, Jannie assists different companies, including De Ruijter Strategy, with their administration and accounting. We are very happy with her support, since it allows the team to focus on the projects, trainings and lectures. Meanwhile, due to her down-to-earth perspective on life, her typical Amsterdam humor and her practical solutions, we consider Jannie more as a colleague than an external support.

Iris Lijkendijk

Junior researcher

Iris joined De Ruijter Strategy in the summer of 2023 for an exploratory internship, after obtaining her Bachelor in International Business Administration at the Vrije Universiteit. She completed her internship succesfully and therefore we are pleased that she will remain in the team as researcher during her master Global Business & Sustainability at Erasmus University. In her free time, Iris enjoyes seeing as much of the world as possible, with Africa being her favorite continent.