
Who am I?
Alexander is an entrepreneurial Senior Leader with a B.Sc. in UX and M.Sc. in Computer Science. he has a strong track record in technology innovation, people leadership, building, leading and managing software engineering departments (170+). A true inspirational driver of excellence and innovation. Alexander has been focussed on engineering/technology and product development nearly 15+ years with hands-on approach and experience in the field of fintech, eCommerce and large scale SaaS solutions. He is a customer centric, pragmatic, outcome driven professional through lean delivery to meet expectation, budget and engineering quality. Experienced as a seasoned VP gone through the tracks of IT Director, Sr. manager, team lead, product owner as well as project manager. Alexander understands the business, product, and technology needs and knows how to connect these to get the focus needed to achieve customer outcomes.Specialties
- Building and managing (Agile) delivery teams within a scaling software architecture for high-traffic web-services
- Delivery, deployment, digital strategy and architecture;
- Inspiring professional, but down to earth “get things done” fun person;
- Defining and prioritising strategies;
- Experienced working in larger scale Agile, Waterfall or Hybrid environments;
- Web analytics and business intelligence;
- Online innovation, strategy, roadmap planning;
- Lean and traditional management (SCRUM, Lean, Prince2);
- Collaborating and communicating with cross functional teams;
- Hands-On approach and results oriented to achieve business goals;
- Inspirational people manager;
- Local initiative execution (small iterations) with global mindset (scaling with ease) Inspirational people manager;
- Data driven approach;
- Servant Leadership.
Click here to download my resume, testimonies and competencies in .pdf for offline redistribution.
Resume Alexander Witteveen
Summary of Experience
Elsevier.com – Vice President (VP) of Technology Excellence & Engineering
2020 – present | Amsterdam, Netherlands
Accountable for leading a team of over 170+ technologists worldwide (re)engineering & imaging flagship tools like Scopus, Expert Lookup and Engineering VIllage that we offer to researchers (academic or corporate), universities, and corporates (public or private). Second focus is (re)aligning Quality Engineering within the total research Technology portfolio to get greater visibility on quality and collaboration on improving state-of-arts. Third and last is Technology Excellence that also spans the total research technology portfolio into setting up a Business Unit that drives excellence cross products and platform significantly increasing effectiveness and efficiency of delivery.
Elsevier.com – Vice President (VP) of Technology / Software Engineering
2018 – 2020 | Amsterdam, Netherlands
I lead a team of over 80+ technologists worldwide reinventing the tools we offer to researchers (academic or corporate), universities, and funders (public or private).
We are pivoting our product portfolio into a set of connected platforms with a solid data foundation and an increasing number of smart Machine Learning based functionality.
I’ve significantly rebalanced our technology team by insourcing and building (head of house) a new Tech Hub (220+) in Amsterdam as well as establishing the leadership team.
This has resulted in a stronger and smarter delivery portfolio, a whole new level of partnership with our business colleagues and ultimately increased value for our customers.
Beate-Uhse.ag – Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
2016 – present | Amsterdam, Netherlands
Responsible for the Group’s Development & Operations (IT) and Online Product (35+) department (B2B, B2C, Retail and Wholesale) in 10 different countries, under different brands such as Christine le Duc (NL), Pabo (BE/NL), Beate Uhse (DE, AT, Eastern EU), Adam et Eve (FR).
Scaling up multiple DevOps teams on multiple locations, (re)defining enterprise architecture, product roadmap, engineering proces, office automation, customer targeting, engineering craftsmanship and Agile team transition to deliver high quality maintainable software.
I work with a passionate entrepreneurial drive and embed vision to drive our product for continuous improving teams, processes and technology.
PGGM.nl – Senior Manager Software Development, contractor (MT Board-member)
2016 | Utrecht, Netherlands
Responsible for multiple SCRUM implementation teams and software architecture releases for corporate clients (Philips, Rabobank, Zorg & Welzijn) within a complex delivery environment (220+ employees in 18 parallel scrum team environment). Primary focus on software architecture design, development, testing, targeted development, craftsmanship and Agile team transition to deliver maintainable software. I embed vision and drive for continuous improvement teams, processes and technology.
hoyhoy.nl – Senior Manager E-Commerce Development & Product Delivery
2015 – 2016 | Haarlem Area, Netherlands
Management of E-Commerce Product Development Department. Driver of digital change and Strategic steering of product portfolio. Linking pin between strategic development, tactical roll-out and operational execution. Team target responsible and accountable. Implementing company wide Agile work methodology and building robust scalable multi country E-Commerce architecture through multiple high performance multi-disciplinary Agile Scrum Delivery teams.
ExquICT – Self Employed / Entrepreneur
2004 – Present | Amsterdam Area, Netherlands
Consultant ICT Software & Hardware for small and middle sized companies. Contributor to Open Source projects.
inSided Media – Sr. Manager IT & Product Implementation Delivery
2012 – 2015 | Amsterdam en omgeving, Nederland
Responsible for project Implementation department. Implementing complex SAAS (Cloud) IT projects through multi disciplinary specialist teams on a global Scale. Companywide project planning, Technical capacity planning, Agile implementation, Scrum master, Dealing with External suppliers and Freelancers.
Customers:
E.g. Rabobank, REAAL, NS, Hi, KPN, Simyo, Telfort, UPC, Ziggo, Albert Heijn, Sonos, TomTom, ABN Amro, SNSBank, Sunweb, FBTO, Achmea, ZIlverenkruis, VOO, Meteor, EIRcom, Philips, T-Mobile
DANS – Data Archiving and Networked Services – Programme Director Datawarehousing
2010 – 2011 | The Hague Area, Netherlands
Managed two ICT international social web infrastructure projects (ALFALAB, CLIO-INFRA).
Programme Director IOP Man-Machine Interaction (MMI)
2008 – 2010 | The Hague Area, Netherlands
Responsible for the design, implementation and execution of the innovation oriented research programme (IOP) Man-Machine Interaction.
International Programme Director Language and Speech Technology
2008 – 2010 | The Hague Area, Netherlands
Responsible for the bottom-line factors of implementation of the defined policy and the correct execution of programme.
Senior Consultant/Ambassador High-Tech Systems & Materials
2008 – 2010 | The Hague Area, Netherlands
Stakeholder alignment and focus on research, analysis and definition of framework setting policies for the 350+ Million Euro High-Tech Point-One innovation programme.
Google – Product Owner – User Experience Lab
2006 – 2008 | Ireland
Responsible for contribution to algorithm development of Google Search, Maps and translate. Responsible for the internal dissemination of project results and maximising ROI.
Results and Extensive Experience
Elsevier.com – Vice President (VP) of Technology Excellence & Engineering @ Elsevier
2020 – present | Amsterdam, Netherlands
Accountable for leading a team of over 170+ technologists worldwide (re)engineering & imaging flagship tools like Scopus, Expert Lookup and Engineering VIllage that we offer to researchers (academic or corporate), universities, and corporates (public or private). Second focus is (re)aligning Quality Engineering within the total research Technology portfolio to get greater visibility on quality and collaboration on improving state-of-arts. Third and last is Technology Excellence that also spans the total research technology portfolio into setting up a Business Unit that drives excellence cross products and platform significantly increasing effectiveness and efficiency of delivery
This has resulted in a stronger and smarter delivery portfolio, a whole new level of partnership with our business colleagues and ultimately increased value for our customers.
Elsevier.com – Vice President (VP) of Technology Excellence & Engineering @ Elsevier
2018 – 2020 | Amsterdam, Netherlands
I lead a team of over 80+ technologists worldwide inventing the tools we offer to researchers (academic or corporate), universities, and funders (public or private).
We are pivoting our product portfolio into a set of connected platforms with a solid data foundation and an increasing number of smart Machine Learning based functionality.
I’ve significantly rebalanced our technology team by insourcing and building (head of house) a new Tech Hub (220+) in Amsterdam as well as establishing the leadership team.
This has resulted in a stronger and smarter delivery portfolio, a whole new level of partnership with our business colleagues and ultimately increased value for our customers.
Beate-Uhse.ag – Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
2016 – present | Amsterdam, Netherlands
Responsible for the Group’s Software Engineering(30+) & Operations (IT) department (B2B, B2C, Retail and wholesale) in 10 different countries, under different brands such as Christine le Duc (NL), Pabo (BE/NL), Beate Uhse (DE, AT, Eastern EU), Adam et Eve (FR). Responsible for the group’s Office Automation architecture servicing 450+ employees in 10 different countries and 70 retail store locations.
Primary focus on setting up DevOps teams on multiple locations, enterprise architecture, development, testing, office automation, customer targeting, craftsmanship and Agile team transition to deliver maintainable software. I embed vision and drive our product for continuous improvement teams, processes and technology.
PGGM.nl – Senior Manager Software Development, contractor (MT Board-member)
2016 | Utrecht, Netherlands
Responsible for multiple SCRUM implementation teams and software architecture releases for corporate clients (Philips, Rabobank, Zorg & Welzijn) within a complex delivery environment (220+ employees in 18 parallel scrum team environment). Primary focus on software architecture design, development, testing, targeted development, craftsmanship and Agile team transition to deliver maintainable software. I embed vision and drive for continuous improvement teams, processes and technology.
hoyhoy.nl – Senior Manager Development & Product Delivery
2015 – 2016 | Haarlem Area, Netherlands
Hoyhoy.nl (former verzekeringssite.nl) was acquired by BGL in 2012. Managing operational activities around the delivery organisation. I directly report to the managing CTO. Steering the digital roadmap and translating this into the technical platform. Managing a growing team of 30 people.
ExquICT – Self Employed / Entrepreneur
2004 – Present | Amsterdam Area, Netherlands
Main activities:
inSided Media – IT & Product Manager
2012 – 2015 | Amsterdam en omgeving, Nederland
inSided is a leading provider of community software and provides a fully integrated SAAS solution to various well known companies like T-Mobile, KPN, Eneco, Sunweb within the Netherlands. I work directly with Sales, Community Management, Developers and graphic/interaction designers to gather&determine requirements, define product strategy, execute, launch, drive adoption and development of our product portfolio.
Responsible for:
Highlights:
Customers:
E.g. Rabobank, REAAL, NS, Hi, KPN, Simyo, Telfort, UPC, Ziggo, Albert Heijn, Sonos, TomTom, ABN Amro, SNSBank, Sunweb, FBTO, Achmea, ZIlverenkruis, VOO, Meteor, EIRcom, Philips, T-Mobile
inSided Media – Product Manager
2012 – 2013 | Amsterdam Area, Netherlands
inSided is a leading provider of community software and provides a fully integrated SAAS solution to various well known companies like T-Mobile, KPN, Eneco, Sunweb within the Netherlands. I work directly with Sales, Community Management, Developers and graphic/interaction designers to gather&determine requirements, define product strategy, execute, launch, drive adoption and development of our product portfolio.
Responsible for:
DANS – Data Archiving and Networked Services – ICT Project Manager
2010 – 2011 | The Hague Area, Netherlands
DANS promotes sustained access to digital research data. For this purpose, DANS encourages researchers to archive and reuse data in a sustained manner, e.g. through the online archiving system EASY. DANS also provides access, via NARCIS.nl, to thousands of scientific datasets, e-publications and other research information in the Netherlands. In addition, the institute provides training and advice, and performs research into sustained access to digital information.
As a project manager i was responsible for the following activities:
Agentschap NL – IOP MMI Programme Coordinator
2008 – 2010 | The Hague Area, Netherlands
Over the last decade, IOP-MMI has grown to become one of the well-recognised names in the world of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) in the Netherlands and abroad. The initials stand for an innovation programme funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs that supports research and development projects in user-system interaction.
As a Programme Coordinator i was Responsible for the design, implementation and execution of the innovation oriented research programme (IOP) Human-Machine Interaction (HMI).
This is a responsibility is a superset of the following activities:
Agentschap NL – STEVIN Programme Officer
2008 – 2010 | The Hague Area, Netherlands
STEVIN is a long-term research and development program for Dutch language and speech technology jointly developed by the Flemish and Dutch public funds.
STEVIN stands for Speech and language technological essential facilities in Dutch.
Responsible for properly implementing the defined policy of the internationally oriented STEVIN programme.
This responsibility is a superset of the following activities:
Agentschap NL – Consultant High Tech Systems and Materials
2008 – 2010 | The Hague Area, Netherlands
Responsible for researching, analyzing and drafting regulatory and policy framework and or records for the High-Tech Innovation Point One.
Google – Product Owner – User Experience Lab
2006 – 2008 | Ireland
Product Management
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NS
Created and maintained the High traffic platform for the Dutch Railways.
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ABN AMRO
Created and maintained the ABN AMRO Ondernemers platform.
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VOO
Created and delivered the french VOO community with over 1000 Topics, 8843 Comments and 1200 Members.
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Sonos Community
Migrated two sonos communities from different platforms. The English Sonos community with over 68,300 Topics, 327,718 Replies and 257,382 Members and the German Sonos Community with over 36,645 Topics, 211,300 Answers and 194,047 Members.
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Sunweb
Sunweb community went live on 22 May 2013.
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SNS Reaal
Co-creation community with over 3.000 members.
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SNS Bank
Started in June 2012. SNS closed community with over 2.000 members.
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Telfort
Telfort forum with over 25.000 members and over 210.000 pageviews per month.
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T-Mobile Community
T-Mobile community with over 300.000 members.
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Simyo
Simyo community with over 10.000 members.
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Eneco Forum
Eneco forum with over 2.000 members.
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Hi Community
Hi community with over 20.000 members.
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Tele2 Forum
Eneco forum with over 25.000 members. A very active community with over 130.000 unique visitors and 450.00 pageviews a month.
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De Kindertelefoon
Award winning Kindertelefoon community with over 9.000 young members between 13 – 18 years old.
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Zilveren Kruis Achmea
Started in oktober 2012. Zilveren Kruis community with over 4.000 members.
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Onderling
Onderling (FBTO). A place where a community can read, talk and decide whether FBTO should pay certain insurance claims.
ExquICT
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goRaspberryPi.nl
Webshop project focussed on selling RaspberrPI’s. Made the design and used Opencart as a basis. Also created logo and graphics.
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Wurks B.V.
Data migration, software deployment, virtualized server installation (ESXi), Windows Server 2012, firewall (CentOS), infrastructure, DHCP, active directory, VOIP, wifi, backup and workstation. In other word, the wUrks!
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QbiQ B.V.
Data migration, legacy systems migration, software deployment, virtualized server installation, firewall, infrastructure, VOIP, vlan, wifi, backup and workstations.
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2Shift B.V.
Website creation, content, images and maintenance.
Education
Leiden University – MSc., Media Technology, Computer Technology
2004 – 2007 | Leiden
One of only 25 candidates selected by the programme’s Applications Committee to take part in this Master Programme. The programme has prepared me for any future career involving creative and critical thinking, and in particular prepare for a future in scientific research. The graduation from the programme has awarded me the Master of Science (MSc) diploma from Leiden University. Alumni hold positions ranging from PhD researcher to creative entrepreneur.
Activities and Societies:
Keywords throughout the programme are creativity, technology and scientific research. The programme’s goal is to stimulate innovation and creativity in scientific research by innovative application of technology. One might say that Media Technology delivers autonomous scientists, just as art academies deliver autonomous artists.
The Hague University of Applied Sciences – Bachelor, Communication and Multimedia Design
2000 – 2004 | The Hague Area
Activities and Societies:
The discipline of this study is “design of interaction”. The focus of this discipline is usability. Development of user-friendly software and user interfaces are central subjects of this course.
Crabeth College – Intermediate vocational education, Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering
1996 – 2000 | Gouda Area
Activities and Societies:
Analogue and Digital Communication
Downloads
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Contact
Please don’t hesitate to contact me for more information about my work. You can also take a look at my LinkedIN profile for even more information and see what other people thing and write about my work.
If you reached this point, then I guess you are probably interested in my profile and qualifications. Click here to download my resume, testimonies and Qualities in .pdf for offline redistribution.