Safety

René Torenvlied is professor of Public Management at the University of Twente and director of the programs in the field of Public Administration. He is also chairman of the Scientific Board of the municipality of Enschede. One of his scientific research topics is security studies and crisis management. He led the evaluation of the national crisis management organization flight MH17 and recently advised the municipality of Enschede about the city's revival after the corona crisis. A recent interview about the current crisis can you read here. 

Ard van der Steur started his career as a lawyer at the international law firm NautaDutilh in Rotterdam where he became a salaried partner. He then lectured at Leiden University. He was co-founder of the law firm Legaltree in 2008. His political career started in Warmond where he was a municipal councillor for 12 years, became a member of parliament in 2010 and was, among other things, spokesperson for the Justice Department for his party. He was vice-chairman of the foreign affairs committee and member of the parliamentary inquiry committee Fyra. In 2015 he was sworn in by the King as Minister of Security and Justice and was Chairman of the Justice and Home Affairs Council of the European Union during the Dutch Presidency. Since April 2019 he has been chairman of the Dutch Security Sector.

Prof. Dr. Peter L.J. Bos  has been general director and secretary of the Utrecht Safety Region (VRU) since 2013. He was trained as an infantry officer at the KMA (promotion 1981) and followed the course in Higher Military Formation at the then Higher Crew School in 1990 and 1991. He fulfilled his operational military functions as platoon commander in Lebanon (1982) and Compagniescommandant.                 

He was sent to Albania for the OSCE through Foreign Affairs in 1999. After that he worked for a short time as a PhD student, until he made the transition to the civilian world of crisis management and disaster relief in 2001.

Peter Bos studied Public Administration at Leiden University and obtained his PhD in 2003 with Professor Paul 't Hart and Professor Sjo Soeters on research into the strategic crisis decision-making around the reception of large numbers of refugees in neighbouring host countries in the context of a complex emergency (Crisis Management in a Crowded Humanitarian Space: The Politics of Hosting Refugee Influxes). In addition to being director of several security regions, he was director public health of the GGD region Utrecht and National Commander of the Dutch Urban Search and Rescue Team (USAR.NL). In this capacity, he was ultimately responsible for the Dutch deployment in the large international rescue operation in Nepal after the earthquake in 2015. Since 2002, he is also municipal and regional commander of the fire department, trained as a fire commander.

Peter Bos was appointed special professor of Crisis Management and National Security at the NLDA, Faculty of Military Sciences, Department of Military Science, in June 2018. His research focuses on the place, tasks and strategic significance of the armed forces in the field of National Security and the resulting interaction with civilian partners in crisis management.

Kevin Wolters is currently operational leader of the National Operational Team Corona (LOT-C). This team, which was set up specifically at the start of the crisis, supports and connects the state and regions and acts as an information hub for both levels. Kevin started his career at the Royal Military Academy, picked up his red beret and held a number of officer positions in the infantry of the air mobile brigade. Kevin graduated in leadership and personnel management. He was also deployed to Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. After 8 years of defence, he joined the fire brigade and followed the full-time training to become a firefighter. After this, he worked for more than 13 years in the Limburg-North security region. Kevin held various operational positions during this period and was responsible for the Limburg-Noord fire brigade organisation in the last period. Kevin Wolters regularly provides training courses (public and private) in the field of leadership and effective team cooperation under (operational) crisis conditions.

Bert Oostdam has a background in financial and administrative management in an international environment. The management of the insurance portfolio led to interest in risk management and eventually to the Register training. Corporate risk manager was the logical next step. He started Oostdam-Advies B.V. in 2017 and became a partner in "Risk and Sport" in 2018. Bert is chairman of the Dutch Society for Risk Management.

My name is Ron de Wit and I work for the Twente Safety Region as Deputy Fire Brigade Commander. After studying chemical technology at the University of Twente, I worked as an industrial safety consultant. In 2000, after a brief period as a fire service volunteer, I joined the then Twente Regional Fire Brigade as a risk management officer. There, in 2002-2003, I followed the full-time/part time course to become a fire officer at the Arnhem Fire Brigade Academy, followed in 2005-2007 by a master's degree in crisis and disaster management (MCDM). Between 2010 and 2012, I was project leader for the process of converting 14 municipal fire brigades in Twente into a single organisation. After the formation of the Twente fire brigade in 2013, I became deputy commander. Since 2002, I have also worked in a number of operational fire brigade positions such as advisor for hazardous substances, (chief) officer on duty and commander on duty.

From February 2020, one of the two operational leaders for the crisis organisation COVID-19 of the Twente safety region.

The current crisis forces us to invent digital works. Without preparation time. And then it turns out that colleagues are inventive and concepts such as 'work consultations' and other forms of communication run differently from one day to the next without too much loss of quality. And it turns out that we can quickly adapt to working digitally and location-independently. In that light, the crisis fuels our resilience.

Bio:

• Health and Safety Officer for the Coordination Centre for Expertise in Working Conditions and Health (CEAG) at the Ministry of Defence, high-level safety management, occupational hygiene specialist and industrial engineering and management.
• Extensive experience in developing, implementing and evaluating health and safety policy.
• Continuously seeking out new insights to improve physical and social safety and to develop effective policy that enjoys broad support.

Crafting policy that is less dependent on systems thinking whilst retaining a sense of ownership throughout the organisation.

When it comes to maintaining operational duties within the Dutch Border Police, the main impact of the crisis has been on the dilemma of whether to follow the guidelines to prevent infection or to focus on work processes that keep people safe. This dilemma is a big part of how we manage risks. Our resilience lies in the flexibility of the organisation: we can be deployed in other locations and other areas of responsibility, and/or we can quickly make the switch within our own operations.    

Bio:

My name is Arnold Schippers and I am a team leader with the Dutch Border Police. I was brought on board primarily to put together a team for the opening of Lelystad Airport, but now, partly due to the impact of the coronavirus crisis, I am deploying the team elsewhere as part of the domain of Mobile Supervision and internal border security.

Effects of the crisis:

• Reduced motivation among staff because they are less present on the work floor. 
• Heavier workloads because meetings are scheduled more back to back [TC-VU1] than with live contact. 
• Less separation of work and private life as people can now be reached 24 hours a day due to the disappearance of the physical boundaries of the workplace. 
• As a result, more team down time.