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June 30, 2021

Zoetermeer, The Netherlands –Since our foundation in 1981, we are driven by our intrinsic motivation to use our passion for mathematics to contribute to a better world. This year, while celebrating 40 years of positive impact on the world, we are raising our own climate ambitions. Through an internal activation campaign and in collaboration with Trees for All, we are compensating our CO2 emissions. ORTEC employees around the globe have happily supported the reforestation initiative by participating in the internal campaign. As a result, we can compensate nearly 3,500 tonnes of CO2, which is roughly comparable to the CO2 absorption of 20,000 trees. This allows us to achieve net-zero emissions for 2020 and 2021.

“Setting the agenda together is the best way to ensure broad-based support”

When Ingrid de Swart joined a.s.r. in December 2019, the main mission she was tasked with was to get more out of the sum of parts. “Organizing ourselves even stronger, based on customers’ needs and wishes. Because today’s customers don’t only need products, but services too. To improve our services, we plan to use data, focus on digitization and make a.s.r an even more recognizable brand by giving it for example a clear digital front door. So, my focus needed to be on customers, data, digitization and innovation, while maintaining all the good things we already had.”

Interview with Ingrid de Swart, member board of directors a.s.r.

At ORTEC, our mission is to “improve the world with our passion for mathematics.” Therefore, we continuously focus on how we can help our customers become more sustainable. A good example of how ORTEC’s data-driven approach can help is by accelerating the integration of electric vehicles in your daily operations. This article discusses the application of such vehicles in the aviation market. It shares insights from our ongoing research into zero-emission airport operations. In particular, we will discuss how scheduling algorithms can be used to plan the operation of electric push-back trucks more effectively.

Airport Intelligence, Brussels Airport’s consulting subsidiary, and ORTEC, the market leader in data-driven decision support, start a strategic partnership. The collaboration aims to optimize airport processes around the world, to improve the overall passenger experience and the operational efficiency.

“Loyalty goes two ways: loyalty towards our employees, and loyalty towards our customers. We never give up on our customers”

April 1, 2021 - “I remember using an Apple II in the 1980s” says Gerrit Timmer, co-founder and now Chief Science Officer (CSO) at ORTEC. “But not for big projects – for those we needed bulky mainframes that cost millions. It was for small calculations, and for writing text. Typewriters were not quite that handy!” No digital mobile networks, no proper laptops and, instead, huge stacks of paper: this not-so-distant past seems unimaginable. But Gerrit and four other math wizards had an appetite for challenges and innovation – so 40 years ago, our founders embarked on the adventure of a lifetime. Countless great projects later, ORTEC has much to be proud of: together with our customers, we have made an impact that goes beyond mere business.

An interview with Gerrit Timmer, co-founder and Chief Science Officer (CSO) at ORTEC

"AI empowers patients, thanks to the democratization of data"

Folkert Asselbergs is a cardiologist at UMC Utrecht and is involved in several data collection and data analysis projects in the field of personalized medicine. In the near future, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will play a much bigger role in healthcare, including in hospitals. Asselbergs says: “At the moment, AI still plays a supporting role, but I think that ten years from now, AI will be in the lead and doctors will primarily support.”

Interview with Prof. Dr. Folkert Asselbergs, cardiologist and Professor Precision Medicine in Cardiovascular Disease at UMC Utrecht and University College London

“We jumped ten years into the future in one fell swoop. The change was not gradual: it was instant and disruptive”

TNO, the company for which Ellen Lastdrager serves as Managing Director of Traffic & Transport, has a variety of roles. TNO identifies new technological developments in the field of mobility for authorities and organizations. It furthermore supports organizations in developing products and services by making innovative technologies and methods available to them. According to Lastdrager, boards eager to introduce innovative ways of working now have the wind in their sails: “I’ve noticed that people have become a lot less fearful of digital technologies. It speeds up the rate at which new technologies are launched and adopted. I cannot see fully autonomous vehicles happening just yet, but these technologies certainly develop at a faster pace. As society’s adaptivity increases, organizations will have to speed up their innovation efforts too.”

Interview with Ellen Lastdrager, Managing Director Traffic and Transport at TNO

“Resilience is agility’s twin brother. One cannot exist without the other!"

We are right in the middle of a digital revolution, says Roel van Rijsewijk, director of Cyber Defence at Thales. The question, however, is what the digital future will look like. “The digital transformation is changing the world for good: everything is in a state of flux and nobody quite knows where we will find ourselves when the dust settles.

Interview with Roel van Rijsewijk, Director of Cyber Defence at Thales

"I am not under the illusion that there will come a time at which we can sit back and say: Right, there we are. Transformation done.”

Univé wanted to digitize whilst staying true to the organization’s DNA, tasking Ellen Peper to do just that when she was given a seat on the board as Chief Transformation Officer (CTO) in 2017. Since then, Peper has kickstarted a comprehensive transformation that will ultimately make Univé more attractive to its members. “We are harnessing the power of Univé, the power of cooperation.” Together with Frank Dijkstra, IT Director, she relates the story of how Univé is becoming a data-driven organization. “A transformation like this one touches on all layers of the organization: you have to convince everyone that a change is necessary.” One of Univé’s objectives is to develop an insurance brand with new services, most of which are linked to Univé’s insurance products. We want to move to an omni-channel service model, offering services digitally and in our physical stores, “in order to express our core values of ‘togetherness’, ‘closeness’, and ‘action’.”

Interview with Ellen Peper, Board Member and CTO of Coöperatie Univé, and Frank Dijkstra, IT Director

January 2021

Algorithms are more widely used than ever before and affect people and organizations alike on an even greater scale. Apart from algorithms being a useful way to optimize all sorts of operations, there is also a potential downside: they can potentially discriminate against certain people. The profiles used for fraud detection could for instance be questionable. Algorithms can also potentially influence hiring processes, mortgage applications and online targeting, and in all these processes, it is vital that people are treated fairly. The good news is that, although it is step by step, we can make algorithms fairer.

This article on Explainable & Fair AI is the third part of our series on Data and AI in the Boardroom and is powered by Rogier Emmen, Lead Consultant Data Science.