15 years at Sia: Jeroen de Laat on building a leading energy practice and driving impact

Jeroen de Laat, partner at Sia in the Netherlands, is this month celebrating his 15th anniversary at the management consulting firm. We sat down with the energy-focused leader to reflect on his career milestone and discuss his work and the firm’s impact in the energy landscape.

Congrats on your 15-year anniversary at Sia. How do you look back on your journey at the firm?

It’s been a remarkable ride. When I joined, Sia was still a French-rooted consultancy with around 300 people and in its earliest days of international expansion. Today we’re 3,000 consultants worldwide.

I’ve always felt we were building a next-generation consultancy, not just running one. Having the backing of a global group while operating with the entrepreneurial freedom to shape local markets – that is what made these fifteen years fly by.

During this period, Sia’s Dutch business has grown from a start-up to leading player. From your perspective, what have been the key milestones in the firm’s growth?

Until recently, our growth in the Netherlands was fully organic, and we grew at a strong, steady pace.

Two milestones really stand out. First is the creation of the Benelux Hub, which brought together the Dutch and Belgian businesses under one governance. This gave us a bigger, more diverse team and allowed us to serve clients with much greater depth.

Second is our push into data and artificial intelligence (A). Combining deep industry expertise with real AI capability has become our signature, and client demand for exactly that combination has never been higher.

The Dutch business recently received a major boost through the addition of Precedence. How has this deal strengthened the firm?

The Precedence acquisition last year was a genuine gamechanger. It brought new muscle in operational excellence and customer experience, and opened up sectors like telecom and life sciences for the Benelux Hub. Following the deal, our Dutch team grew to around 100 consultants.

For our existing client base, the joining of forces added process optimisation and AI readiness to a portfolio that was already unique. It’s the kind of move that doesn’t just add revenue – it multiplies what we can do for every client we work with.

You lead the Energy & Industry practice. What are the key areas the firm supports its clients in?

Our Energy & Industry practice supports players in the industry with a wide range of services from strategy through to execution. Three themes define our practice right now.

A significant part of the team focuses on congestion management and flexibility, two issues that have become increasingly important in the Netherlands as pressure on the electricity grid continues to grow. It is no longer just traditional utilities approaching us; asset owners across critical infrastructure are also seeking our expertise because these challenges have become universal as electrification accelerates.

We also work at the intersection of Sales, Trading and Finance, helping clients improve customer segmentation, demand forecasting and pricing. This is an area undergoing rapid AI-driven transformation, with organisations looking to use advanced analytics and automation to make faster, more informed commercial decisions.

And third, renewable gases, including biomethane and hydrogen, are firmly back on the agenda as organisations seek ways to decarbonise sectors that are difficult to electrify. We are seeing strong momentum across the Benelux Hub in these areas, driven by growing investment and the energy transition ambitions of the Dutch government.

Can you share some examples of projects you’ve led or worked on?

For energy suppliers, we have transformed retail businesses into future-ready portfolio management operations by redesigning business processes and implementing AI-driven clustering and forecasting tools that improve planning and decision-making.

We also work closely with distribution system operators (DSOs), helping them establish entirely new departments dedicated to flexibility services. This includes developing and implementing new products across the full value chain and ensuring those propositions deliver measurable business and operational results.

At the end-customer level, our focus is on helping organisations gain deeper insight into their energy consumption and identifying smarter ways to source, manage and optimise their energy supply and storage.

How does Sia differentiate itself from others in the crowded energy and industrial consulting segment?

We are energy experts with delivery power — in that order. Our sector expertise combined with our AI capabilities means we don’t just advise; we lead our clients’ projects and deliver recognized value.

In a crowded market, that combination of knowing the industry inside-out and actually building the solutions is what sets us apart.

You also have a global role at the firm, leading the Energy Trading & Portfolio Management offering worldwide. What do you enjoy most about this role?

One of the key advantages of working at Sia is that you run a local market, but from day one you’re part of an international group. That has given me the opportunity to collaborate with some of the smartest people in the industry across the globe, and it gives our clients the benefit of that collective knowledge and network.

The depth of Sia’s global energy platform is a genuine competitive advantage that few firms of our size can offer.

Finally, 15 years in one place is uncommon in consulting. What makes Sia such an attractive company to work for?

We’re still building and still growing – not just in the Netherlands, but across the wider firm. With the backing of Blackstone, Sia is pursuing further expansion in high-growth areas, including the energy sector. Here in the Benelux, we’re also working towards an ambitious growth plan. So fifteen years in, it still feels entrepreneurial, with plenty of opportunities to shape what comes next.

The nature of the sector and my role is something I really enjoy. Consulting is inherently dynamic, so I’m constantly working across different clients and topics while also helping to build our local team and strengthen our capabilities.

Above all, though, consulting is a people business. Working with talented, driven colleagues who are passionate about creating something together is what makes the job rewarding every single day.