Accenture veteran Sander van 't Noordende new CEO of Randstad

Former Accenture executive Sander van ‘t Noordende has been named the new chief executive officer of Randstad. He succeeds Jacques van den Broek, who passes the reins in March at the end of his second term in office.

Under the leadership of Jacques van den Broek, who been with the company for over three decades, Randstad grew into the largest staffing and HR services group in the world. Today, Randstad has a turnover of around €21 billion (pre-corona). At the end of the current fiscal year, the group expects to note a record turnover of more than €23.5 billion.

“It has been and still is a tremendous honour to work for this great business for 34 years. I am immensely proud to have served two terms as its chief executive. We could not have achieved anything in the past eight years without the hard work, dedication and creativity of my colleagues around the world, and I would like to thank them,” said Van den Broek.

“Randstad is a great company, with a great future, and I congratulate Sander on his appointment. I look forward to working with him on the transition to CEO next year.”

Sander van ’t Noordende

The new CEO (his appointment has yet to be approved, but that is a formality) Sander van ‘t Noordende built his career in the world of consulting. He spent three decades at Accenture, where he grew the ranks to become one of the most important executives worldwide.

After leading Accenture in the Netherlands for a few years, the industrial engineer by background was appointed as chief executive of the firm’s Resources operating group. Five years later, he took over as chief executive of Accenture’s management consulting business, after which he became the chief executive of the Products operating group (under his leadership the division doubled its fee income to $12 billion).

Van ‘t Noordende served for thirteen years on Accenture’s global management team. After he wasn’t elected global CEO of Accenture (the role went to the American Julie Sweet), Van ‘t Noordende decided the time was right to close his chapter at the global consulting and technology leader.

“Becoming CEO would have been the crowning reward, but that is now out of reach. I'm 56 now, my next chance is in six or seven years. Then I will be 63”, he said just after announcing his departure late 2019. Despite missing out on the top seat, Van ’t Noordende left with a smile. “I owe everything to this company, including friendships.”

After joining Randstad’s supervisory board last year, he has now been put forward as the company’s next chief executive officer. “I am extremely pleased to be nominated as the next CEO. I recognise the strategic direction of the company and am looking forward to working with the entire Randstad team to continue delivering outstanding service to our clients and talent while creating value for our shareholders and all our stakeholders,” he said.

He added that he is well aware that he has “some very big shoes to step into”, describing Van den Broek as “one of the best CEO’s in the industry.”

Van ’t Noordende will lead a board that further consists of among others financial director Henry Schirmer and Chris Heutink. Both have per March next year been re-appointed for another four-year term.

Meanwhile, Van ’t Noordende is a strong advocate of diversity & inclusion in business. He has been committed to the topic for over two decades (he came out as gay to his coworkers in the '80s – his “best career decision ever” he once said in an interview) and is a highly regarded leader in the LGBT community.

He serves as a board member for Out & Equal (an LGBT workplace equality organisation) and has named a ‘Top 100 Leading LGBT Executive’ for several consecutive years.