Peter Paul Van De Wijs

Foreign Trade Association has initiated this expert task force to provide guidance to its members on how to best engage with the ever growing set of stakeholders which influences their license to operate. In this honorary, uncompensated role I provide communication and stakeholder engagement expertise and experience.

The Dow Chemical Company is the third largest chemical company in the world by revenue (#48 in Fortune 500), based in the Netherlands, United States and Switzerland. Key achievements include:

• During the merger between Dow and Union Carbide, I implemented an internal and external communication plan for the global purchasing function resulting in retention of 95% of the business critical employees, no supply disruptions from dissatisfied suppliers and a 80% satisfaction score of all affected employees.
• Designed and implemented an innovative, stakeholder focused public reporting approach which was instrumental in Dow being named sector lead in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
• As a major user of water as well as a major producer of water treatment technology it was paramount that the company wide messages as well as behaviour were aligned. Chairing the Corporate Water Strategy Team I lead the internal coordination and, through a targeted communication outreach and representing Dow in external fora, helped build Dow’s reputation as responsible leader on water.
• Chemical companies with a history of over 100 years are regularly attacked in the media and by plaintiffs about the alleged impact of their products or operations. Leading the Global Issues Management Expertise Centre, I developed a process for managing these issues and acted as a spokes person on several of them. This pro-active, transparent and collaborative approach protected Dow’s reputation but also minimised the long-term negative impact on its ability to do business.

Key achievements include:

• Developed a companywide approach for identifying, assessing and managing reputational issues for McDonalds. Traditionally societal concerns related to their products, operations and behaviour were treated as PR problems. This approach ignores that changing expectations of their stakeholders also means fundamental changes to its operations and products are needed I identified and analysed the initial list of issues, designed a process to manage the business and reputational impact and trained the internal team. Based on the successful pilot, the executive team appointed an global issue management coordinator to implement the process.
• Having reached its initial milestones, Skanska wanted to determine the possible next steps in its sustainability journey. I developed three possible scenarios, including external risk/reward analysis, which were used by the executive team to agree their own ambitions and decide on their future sustainability strategy. The selected scenario has been translated into concrete plans. 
• In response to global pressure on fossil fuels, dropping oil prices and skyrocketing demand in the Kingdom, the management of Saudi Aramco asked Weber Shandwick London and VDWP to develop an internal leadership awareness program for their annual global leadership meeting. When Saudi Aramco decided to move into the downstream Plastics market, it realised it did not understand the societal pressures on their customers and how those translate into technical product requirements. I helped their PA team identify the top 15 issues and design a process to manage them.

Independent consultant. Key achievements include:

• For an international sustainability consultancy guided the development of their multi-year strategy. 
• Social Media Strategy for a contract manufacturing company.
• Communication strategy for Oceans Program global, US based NGO.

Also open for in-house opportunity to use my expertise at:

• A consultancy that works strategically at the highest levels of major corporations on sustainability issues and corporate purpose challenges, or 
• An ambitious, leading profit or not-for-profit organisation with clear social and environmental goals, or 
• A start up company with great sustainable solutions that lacks the skill to engage and communicate with the wide range of stakeholders they need to involve to compete.