Inside Vanderlande: leading transformation at scale

On April 9th, 2026, participants of the Impact MBA 2024 cohort visited Vanderlande in the Netherlands, a global leader in logistics automation and part of Toyota Automated Logistics Group, for an in-depth exploration of leadership, transformation, and innovation in practice.

The visit was initiated and facilitated by Frank Velthuis, Service Transformation Leader at Vanderlande and a member of the IMBA 2024 cohort. By bringing together senior leadership and participants, he created a valuable opportunity to connect strategic thinking with day-to-day execution in a complex, global organization.

Leadership in action: navigating critical choices

At the heart of the visit were open and engaging conversations with senior leaders, including Stephan Heessels, Chief Commercial Officer and Deputy CEO, and Véronique Stals, Chief Human Resources Officer and Board Member.

Reflecting on his own leadership journey, Stephan Heessels emphasized that creating impact matters more than job titles. He highlighted the importance of teamwork over individual performance, noting that effective leadership means standing “shoulder to shoulder” with teams, especially when delivering under pressure. Trust, focus, and consistency in leadership emerged as key themes throughout the discussion.

Véronique Stals offered a complementary perspective, focusing on the human side of transformation. She underlined the importance of identifying and empowering “translators of change”, individuals who can bridge strategy and daily operations. Leading through ambiguity, she explained, requires transparent and continuous communication, even when not all answers are yet known. From a boardroom perspective, she also challenged traditional views on diversity, encouraging a shift towards how leadership teams and Human Resources can truly enable business performance.

Innovation brought to life

Beyond the executive dialogue, IMBA participants experienced Vanderlande’s innovation capabilities first-hand during an exclusive tour of the R&D warehouse and Innovation Centre. Here, advanced automation, digitalization, and service-driven solutions came to life in a high-performance logistics environment. Seeing these technologies in action provided a tangible connection between strategic decisions and operational execution, bringing the earlier leadership discussions into a real-world context.

A learning experience beyond the classroom

The company visit to Vanderlande offered the IMBA 2024 cohort a valuable opportunity to explore how leadership, culture, and technology intersect, especially in times of large-scale transformation. By combining executive insights with hands-on exposure to innovation, the experience demonstrated what it takes to lead change while staying focused on delivering customer value.