On board with Sef van den Nieuwelaar

You know the old saying ‘Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans’. That pretty much sums up the life of Sef van den Nieuwelaar. Limburg born and Brabant bred, Sef studied Chemical Engineering at the TU of Eindhoven but started his professional life working in the printing industry! Looking for a career break he saw an ad in the paper calling for a ‘young person who wanted to work in Adelaide for 3 years’. This was in 1990.That same year when the first opportunity arose to explore this wonderful new country he moved to, he met Kenzie, his travel agent. Love blossomed and after spending a year back in the Netherlands together, they decided to return to Adelaide. They got married and had two kids, now great young adults, Callum and Skye.

Professionally Sef moved into operational management and managed an ERP implementation project which ultimately landed him a job as a software consultant with JD Edwards. Again serendipity intervened and with the local JDE office closing Sef decided to ‘go at it alone’ in consultancy, something he has been doing successfully over the last 22 years working for companies such as Coopers, Yalumba, National Pharmacies and Jurlique.

15 years passed and it was time to work on a second set of skills. Sef enrolled in the Company Director’s course of the AICD and in 2016 became Board Director of Dutch aged care organisation Rembrandt Living. This coincided with his first visit to the DutchSA borrel and he has been a regular borrel visitor ever since.

Sef also expanded his Directorship portfolio over the last 5 years. He is now Chair of Rembrandt Living and board member of St John Ambulance SA, of the Leaders Institute of South Australia and of philanthropic organisation Impact100.

When Sef is not in front of his PC or in the boardroom you can probably find him either enjoying a glass of red or hiking/rogaining in some inhospitable spot in SA.

Always up for a chat or a coffee (or something stronger) Sef can be contacted on 0412 876439, on sef@esc.net.au and on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sef-van-den-nieuwelaar-a86b57a/
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