Walter Thoen – Executive Director International Operations

Walter studied computer science at the Erasmus University Rotterdam and ever since his graduation project he has been interested in using IT for international trade facilitation.

As a researcher he published various papers on the relationship between trust and control mechanisms, contract modeling using formal logic and automated negotiation between autonomous agents.

After some time in the academic world he got involved hands-on and I worked over 10 years in Germany, France, Nigeria and the Netherlands as procurement project manager and project expeditor for large onshore and offshore projects in the Oil & Gas industry.

I negotiated multi-million US$ contracts, ensured the on time and on budget delivery and handled claims, performance guarantees and warranty issues. I enjoyed traveling the world to visit clients and manufacturers.

Achievements:

• Project Expeditor
  Bluewater Energy Services
  January 2015 – Present (1 year 10 months) Hoofddorp
  Project Expeditor for Turret Mooring System scope of Total E&P Angola Kaombo FPSO project.
• Co-Owner
  Wingu Solutions
  March 2011 – Present (5 years 8 months) Nairobi, Mombasa, Port Harcourt, Lagos
  Wingu Solutions is a IT service provider operating in Nigeria and Kenya. Wingu Solutions consists of three main divisions: Creative Studio, Internet of Things, DevLab and Workshops.
• Owner
  Golden Bend B.V.
  May 1997 – Present (19 years 6 months)
  Managing Director UTT group B.V.
  April 2012 – December 2014 (2 years 9 months) Zuidland
• Operational Director
  UTT Procurement Nigeria Limited
  January 2011 – December 2014 (4 years) Port Harcourt
  UTT Procurement Nigeria Limited is a procurement services provider based in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. UTT provides world class procurement services to the Nigerian Oil & Gas industry. UTT has supplied materials to all major oil companies and contractors.
• Project Expediting & Inspection Coordinator
  Saipem Ponticelli Desicon
  April 2009 – December 2010 (1 year 9 months) St. Quentin en Yvelines (Paris), France
  I managed a team of project expeditors and project inspection coordinator for the OML58 Upgrade project of Total E&P Nigeria.
• Project Procurement Manager
  Afam Procurement Joint Venture
  January 2006 – December 2007 (2 years) Hamburg Area, Germany
  Managed a team of buyers, expeditors and document controllers. The team was responsible for procuring all materials on behalf of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (Total materials spend $165 million; Total project budget $850 million).I coordinated with Engineering Team and Client Team. I organized Bid Opening Events with Client and Government Representatives. I developed a special tracking web application for this project.
• Project Procurement Manager
  UTT logistics Nigeria B.V.
  January 2005 – December 2005 (1 year) Zuidland, the Netherlands
  I managed a team of buyers, expeditors, shippers, cost controllers and document controllers for the fast- tracked Afam Gas Receiving Facilities project (Shell Nigeria).We procured all materials and we contracted various fabricators in Europe to assemble all modules. The modules where then the disassembled and flown to Port Harcourt in 5 Antonovs that we chartered.
• IT Director
  PLD Group B.V.
  June 2000 – December 2004 (4 years 7 months) Zuidland, the Netherlands
  As IT director of PLD group I managed to introduction of Oracle E-Business Suite in the Netherlands, the UK and Germany.I implemented the integration between Oracle and Trade-Ranger (oil & gas industry marketplace). I designed and outsourced the development of an E-Procurement & Reverse Action system. The software was developed in Smolensk, Russia.
• Researcher
  Erasmus Research Institute for Decision and Information Systems (EURIDIS)
  June 1997 – June 2000 (3 years 1 month)Rotterdam Area, Netherlands
  I worked as researcher at EURIDIS. We developed Deontic Deep Structure models for electronic commerce. We also worked on models of trust for intelligent agents.We participated in the EU funded MEMO project. For this project I worked 1 day a week at ABN Amro bank in Amsterdam.