This month, to congratulate INNOPAY’s Bauke Rietveld on five years with the company, we asked him to tell us more about himself and his work.
Bauke Rietveld joined INNOPAY in April 2019 as a consultant. After studying applied physics in Delft, he started his career at UL Identity Management and Security as a technical consultant in 2013. This was his first exposure to the world of transactions, mostly in relation to transit ticketing, banking and identity documents. At INNOPAY, he worked on the Data Sharing Coalition project for around two years, during which he learned a lot about data sharing and scheme development. Some of the results from that project still form the basis for his work today as a senior consultant. For example, he is closely involved in the co-creation of the data-sharing scheme (afsprakenstelsel) for the Dutch architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sector, which is now nearing the final stages of completion for v1.0. Bauke lives in The Hague, which is a 35-minute train ride from the INNOPAY offices. Now that hybrid working and online meetings have become increasingly commonplace, he commutes to the office for one or two days a week on average, and spends the other days working on client premises or from home.
During my studies I realised that I wanted to work on shorter-term projects in a team environment, rather than pursuing a career in research or academia. In my previous job, I found it fascinating to learn more about how transactions work, and I particularly enjoyed working on a topic that is so relevant in everyone’s daily lives. However, I was keen to move away from the technical aspects of digital transactions. Instead, I wanted to become more closely involved in strategic decision-making around projects and have a greater impact. So INNOPAY was a perfect fit.
I enjoy working together with my colleagues and our customers on diverse and complex projects to solve client challenges. Each project is interesting in its own way, with a strong relevance to society. I also value the strong sense of teamwork here. Working alongside talented colleagues to deliver on projects while having a good time is important to me. Everyone at INNOPAY embodies the ‘work hard, play hard’ mentality!
The state of awareness regarding data sovereignty and digital sustainability varies across industries and regions. While some organisations are becoming more aware, many still lag behind because they do not yet regard it as an urgent problem. I expect this to change over time as the realisation of the importance of digital sustainability spreads throughout all industries, supported by legislation. As people’s views of digital sustainability mature, society will be able to take bigger steps and make even more progress in the ongoing digital transformation.