Ilya Wit-Hoornweg, director of Business Operations and Information
“The best thing about my work are the people.” The Authority for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection (ANVS) has undergone a restructuring in the past few years. It now has 3 departments. It is our pleasure to introduce Ilya Wit-Hoornweg to you, who became the director of the Business Operations and Information department at the start of the year; she is also CIO of the ANVS. Under her leadership, there are 3 teams dedicated to matters like Personnel, Information Technology Services and Procurement, Organisation and Support, Finance and Facilities, Automation and Buildings and Premises. “People who work for the ANVS are enthusiastic, involved and motivated. And it is thanks to their drive that we get things done!”
The services provided by the ANVS
The Business Operations and Information department (DBI) advises and supports the management team and the processes that the ANVS requires to be able to carry out its core tasks. Frameworks, guidelines and statutory requirements are translated by DBI into the services provided by the ANVS, with the role of the department being to assess results, to advise, and to provide guidance and direction. Wit-Hoornweg says: “Almost every aspect necessary for an organisation to run successfully are featured in the work of our department. In large organisations or core departments, it is often the case that the various aspects are dealt with by separate teams, divisions or units. The advantage of organizing all these aspects in one single department is greater cohesion and coordination, with the lines of communication being kept short. And because these tasks all come under the purview of DBI, we as a department experience hardly any excessive or unnecessary communications, if at all. The various tasks are closely interrelated, so those short lines of communication are a great help.”
Sharing international knowledge
Many ANVS employees take part in international working parties and IAEA missions, and attend working visits abroad. This gives us the opportunity to share our knowledge and experience, while at the same time we can acquire fresh insights that help us in our work. DBI is also operating increasingly at an international level for the purpose of knowledge sharing. “When it comes to diversity and inclusion, we are making good progress, both nationally and internationally. Our Chair of the Board Annemiek is also the co-chair of the Nuclear Gender Impact Group, the aim of which is to improve gender equality in the nuclear sector. We have launched a working party in the Western European Nuclear Regulators Association (WENRA) in order to exchange knowledge and to collaborate more closely in the areas of recruitment and selection and knowledge management – the whole employee journey. This is both valuable and inspirational. In the area of security, cyber security and information-driven work – working on the basis of information from data and processes – we are similarly actively seeking to collaborate with other national nuclear regulators.”
Improving together
Wit-Hoornweg has been working for the ANVS since August 2021. “The ANVS has proved to be the ideal arena for bringing together my educational qualifications and previous work experience. I was previously a team leader in Financial Services and Accounting at the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (and later at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy) and the deputy head of Planning and Control at the latter ministry. I joined the ANVS as the head of Business Operations and as CIO. On 1 February 2023, I became the director of Business Operations and Information, in addition to my position as CIO – Chief Information Officer.”
Wit-Hoornweg emphasizes that although she heads DBI, it is the joint efforts of all her colleagues that ensures the department’s work is carried out successfully: “All the work we do is for and with our colleagues. I step into the foreground when necessary, but we perform our work together. That applies in both my department and when working with colleagues from other departments, but with each person having their own role to fulfil. I always aim to achieve the best match between people and their tasks. Every person has their own talents, and giving them the opportunity to deploy those talents to maximum effect is the ultimate challenge. It makes our work more enjoyable and better.
Our colleagues, meanwhile, make our work engaging and special. They are very highly motivated and driven, both in relation to their own work and to the activities of the ANVS as a whole. This is a young organisation that is still evolving, in a national and international environment that is itself developing. That produces a certain energy and dynamic, which I find inspiring. Continuous improvement – in terms of our work, our organisation and the way in which we organize our work. We are keen to improve and are taking active steps to bring it about.”
Introducing our directors
This is the second part in the series introducing our directors. We have previously introduced Bernd Keller, the director of our Competent Authority department.