Royal HaskoningDHV recruits David Conneely as new Director

Royal HaskoningDHV has appoints David Conneely as its new Director Project Excellence. Conneely joins the firm from environmental professional services firm SNC-Lavalin, where he held a number of project leadership roles.

In 2017, Royal HaskoningDHV launched its new strategy with a clear focus on data and digital. The company has since made a succession of steps to transform its organisation, introduce a new digital way of working, and co-create with clients and strategic partners (like data intelligence lab HAL24K) to deliver a new generation of tech solutions. This included the 2018 acquisition of data science company Ynformed, and has continued into 2019 with the addition of UK-based consultancy Lanner, as well as the purchase earlier this year of Ambiental to accelerate its growth of flood-related digital services.

This approach has reportedly yielded some strong results for Royal HaskoningDHV. In terms of the firm’s global financial performance, the company’s operating income rose by €6.2 million to sit at €614.8 million in 2018. Elsewhere, the UK wing of the firm saw its performance boosted by Royal HaskoningDHV’s continued involvement in the development of offshore wind farms on the Dogger Bank.

Now, as the firm looks to boost its growth in Britain looking forward, it has appointed a new Director of Project Excellence. Arriving from SNC-Lavalin, David Conneely will set and embed new standards in project management to continuously improve efficient service delivery to clients.

Conneely’s previous role saw him work as Project Director, Director of Projects and lastly General Manager at the UK wing of SNC-Lavalin. Prior to that, he held roles as Senior EPC Project Manager at Gatwick Airport and Jacobs, and International Project Manager at Shell and Agip KCO. He succeeds Sjacco de Vos, who decided to fully return to the business as a Senior Project Manager.

Commenting on the news, Royal HaskoningDHV CEO Erik Oostwegel said, "We always aim to deliver projects effectively, efficiently and to exceed customers’ expectations. With David’s extensive skills and broad experience in project management we are confident that he will help to drive excellence in project execution supporting our strategic growth ambitions.”

David Conneely added, “Excellent projects display top performance in the management of the implementation. That’s a key principle for me, based on my more than 30 years’ experience in project management. Projects that excel are professional, innovative and well thought-out in how they apply the principles and methods of project management. Excellent results will then follow from the approach.”