Ruan van Vuuren joins Oliver Wight EAME partner team
Ruan van Vuuren has joined Oliver Wight as a partner in its EAME team. Based in Stratford-upon-Avon, he will work to combine the firm’s processes and behavioural foundations with modern digital capabilities – helping clients to achieve lasting business change.
Founded in 1969, Oliver Wight is a consulting firm, specialising in business improvement services. With over 50 years of experience and a proven sustainable approach, the firm looks to help organisations realise business transformations, by embedding planning, cultures and decision-making skills that can help make businesses successful.
Bringing two decades of consulting experience to the firm, Ruan van Vuuren has joined Oliver Wight’s EAME division. Arriving as a partner, his key areas of focus will include planning excellence, behavioural and leadership excellence, process transformation, and value realisation services, among others.
Speaking on his new role, Van Vuuren commented, “I officially joined as a partner in August 2025 - though in reality I’ve been working alongside Oliver Wight for more than a decade on joint diagnostics, IBP designs, and improvement programmes. It feels more like the continuation of a long-standing partnership than a brand-new start.”
New chapter
Having spent 20 years leading planning and supply chain transformations across industries, Van Vuuren had previously helped to build and scale IBP practices for consulting firms. This included serving as global head of digital supply chain and go to market at Olivehorse, and most recently working as executive client partner at Aera Technology. Along the way, he has also partnered with organisations like Diageo, Mars, Volvo, Sony Interactive Entertainment, BMW; with a focus on turning complexity into measurable business outcomes.
Explaining what attracted him to become a full member of the team, he added, “Oliver Wight has always set the benchmark for excellence in planning and leadership behaviours. For me, joining as a partner was the perfect opportunity to marry that heritage with my own experience in digital transformation and decision intelligence. It allows me to combine the best of both worlds: proven behavioural excellence and the potential of new digital capabilities.’
Looking ahead, Van Vuuren noted that his role will be about “helping clients unlock the next level of performance”. From strengthening their planning processes, coaching leadership teams on behaviours, or ensuring their technology stack actually supports good decision-making, it will all be “grounded in Oliver Wight’s Class A principles”.
He concluded, “Practically, that means a mix of boardroom strategy sessions, cross-functional planning workshops, and time spent with teams on the shopfloor - making sure change really sticks at every level.”
