Suzanne Nederlof
Public & Social domain nlmtd
Suzanne Nederlof is the lead of the Public and Social Domain team at nlmtd. With extensive experience in societal transitions and a background in public administration, she knows how to connect strategy and execution effectively. Based in Rotterdam, she is committed to creating sustainable impact within public organizations.
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At nlmtd, it is all about accelerating transitions and moving faster toward sustainable impact. For Suzanne Nederlof, that means accelerating in places where knowledge and expertise come together, but where the human dimension is sometimes under pressure.
For almost 15 years, Suzanne has been an independent entrepreneur, with the last seven years connected to nlmtd. For her, this is the place where she can use her experience, vision, and energy to contribute to the complex challenges facing the Netherlands.
“At nlmtd I can work in the way I always have: independently and entrepreneurially, but now with a team around me that inspires, builds together, and strives to create direct impact where it really matters. That was something I missed when working on my own. At nlmtd I am surrounded by a diverse group of people, from young starters to colleagues with 20 to 30 years of experience. I learn and grow from both. There is also space to connect socially, which for me is the perfect combination.”
With a Rotterdam down-to-earth mindset and a wealth of experience in the public sector, Suzanne has worked on national campaigns, policy issues, and transformations within municipalities. Her work can best be described as bringing structure to complex challenges while maintaining a focus on people. At the same time, she focuses on achieving results in both the short and the long term, even under often turbulent circumstances.
Custom Solutions in the Vaccination Campaign at the GGD
When the COVID crisis had the Netherlands in its grip, Suzanne was asked to contribute to the national vaccination campaign of GGD GHOR Nederland. As part of the “vaccination” pillar, the question posed to the team was straightforward yet daunting: how can we ensure the entire Dutch population gets vaccinated?
The real challenge was not with the general population but with the 60 to 70 identified groups for whom the standard approach did not work and who required a tailored solution. These included older people with limited mobility, individuals who were not digitally skilled, as well as asylum seekers, people in homeless shelters, and others.
We developed a solid approach that made customization possible while also being repeatable; we did not want to reinvent the wheel each time. By setting up a structured process, we were able to involve all the surrounding parties that were directly or indirectly engaged, such as general practitioners, the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA), and the Salvation Army. In the two years I was there, the pace of work was extremely high. At times it was intense and demanding, but I also gained the equivalent of six to seven years of work experience.
Learning from the Crisis with the RIVM
After the pandemic, Suzanne worked with the RIVM to secure the lessons learned during the crisis. How do you make sure that knowledge does not disappear but remains accessible and forms the foundation for future crisis situations? And how can we scale up more effectively and efficiently in the event of a new pandemic?
A new institute (LFI) was established for this purpose, which now needs to find its place within the existing landscape of infectious disease control. At the administrative level, this requires clear agreements and mutual understanding of circumstances – conversations that are better held now, in a “quiet” phase, rather than at a moment of high tension. Guiding such a process fits perfectly with Suzanne’s experience in stakeholder management in complex environments.
Keeping Sight of People in Groningen
In Groningen, Suzanne supported the Institute for Mining Damage Groningen (IMG) in developing a service strategy. This is an environment where emotions can run high and where precise, reliable, and empathetic service is crucial.
In addition to creating a clear strategy, which her colleagues at nlmtd translated into products that incorporate the citizens’ perspective, such as service blueprints and archetypes, one of the assignments was to organize all schemes and subsidies through a single service desk, so that citizens would no longer be sent from one organization to another.
“More human, kinder, easier” was the mandate from the parliamentary inquiry, and this work contributed directly to achieving that goal.
Getting Everyone on the Same Page in Deventer
At the municipality of Deventer, Suzanne was tasked with helping to create an integrated service desk for citizens, replacing the existing fragmentation of seven separate desks.
“These desks are often interconnected. For example, when a child is in youth care, there may also be issues related to compulsory education or financial matters. It is rarely just one desk that needs to be approached, so they rightly thought: this can be made easier.”
What Suzanne encountered was a clear objective, but a lack of shared ambition and a concrete path to get there. By supporting the design process through workshops and translating it into quarterly goals, an annual plan, and the management team’s agenda, a sense of calm and direction was created. Within three months, a solid organization was in place that everyone could rely on. “It was great to see how much could be achieved in such a short time.”
New Focus: The Public and Social Domain Team at nlmtd
The common thread in all these projects? Tackling societal challenges that revolve around people, while also requiring organizational structure to truly move forward. With that conviction, Suzanne and Jan Wieringa launched the Public and Social Domain team at nlmtd. A team dedicated to precisely that intersection: human-centered public services and smart organizational design.
“This is a sector I find very interesting, because you are really working for the people. However, what I notice in this domain is that it is often dominated by specialist organizations: individuals possess in-depth expertise on a specific topic or theme. We, on the other hand, are more generalists with knowledge of organizational design. We bring structure, pace, collaboration, and long-term processes, all while maintaining a focus on the human side. If you want to make an impact and continue to achieve strong results in this sector, you need to bring those worlds together. That is exactly what we do.”
With this new team, nlmtd is opening its doors wide to public partners who want to move forward. Not with yet another report, but with real change. Because making an impact – that is what drives us.
