Elias van Herwaarden
Deloitte
EMEA Service Leader Global Location Strategies
Elias van Herwaarden heads up Deloitte’s Global Location Strategies, the firm’s EMEA Centre of Excellence for corporate site selection and Foreign Direct Investment services.. As a Vice- Consul for the Dutch Government between 1998 and 2000, he was responsible for the US Midwest operations of the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency – an experience through which he obtained detailed insight into how governments can attract foreign businesses, including Shared Services Centers (SSCs).
Elias has 24 years experience in location consulting and assisted over 490 clients with international site selection and corporate restructuring. In the last 9 years, he assessed off/near-shore operating and cost conditions for over 90 SSCs and more recently GBS, conducting fieldwork in 42 countries around the globe.
Elias first came to Poland in 1984 as part of an exchange program. He has visited and analyzed Polish cities professionally since 1990. In 1995, he assisted the European Commission Directorate General for Industry in negotiating the European Community market access terms Poland-based automotive companies. As of the mid-2000s, he and his team have been involved in the location decisions or expansions of 10 SSCs in Poland.
Elias has spoken and led seminars on topics pertaining to manufacturing, high-tech and customer service locations, global location strategy, outsourcing, offshoring, Central Europe, Russia, Asia, future trends and Foreign Direct Investment Promotion.
For the last 10 years, he has been part of Deloitte’s Shared Services Leadership team.
He lectures on International Business Strategy, Offshoring and Outsourcing at KU Leuven University and Brussels University College.
