Nico van der Dussen

PO Box *****, FAERIE GLEN ***3

South Africa

Cell: +27-82-374-****

Email: ac4pds@r.postjobfree.com

** ******** ****

To Whom It May Concern

Herewith my Curriculum Vitae for your consideration for the position of Project Manager. I matriculated in 1980, obtained an B.Eng Chemical in 1985 and B.Eng (Hons) in 1987. I have a wide experience in projects, mostly in the mining industry. The width of experience includes management support starting at feasibility studies up to handing over a project to the production team.

It includes work on processing plants, road works, rail construction, underground mine construction across the various disciplines such as earth works, civil works, concrete works, structural steel works, installation of equipment, electrical, instrumentation and control systems as well as the commissioning and handover phases.

I have experience working for clients, EPCM contractors as well as contractors. My training as engineer, supported by my wide experience, enables me to work across the various disciplines and communicate with contractors in a meaningful way. My roles varied from project budgeting, conceptual planning, detailed scheduling, contract administration as well as cost and progress monitoring, control and reporting. I'm using innovative IT skills to view the data of a project from a different angle, often uncovering short comings not visible in traditional ways.

I firmly believe to work within the frameworks and methodologies of clients, but to challenge and improve the ways of doing things in a constructive and innovative manner. Often one finds that the cost and effort to produce some reports can't be justified, while other newly designed reports are of high value.

By changing the way a progress S-Curve was calculated, I was able to demonstrate very early that a contractor was cherry picking high profit work, and neglecting the low margin work. The early uncovering of this issue, empowered the client to enforce corrective action on the contractor, with the resulting savings for the project.

Walking around, and interacting with stakeholders across the project, is essential to stay informed. When I worked on behalf of a client on a major project, my regular interaction with contractor staff members, made me aware that there was a problem with the flow of drawings. Correcting this in time saved the client at least R100 000 a day on potential standing time claims. I find that younger people naturally accept me as mentor, and ask for my guidance. Seeing people grow fills me with joy!

Curriculum Vitae of Nico van der Dussen

My last contract was with South32 – completed 13 December 2017. During this contract, I assisted with the project management of 2 projects. What started as a two week assignment, became a six month stint until the end of the projects – December 2017. My role grew from planning and scheduling, to analysis of contractor’s claimed progress reporting and communicating the findings with the contractor as well as a VP Projects for South 32. My daily site visits grew to be considered fulfilling the role of a construction supervisor for the project manager. I was also asked to evaluate internal project BOQ’s and blank tender documentation by the VP Projects. The report lead to a number of detailed enquiries into the procurement environment as part of a skills development exercise.

Kind regards

Nico van der Dussen

Curriculum Vitae of Nico van der Dussen

Personal Details

Title Mr

Surname Van der Dussen

First Name Nicolaas, known as Nico

Address Bateleur Bastion 36, 969 Disselboom Avenue, Wapadrant, 0050 Contact Details Cell: 082-***-****

E-Mail ac4pds@r.postjobfree.com

Emloyer Self Employed as freelance consultant

Date of Birth 16 November 1962

Identity Number 621***-****-** 3

Marital Status Married to Muriel

Nationality South African Citizen

Languages Afrikaans: Mother tongue

English: Almost at mother tongue level

German, Dutch: Read, can follow conversations

Transport Own

Drivers License EB (08)

Social Media Twitter: @nicovddussen

LinkedIn: http://za.linkedin.com/in/nicovanderdussen Publications

Co-inventor of South African Patent 913953 “Recovery of Aluminium, potassium and magnesium values of ore bodies” lodged 24 May 1991.

Skills

Project Management I managed a few projects as contractor. This included scoping, budgeting, scheduling, change management, problem solving, handover and getting payment.

Inter Personal Skills Good. I have the ability to build bridges between various generations and cultures. I gain the trust of people and am able to uncover hidden information.

Project Schedule Creation I create project schedules. The process includes developing a WBS (if required), understanding the scope of work and working with the people involved to create a credible schedule. I prefer to focus on the final product as starting point, including the QA/QC related activities as this reduces the risks during the commissioning and handover phases.

Project Schedule Monitoring Monitoring project progress against planned. This includes working with the stakeholders to verify reality against other reporting. This also assists to keep client expectations close to reality.

MS Project Good

Curriculum Vitae of Nico van der Dussen

MS Office (Word, Excel,

PowerPoint)

Good

Computing Skills A general wide understanding of computing. Microsoft Office, MS Project

Can do basic programming, has basic SQL experience and some Linux knowledge over and above good MS Windows usage skills.

Education

Institution Qualification Year Obtained

University of Pretoria B.Eng (hons) 1987

University of Pretoria B.Eng 1985

Potchefstroom Gimnasium Matric 1980

Recent Courses

Title Institution Year

Executive Education Program Gauteng Accelerator Program, The Innovation Hub.

Presented by Emory University

July 2016

Work History

Company Experience Gained

TheKraken.info

Nov 2014 to current

I started my own company with the objectives of

providing project management consulting services

as well as to develop new innovative products.

Project Management Support Services at South 32

I was contracted to assist for a short period

reviewing and improving a contractor’s schedule for a project. During this process, my role increased to include more supporting services such as progress

monitoring and analysis/reporting on contractor

progress reports, construction supervision, gap

analysis on internal project and tender documents

and general project management support services.

The initial contract was extended to 6 months.

Developed solar dosing pump station for chemicals

Client required a dosing system for dust control

chemicals that had to operate in remote areas. This Curriculum Vitae of Nico van der Dussen

included a solar system as well as monitoring and

control. Data was synced via 3G.

New mine in Siberia: Developed a recovery

schedule for the last part of the feasibility study and the first part of the execution phase. The mine is in Siberia, the client in Canada, the principal engineers in the UK, supported by a South Africa cost

consultant. The geographical spread and

differences in cultures were challenging. I worked from my office in Pretoria.

Work study for conveyor construction: The client

had a dispute with a contractor on the duration and effort required for the assembly of conveyor

gantries. I was asked to observe the assembly

process and report on the reality.

Eagle Support Africa

March 2012 – Oct 2014

Seconded by VDDB to Eagle Support Africa

November 2010 to February 2012

Planner and Project Controls

I worked as planning consultant at clients of my

employer. I was involved with various projects,

including:

Kalagadi Manganese (November 2012 to October

2014): During this period, I maintained a control

schedule. This required around 50% presence at

the client’s head office and 50% presence on site. To be able to do this, efficient collaborative

relationships had to be built with the stakeholders at the various contractors and sub-contractors.

Because of these relationships, I could often inform the client much earlier of potential issues and risks than it would have happened along official

channels.

MDM Camrose Mine (DRC): I constructed a control

schedule for the EPCM contractor, and maintained

it. This involved obtaining information from various stakeholders, both within MDM as well as outside.

As this project was in the DRC, the logistics were a major challenge, and had to be monitored daily,

with early warnings to the project manager.

MDM Addition of Secondary Crushing for

Goldfields Tarkwa Mine in Ghana: I developed

control schedule for MDM, the EPCM contractor

and maintained progress, reporting and informing

the Project Manager on a daily basis. I visited the site regularly. The major challenges for this project was a strike, and containers misplaced during

transport by ship.

MDM Studies and Proposals: I prepared a number

of schedules that were included into feasibility

study reports and proposals for work by MDM. This

was often quite challenging as the sales teams

required the proposed projects to be completed in a shorter duration than the planning process

indicated reasonably possible.

Curriculum Vitae of Nico van der Dussen

Reason for leaving: Want to explore new

opportunities

Saamwerk.co.za

November 2009 – October 2010

Technical Manager

Saamwerk.co.za was a spin-off from VDDi focussing

on the implementation of SharePoint for the mining construction industry. This work provided for

learning opportunities at a technical level, business processes as well as user behaviour.

Reason for leaving: The secondment to Eagle

Support Africa became permanent

VDDB Quantity Surveyors/VDDi

Information Services

February 1998 – February 2002 (Part Time)

March 2002 to October 2010 (Full Time)

Cost Engineer, Contract Administration, IT

Manager, IT Systems Implementation, Web

Developer

VDDB and VDDi were sister companies. I worked as

web developer for a start-up project, and this grew into managing the Bond Exchange website.

The IT systems for these companies were grown,

and support systems for the growing companies

developed and managed.

My engineering skills were used to do a number of

project budget estimates for clients. I also did the cost control for a piping contract at Debswana

Jwaneng Mine. My skills took me to a new mine in

Kazakhstan to assist with cost management and

other issues.

Reason for leaving: The secondment to Eagle

Support Africa became permanent

CSIR

October 1987 – November 1997

Chemical Engineer

Research and development of new products;

Managing trial production runs on new processes.

Reason for leaving: Retrenched – the business unit I worked in was closed down

Atomic Energy Corporation

December 1984 – September 1987

Chemical Engineer

Process design and engineering

Reason for leaving: The CSIR offered me a better

opportunity

Other Interests

Church I serve as an elder and teach grade 8&9

children on the Bible in Sunday School.

Raspberry Pi I love to play on my Raspberry Pi, a credit card sized computer (http://www.raspberrypi.org).

It improves my programming and Linux skills,

and the exposure to the Internet of Things

environment is stimulating.

Current Affairs I read widely regarding current affairs on the internet.

References

Name Position Company Relationship Contact Details Curriculum Vitae of Nico van der Dussen

Chris le Roux Project Manager Sprout

Consulting

Ex Colleague and

friend

+27-82-819-****

Philip van

Rensburg

IT Developer Front Dev Friend +27-83-391-****

Sikelela Nzuza

Engineer in

Training

Anglogold

Ashanti

Ex Colleague and

mentee

+27-74-860-****

Testimonials

(Attached)

Name Position Company Relationship Contact Details Chris le Roux Project

Manager

Sprout Consulting Ex Colleague and

friend

+27 82 819

8771

Sikelela Nzuza

Engineer in

Training

Anglogold Ashanti Ex Colleague and

mentee

+27 74 860

2091

Keith Bright Senior Study

Manager

SGS Bateman Ex Colleague +27 83 630

5775

Leonard van der

Dussen

Owner and CEO VDDB Project

Services

Ex Employer and

brother

+27 82 573

2732

Contact this candidate