Title: Regional Business Manager EUCA
Employers: Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH Corp. Human Pharma
Working environment
“My professional interaction with Mr. Olaf Van der Linden is limited to a project for Biosimilars for three European markets: UK, Germany and France. Even when the interaction is limited to one project, it is quite evident that Olaf is a senior professional with reliable capabilities for sourcing departments and his internal partners.
In the project I had the opportunity to participate with Olaf, he demonstrated a deep knowledge of the internal processes in Boehringer Ingelheim (Bi), a good understanding of Bi’s culture and a significant level of commitment with the organization, even when he is external to Bi.
Olaf understood extremely well the needs I had from the project and transmits it to the different vendors. He is extremely precise in the follow up and he has remarkable communication skills, reinforcing the strengths of the proposals we received but also clarifying the weaknesses, always with the objective of improve the final outcome.
Olaf not only adds value from his role dealing with the vendors, also contributing to the different working sessions from different angles as a result of the different experiences in his career. Something to be highlighted is the calm he maintains during the tense moments of a negotiation. In my opinion is difficult to provoke the Olaf’s derailment even under important stress conditions and this is something extremely valuable for a professional in his function. Olaf is assertive and firm, he explains with clarity and calm the project’s objective and discuss with in a constructive way. He is able to build positive atmospheres which provoke better outcomes, at least that have been the case in the project we have participated together. In summary: Olaf is a senior reliable and accurate professional, extremely committed with his job and with the organizations he works for, this is the experience I have had in my interaction with him.”