About us

Frank Burgers is a senior advisor to The Board Practice International in The Netherlands. He holds master’s degrees in Public Administration (Syracuse University, NY, USA) and Economics (Erasmus University Rotterdam, NL).

Before moving back to The Netherlands in 2021, Frank has been living and working in South Africa for almost 18 years. He was director at Mazars Advisory SA where he was responsible for the Governance and Strategy department (with a focus on board evaluations of State-Owned Entities) and managing director for CMRA (Centre for Municipal Research and Advice).

Other employers where VNG International (NL), The World Bank (USA), and F. Van Lanschot Bankers (NL).

Over the years, Frank has been member of different boards in the profit and non-profit sector. A.o. he was member (and Chairman) of the South African Netherlands Chamber of Commerce (SANEC) and Chairman of CLCP (Centre for Local Capacity Programs).

Adrian has had considerable success to date in providing technical leadership and successfully architecting, developing and deploying applications and infrastructure both on-premise and to the cloud.

Adrian’s career has followed a typical IT trajectory, starting as a developer and moving into architecture for a wide array of companies ranging from smaller start-ups to larger enterprise customers. This path has helped Adrian develop his ability to design and develop bespoke solutions within a number of different industries and match customers’ requirements to technology.

Areas of focus at The Board Practice is ensuring the correct uploading of custom questionnaires on the system, data analysis of completed questionnaires and preparation of preliminary reports, client support on system issues, research and improvement of reporting and analysis systems.

Vivien started her career in Business Engineering and consulting in Stellenbosch, after completing her M. Eng. in Industrial Engineering.  Business Engineering included client liaison, project- and prototype management, business process improvement, business process simulation and information system design.  She then traded the consulting environment for the automotive environment where she gained experience in supply chain planning and management on national level for after sales parts with the supply chain stretching from Europe to South Africa.

Trading the automotive industry for the railway industry, she then worked for an international civil engineering company focusing on capacity and demand planning for African railway lines.  Locations included South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique and Tanzania. Experience gained included traffic analysis, traffic projections, demand- and capacity planning and information system design.  Simulation and planning included simulation building and running on portions of a network as well as on national network scale.  She also automated simulation building on national level for South Africa in order to make scenario planning possible. During this time Vivien also gained experience in the non-analytic side of projects, such as project management and client liaison, which complemented the experience gained in the consulting environment.

For the firsts 20 years of her career she was involved in the Human Resources field and was a member of various Executive Teams in the manufacturing and chemical industries.

She joined Heidrick and Struggles in 2010  where she was actively involved in the Leadership Consulting, Board Review and Executive Assessment services of the firm.

Before joining The Board Practice as a Partner and setting up her own consulting firm, ANL Consulting, she held Sales and Marketing Director positions in the Direct Selling Industry.

Ansomé is a registered Industrial Psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa, a member of SIOPSA and holds an MCom from the Northwest University.

She has  extensive international experience with leadership, with the implementation of strategy and organisational development, cross geographies, both as a line manager and as a project manager.

Before joining The Board Practice, she was HR Director at DNO ASA and part of the Corporate Management Team.

Prior to this, she worked for Heidrick & Struggles and PA Consulting Group.

She has long experience from Non-Executive Directorships and is currently Non-Executive Board Member at Bank Norwegian ASA and member of the Nomination Committee at DNO ASA.

References include:

Orkla, Norsk Hydro, Equinor (Statoil), Conoco Phillips (Phillips Petroleum), Schlumberger, Mobil, Texaco, Saga Petroleum, ABB, Unilever, Compass Group, SSP Group, Gate Gourmet, Euronav, Kristian Jebsens Rederi , Telenor, Selmer/Skanska, Norconsult, Avonova, Hydro Pharma, The Central Bank of Norway (Norges Bank), The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway (Finanstilsynet), Nordea (Kreditkassen), Gjensidige, Oslo Børs, Tomra Systems, CISCO, Glamox, Electrolux, KLM, University of Oslo, Oslo Science Park, (Forskningsparken), The Research Council of Norway (Forskningsrådet).

Fluent in Norwegian, French and English.

With a PhD in Nuclear Physics, he started his career in Materials Physics research. His career spans from the physical sciences to the management of research, after which he became the Chief Operating Officer of the London-based Senior Executive Learning Systems. He joined Heidrick & Struggles as a partner in 2005 in Johannesburg and London until 2012.

He is an experienced leader and leadership adviser and has supported a wide range of companies in the areas of leadership evaluation & development, succession, cultural transformation and team effectiveness. This is complemented by strong expertise in the link between strategy implementation and leadership. Victor regularly consults at Board and C-level, ranging from current leadership issues, Board-level strategy, decision-making, conflict resolution and individual & team performance.

An area of specialisation is Board performance evaluation and development. Victor has either led or been part of Board performance programs in more than 120 instances for large listed, public sector and not-for-profit companies, ranging across continents and industries.

A heritage of working in both developing and advanced economies has equipped Victor with an understanding of the subtle differences in the ways Boards work. In addition he has worked with family influenced companies in various countries, especially in developing Chairs and family directors to become effective Board Members.

Fluent in English, German and Afrikaans, with a working knowledge of Dutch, Victor has lived and worked internationally throughout his career.