Interview Research Lead – Mattijs Land

Mattijs Land is the newest team member of Reward Value. As of January 1st, Mattijs will start as Research Lead to bring Reward Value to the next level with his knowledge and years of experience in reward management.

Mattijs graduated in Tax Law at the University of Amsterdam. He started in tax consultancy and then made the switch to Ahold. “Ahold was expanding and the international mobility of employees was high on the list. There was no existing position at the time; I was able to create it myself. At one point, I was offered the task of managing Ahold’s remuneration, a challenge that really appealed to me. I was involved in Management Board  remuneration, the remuneration of the Supervisory Board, incentive design and equity based compensation. After a great journey at Ahold, I looked for a new challenge and started working in the financial services sector. At ING I also worked in the field of executive remuneration. I stayed with ING during the years of the financial crisis and transformation of ING Group. Ahold still had a place in my heart, so after my years at ING I eventually ended up back at my old base .. and not long thereafter was involved in the merger with Delhaize. I had the privilege of always working in places where there were interesting developments”.

As of January 1st, Mattijs will start at Reward Value to look at the same topic from an independent position. He will mainly focus on content and manage the various studies. “I have known Frederic for quite some time, we worked together at ING and Ahold Delhaize. I think it’s very inspiring to go on this journey with him. It’s a good time to join now because the foundation is well established and the need for change is felt in the market. I’m really looking forward to contribute to Reward Value’s mission and putting something down that’s going to make a change”.

“My goal for next year is to take a good look at the portfolio of studies in relation to the long-term goals of Reward Value. The research forms the cornerstone of our ambitions and therefore, I will focus on setting the right priorities and on strengthening the platform of research partners. From there, we can attach firm timelines to properly manage the six different research streams. The six research lines are highly connected and it requires me therefore to think about the processes needed for each study as well as for the integration of insights across the studies. I look forward to the collaborations with the independent parties such as research firms and universities.”

Mattijs has a lot of experience when it comes to executive remuneration, but he also says that he knows this field mainly from commercial roles he had before. “I am now going to approach it from a different angle and I do see that as a challenge. Perhaps I will have to get used to decision-making at an academic level, which is of course different from the working environment in which I have been. Having said this, I have always set great store by delivering the best quality possible and speed is not always the best way to achieve this. I can’t yet predict what challenges I’m going to encounter, but if I have to name something I think it’s going to be challenging to get the research done in this demanding period and to make the recommendations from there. And ultimately, you have to create a position where recommendations are also adopted, so that it actually starts to make a change. Moving from validation to activation will be challenging, but very rewarding for us all.”

Mattijs enjoys tackling complexities with both hands and he is eager to get to grips with the challenging opportunities. We are confident that things will work out and wish Mattijs the best of luck!

“More effective executive remuneration policies lead to better outcomes for all stakeholders. The alignment of purpose, performance and pay is a key contributor to the change for good. The need for change is clear. I look forward to being part of developing the road to the required change; establising principles of responsible remuneration based on fact based reseach”