Rick van Driel
Enterprise Solution Consulting Leader | AI, CX & Enterprise Transformation
I build solution consulting teams that can lead complex customer conversations, not simply support them. For more than 25 years I have worked across enterprise sales, presales, solution design and executive engagement, helping customers understand what is possible, decide what is worth changing and build the confidence to act.
Lead the team. Lead the room. Build the motion.
The strongest solution consulting organisations do more than demo well. They understand the customer problem, connect technology to measurable outcomes, challenge constructively and know when to bring specialist depth into the conversation.
Build capability
Coach solution consultants in discovery, value, executive storytelling, AI fluency and commercial judgement, not just product depth.
Stay in the deal
Operate as a hands-on leader when the opportunity matters, helping the team navigate ambiguity, stakeholders, blockers and solution trade-offs.
Partner with Sales
Bring solution consulting into opportunities early enough to improve qualification, executive alignment and value creation before late-stage rework appears.
Scale what works
Turn strong individual behaviours into repeatable team practices without flattening the curiosity and personality that make great consultants effective.
Comfortable being the first senior person in the room.
For more than a decade I have repeatedly helped introduce new solution categories, emerging technologies and unfamiliar operating models to enterprise customers across APAC. The technology changes. The human challenge is remarkably consistent.
Confidence before certainty
Customers rarely have every requirement perfectly formed at the beginning. Strong early conversations help them understand the problem, the opportunity, the likely path forward and what specialist expertise needs to enter next.
Enough fluency to lead
Solution consultants should know enough to lead the conversation, recognise when deeper expertise is required and never use the specialist as a substitute for understanding the customer's problem.
Built teams, markets and enterprise outcomes across ANZ and APAC.
A few examples of the environments and outcomes behind the leadership story.
Employee #1 in APAC
Built the regional enterprise operation from the ground up, including market approach, partner ecosystem, pipeline, team and major pursuits.
Smarter Buildings / Cities Solution Executive, APAC
Overlay sales and presales leadership across 30+ internal sales and solution staff, major account strategy, executive sponsorship and partner enablement.
From presales to market growth
Led EAM presales engagements, helped secure more than 140 new accounts in under four years and supported growth in average licence and services value from roughly $50K to $600K.
Complex enterprise decisions
Examples include NSW Health ($10M TCV / $3.5M software), Department of Education Victoria ($13M TCV / $8M software), utilities, defence, healthcare and other regulated enterprise environments.
I invested in becoming genuinely AI-fluent.
After leaving BlackLine, I deliberately stepped away from large-enterprise employment to deepen my applied-AI capability, codify what I had learned about complex enterprise selling and build working systems rather than merely study the technology.
Symphony
Problem: complex enterprise deals lose context, stakeholder alignment and decision confidence. Built: an AI-enabled platform for research, qualification, stakeholder orchestration, deal coaching, meeting preparation and roleplay.
GNR8 / Harper
Problem: businesses need AI to do more than generate content. Built: agentic GTM workflows spanning conversational AI, voice agents, telephony, lead follow-up, approvals and controlled execution.
Phoenix
Problem: AI can be useful in high-stakes decision support only if it knows when not to invent. Built: a job-intelligence platform using scoring, structured reasoning and deterministic anti-fabrication controls.
Tender intelligence
Problem: tender teams need speed without hallucination. Built: grounded response workflows using source knowledge, reusable content and separate validation/evaluation.
The role sits exactly where solution consulting is changing.
Genesys is asking its ANZ Solution Consulting leader to build technical, commercial and AI capability while staying close to customers, Sales, Product and Engineering. That is the part of the role that caught my attention.
What I would bring
A track record of building and coaching presales teams, scaling new solution categories, leading customer rooms, helping sellers connect technology to business outcomes and staying personally involved when the deal needs senior judgement.
What I would be excited to build
A solution consulting organisation that can confidently translate AI-powered experience orchestration into relevant customer outcomes, challenge constructively, collaborate deeply with Sales and Product, and make complex ideas understandable enough for customers to act on.
I know how to lead the function without disappearing from the work.
I enjoy coaching, developing people and building a strong operating rhythm. I also believe the credibility of a solution consulting leader comes from staying close enough to customers, deals and emerging technology to understand what the team is actually being asked to solve.