General Skills and Interests

Turning Learning and Knowledge management into business results is where I have focused a lot of my energy in the past 30 years and I believe that tremendous opportunities are still ahead of most organisations when it comes to improving their performance through matching information technology with skills management.

My initial career in the IT-business – in various organisations - as a programmer, information analyst, course-developer and instructor, have given me a practical foundation and insight in technology that I consider very valuable in just about every day at work. And it has enabled me to subsequently strategise, turn-around and direct both small and large training organisations towards the right match of speed and flexibility, customer satisfaction and business results.

While working respectively for two large international organisations, ICL and Cap Gemini, various  roles ‘away from training’ (as a product marketing manager for computer systems and software, as systems support manager for a hardware manufacturer and as global SAP alliance director in the turbulent end of the 90’s), have provided a business focus that ensures I keep my eye on the ball, i.e. the business result, no matter how interesting the technology or the skills development processes can be.  This has particularly helped me in my IP-based activities, which since 1994 have included the conceptualisation, construction and implementation of a global IP-based knowledge management system and the creation of a European entity for a US-based e-Learning services company, a venture of one of the 'Big Four' accounting firms.

Just like many Dutch nationals, I love the opportunity to work in an international environment where I can practice my skills in French, English and German.

But most of all, I am intrigued by any opportunity to change an organisation and enable the people that form it, to improve their collective performance through a better distribution of knowledge and skills.

In order to achieve such an improvement, an organisation needs to implement a set of processes and select the right set of tools. Helping them do so gives me tremendous pleasure.