Peter ten Hoopen

Expertise

Peter ten Hoopen is an expert in the fields of corporate personality and corporate culture, and an outspoken leadership thinker. He is well versed in Values Based Management, Appreciative Inquiry, and authentic leadership, and has developed tools to chart organizations’ and individuals’ use of vital energy.

Peter has given lectures to student audiences at Leyden University, University of Missouri, Philadelphia University, University of Chicago, Bard College, University of Texas Austin, University of Minnesota, Erasmus University, Gent University and the University of Amsterdam, and during his year as writer in residence taught creative writing classes at the University of Michigan.

He was co-editor and co-presenter of a series of 13 seminars on ‘New Leadership’ at Rode Hoed, Amsterdam, twice delivering the keynote address. He has spoken on ‘diversity’ for corporate audiences on several occasions, including Shell, ABX, Cétélem, FEI Company and ABN-AMRO Bank, and student audiences.

His favorite topics are:

• Diversity – Time to Celebrate

• From Power to Inspiration – the New Leadership Paradigm

• Engagement  - How to Make the Most of Human Capital

• Men would rather be amongst themselves – on the true reason why women have difficulty reaching top positions

• Ínnovation – The Age of Inspiration

Professional Experience

Peter began his career in journalism and later switched to advertising – as copywriter and creative director for leading brands such as IBM, ABN-AMRO, Saab, Sony, KPMG and KLM, winning numerous national and international awards. He co-founded two successful Amsterdam agencies, and acquired a reputation for ‘serious’ work, with an emphasis on corporate advertising. In the 1990s, after many years of dressing up the outside of organizations, he became fascinated by their inner workings. Pairing insights gained by study with his intimate acquaintance of a great variety of organisations, he established himself as a corporate culture consultant, and wrote two books on the subject that challenged established opinion and practice. In the three years before joining Trompenaars Hampden-Turner he served as strategic advisor and program developer to De Baak Management Centrum VNO-NCW, the management training centre of the main Dutch employers association. He co-created its flagship ‘Tomorrow’s World’ program and a series of seminars on ‘New Leadership’. At Trompenaars Hampden-Turner he has worked for many of its major accounts.

Background

Over the years Peter has largely adhered to his own credo ‘follow your passions: do only what you can do wholeheartedly.’ He has spent half his adult life exploring the corporate world and the other half exploring the world, travelling to over 60 countries on all continents, and indulging his passion for ocean sailing. His formal training includes psychology (University of Amsterdam), Indian classical music (at the feet of Ravi Shankar’s father in law, Ustad Allauddin Khan), General Management (IMP Cambridge), Values Based Management (with Richard Barrett) and Appreciative Inquiry (Findhorn), computer programming (several languages including C and PHP). In the mid ‘80s, as writer in residence, he taught creative writing at the University of Michigan. He now occasionally teaches university classes on leadership and cultural diversity, and frequently runs workshops on the same themes.

Speaking expertise

Peter is an inspiring, and often provocative speaker on a wide range of subjects related to corporate culture and corporate personality, creativity, diversity, and personal and organizational development.

Publications

Peter ten Hoopen is the author of seven literary novels, two works of non-fiction, and numerous articles and columns. The most recent are Geluk in zaken, on ‘how to achieve happiness in a business environ¬ment’ and De verlichte leider (The Enlightened Leader), in which he presents the business case for a type of leadership that places more emphasis on the profitable application of human energy than on shareholder value - arguing, paradoxically, that in a service/knowledge economy this is actually the best way to improve shareholder value.