Leading Across Generations
2 October 2025
Speakers
Fons Trompenaars
Fons is considered one of the world’s most influential management thinkers, especially in the fields of cultural diversity and reconciling dilemmas. In 2024, Thinkers50 announced that Fons’ book Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business was in their top ten Management Classic Booklist.
Fons has spent over thirty years helping Fortune 500 leaders build meaningful connections to manage and solve their business and cultural dilemmas to increase global effectiveness and performance, particularly in the areas of leadership, innovation, globalization, intercultural understanding and managing culture change by reconciling differences (ethnic, gender or generation based, professional, organizational etc). Fons has translated his approach into innovative, practical and profitable results in all areas of international business. In the academic space, he serves as Co-Director at the Servant-Leadership Centre for Research and Education (SERVUS) at the VU Amsterdam.
Fons will give a keynote about reconciling dilemmas across generations.
Pauline van der Meer Mohr
Pauline is a seasoned non-executive, currently serving in the boards of ASM International (chair), NN Group and Ahold Delhaize. In the past, she chaired the Dutch Monitoring Commission Corporate Governance and was a non-executive at amongst others HSBC, DSM and ASML. In her executive career she was the Chair of the Executive Board of Erasmus University Rotterdam and the CHRO of ABN AMRO.
Pauline will be interviewed together with her son Arnout Jan de Beaufort.
Arnout Jan de Beaufort
Arnout Jan de Beaufort has started in 2024 as a Product Manager at DSM-Firmenich, after studying Chemistry & Business.
Arnout Jan will be interviewed with his mother Pauline van der Meer Mohr.
Twan van de Kerkhof
Founder European Leadership Platform, author, editor
Twan van de Kerkhof founded the European Leadership Platform in 2003. He is passionate about leadership, loves asking penetrating questions and is an experienced moderator and facilitator. Before founding ELP, Twan was a journalist for 15 years, working for the Dutch Press Agency, as an independent journalist and as editor-in-chief of the magazine Management Scope. Twan has written eight books, the latest being ‘Misled. 11 Lies About Leadership’ (2023). He is also the editor of the books that were published in the ELP Leadership Series. Twan is an avid cook and a wine enthusiast. He is living in Landsmeer, near Amsterdam, with his wife Alexandra.
