Director

Els Van de Water

Director

Passionate about organisational transformation and developing leaders, Els has extensive international experience working with world-class organisations across Technology, Healthcare, Financial Services and other industries. She partners with leaders and organizations to develop and transform their leadership, strategy, and culture. Els has adopted Action Learning in companies as Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Europ Assistance, Generali Assicurazioni, Maersk, Banco Santander, DriveNow, Salesforce and Philips in US, UK, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands and Kenya.

She is Professor at the Collège des Ingénieurs (Paris and Turin) and Luiss Business School (Amsterdam and Rome) and serves on the Merit Awards Advisory Board. Els has served on the board of Johnson & Johnson S.p.A. in Santa Palomba (RM) in Italy, as General Manager of MKT-Marketing S.r.l and as Vice President of HRCommunity, which she co-founded as an association for HR executives in Italy.

A Belgian national, Els has lived and covered global roles in Belgium, Germany, Italy, France,
Spain, the Netherlands and the Middle East, gaining deep expertise in cross-cultural collaboration. She speaks Dutch, English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. She is currently learning Arabic. Els holds a Master’s in Counselling and Coaching for Change from INSEAD, a Higher Education Teaching Certificate from Harvard and a Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL).

She is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Leadership at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Els has completed the International Board Program of Bocconi and St.-Gallen. Els is a WIAL Professional Action Learning Coach (PALC), an EMCC-certified Business Coach and Practitioner (EIA), a certified Hogan Assessor, a Talent to Value Facilitator, Organizational Design Practitioner, a certified Performance Consultant and Certified Excellence Assessor.