THNK School of Leadership is an international leadership organization headquartered in Amsterdam. The school was founded in 2010 [1] with the purpose of developing creative leaders to "turn global challenges and crises into opportunities, the ultimate goal being to achieve a more meaningful and sustainable way of life." [2]
The school offers two primary streams of learning — an Executive Leadership Program, a catalogue of creative leadership education programs, and custom-made programs for organizations. The school’s curriculum is aimed towards mid-career professionals from around the world, working across sectors, including the corporate sector, entrepreneurial sector, non-profit sector, and public sector. The school also has locations in Vancouver and Lisbon. [3]
THNK was launched in 2010 as a public-private partnership supported by the Dutch government, the City of Amsterdam, the Province of North Holland, Vodafone, McKinsey & Company, KLM Airlines, and a host of other private and public entities. [4] It was founded to establish Amsterdam as a creative center and boost the city’s innovation ecosystem. [5] Partly funded by the City of Amsterdam, and influenced by the leadership thinking and creative modeling of companies such as McKinsey, Pixar, IDEO, and Philips, “THNK intentionally chose to stay outside of the formal education system so that it could create its own version of what leadership training for the 21st century should look like”. [6]
The co-founders were Bas Verhart and Menno van Dijk. Stefano Marzano, former Chief Design Officer of Philips, was the Founding Dean of the new course. [7]
THNK’s Advisory Board includes Creative Commons vice chair Esther Wojcicki, Dutch architect Ben van Berkel, former Managing Director of McKinsey & Company Dominic Barton, and designer Marcel Wanders. [8]
The Indian School of Business (ISB) is a private business school established in India in 2001. It has two parallel campuses in India, in Hyderabad (Telangana) and Mohali (Punjab). It offers certificates in various post-graduate management programs. ISB became the 100th Triple Accredited business school in the world upon achieving AMBA accreditation on 12 May 2020.
Joseph "Yossi" Vardi is an Israeli entrepreneur and investor. He is one of Israel's first high-tech entrepreneurs. For over 47 years he has founded and helped to build over 85 high-tech companies in a variety of fields, among them software, energy, Internet, mobile, electro-optics and water technology.
Guerrilla B.V. is a Dutch first-party video game developer based in Amsterdam and part of PlayStation Studios. The company was founded as Lost Boys Games in January 2000 through the merger of three smaller development studios as a subsidiary of multimedia conglomerate company Lost Boys. Lost Boys Games became independent the following year and was acquired by Media Republic in 2003, renaming the studio to Guerrilla Games before being purchased by Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2005. As of June 2021, the company employs 360 people under the leadership of joint studio directors Jan-Bart van Beek, Joel Eschler and Hella Schmidt. It is best known for the Killzone and Horizon game series.
The Fuqua School of Business is the business school of Duke University, a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. It enrolls more than 1,300 students in degree-seeking programs. Duke Executive Education also offers non-degree business education and professional development programs. Its MBA program was ranked the 8th best business school in the US by The Financial Times in 2023.
Marcel Wanders is a Dutch designer, and art director in the Marcel Wanders studio in Amsterdam, who designs architectural, interior and industrial projects.
Richard N. Foster, Managing Partner, Millbrook Management Group LLC – Foster is a former Director and Senior Partner with McKinsey & Company where he was responsible for serving clients in the U.S., Europe and Asia focusing on industry sectors including chemicals, electronics, healthcare, retail and consumer goods industries.
The European School of Management and Technology, also known as ESMT Berlin, is a private non-profit business school based in Berlin, Germany. The business school was founded in 2002 by 25 global companies and institutions including McKinsey & Company, Inc., KPMG, The Boston Consulting Group, Siemens and T-Mobile. ESMT offers a full-time MBA, an executive MBA, a part-time MBA, a global online MBA, a master in management, a master in global management, a master in innovation and entrepreneurship, a master in analytics and artificial intelligence program, as well as open enrollment and customized executive education programs.
Tania Karen de Jong is an Australian soprano, social entrepreneur, businesswoman, motivational speaker, and event producer. She is the Founder of Creative Innovation Global, Creative Universe, Creativity Australia, Dimension5, Music Theatre Australia, Pot-Pourri, and The Song Room, and co-founder of Mind Medicine Australia. De Jong was named as one of the "100 Most Influential People in Psychedelics" globally by Psychedelic Invest in 2021.
Reema bint Bandar Al Saud is a member of House of Saud and the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States. She took office as ambassador on 23 February 2019—becoming the first female envoy in the country's history. She has advocated for female empowerment and has worked to expand opportunities for Saudi women within the Kingdom.
Johan Willem van Hulst was a Dutch school director, university professor, author, politician, chess player and centenarian. In 1943, with the help of the Dutch resistance and students of the nearby University of Amsterdam, he was instrumental in saving over 600 Jewish children from the nursery of the Hollandsche Schouwburg who were destined for deportation to Nazi concentration camps. For his humanitarian actions he received the Yad Vashem distinction Righteous Among the Nations from the State of Israel in 1973.
Mariana Francesca Mazzucato is an economist with triple Italian–American-British citizenship. She is a professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London and founding director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP). She is best known for her work on dynamics of technological change, the role of the public sector in innovation, and the concept of value in economics. The New Republic have called her one of the "most important thinkers about innovation".
Shahrzad Rafati is an Iranian-Canadian chairwoman and CEO of BroadbandTV Corp – a digital media and technology company that helps content creators increase viewership and drive revenue from their digital content.
Willemijn Verloop is a Dutch peace activist dedicated to children affected by war, and also the founder of War Child In 2012, she founded Social Enterprise NL, a platform for growing the Social enterprise sector in The Netherlands. In 2013, she founded impact investment fund Rubio Impact Ventures.
Village Capital is a venture capital firm that finds, trains, and invests in early-stage ventures solving major global problems in agriculture, education, energy, financial inclusion, and health. VilCap Investments, LLC is its affiliated, managed investment fund. The programs use a model referred to as peer-selection, in which the entrepreneurs themselves choose the companies in the program that receive pre-committed investments of around $50,000. As of October 2018, Village Capital reported that they had made over 100 investments, and that over 900 entrepreneurs had gone through a total of more than 50 programs.
Appfrica is a market research and technology firm founded by current CEO Jon Gosier in 2008 in Kampala, Uganda. The firm has been responsible for a number of technology initiatives responsible for promoting Africa's technology sector including HiveColab, Apps4Africa, HiveColab, QuestionBox and for helping Google Africa translate its page for Ugandan audiences.
Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli is a Nigerian entrepreneur, an expert on African agriculture and nutrition, philanthropy, and social innovation. She has over 25 years of international development experience and is a recognized serial entrepreneur, author, public speaker, and consultant. Through her work in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors, she has led the design and execution of high-impact initiatives focused on policy, strategy, organizational design, ecosystem solutions, and growth.
Marina Tognetti is an Italian entrepreneur and business executive based in Amsterdam. She is the founder and CEO of Myngle, an online platform that offers live language education through video conferencing in 45 different languages.
Sofana R. Dahlan is an accomplished Saudi lawyer and social entrepreneur. She holds the prized distinction of being among the first three female lawyers to have been granted the permit to practice law in Saudi Arabia and has served as a legal consultant in different parts of the Arab world including Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Kuwait. Dahlan was also the Vice Governor for Entrepreneurship Advancement at the Small and Medium Enterprises Authority of Saudi Arabia from 2016 to 2017, making her the first Saudi female senior economic policymaker. Most recently she has enrolled at King's College, London in order to pursue a PhD in Culture Media and Creative Industries specialising in: The Obstacles Facing the Development of Creative Industries in Saudi Arabia: A Deep Dive into Intellectual Property Infringement and its Implications.
Ayodeji Balogun is a Nigerian entrepreneur, commodity trader and CEO, AFEX, Nigeria first private sector commodities exchange, and tech-enabled Agriculture Company. He is a Member, Board of Trustees of The Association of Security Exchange in Nigeria and serves on the board of Capital Market Development Fund.
The Social Hub (TSH) formerly known as The Student Hotel is a hybrid hospitality brand, offering spaces that combine student accommodation, hotel, extended stay rooms, co-working facilities, meeting and event spaces, restaurant, bars and gyms, all under one community and one roof. Originally conceived as a city-centre accommodation option for students, today’s hybrid business has evolved rapidly. TSH was founded by Scottish entrepreneur Charlie MacGregor in 2012. As of 2022 TSH has expanded to 15 locations including Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, Florence, and Barcelona. TSH expects to open another 10 hotels across Europe by 2025, increasing its operation to 25 hotels. In 2022, it plans to open hotels in Madrid, Barcelona and Toulouse.