
Jurgen Appelo calls himself a creative networker. But sometimes he's a writer, speaker, trainer, entrepreneur, illustrator, manager, blogger, reader, dreamer, leader, freethinker, or… Dutch guy.Since 2008 Jurgen writes a popular blog at www.noop.nl, covering the creative economy, agile ...
Jurgen Appelo calls himself a creative networker. But sometimes he’s a writer, speaker, trainer, entrepreneur, illustrator, manager, blogger, reader, dreamer, leader, freethinker, or… Dutch guy.
Since 2008 Jurgen writes a popular blog at www.noop.nl, covering the creative economy, agile management, and personal development. He is the author of the book Management 3.0, which describes the role of the manager in agile organizations. And he wrote the little book How to Change the World, which describes a supermodel for change management.
Jurgen is CEO of the business network Happy Melly, and co-founder of the Agile Lean Europe network and the Stoos Network. He is also a speaker who is regularly invited to talk at business seminars and conferences around the world.
After studying Software Engineering at the Delft University of Technology, and earning his Masters degree in 1994, Jurgen Appelo has busied himself starting up and leading a variety of Dutch businesses, always in the position of team leader, manager, or executive. Jurgen has experience in leading a horde of 100 software developers, development managers, project managers, business consultants, service managers, and kangaroos, some of which he hired accidentally.
Nowadays he works full-time managing the Happy Melly ecosystem, developing innovative courseware, books, and other types of original content. But sometimes Jurgen puts it all aside to spend time on his ever-growing collection of science fiction and fantasy literature, which he stacks in a self-designed book case. It is 4 meters high.
Jurgen lives in Rotterdam (The Netherlands) — and in Brussels (Belgium) — with his partner Raoul. He has two kids, and an imaginary hamster called George.
We invited Jaco to be the keynote speaker for the American School of Warsaw bi-annual high school Career Fair. Our student body, along with quite a few parents and other professionals, were entertained and motivated by Jaco’s recount of his Mt. Everest adventure and his approach and insights into making and striving for personal goals. His talk was relatable for all ages and provided a great start to our day. In addition to his opening presentation, Jaco conducted three “break out” sessions called, “Seven Steps to Your Dreams.” Throughout, students were engaged and appreciated Jaco’s approach to having them think creatively and practically, at the same time, about their future goals and dreams. The overall success of his talk and workshops prompted us to invite him back to speak with parents from our ASW community. Thank you, Jaco!
Excellent speaker, spoke of approach to complexity like a guy speaks to his friends at the pub. Minimalistic and effective.
Great presentation, the material was good structured and combined with great performance and good sense of humor.
Very good presentation, easy to follow and to understand, very flexible in answering questions whenever someone had one. Enriched with a lot of experience and examples.