Maurice de Hond

About Maurice de Hond

Maurice de Hond (1947) studied Human Geography at the University of Amsterdam.After his study (1971) he became lecturer at the University of Amsterdam. During his study he learned how to program a computer.In 1976 he started with a special model for measuring political preferences with the VARA broadcasting company. Since that time he is the foremost opinion poller in the Netherlands, gives forecasts at elections and is a wellknown person in the Netherlands with a lot of media appearances.In 1980 he became director and of Inter/View. He was responsible for automation and the introduction of CATI in Europe. When the company went public (in 1986) De Hond became in 1986 chairman of the board of directors. He stayed in this position until 1999. In 1982 he got the Dutch award of marketing researcher of the year.In the second half of the eighties De Hond did several jobs for Vendex International. He started Micro Computerclub Nederland (MCN), a big project to introduce the homecomputer (Commodore 64 and ZX Spetrum) with educational software in the Netherlands. He became director of Graydon, a Dutch competitor of Dun and Bradstreet, and was also CEO of Vendex Headstart inc of Great Neck, NY, a producer of PCs for the consumer market, in 1989 sold to Philips..Between 1991 and 1995 he was active with ITT Gouden Gids as Director Marketing, Business Information & Development. From 1995 until 1998 he was CIO of a Dutch Publisher Wegener and responsible for the internet-strategy. In 1998 he was founder of Newconomy and became CEO. This was an investing company in internet-companies. This company, who participated in more than 20 Dutch internet companies, went successfully public in the beginning of 2000. He wrote a book in 1995 “Dankzij de snelheid van het licht” (Thanks to the speed of light) about the future of internet. He forecasted many of the things which happened since 1995 with and because of internet. He became an internet-guru in the Netherlands and is asked often for giving speeches and advice about future developments by companies and government. Since 2002 is De Hond active with his internet-panel Peil.nl (www.peil.nl) about current affairs. It is a virtual company without a physical office and without employees. Everything is done via internet. He is publishing his results on a weekly base and is many times quoted in the Dutch Media.In 2009 he got a daughter (Daphne). Inspired by her usage of educational apps on the iPhone/iPad he started in 2012 the foundation a O4NT (Onderwijs 4 een Nieuwe Tijd). A completely new concept of school was developed and named: the Steve JobsSchool. The first elementary schools who worked with this approach started with a worldwide media coverage in august 2013. Currently more than 30 schools in the Netherlands work with this concept with remarkable results (www.stevejobsschool.world). In the coming 12 months several schools in other countries will start with this concept too. Tech Insider has chosen this school as 1 of the 13 most innovative schools of the world.Many visitors from all over the world are visiting the schools in the Netherlands and De Hond is asked by many congresses all over the world to give keynote speeches and workshops about his school and his vision.