prof. dr. Walter Baets

About Walter Baets

Walter Baets is Professor Emeritus at the University of Cape Town (South Africa), Wicked Problems Officer at Eindhoven Engine — an innovation accelerator founded by TU/e, Fontys, and TNO — and a part-time assistant shepherd with the Meijendel sheep flock in Wassenaar.

He is a respected international keynote speaker on topics related to complexity, innovation, and transformation, as well as the resolution of wicked problems — subjects he has devoted many years to during his academic career. He has also developed a profound understanding of consciousness and the role the quantum world plays in it, particularly how that understanding can enrich our approach to everyday leadership. From a different perspective, his experience as an assistant shepherd in the Netherlands — and during the Transhumance in France — has offered him fascinating insights into the lessons we can learn from nature when it comes to groups, organization, and leadership.

He can tell captivating stories about these topics, but also facilitate highly practical, application-oriented workshops. Inspired by science yet transformed through experience, he guides his audience toward a deeper understanding of the problem before leaping into solution mode. In doing so, he helps prevent us from building solutions for non-existent problems: *love your problem, not your solution.*

Walter graduated in Econometrics in Antwerp, holds a PhD in Industrial and Business Studies from the University of Warwick, and an HDR (senior doctorate) from the Paul Cézanne University of Aix-Marseille.

After a career of about 15 years in the corporate world, he transitioned to academia and has led projects in Russia, the Netherlands, France, Spain, and South Africa, where he served as Dean/Director of the Graduate School of Business at UCT and was, for a time, Chair of the African Association of Business Schools.