Sylvia van de Bunt-Kokhuis has an international career in boardroom consultancy and business sciences. She has been working as a management consultant for various firms such as Digital Equipment, Vendex International, KLM and Ahold, and international agencies such as the European Commission, UNESCO and NGO’s in the UK, Tanzania and Phillipines (1980- present). She was Director of the Office for International Relations at Tilburg University and UETP at Eindhoven University (1988-1998) and was Associate Professor Human Resources Management at The Hague University (2003-2008). From 2004 onwards she is Visiting Professor at the School of Arts & Education at Middlesex University in London and in November 2008 she is appointed Visiting Professor at Liverpool Hope University, Department Business and Computer Sciences.

At the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) Sylvia is managing Director of the Centre for Servant-Leadership (jointly with prof. Fons Trompenaars), she coordinates master and post-graduate courses in the field of Talent Development and Cross Cultural Management, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (VU, 2000-present). In 1996 she published her PhD thesis 'Academic Pilgrims' (Tilburg University Press) on organizational and HRM determinants of international staff mobility. In 2004 her inaugural speech ‘Een Wereldcollega’ was published (Holland Business Publications) and in 2005 her inaugural speech at Middlesex University ‘Lifelong e-Learning across cultures’. She authored more than fifty articles on cross cultural issues, HRD and internet in international journals of e.g. UNESCO, EU, Stanford University (USA), University of Oxford (UK), Higher Education in Europe, and Bundesverband Deutscher Unternehmensberater. She edited the book ‘World Wide Work’ (VU University Press, 2006) and co-edited the books ‘Handboek Internationaal Talent’ (Weka, 2007) and ‘Competing for Talent’.

She is a regular keynote speaker and chairperson at international (higher education) conferences. During 2003-2006 she was coordinator of a large scale European project FILTER, investigating the hidden cultural and economic filtering of online content, with partners in 12 European countries. She was member of the Supervisory Board of Compu’Train (2000-2005), member of the Advisory Board of the Dutch Knowledge Centre for Commissarissen (NKCC, 2002-2008), she is member of the Supervisory Board of Kennisnet the national Dutch agency for elearning (2006-present), and of the Nova Academy (2008-present). She is President of NGVO, the Dutch Speaking Society for Comparative Studies, the Flemish/Dutch branch of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies, Member Societies (1995-present) and is board member of BBV, the professional community in the field of Human Resource Development and Lifelong Learning. She is member of the International Advisory Board of the Centre for Transcultural Studies and Global Cultures of Liverpool Hope University. Finally she is member of the Advisory Board of International Business Research 2009, State University Groningen (2008-09) and the WCCES Congress Standing Committee for Istanbul 2010 and Rio in Brazil 2014. She was elected one of the 600 most influencial people in The Netherlands.

Business, Human Resources, Education Professionals, Education Industry, Education