Insight & inspiration to excel
Folkert Mulder works with organizations navigating fundamental change. His work focuses on strengthening organizations as coherent systems aligning direction, structure, and ways of working so that strategy translates into sustained performance. Rather than approaching change through isolated initiatives, he concentrates on how organizations function as a whole and how they can evolve without losing coherence.
He supports organizations during moments of growth, strategic redirection, and integration, working closely with Management Boards, shareholders, and Supervisory Boards. Together, they examine how governance, organizational design, and decision-making can better support long-term value creation. Transformation trajectories and post-merger integrations are approached as systemic processes, with clarity, interaction, and alignment as central principles.
Before founding his own practice, Folkert worked as a consultant at an international strategy consulting firm.
His practice is grounded in a strong academic foundation and a systemic perspective on organizations. Folkert holds a PhD from Rotterdam School of Management, where his research examined new forms of leadership and their impact on emotional capital within teams and organizations. He also earned a Master’s degree from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, and an honors Master’s degree in Business Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Folkert is a sought-after speaker and serves on the advisory board of the Erasmus Centre for Leadership and the Development Board of the Erasmus Trust Fund Foundation.
Clients
Integrated organizations
Organizations thrive when they operate as coherent systems. Sustainable performance does not emerge from individual excellence alone, but from the alignment between strategy, structure, and everyday interaction. Organizational change, from this perspective, is not about adding initiatives, but about strengthening the internal logic of the organization.
Transformation starts with understanding how the organization truly functions: how decisions are made, how responsibilities are distributed, how energy flows, and how meaning is created in daily work. By redesigning these patterns, organizations create the conditions in which people can contribute with purpose and commitment, and collective performance follows naturally.
Leadership is embedded within this system rather than treated as a separate discipline. It shows itself through consistency, alignment, and the quality of interaction across the organization. In periods of transition, including digital transformation, this systemic coherence becomes critical. Digital change reshapes not only processes and technologies, but also roles, relationships, and assumptions about value creation.
By focusing on coherence, alignment, and organizational health, organizations build the capacity to adapt without fragmentation. This enables long-term value creation and sustained performance in complex and evolving environments.
Sport Teams
Alongside his work with organizations, Folkert has worked extensively with elite sports teams as a parallel context for understanding organizational performance. Sport offers a condensed environment in which direction, structure, interaction, and pressure are immediately visible, making it a powerful lens for organizational transformation.
He has supported high-performance teams operating at the highest international level, including a world-championship-winning golf team, a sailing team that won its class in the Sydney Hobart Rolex Yacht Race, and a Dutch field hockey team that became national premier league champion twice. These engagements focused on aligning direction, roles, and interaction under conditions of extreme performance and uncertainty.
Folkert has also been part of the coaching staff of the Dutch men’s and women’s national field hockey teams in preparation for the Olympic Games. Together with the coaching staff, he helped develop a blueprint for the team centered on clarity of direction and quality of interaction. To strengthen the team’s capacity under pressure, this was complemented with a program developed in collaboration with the Dutch special forces, focusing on resilience, communication, and collective responsibility.
Sport cases are regularly used in organizational work because they make systemic dynamics tangible. They offer concrete insight into how teams function, how performance emerges, and how coherence enables development, lessons that translate directly to organizations facing complex change.
Publications
Teaching & Speaking
Teaching and speaking are an integral extension of the firm’s work in organizational transformation. They provide a space to explore ideas in depth, test perspectives in dialogue, and translate complex organizational questions into shared understanding.
Folkert teaches in MBA and Executive Education programs at Erasmus University Rotterdam and the University of Cologne, where he focuses on organizational change, transformation, and the functioning of organizations as coherent systems. His teaching connects theory and practice, drawing on real transformation trajectories, research insights, and examples from domains such as sports, politics, and the arts. Rather than presenting fixed models, his courses invite participants to examine how organizations actually function, how change unfolds in practice, and how direction, structure, and interaction can be redesigned to support sustained performance.
As a speaker, Folkert engages with leadership teams, boards, and professional audiences in settings ranging from executive offsites and strategy days to conferences and public dialogues. His talks are reflective and analytical in nature, aimed at creating clarity rather than quick answers. Central themes include organizational transformation, systemic coherence, governance and decision-making, and the challenges of leading and organizing in conditions of complexity and interdependence.
A recurring focus in both teaching and speaking is how organizations navigate periods of fundamental transition such as growth, integration, or digital transformation without losing coherence. Topics often explored include the alignment of strategy and organization, the quality of interaction within leadership teams, collective responsibility, and the role of meaning and energy in organizational performance. Leadership is addressed not as a standalone concept, but as an embedded capability that emerges from well-designed systems and shared direction.
Through teaching and speaking, Folkert creates reflective spaces in which executives and professionals can step back from day-to-day pressures, reconsider familiar assumptions, and develop a more integrated view of their organization and its challenges. The aim is not inspiration alone, but insight that supports better judgment, more coherent action, and long-term value creation.
Research Lab
At the heart of the firm is a Research Lab dedicated to understanding how organizations function and evolve as interconnected systems. The lab explores how direction, coordination, and collective performance emerge in environments where hierarchy alone is insufficient, and where interaction, shared meaning, and mutual responsibility become decisive.
Research is not approached as an academic exercise in isolation, but as a continuous source of insight for practice. Its purpose is to deepen understanding of organizational dynamics, generate new perspectives on transformation, and inform advisory work with ideas that are both rigorous and applicable.
A central research stream initiated in 2024 examines coordination and collective performance through the lens of conductors and orchestras. This work studies how orchestras align highly skilled professionals around a shared interpretation, how meaning is created through timing and interaction, and how direction is maintained without relying primarily on formal authority. By observing performances of classical works by composers such as Mozart and Beethoven, as well as audience experience, the research offers insight into coordination, sense-making, and collective identity in complex systems.
A distinctive element of this research explores AI-completed works, including interpretations of unfinished compositions such as Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony. These developments raise fundamental questions about authenticity, interpretation, and identity, questions that increasingly resonate with organizations navigating technological and cultural change.
The lab builds on earlier research into plural leadership, emotional capital, and collective performance in contexts such as professional sports teams and political systems. Rather than reinforcing top-down models, this work highlights how performance is distributed across roles, interactions, and moments. The insights translate directly into organizational questions around structure, coordination, and decision-making: how to enable collaboration without fragmentation, and how to maintain direction in conditions of interdependence.
The Research Lab is fully integrated into the firm’s practice. Ongoing research informs transformation work, organizational programs, and strategic dialogue with clients. By drawing inspiration from domains such as sports, politics, and music, the lab helps organizations reframe familiar challenges and develop new ways of thinking about performance and change.
Alongside his advisory work, Folkert teaches MBA and Executive Programs on organizational change at Erasmus University Rotterdam and the University of Cologne. He is a regular speaker on organizational transformation and serves on the advisory board of the Erasmus Centre for Leadership and the Development Board of the Erasmus Trust Fund Foundation.
“I have come to know Folkert as an extraordinary consultant who brings with him a fresh look on complex issues. Alongside his analytical skills, he is an excellent judge of character and has the ability to win over people and to bring about real change. I can warmly recommend Folkert.”
Roland Pechtold - CEO at NOVA Terminals
Folkert earned his PhD from the Rotterdam School of Management, where his research examined new forms of leadership and their impact on emotional capital within teams and organizations. He also holds a Master’s degree from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, and an honors Master’s degree in Business Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam.
He has a proven track record of guiding companies through business expansion across industries such as fast-moving consumer goods, professional services, and energy. Beyond leading strategy development and organizational growth, he has successfully overseen post-merger integrations and advised Management Boards, shareholders, and Supervisory Boards on strategic direction. His experience spans Europe, Asia, and the Americas, working with family-owned businesses, private equity–backed firms, and publicly listed corporations alike.
Folkert’s expertise also extends to the sports arena, where he has guided top-tier teams, including a golf team that won the World Championship, a sailing team that won the HCP category in the prestigious Sydney Hobart Rolex Yacht Race, and a Dutch field hockey team that won the national premier league championship. He was also part of the coaching staff for the Dutch men’s and women’s national field hockey teams as they prepared for the Olympic Games.
He serves as a board member of the Erasmus Centre for Leadership at the Rotterdam School of Management and the Development Board of the Erasmus Trust Fund Foundation. In addition to his consulting work, Folkert lectures on organizational change at Erasmus University Rotterdam and the University of Cologne for MBA and Executive Programs and is a sought-after speaker.
www.folkertmulder.com
Outperformance becomes a core company value.
References: FolkertMulder.com/Testimonials, LinkedIN. More references can also be provided on request
About
Folkert Mulder Ph.D.
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Testimonials
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Folkert has successfully completed two projects for Euro Pool System (EPS) in the past two years, first for the Supervisory Board and later as the interim CEO for the EPS organization. During these two different assignments Folkert proved to be an outstanding consultant and CEO, one who has the ability to fathom complex issues while at the same time having the drive and expertise to take decisions and focus on the result. Folkert is engaging, inspirational and a true team player. On behalf of the entire Supervisory Board of EPS we would like to thank Folkert for all the work he has done for us during the past two years.
Chairman (Klaus Lutz, CEO of BayWa)
and Vice Chairman (Franky Depickere, Board member of the KBC Group) -
I have come to know Folkert as an extraordinary consultant who brings with him a fresh look on complex issues. Alongside his analytical skills, he is an excellent judge of character and has the ability to win over people and to bring about real change. I can warmly recommend Folkert.
Roland Pechtold
CEO at NOVA Terminals -
Folkert coached my Management Team in the process of further aligning the organization to reflect the ambitious targets we have set. Based on interviews with the Management Team, he presented a good analysis of the organization. On the basis of that analysis, he introduced refreshing ideas on how to improve the interaction between the various departments. In line with a newly established vision statement, we have implemented those ideas releasing lot’s of energy in the organization.
Govert Rietema
Director The Netherlands, Primagaz Benelux -
Folkert successfully supported both the Post Merger Integration of ESSENT and RWE (REN) and that of Powerhouse/Westland. Folkert’s strength lies in his clear insight into the organization, what it needs and how those needs can be met. This enables him to engage the organization in the changes and at the same time empower the organization. As a result, the two integrations were very successful. Top qualities: Personable, Expert, Creative
Marc van Putte
Hired Folkert as a Business Consultant, and hired Folkert more than once -
As integration manager at RWE/ESSENT B2B, I have worked very closely with Folkert in order to ensure the success of the integration process. Folkert coached our new management team and the organization in the transition to an unified new organization. His strength lies in his ability to involve the organization in the direction it needs and to facilitate organizational alignment so that we have achieve the aims we have set ourselves. Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Creative
Rutger Ockhuizen
Hired Folkert as a Coaching, and hired Folkert more than once -
I have worked with Folkert on a number of projects, and what has struck me each time is his ability to create trust and commitment in the organization, and so, by developing a shared perspective, allowing it actually to deliver. In the case of a number of projects, Folkert has made substantial contributions which have resulted in best practices being introduced within the organization.
Daniel de Jonge
General Manager Brau Union International, Heineken Central & Eastern Europe
Hired Folkert as a Business Consultant, and hired Folkert more than once -
Folkert has the uncanny ability to reduce apparently complex relationships to their core components. In doing so, he creates scope to devise a shared perspective based on trust. Folkert is a great person to work with. He had a positive influence on people around him. Energy, humor and competence are his characteristcs. We hope to be able to continue to benefit from his drive and knowledge. Top qualities: Personable, High Integrity, Creative
Erna Baars
President CEO Waterland Hospital Purmerend
Hired Folkert as a Business Consultant, and hired Folkert more than once -
Folkert has a clear insight into the dynamics of organizations, and is able to solve compl ex problems. One of his talents is his ability to quickly elicit the commitment of people to doing what has to be done! Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Expert
Floris Cobelens
Marketing Manager Heineken
Hired Folkert as a Business Consultant, and hired Folkert more than once -
Folkert helped the partners our firm in creating and confirming a shared vision of our firm’s future. Folkert combines high likeability with a deep understanding of complex issues. This rare combination allows him to be succesful with both early adopters and skeptics. Highly recommended! Top qualities: Great Results, High Integrity, Creative
Joost Linnemann
Managing Partner at Kennedy Van der Laan
Hired Folkert as a Business Consultant -
Folkert is a highly energetic individual, who by listening carefully is able to penetrate quickly to the core of an issue. He connects easy with people creating a positive working environment. By relating information from the organization to his own insights, he is able to suggest surprising solutions. I will work with Folkert again and recommend his services and skills to any company looking for refeshing ways to conduct business and lining up the team to achieve those goals. Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Creative
Eppo Van Berckelaer
Global Marketing Director at O’Neill
Hired Folkert as a Business Consultant, and hired Folkert more than once -
Folkert is able to get the maximum out of organizations by giving employees the believe that THEY are the ones that WILL make the difference. Top qualities: Personable, Good Value, Creative
Ronald den Elzen
Wholesale; On-Premise Director at Heineken Nederland
Hired Folkert as a Business Consultant -
Folkert has the ability to create alignment and trust within an organization by facilitating a process in which the organization itself works to create a clear context for the direction and interaction within that organization. Top qualities: Great Results, Good Value, Creative
Elmer De Boer
Manager Marktet; Regulations at ENECO Energie
Hired Folkert as a Business Consultant, and hired Folkert more than once -
Folkert is capable of bringing out the best in people, through inspiration, out-of-the-box thinking and an innate ability to understand and manage complex inter-personal relationships. Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Creative
Karen Kao
Partner at Kennedy Van der Laan
Hired Folkert as a Business Consultant -
In the run-up to the legendary Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, coached by Folkert Mulder we focused a lot on the goals we wanted to set as a team and on planning the collaboration on board, with a specific emphasis on the composition of the team and how we could get the best out of one another and thus from the team as a whole. Due partly to this intensive preparation, we won the race in our class. An extraordinary result!
Frank van Beuningen
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New List ItemFolkert has a clear insight into what organizations need to excel. He supported NGF TopGolf in the development of a state-of-the-art organization in order to get the maximum out of players and staff. The result was a first ever winner of the World Golf Championship Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Creative
Jeroen Stevens
Chairman Dutch Golf Federation