Heidi van Woudenberg

I was born and raised in The Netherlands, studied in the United States (MBA) and have been working for Rabobank - a Dutch cooperative bank with strong roots in the Food & Agri-business - for more than 25 years. I’ve worked in different jobs at the bank, and what I like most, is innovating our business models. Moreover, I am very interested in how I and my bank can contribute to a better society, especially in the field of environmental issues and the related concept of a circular economy and in health/food issues. I realize there are huge challenges nowadays that no person or company can solve by itself. How can we use one another’s knowledge and networks, connect people and ideas, thus making a strong coalition in order to improve and grow towards a better society. I am a curious person and like to learn from people from other countries, cultures and companies. I hope the Creative Leadership Program will help me increasing knowledge and experience in innovation methods. And I hope to get a lot of inspiration from participants and guest speakers.

Next to my job as a director of one of the local banks of Rabobank, for the last one and a half year, I have been working on the bank’s national vision and strategy. I am a jury member of a national innovation award and used to be a member of the Advisory Board of Syntens, the semi-governmental organization for stimulating innovation at SME companies.

I have a husband and two kids that are 14 and 15 years old. We live close to Amsterdam, next to the water, and like to spend free time on the water. I enjoy sports (f.e. jogging and skiing) and love traveling.