Title:

Principal

Contact Information:

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Community Role:

Practitioner, Speaker

Industries:

Community, Education, For-profit Business (Corporate), Fortune 500 companies, Higher Education, Individual Applications, Non-profit Business, Small companies, Technology

Frank van Erkel has had extensive experience as (senior) administrative manager and leader of innovation projects in the public sector.
He has been leading governmental change and innovation for the past 20 years, both on national and local levels.
He is always looking for new ways to improve government, and connecting it to emerging developments in society. Frank is currently working for the municipality of Amsterdam and is owner of the ChangeLab, specializing in change management, appreciative inquiry and social and governmental innovation. He is a certified Executive Coach, and is presently working for a variety of organizations as such.

Education and Professional Experience:

In recent years he has been working together with universities on societal change projects (Helsinki, Espoo, Malmo, Johannesburg) and co-founded the platform International Initiatives for Societal Innovation (I2SI). Frank has worked at the Department of Environment (1989-1994) in the field of national policy for the living environment, and at the Department of Transportation (1994-2002), where he worked on and managed diverse projects in the area of interactive planning, innovation programs, strategy development, and scenario planning. Among other things, he set up the first ministry-wide innovation program (Roads to the Future), leading the change program to liquidate the task-oriented, reactive Civil Aviation Authority and set up a process-oriented and pro-active Directorate General of Civic Aviation. In 2002 he became City-manager in Amsterdam for the district Geuzenveld and was responsible for reversing the downward spiral into social and economic decline and urban renewal in Amsterdam’s most deprived area. In 2008 he was one of the initiators of restructuring the Amsterdam administrative system and leading CEO for the merger of two city districts in 2010. From 2010 till 2013, he was the City-manager of the Amsterdam East-district. The last two years he was the program Director of Organizational Development for the city of Amsterdam to make the city administration more flexible and responsive to the needs of its citizens and entrepreneurs.

Areas of Interest:

Government, Global entrepreneur, Higher Education, Societal change