Oscar van Weerdenburg

Speaking Expertise
Oscar has held over a 1000 workshops and presentations for more than 50 multinational organizations on successfully managing cultural differences. He frequently acts as visiting professor in the Executive Education Programs of INSEAD, and has lectured at the Michigan Business School and the Rotterdam School of Management.  He is one the most frequently invited guest speakers on cultural issues at large international corporate conferences.

Professional experience
Since 1999, Oscar has been involved in extensive research on intercultural competences and their relevance for internationally operating companies. He developed the Intercultural Readiness Check (IRC), a self-assessment tool measuring intercultural competencies and allowing for in-depth personal feedback on intercultural communication and leadership competences. The quality and practicality of the IRC has been widely recognized by members of the academic and business community.

Using this and a range of other instruments for assessing cultural differences and analyzing dilemmas companies Oscar has assisted several companies in their merger processes. Particularly, he has been involved in various leadership development programs, helping top managers deal with the issues arising from the integration of various European firms.  

Much of Oscar’s work has also been in the area of in-house learning and development to help organizations and their members successfully recognize and profit from the different corporate and national cultural background they encounter. Creating and delivering services such as in-house cross-cultural competence centers and train-the-trainer programs, he has helped to bring a higher level of understanding of cross-cultural issues in the work place and increase business performance.

Background
In 1992, Oscar started his collaboration with Fons Trompenaars after having worked as lecturer in the European Studies department at the University of Amsterdam. Since then he has acted as trainer and consultant to a wide range of international companies that are aware that they operate in a complex multicultural environment – including Royal Dutch Shell, HSBC, Qantas, BASF, PepsiCo, DaimlerChrysler, ABN AMRO and Goldmann Sachs.

Oscar is a graduate of the Amsterdam and Heidelberg universities. He has published numerous articles on intercultural management, literature and philosophy, and for many years wrote for de Volkskrant, one of the major daily newspapers in the Netherlands.