About

Gijs van Wulfen (1960, based in Greece of Dutch origin) is a well-known global authority and trusted advisor on innovation, inspiring speaker, author of three innovation bestsellers, one of the top ten worldwide innovation bloggers, and a LinkedIn Influencer with 325.000+ followers.

He is very driven to jump start innovation, because organisations struggle with the start of innovation in their day-to-day hectic business. He is a business economist with a master’s in management consultancy. During his career of thirty years, Gijs has worked as a fast-moving consumer goods marketer, a boardroom consultant, a large group facilitator and as a keynote speaker. Through his informal personal style, infectious enthusiasm and persuasiveness he gets people to move beyond their borders to make their organization innovative again.

Gijs as keynote speaker
Most recently Gijs was the keynote speaker at the iExpo event on Digital Inclusion of NEC in Tokyo for 3.500 people. He was also in Guadalajara, Mexico, inspiring 500 Mexicans on ‘how to start innovation. And he also loves to do smaller scale intensive workshops, for f.e.  the yearly AIRBUS Programme Management Meeting on his FORTH innovation methodology.

Gijs is retained as a motivational innovation speaker with companies such as 3M in the United States, AIRBUS Group in France and Bilfinger in The Netherlands. Gijs performs in English, German and his native Dutch language. He is an illustrative lyrical storyteller with an articulate informal style, which is full of humour, entertainment and insight.

Several innovation themes and formats
In all the years Gijs is speaking on innovation globally, he has developed several keynote lectures on different themes. Five themes Gijs is regularly speaking about are:

  1. How to start innovation?
  2. How to create a culture for innovation?
  3. How to get great ideas?
  4. Leading innovation
  5. Inspiration for Innovation: 100 lessons for innovators

Most of his speaking clients ask for forty-five-minutes lectures, although he can also inspire your audience in twenty minutes. On the other hand, his favourite workshop on innovation with a long-lasting impact is a two-day format. Please contact Gijs to discuss your wishes about the content and length of the lecture or workshop.

The FORTH innovation method
Gijs is also the author of the innovation bestseller “The Innovation Expedition”, which has been published in English, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Dutch, Chinese and Japanese. Gijs furthermore founded the FORTH innovation method, which provides structure to the chaotic start of innovation, while still fostering creative thinking. The FORTH method helps businesses to generate well-constructed new product, service, and business model concepts. To date the FORTH innovation method has been implement in 100+ businesses in Asia, Europe, Africa and North – and South America.

Gijs creates an innovative mindset at the audience

Anne-Laure Pardon, AIRBUS GROUP, France

Honors & Awards


Invited as one of the 150 Thought Leaders on Linkedin
November 2012

Chosen as Nr 2 of the Top 40 International Innovation Bloggers 2012
Innovation Excellence (Worlds best visited innovation blog)
January 2013

Chosen as Nr 3 of the Top 40 International Innovation Bloggers 2013
Innovation Excellence (Worlds best visited innovation blog)
January 2014

Chosen as Nr 6 of the Top 40 International Innovation Bloggers 2014
Innovation Excellence (worlds best visited innovation blog)
January 2015

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