Sixteen recommendation letters, published in full and unedited, with the name and role of the person who wrote them: three from 2026 and thirteen from 2014 and 2015. Shorter quotes from clients and organisers are further down this page.
To Whom It May Concern
It is my pleasure to recommend Gijsbertus J.J. van Wulfen as a keynote speaker, innovation thought leader, and trusted advisor.
Over the year, Gijs has engaged with SAB on multiple occasions, and each interaction has left a lasting impression on our teams and leaders. His ability to simplify complex innovation concepts, challenge conventional thinking, and inspire action consistently creates a meaningful impact.
What sets Gijs apart is his unique combination of deep expertise, practical experience, and engaging storytelling. His sessions are insightful, thought-provoking, and highly relevant to organizations navigating transformation and growth. Participants leave with fresh perspectives, actionable ideas, and renewed energy to drive innovation within their organizations.
Most recently, Gijs shared his knowledge with SAB Innovation Champions, where his contribution sparked valuable discussions around innovation, leadership, and creating value for the future. The feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive, highlighting both the quality of the content and the inspiration it generated.
I would confidently recommend Gijs to leaders and organizations across Saudi Arabia seeking to strengthen their innovation capabilities, foster a culture of innovation, and prepare for the future with confidence.
We appreciate his continued support of SAB’s innovation journey and look forward to future collaborations.
Sincerely,
Iffat AlRowaithy
Innovation Centre and Corporate Innovation Unit Head, SAB (Saudi Awwal Bank)
To Whom It May Concern
I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Mr. Gijsbertus van Wulfen for his valuable contribution as the facilitator of the Innovation Focus Workshop, which brought together representatives from development funds and banks across the NDF ecosystem.
Throughout the engagement, Gijsbertus demonstrated a high level of professionalism, expertise, and facilitation skills. His ability to create an engaging and collaborative environment encouraged participants to openly discuss innovation challenges, identify common priorities, and exchange valuable perspectives.
Through his practical and structured approach to innovation, Gijsbertus guided participants in translating innovation ambitions into clear innovation focus areas. His facilitation encouraged meaningful discussions, active participation, and constructive collaboration throughout the workshop.
From my perspective, the workshop represented a valuable opportunity to bring together representatives from across the development ecosystem to exchange perspectives and explore common innovation challenges.
I greatly appreciated Gijsbertus’s professionalism, dedication, and commitment throughout the engagement. It was a pleasure working with him, and I am grateful for his contribution to the success of the workshop.
I wish Gijsbertus continued success in his future endeavors.
With sincere appreciation,
Afaq AlMusallam
Institutional Innovation Senior Director, National Development Fund (NDF)
Dear Gijs,
thank you once again for joining us at the Management Congress in Portorož and for bringing such great energy to our stage.
Your message about moving from “innowaitors” to innovators resonated extremely well with our audience. You managed to make a complex challenge very tangible: innovation is not primarily about having more ideas, but about creating the courage, discipline and environment to actually bring them to life.
I especially appreciated the combination of insight, humour and very practical thinking you brought to the Congress. It was exactly the kind of impulse we wanted to give our management community this year.
It was a real pleasure having you with us. Thank you for being part of our story of New Leadership Intelligence.
Warm regards,
Petra Juvančič
Executive Director, Managers’ Association of Slovenia
These letters were published on the previous version of this site. They are shown here again in full, with the name and role of the writer at the time.
To Whom It May Concern,
3M recently had the privilege of hiring Gijs van Wulfen to present a 90 minute lecture on the topic of "How to start Innovation". Gijs was an informed and engaging speaker. His story telling style built an immediate friendly relationship with the audience and his straight forward analysis of how 3M could do a better job at innovation was refreshing for the audience. His knowledge and experience on the subject of starting large new projects inside a corporate structure was evident. At times he referenced his book The Innovation Expedition but at no time during the talk did it feel like we were getting a pushy sales pitch for a product (his book) or his service (training in the FORTH methodology). Over 300 people from across 3M attended his talk and we have received nothing but positive feedback and requests for access to the recording of the lecture. Please allow me to share some direct feedback from people who attended the talk.
• "Watched this webstream this morning "The Innovation Expedition-FORTH method." It's worth the watch if you missed it. I found his Rule #2 "You can invent alone but you can't innovate alone" to be very true here at 3M."
• "Love the Q&A at the end discussing emotional vs. rational needs"
• "When the webstream becomes available I think you would like this presentation"
• "I liked how frank he was on many topics,"
• "Colorful, entertaining, practical, engaging and inspiring. Great Event"I would recommend Gijs as a speaker for any company that is working to establish, improve or reignite an innovation culture. I personally found Gijs to be easy to work with and a pleasure to host.
Sincerely,
Delony Langer-Anderson Ph.D
Advanced New Product Development Specialist, 3M Consumer Health Care Division
To whom it may concern
The FAST, programme is part of the Airbus Group University talent development portfolio, and is designed as a practical foundation for experienced Talented Managers who are responsible for a business unit or profit centre. The FAST programme gives participants the opportunity to focus on the development of business, management and leadership competencies in line with the AIRBUS GROUP Leadership Model. This programme is made up of 3 ‘one week’ modules challenging the participants on their leadership skills & competencies, as well as strengthening key business management skills coupled with exposure to external trends;
Module 2 focuses more particularly on business agility, and is done in smaller groups to allow peer to peer feedback and networking. In the frame of this Module 2, we have had the pleasure to welcome Gijs Wan Wulfen for a one day workshop on April 20, May 6 and May 18 in our Executive Education Center near Bordeaux in France.
During these Workshops (approximately 33 participants), Gijs has explained his view on innovation and how it can be sued in the business environment. He has inspired the participants on what it is - offering them an innovative mindset and giving them tips and tricks to apply what they learnt and help to spark innovation in their day to day business.
We have received very positive feedback after this workshop and we would like to thank him for his insightful messages, active listening and advice to the participants, as well as for the practical tips and tricks he shared with our managers with a view to them being able to translate their learnings back into the business.
We would be delighted to welcome Gijs again as a key note speaker in this programme and have already reached out to him for other needs we have on this subject.
Anne-Laure Pardijon
Fast Programme Manager, Airbus Group Leadership University
To Whom it May Concern
Last week we had the opportunity of enjoying Gijs van Wulfen presence at our Innovation Center, where he conducted 2 different sessions: A keynote lecture on “How to start innovation?” with a selected audience of practitioners and Innovation managers of relevant corporations and companies, and a workshop based on his own methodology “The Innovation expedition - the FORTH Method“, open to the public, where entrepreneurs and other interested on innovation stakeholders were invited.
Both events were remarkably successful, due to his outstanding communication skills to deliver insightful concepts, in a well elaborated and brilliantly articulated presentation full of passion, emotion and metaphors ready to be grasped and remembered.
The feedback collected from the different parties of attendees has been fully satisfactory, and Mr. van Wulfen was clearly above the (high) expectations, with his accessible and engaging speech. “He can make understandable and amusing the concepts of Innovation in the front end, regardless the blurry and undefined such territory might be” as started by one of the inspired participants in the workshop.
The BBVA innovation Centers is recognized for the quality of its contents, and I must acknowledge is thanks to contributions like the sessions with Gijs van Wulfen we may build and maintain such reputation.
I definitely recommend Gijs as inspirational speaker, for any audience willing to explore the uncharted waters of Innovation, and activate the spark of Innovation in their teams and projects. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you require any further comment
Sincerely,
Ignacio Villoch
Innovation Events & Activities Manager, BBVA Innovation Center
Endorsement of Gijs van Wulfen
I hereby endorse the work that Gijs van Wulfen does in Innovation. Gijs was key note speaker at the SA Innovation Summit held in Cape Town from 26-29 August 2015. His talk was about Getting Started with Corporate Innovation and was one of the most popular talks of the day. He is truly inspiring to a diverse crowd.
Gijs also took 30 people through a Masterclass during the Summit. The feedback was terrific. His Fourth methodology is relatable and gives a good structure to a complex drive, namely how to get more ideas into market from a corporation’s perspective.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Audrey Verhaeghe
Chairman, SA Innovation Summit
To whom it may concern:
On September 16th, Euvaldo Lodi Institute/IEL had the privilege to receive Gijs van Wulfen to present a 50 minute lecture on the topic "10 Insights to Innovate in a Crisis", for the 3rd Innovation Forum. This Forum gathered more than 600 people around this theme.
Using a story telling style, Gijs created a friendly atmosphere with the audience, allowing his interaction with it. In his 10 insights about how innovate in a crisis, the speaker was provocative, encouraging the public to take the initiative for innovation in their companies and in their work environment. With a focus on people, Gijs demonstrated through his method - FORTH - how it possible to mobilize people and create a team for innovation, which by clear steps and deliveries, could reach breakthrough results, even in a time of crisis.
On September 17th, Gijs conducted a 4 hour workshop for partner companies. In this workshop, companies could learn a little bit more about the FORTH Innovation Method and created their innovation assignments. This was their first step on the method, the first step on the Innovation Expedition.
IEL certainly recommend Gijs van Wulfen as a speaker and as an expert on how to think about innovation in different scenarios. He also masters how to engage a team around an innovation project within all kinds of organizations. He is accessible and easy to work with. This was much appreciated by our team and it was pleasure to host him in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Thaise Graziadio
Operations Manager, IEL/RS (Instituto Euvaldo Lodi), Porto Alegre
Hello Gijs,
Two weeks after our event ‘innowiz in a box 2015’ we are happy to let you know some results of our feedback request receives from our audience:
Content of your keynote session 9/10 (av. 8)
Quality of the keynote speaker 8/10 (av. 7)Open remarks on the keynote mention ‘a smooth presentation and nice methaphores. Ready-to-implement. Fun and entertaining, yet very inspiring and usefull’.
Personally i’ll would like to thank you for this collaboration. We do appreciate the personal approach before and during the event and your participation during the workshops, as well as the link with the people in your network.
Hopefully we can continue working together, and share creative experiences!
Many thanks!
Dries Laperre
Coordinator Innowiz, organiser Innowiz in a box, Howest
Dear Gijs,
I would like to convey my sincere appreciation for the key note you gave on our Innovation Day conference, which was held on the 21st of May 2015 in Warsaw, Poland.
Innovation Day is one of the most important conference in Poland to provide future, innovation, inspiration and stimulate creative thinking among media, advertising and communication businesses. The conference gathered around 400 people from marketing and advertising industry in Poland: media agencies, advertising & digital agencies, media, advertisers - experts from all levels: CEO, directors and managers.
After evaluation, the conference scored 4.5 of 5 points and I'm convinced that your merit is in this huge! You were the top-rated speaker with an average of 4.75 points (of 5), which is higher than average of whole conference.
The most common comments after your speech were: extremely interesting, essential, inspiring, open-minding, entertaining, very engaging, worth to remember for life and work.
You made the audience engaged, lough, but first of all and the most important: think, wonder, you challenged them and invite to look for new ideas and solutions and implement them.
Additionally - it was a huge pleasure to work with you, not only because the great content you provided, but all organization and cooperation from your side was just perfect - full information, everything on time.
You are the person that I will highly recommend to cooperate with.
Kind regards,
Agata Wiewióra
Project Manager, SAR Marketing Communication Association (Stowarzyszenie Komunikacji Marketingowej SAR)
To whom it may concern,
It was a pleasure for us at ARAG SE The Netherlands to welcome Gijs van Wulfen as a Keynote Speaker for our management meeting on 2th of March 2015 in Den Dolder, The Netherlands.
The theme of our management meeting was to share and discuss our strategic and operational objectives. In order to achieve our strategic objectives innovation will play an important role. Therefore Gijs van Wulfen was invited to give a presentation on this topic. His performance was inspiring, dynamic and sometimes provocative (in a positive way). He brought his story with a good sense of humor.
I would like to thank Gijs van Wulfen very much for his performance. I can recommend Gijs van Wulfen as a high quality speaker in the field of innovation.
Yours Sincerely,
Drs. J.C.A.V. van Gool RC
CFO, ARAG SE Netherlands
To Our Dear Keynote Speaker Gijs Van Wulfen
We would very much like to share our gratitude with you, as you have been very kind to attend our event; Turkey Innovation Week İstanbul, between the dates 4-6 December, 2014 which had taken place at Istanbul Congress center with the contributions of Ministry of Economy and with the organization of Turkish Exporters’ Assembly. We would like to thank you for your presence and would like you to know that it has been an honour for us to share your valuable ideas and experiences and that you have contributed a lot to Turkey’s innovation culture.
Best Regards,
Mehmet Büyükekşi
Chairman, Turkish Exporters Association
To Whom It May Concern,
It was a great pleasure for us at Tebodin to welcome Gijs van Wulfen as a keynote speaker for the Young Tebodin Event 2014 held on the 26th September 2014 in Amsterdam. The Young Tebodin Event is an annual meeting of the company where the young employees gather and participate in group activities. More than 200 people attended this year’s event.
The theme of the event was “Innovation”. During the event attention was paid to several aspects of innovation. Gijs van Wulfen proved to be the perfect keynote speaker for this subject. He thoughtfully prepared his speech in order to customize it to our company’s profile. Three things could be said about the speech. It was provocative, inspiring and fun. It was provocative because he dared to show Tebodin its shortcomings in the path of innovation in front of the company’s directors in a challenging but constructive way. It was inspiring because he told us what the limitations to innovation are and how we as individuals can overcome them, thus making us believe in our potential. It was fun because he is a very eloquent person that knows how to bring the humor factor in the right moments.
Tebodin recommends Gijs van Wulfen as a high quality speaker in the field of innovation methodologies. The positive spontaneous reactions of several attendees after his talk confirms this perception. We thank Gijs van Wulfen for the informative, fun and educating talk.
Sincerely,
Dave Koomen
Young Tebodin Event 2014, Tebodin Netherlands B.V.
To whom it may concern;
It was a pleasure and a unique opportunity for Russian audience to welcome Gijs van Wulfen at Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design in frames of Strelka summer public programme.
Lecture of Gijs was one of the most useful and worth visiting lectures at Strelka institute this summer. Gijs gives a vision on how to become an innovator and shares his practical approach in a very interactive and personal way. Strelka public programme audience consists of people of different professions and backgrounds and the lecture was equally interesting to all of them.
I certainly recommend Gijs van Wulfen as a public speaker and a subject matter expert on innovations and innovative approach to the projects and companies.
With best regards,
Maria Biryukova
Executive director of public programme, Strelka Institute
To Whom It May Concern:
It was a pleasure to welcome Gijs van Wulfen to Nova Scotia, Canada as a keynote speaker for the 2014 Annual Conference of the Canadian Council on Small Business and Entrepreneurship (CCSBE). The conference drew more than 175 delegates with an active interest in entrepreneurship and innovation from the Caribbean, United Kingdom, Africa, United States and Canada.
Gijs talked specifically about innovation on a global and local level. His observations were provocative and engaging in which many of the attendees are still discussing the effect his words and thinking had on their work and lives. Gijs has a natural ability to engage with his audience with a nice balance of anecdotes, facts, personal insight and humour. I haven't encountered an international speaker who took so much time to research the geography and culture of the venue and to engage with conference planners in such a collegial and respectful way. I believe this unique approach ensured his remarks were highly relevant and personal.
I certainly recommend Gijs as a speaker and subject matter expert on how to think about innovation and how to embed it in your organization or project, no matter what the size of your group. I should say that Gijs made himself accessible to the attendees rather than speaking and leaving. This was noted and much appreciated.
Sincerely,
Heather Spidell
President and CEO, Centre for Entrepreneurship Education and Development (CEED), Halifax
Gijs,
This letter is to confirm and congratulate your speaking engagement at Product Innovation (PI) Berlin which took place in Germany between the 25th & 26th February. With 300+ cross-industry representatives in attendance, this marks our biggest event to date and we are thrilled that you contributed to its success as a stream chairman and session speaker.
After having completed a thorough analytical breakdown of the delegate feedback, I am happy to report that you scored an average grade of 8/10 and were ranked in our top 5 speaker bracket. Comments regarding your talks included:
• Inspiring and entertaining!
• Wildly inspiring and outstanding visualisation!
• Fun, engaging and insightful. The perfect mix for great presentation content and deliveryAdditionally, I would like to add that you were truly a pleasure to work with pre and during the project, but this comes as no surprise given your excellent contributions to our online PI Live webinar series in 2013.
I would not hesitate to recommend you for a similar position as a speaker and/or event chairman at any other event or function and look forward to working with you again in the future.
Many thanks again,
Michael Ratcliffe
Production Director, MarketKey Ltd (PI Congress)
What sets Gijs apart is his unique combination of deep expertise, practical experience, and engaging storytelling.
It was a pleasure working with him, and I am grateful for his contribution to the success of the workshop.
Innovation is not primarily about having more ideas, but about creating the courage, discipline and environment to actually bring them to life.
A brilliantly articulated presentation full of passion, emotion and metaphors.
One of the most valuable presentations at our conference and highly relevant for our industry.
Gijs creates an innovative mindset throughout the audience.
A colourful, engaging, inspiring storyteller.
Gijs made the audience laugh, think and wonder.
Gijs is truly inspiring to a diverse crowd.
Entertaining, very inspiring and insightful.
Gijs is provocative, encouraging the audience to take action in innovation.
Gijs makes himself accessible to the attendees, which was much appreciated.
Inspirational? Yes. Innovative? Yes. Knowledgeable? Yes. Energetic? Yes. Great facilitator? Yes. Great keynote speaker? Yes.
If Gijs was a flower he would be an electric daisy, full of inspiration!
Gijs is a remarkable keynote speaker and innovation influencer.
Gijs is truly a catalyst for effective change.