ECWO Conference 2023: Creating Inclusive Organisations

Barbara Banda has been an educator, consultant and executive coach for over 20 years. As a Professor of Practice, Barbara has designed and delivered executive education solutions for both the private sector and not-for-profit organizations. She works in the areas leadership, inclusive leadership and change. Her work often includes working with global organisations on complex leadership development, organizational change and business strategy projects. She has worked with numerous organizations from across various business sectors, including Phillips, Unilever, AstraZeneca, MSD, Continental AG, DSM, Novartis, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and BBC. 

Barbara enjoys research and her work is currently focused on inclusive leadership interventions which promote inclusion amongst both the dominant and non-dominant cultures. Her Doctorate focused on connecting management education to the workplace, which informs all her work with individuals and organisations.

Prior to her career in executive education, Barbara worked for 13 years in International Sales and Marketing in the retail and healthcare industries holding senior positions within Alliance Boots, and BASF Pharma. Her retailing experience included identifying new business areas and product lines.

She is the author of the 2022 Routledge publication, The Model Black: How Black British Leaders Succeed in Organisations and Why it Matters.

Frank Baaijens received his PhD from TU/e in 1987. In 1985 he joined Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven to work on Computational Mechanics. Since 1990, he has been a part-time professor of Computational Rheology at the Eindhoven University of Technology. In July 1995 he was appointed full professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. In October 2002 he was appointed full professor in the Department of BioMedical Engineering (Soft Tissue Biomechanics and Tissue Engineering). From 2003 to 2007, he was Dean of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and from 2007 to 2014, he was Scientific Director of the national research program on BioMedical Materials (BMM). From 2015-2023 he served as Rector Magnificus of the Eindhoven University of Technology. 

The first half of his career was dedicated to computational rheology emphasizing on the analysis of viscoelastic flows of polymer solutions and melts. The switch to biomedical engineering changed his research focus to regenerative medicine and in particular, the engineering of living heart valves. Based on this research, several biomedical technology companies were founded, resulting in clinical applications.

Hanneke Takkenberg is Professor of Management Education focusing on Women in Business at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) and Executive Director of Erasmus Centre for Women and Organisations (ECWO). 

In these roles her work includes leading RSM’s participation in the European Commission-funded Horizon2020 EQUAL4EUROPE research project, developing and facilitating ECWO’s social safety programme for organisations, and facilitating within ECWO’s programmes, including its trio of signature Executive Education programmes, in-company programmes and gender-balanced leadership events. Prof. Hanneke additionally works with RSM Masters and PhD students who researching different aspects of gender as a supervisor, research co-creator and reader.

Since 2012, Prof. Takkenberg has been Professor of Clinical Decision Making in Cardio-Thoracic Interventions at Erasmus University Medical Center where her current research focuses on prognosis and clinical and shared decision making in cardiovascular interventions, with special attention to male-female differences. At Erasmus MC, Prof. Takkenberg has worked to improve healthcare for women for patients and working conditions for female medical doctors. For that she was recognised with the 2018 Els Borst award for her scientific and societal efforts. In 2019, she received the Caty Asscher award for her efforts to achieve gender diversity in the Erasmus MC and Erasmus University Rotterdam. This was through the founding of VENA (2006), the Erasmus MC network for women in academia, her work as Chief Diversity Officer for EUR (2015-2018) and her initiation of the Diversity and Inclusion programme for the Erasmus MC in 2018. 

From 2018 to 2022, Prof. Takkenberg was chair of board of the Dutch Network for Women Professors (LNVH) - a network of over 1300 women professors and associate professors. In 2021 she was awarded Female Academics Moving toward Equity’s (FAME) Athena Award for Erasmus University staff members who have made an exceptional effort to promote female talent.