English Summary

About Leontine van Hooft

“Both anthropology and Ubuntu place great value on context. Therefore, it is meaningful to know who I am, as it influences the vision I have developed.

Entrepreneurship has always been present in my family, particularly on my father’s side. Businesses were often passed down from generation to generation. My mother grew up in a family where people were civil servants for generations. My mother was also a war victim, and the effects of the hunger winter played a significant role until her death. This combination strongly shaped me in terms of values and ethics.

I am a corporate anthropologist. I have been a trainer in intercultural management for many years and had a consultancy organization focused on diversity, inclusion, and integrity before starting GreenDreamCompany with my partner. With that, I have guided many organizations and their leaders in creating a new organizational culture.

A life devoted to spreading Ubuntu

I pass on my life purpose in various ways: through writing management and children’s books with the African Ubuntu philosophy as the central theme. These books can help individuals and organizations in their quest for happiness and meaning. Through lectures, masterclasses, and theater shows about my award-winning management books: Evolutionary Leadership, The Power of African Thinking, and The Path to Gross Global Happiness. Through implementing Ubuntu leadership in our own tribal and meaningful organization, GreenDreamCompany. And through my board positions and guest lecturing at institutions such as the School of Philosophy.

From Zaltbommel, where I live, I have worked as an inclusive entrepreneur in various countries on the African continent for many years, where I came to know and experience the concept of Ubuntu. I have learned from it in numerous forms of collaboration. It felt like coming home.

My first management book, The Power of African Thinking, about Ubuntu, connecting leadership, and a new world, reflected my genuine wonderment about the discovery of Ubuntu during my work on the African continent. I witnessed how, while the West was facing a financial and trust crisis, Ubuntu became more and more the backbone and success of many modern African societies. How could I make this tribal wisdom available to Western organizations? My enthusiastic search and experimentation began.

In my second management book, The Way to Gross Global Happiness, about Ubuntu, inclusive and value-driven entrepreneurship, I delved deeper into applicability, providing many examples of encounters and other practicing inclusive and value-driven organizations.

Due to my desire to share our experiences with Ubuntu leadership in line with the philosophy, so that others can derive energy and support from it and start applying it, I found it time for my third management book: Evolutionary Leadership, about Ubuntu, courageous leaders, and organizations that want to make a difference.

But it does not stop at management books for today’s leaders. I have also launched the edutainment brand Ubuntopia for the leaders of the future. The concept of Ubuntu naturally runs as a common thread through children’s books, theater productions, films, and more.

Giving, sharing, and creating a better world together. In this way, I hope that future generations will see me as a good ancestor, even if only to a small extent.”

Met vriendelijke groet / Kind regards / Cordialement / مع خالص التحية والاحترام،,

Leontine van Hooft