Over the past five decades, Maarten Nypels (Maastricht, 1959) has gone through many stages one might imagine in a rich and turbulent life. He was active as a squatter during his biology studies, worked as an undercover environmental activist in various Asian countries, lobbied for environmental and development organizations to lobby governments and bodies such as the UN, organized intercultural partnerships between people living in and off tropical forests (how wonderful it is to bring these people together on the banks of the Amazon), ended up as an aid worker in war zones and famines (refugee and famine aid in Ethiopia/Eritrea, Malawi, Mozambique, and South Africa) (unfortunately, therefore, he also knows what it is like to live with war trauma), laid the foundation for the conceptualization and implementation of the first Industrial Eco-Systems in the Port of Rotterdam and later on business parks throughout the Netherlands, and is a co-founder of the Vital Systems approach in Rotterdam, which has recently also been applied in Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Nijmegen.
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Perhaps even more importantly: he is a social animal, only truly lives when love and musical creativity can flow between him and others, feels intensely happy when he can work on his ideals, will always play the rebel somewhere, and is quite a nerd when it comes to knowledge. Maarten harbors infinite curiosity and perseverance, and is fascinated by cognitive-emotional development, organizational transformation, and system dynamics, transitions, and leaps. He holds an official neurodiversity diploma: ADHD/Giftedness.
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Education
MSc (Biology) - Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
MBA (Master in Environmental Business Administration, Technical University Twente, Enschede, Netherlands
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Unique expertise
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Intercultural implementation: more than 40 years of experience developing cognitive frameworks in diverse global cultural contexts
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System integration: practical experience bridging neuroscience, governance, education, and organizational development
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Urban innovation: practice-oriented test environment for applications of dynamic intelligence in urban governance
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Interdisciplinary synthesis: unique perspective through collaboration between sectors, cultures, and fields of knowledge​
Philosophy of life
Paradigm shifts require sound science as well as cognitive-emotional openness, practical application skills, sheer stupid luck, and a pinch of stubbornness.
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The inside-out advantage
When Maarten finally discovers, after a considerable life, that he has been diagnosed within the neurodiversity spectrum as a 100-carat "twice-exceptional" (ADHD combined with Giftedness), and tells this to his friends who have known him for over 40 years, he is met with utter astonishment: "Hey Maarten, we could have told you that 40 years ago."
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His role as an insider-outside coincides closely with that recent diagnosis. Whatever you do, do not ask him to tell you what it feels like from the inside to go through life as a neurodiversity acrobat. Or how he survives in an environment where he feels quite fundamentally that he does not fit in. Then he is almost unstoppable. But if you don't ask, you also miss the fantastic symbolic parallel to surviving as a human being in an increasingly hostile/dangerous/crumbling environment. If you hire Maarten and temporarily add him to a team/organization, the inside-outside advantage unfolds before your very eyes: how he can work from the inside, passionate and connected, with the power of the outsider's perspective.
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No disciplinary silos: freedom to integrate neuroscience, evolution, politics, and education
Validation in practice: ideas are tested through practical implementation, not just theoretical analysis
Paradigm freedom: can question fundamental assumptions without career risk
Drive: driven by societal needs, not by publication statistics
Systems perspective: three decades of pattern recognition in diverse contexts
