A professor who has promoted on both Technology and on Ethics / Philosophy. A thinker who always searches for the combination with doing. A skilled manufacturing manager who dares to implement ground-breaking social innovations. An experienced manager who knows how to translate complex problems into practical solutions. A lover of Marx, Nietzsche and the Bible who has always worked in a secular environment where he does not shy away from the essential questions.

Curious about what this professor can do with a special combination of competencies for your company or organisation?

Innovator

In Maarten Verkerk’s long career (1953), innovation has turned into a leitmotiv. Based on his interest and expertise in philosophy, he knows how to apply abstract insights to practical problems. He prefers to use his knowledge and expertise in the field of innovation within healthcare, education or business sectors. In these fields, he has built up years of experience at Philips, Vijverdal Psychiatric Hospital, VitaValley and the universities of Eindhoven and Maastricht.

Inspirator

Are you looking for someone who can inspire people, from the boardroom to the shop floor? Then you have come to the right place at Verkerk’s. He is a real 'people manager' who can make people enthusiastic about working together on solutions. And although he likes to work in a context where he can dive deep into the analytical field from his broad background, he gets his greatest satisfaction from the application in practice. After all, this is where the real difference is made.

Verkerk dares to raise questions about meaning and ethics within the organisation. As a professor of Christian philosophy at Maastricht University, he likes to challenge his students to think further. He has applied this 'further thinking' as a director within different organisations. For example, from 2003 to 2007, he was a director at Vijverdal, where he implemented various care innovations. After that, as director of VitaValley, he put this innovation network in the health care sector on the map in ten years’ time, again resulting in several implemented care innovations. In 2014, Verkerk was a member of the Schnabel committee, which was established to give advice on 'completed life'. He has strongly contributed to laying the ethical basis for decision-making.

“Ideals can be beautifully shaped through innovations.”

Publicist

You may also know Verkerk from one of his publications in the newspaper. As an academic, Verkerk of course writes for professional journals, e.g. an extensive philosophical study was recently published in Philosophia Reformata about the electricity system of the future. And an article in Journal of Enabling Technologies, in which he writes about designing technology and living for people with dementia, from a neurological and philosophical approach. But certainly as much, Verkerk writes a piece for one of the Dutch national media - difficult issues have a much greater reach in an accessible newspaper article. He previously wrote about, among other things, completed life in NRC and home technology in healthcare in the Financieel Dagblad.