Philip Daenens

• 30 years of experience in FMCG, Consultancy & Healthcare
• Broad P&L experience in diverse companies
• Strong leadership track record is diverse (inter)national environments
• Adheres to sustainable transformation & transition

Unique Phil

In his non-working hours, Phil cycles (both road and MTB), sails, and spends time with friends and family. Together with his family, he traveled around the world and explored many cultures. One of the most exciting countries he visited was India because of the various aromas, cultures, and colors.

Exploring 'the edge' and looking for suspense, Phil loves reading detective and horror stories. Currently, he's devouring a Jesper Stein thriller. In the non-fiction genre, books about NLP, mindfulness, coaching, leadership, marketing, sociocracy, innovation, sustainability, team dynamics, change management populate his shelves.

In 2019, Phil wrote ‘Planeet B’, an allegoric fable on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN. Contributing to sustainable growth and a better world, helping people and organizations realize their dreams and grow teams fully energizes Phil.

Success is a relative concept. Phil believes every person to be a hero; everyone has things in which they excel. He admires people who lead others through big-scale transitions like Mandela and Gandhi and game-changers such as Nicola Tesla and Steve Jobs. People who set the world in motion are the real leaders. Those who inspire are heroes.

His favorite motivational quotes are ‘Carpe Diem,’ ‘Live your Dreams,’ and ‘Never be restricted by what is but live to what could be.' Look up from what is and what has been, and look forward to the levers instead of the obstacles.

Phil has had different mentors at different stages in his career. They all shared the skill to help him make the right choices, calm him down when the going got tough, and give the best of himself time after time. Phil once got a piece of crucial advice: ' Festina Lente' or ‘hurry slowly’: you can only lead if others follow. So, look back and make sure everyone is on board.

One can learn the hard way by finding things out on your own. But one can also learn from the experiences of others. Mentoring is a way to speed up the learning process. Grateful for what he learned from others, believing in lifelong learning, and with a strong will to help, Phil aspires to be a mentor in the true sense of the word. His stoic calmness, listening skills, mindfulness, and ability to keep the helicopter view, combined with his capacity to reframe complexity through metaphors, scenario thinking, and distinctive insights, form the mentoring table mentees can feast on.

Phil closes with Anne Frank's quote: "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."