Peter ten Hoopen
Born 1944 in the Netherlands. Studied psychology at Amsterdam University while working as a journalist and translator. In 1968 began three year journey through the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, collecting material for two works of non-fiction and feature articles, photographing for Syndication International, studying sitar at the feet of Ravi Shankar's father in law, the violent saint Ustad Allauddin Khan, and recording traditional music for the legendary Folkways Records (now a department of the Smithsonian Institution) and the Elektra Nonesuch series. Both are represented in musicological collections world wide.
Upon return to Europe in the early seventies practiced his craft as a writer in various formats: literary translations, journalism, advertising copywriting. Traveled on all continents, frequently returning to the Asia he loves. In 1976 worked in New York as a feature writer and interviewer and made his debut as a novelist. (See bibliography below.) His prefered journalistic form became the lengthy, in-depth interview. Among those who welcomed him were Salman Rushdie, Tom Wolfe, Paul Theroux, and the late Bruce Chatwin, with whom he shared a deep love for Afghanistan. In the early '80s published second novel and collection of short stories.
In 1984/85, as writer in residence, taught creative writing at the University of Michigan. In 1986 published fourth work of fiction, an adventurous and suspenseful novel set in Peru, about the Theology of Liberation - or more specifically, about a priest struggling with his urge to join the guerillas in the mountains. In same year co-founded award-winning Amsterdam advertising agency. Built dreamhouse and collected dreamcars.
In 1993 sold agency share and dream-properties and took his wife and two young sons, then aged 7 and 8, on a slow journey around the world, trekking through South and South-East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the USA, with a three year spell in upstate New York, and back to the old world - while writing four works of non-fiction on the road. He spent much of the last decade on a rural estate in Southern Portugal, without forgetting the world beyond.
A passionate ocean sailer with a home within smell of the sea, he has made several blue water voyages: multiple times up and down the rugged Iberian West coast, to the Madeira archipelago, and across the Atlantic to the Azores, both from Bermuda and from Lagos, Portugal, the same old port near stormy Cape St. Vincent where all the old Portuguese sailors left for their voyages of discovery that gave us the world.
Inspired by his work as a consultant in the field of corporate personality, in 2002 he founded the virtual company Soul Consultants, a braintrust aiming to improve organisations' performance by helping them make better use of their human capital. His 2005 publication, Geluk in Zaken ('Corporate Happiness'), shows how to achieve real success in business by optimal use of given talents, using insights and techniques that work equally well for individuals and organisations. The essence of the book's message is: 'Focus on work you can do wholeheartedly.' His latest book The Enlightened Leader explores the type of leadership that one might justifiably call enlightened, and shows ways to develop the necessary heightened awareness of personal qualities and of universal connectedness. In 2007 he joined Trompenaars Hampden-Turner, one of the world's leading consultancies in the field of corporate culture.
Peter ten Hoopen is an engaging, inspiring, and often provocative speaker on a wide range of subjects related to corporate culture and corporate personality, creativity, diversity, and personal and organisational development. Bookings handled by Speakers Academy.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
See www.rovingstar.com/lit
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