Image

Koen
Gonnissen

 
 
The Netherlands
Partner

Coach & Trainer

Dutch | English | French | Spanish
 
 

BIO

Koen Gonnissen started his sports career in tennis. At the age of 17 he was elected the best junior tennis player in Belgium, but was stopped due to a back injury. After his active sports career and master’s degree he gained many years of practical experience through coaching Belgian and international tennis players at the highest level. Under his captaincy, the Belgian tennis Davis Cup team reached the quarter-finals and the year after the semi-final of the world group (1989/99).


Koen holds a master’s degree in Classic Philology from the University of Leuven and a postgraduate degree in Physiology. He has a specific interest in the physiology of human body under pressure both on individual and on team level. Making his transfer as a coach from sports to business in 1999, he co-wrote the book ‘The Corporate Athlete’, describing interesting parallels between sports and the corporate world. One important thing you’ll learn from top sport is that efficient energy management is the only way to achieve high sustainable performance: ‘Manage your energy, not just your time!’


Over the years Koen specialized in team performance management, transformational leadership and cultural change. Energy is the fuel that makes great organizations run. Leadership is the art of generating that positive energy. Winning organizations know how to reproduce that energy. Using a combination of academic models and practical examples and cases from the sports world, Koen loves to stimulate teams to get out of their comfort zone, and to find an internal motivation to get to a better collaboration and a more efficient performance. ‘Are you working in a dream team?’ Team Membership is just as important as Team Leadership!

ACHIEVEMENTS

Partner Mentally Fit Institute Global

Keynote speaker for global companies on many different topics

Lecturer at Vlerick Business School, Nyenrode Business School, INSEAD Fontainebleau (since 2009)

Mental coach second career Kim Clijsters back to N°1 position in the world (2009-2010)

Coach for top tennis players El Aynaoui, Xavier Malisse, Johan Van Herck, Ferrero, Gaudio, Canas, Kulti and others

Mental coach Omega Pharma Lotto cycling team (2010 – ), Philippe Gilbert, Andre Greipl

Coaching Royal Antwerp soccer team back to 1st division (2017)

ICF Certified coach and MBTI certification (2005)

Business & Executive Coach since 2000

Davis Cup trainer Belgium (1993 -1998), Davis Cup captain Belgium (1998-1999)

Professor Mental training (Bloso 1990-1999)

Postgraduate degree in Physiology (BOSU, Belgium 1986-1990)

Master’s degree cum laude in Classical Philology (University of Leuven 1982-1986)

Keynote for companies such as Microsoft, EY Global, Vodafone Global Summit top 40, IBM Global, Heineken Global Summit top 60, Danone Europe, Master Card Europe & APAC, Nike, JCDecaux, Unilever, International Hotel Group, HP, Shell, Philips, ING, Robeco, Baxter, Deloitte, McKinsey, DHL, Media Markt, Toyota Europe, AXA bank, ABN AMRO, Accenture, At Kearney, Unilever, HTM group France (Auchan, Boulanger, …), CBRE, Intertrust, Grunenthal, Roche, Plantronics, Atradius APAC, NUON Vattenfall, Adidas, Tech Data, Alliance Healthcare, BMS, Kuehne + Nagel.

Key note for Children Rights and Business Principles: corporate responsibility (UNICEF, summit Brussels 2012).

PUBLICATIONS

Writer of 'The Corporate Athlete' with Alain Goudsmet, Susan Goudsmet [Kluwer 2005 ]

SPORTS

Tennis

Entrepreneurs are smart people. There is nothing wrong with their IQ. But to be really successful you need more than just intelligence. It is about the balance between the IQ, skills and physical fitness.

Koen Gonnissen IN ACTION

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image