Speaking
Keynotes and Workshops
Johan brings three things few speakers combine. Twenty-five years leading institutional change across four international business schools. Recent research with hundreds of global executives on AI-augmented leadership. And a practitioner's instinct for what actually works under pressure. He speaks and consults with C-suite audiences, global conferences, and executive-education programs on AI and leadership, the future of management, and the human capabilities that algorithms cannot replace.
Signature topics
Human Magic: Leading with Wisdom in an Age of Algorithms.
The keynote from Johan's latest book (Routledge, April 2026). When machines provide instant answers, advantage moves to what they cannot do: ask the better question, hold competing truths, decide with lived wisdom. Audiences leave with those capabilities named, sample self-assessments, and a practical sense of how to defend curiosity, judgment, and agency under the pressure of AI-driven efficiency.
The Three AI Decisions Only the CEO Can Make.
Most decisions about AI can be delegated. Three cannot: which capabilities to protect, which judgments to keep human, and what the organization is for once machines can do the work. Leaders leave with the three decisions named, and a way to tell their board which ones they have actually made.
When AI Writes Your Strategy.
A complete strategy document arrives in minutes, indistinguishable from what any firm in the industry might produce. That is the moment for a harder question. If a machine can write the strategy, the strategy was never where the value lived. Whether the work is enterprise strategy or a single business unit's plan, leaders leave with a sharper sense of what only their team can decide, and why the document was never the point.
Human Magic in the Loop: Leading When Your Team Includes Machines.
As work moves to AI agents, the operating question is where people still belong. The real danger is subtle: people stop heeding what the machine produces and start rubber-stamping it. Drawing on his 2026 research, Johan shows operating leaders where to engineer human judgment into AI-enabled work by design, and how to tell heeding from deferring. Leaders leave with a practical map of where human judgment is irreplaceable in their own workflows. Best for COOs, business unit leaders, CIOs and CTOs, and operating teams deploying AI.
AI Makes Learning Effortless. That Is the Problem.
When answers come for free and at speed, the struggle that built expertise disappears, and the expertise dissipates with it. Johan examines what happens to judgment, mastery, and talent pipelines when learning stops requiring effort. Leaders leave with a clear view of the capability risk hiding inside AI adoption, and principles for building a workforce that can still think.
Imagination at Work: Specifying What You Actually Want.
People think with their hands. Before a team hands work to AI, it has to say clearly what the work is: what it values, what good looks like, who it serves. Using LEGO® Serious Play®, which Johan co-invented, this working session produces that shared specification, the depth a prompt cannot capture. Teams leave with a committed, AI-ready articulation of a real challenge they brought into the room. Best delivered as a workshop.
Formats
Keynote, interactive workshop, executive-education session, board offsite, and on-stage conversation or moderation.
Recent and scheduled engagements
2026
Drucker Salon
Riyadh
Keynote
AACSB Global Summit Day
Seattle
Speaker and Moderator
AACSB Annual Conference
Seattle
Speaker
18th European Economic Congress
Katowice
Guest Speaker
iVentiv Learning Futures Executive Knowledge Exchange
Amsterdam
Keynote
EFMD Annual Conference
Sevilla
Speaker and Moderator
QS World Conference
Budapest
Keynote and plenary
Drucker Salon
Berlin
Keynote
PMI Agile 2026
Washington D.C.
Keynote
International Futures 26 Conference
Luxembourg
Keynote
TCI Summit Europe
Malta
Speaker and moderate
12th Founders World Summit
Stockholm
Speaker
10th International LSP Conference
Billund
Chair and Keynote
18th Global Peter Drucker Forum
Vienna
Moderator and Contributor
SPARK 2026
Belgrade
Keynote
2025
EFMD Annual Conference
Vienna
Session Lead
AACSB EMEA Conference
Sevilla
Panel Leader
33rd CEEMAN Annual Conference
Durres
Keynote
Founders World Summit
Stockholm
Keynote
Tata Consulting Services Europe Conference
Vienna
Panel Leader
9th International LSP Conference
Billund
Chair and Keynote
17th Global Peter Drucker Forum
Vienna
Moderator and Contributor
Drucker Salon
Warsaw
December 2025
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