DIRECTOR OF ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, CITY OF AMSTERDAM
Frank van Erkel is currently working for the municipality of Amsterdam as director of Organizational Development. He is leading different international workshops on societal innovation and very active on community building. Until 2013 he was the City-manager of the Amsterdam East-district (120.000 inhabitants, 1000 employees). He is a certified Executive Coach.
He has a Master Degree in Human Geography at the University of Amsterdam (1980-1987), after which he worked at the University as an Assistant Professor (1986-1989), doing housing market research and research on the revitalization of deprived areas.
Frank has had extensive experience as (senior) administrative manager and leader of innovation projects in the public sector. He has been leading governmental change and innovation for the past 20 years, both on national and local level.
Frank has worked at the Department of Environment (1989-1994) in the field of national policy for the living environment, and at the Department of Transportation (1994-2002), where he worked on and managed diverse projects in the area of interactive planning, innovation programs, strategy development, and scenario planning. Among other things, he set up the first ministry-wide innovation program (Roads to the Future), was leading the change program to liquidate the task-oriented, reactive Civil Aviation Authority and set up a process-oriented and pro-active Directorate General of Civic Aviation.
In 2002 he became City-manager in Amsterdam for the district Geuzenveld (50.000 inhabitants) and was responsible for reversing the downward spiral into social and economic decline and urban renewal in Amsterdam’s most deprived area. In 2008 he was one of the initiators of restructuring the Amsterdam administrative system and leading CEO for the merger of two city districts in 2010.
His professional interest is governmental innovation, change management and appreciative inquiry. He is always looking for new ways to improve government and connecting it to emerging developments in society.
In his free time he enjoys traveling and encountering different cultures. He loves to run the half marathon and scuba diving in tropical water. He also practices improvisational theater.