Sander Goudswaard

Innovation | Change | Leadership

Innovation manager with years of experience in leading innovation programs and involved teams and governance structures in both public and private sectors. Focused on and experienced in connecting people with strategy and execution: from experiment to implementation and scaling. Strong in Design Thinking and Lean Startup. Strong in stakeholder management from board to shop floor.

MakerLab is a service provider for innovation. Started in 2014 with 3 people and grew into an innovation cluster of eventually 3 organizations within the MakerStreet network. From day 1, I have been involved, first as an employee and then as managing partner, in starting, building, and expanding this company.

Our teams were hired in new or existing innovation programs to provide strategy (doing the right things), tactics (doing things the right way), and operations (doing them). Based on years of innovation skills – which we certainly had to invent ourselves in the beginning – we formed the right mix of people, processes, and tools for each client.

As managing partner, I was ultimately responsible for organizational results. Internally, I focused on sales, client relationships, and creating and maintaining a professional innovation culture for an internal innovation team of 10-30 FTE. Within projects, my role focused on stakeholder management, innovation program design, program management, team management, and reporting for C-level or the Board of Directors.

As an employee of MakerLab, I sold, designed, and led innovation programs. I focused on client relationships, program management, stakeholder management, and contributing to a professional innovation culture at the client's organization. I managed the teams on scope, deliverables, and client satisfaction.