The Team of Experiential Learning Facilitation Advisors in Leadership Education and Development (ELFA Team)

At high school his majors were latin and sciences. For a junior research study in biology the Shell company awarded him in 1974 a special prize. Then in 1976 he was one of the most junior participants selected to attend the Bicentennial of American Science symposium sponsored by the U.S. government. His subsequent higher education studies, undertaken in three countries, were in other fields than the pure sciences. For his BA business degree Jean-Pierre wrote a final paper on the Prospects of the American Automotive Industry, parts of which are still relevant today, nearly thirty years later. An extension of that paper was at the basis of a marketing award he received from the Ericsson corporation. In his early professional career Jean-Pierre shouldered organisational responsibilities at many stages of his executive career. He first worked for  a number of "blue chip" corporations, in several  European countries, and in positions varying from auditing to finance, logistics, sales and marketing, and at growing executive leadership levels. He meanwhile completed an MBA. At the end of the 1980s decade Jean-Pierre started lecturing, alongside his corporate employment.  

In the early 1990s he changed his career track, moving entirely into the educational field. He accepted a turnaround assignment in Paris, France, leading an international graduate school out of the brink. He also started postgraduate studies in educational and behavioural sciences, with an emphasis on adult education. Jean-Pierre's focus gradually shifted to leadership development, teaching the subject as of 1991 to MBA students. Upon his return to Belgium he founded a leadership training and consultancy institute and think-tank, and later on attended distance education studies in physics. The quintessence of these studies and of his continuous self-taught learning found its way into the Uncertainty and Time Dimension topics of his leadership and change courses. The major professional step in his life, the founding of the Thierry Graduate School of Leadership, took place at the turn of the 21st century. 

The sum of his experience and knowledge about leaders, learning, and leadership in general, is thus reflected in the curricula and courses Jean-Pierre designed for the school, and for which he has written and compiled countless learning materials. Major publications (books) are planned for a somewhat later stage in his career, to include leadership knowledge  plus  leadership education experience, and encompassing several decades of his educator's life. Meanwhile he has publised articles, prefaced "Leadership sous 0°"; has been interviewed by the press, and is a guest speaker at many other institutions. It is the Arts and Leadership thematic, and the Art of Leadership, that pervades his approach to leadership.  (>> quotes). He has also been successful in his pursuits as a painter (winning a patellists' contest top award in 1999), and as a restorer of antique travel equipment (earning, amongst others, a Belgian television broadcast tribute in 2009).   

Some years ago a panel of academic experts expressed its opinion about the founder of the school:  "The successful creation-existence of the Thierry School and its programmes is equal to - if not surpasses - any other thesis Jean-Pierre would have formulated at an earlier stage (of his career)"  

During 2009-2010, in his transitional role of Acting President, Prof. Bal places the new cornerstones for the school's transformation, preparing the institution for its new and enriched role in the next decade   

|   Back to ELFA team list  |

|   Home  |   Programs  |  About  |

© Copyright 2009-2010, The Thierry Graduate School of Leadership & Online Leadership Academy (THIERRY Online) h/b Ardennes East Office Belgium. All rights strictly reserved.  Page updated on: 4 March 2010