.
“A Racing Yacht is like a pressure cooker: It is the fastest way to turn your team into a High Perfoming Team.”
Pim van den Boomen, CEO Ocean Sailing Challenges
“Transforming a regular organisation to a high performing organisation is what gets me going every day.” Stuart Jackson, HR Trainer – ICC Skipper
.
Pim van den Boomen has over 25 years experience as an independent entrepreneur in the communications industry. As CEO of an advertising agency he gained experience in almost all aspects of corporate and consumer communications.
Over the last years he focussed mainly on developing and implementing internal and external communication programs in general and creating high performing teams in particular. His strength lies in developing creative concepts and managing projects. These concepts are both internally and externally oriented and always focused on results.
From this drive, in 2010, he further developed a concept for De Lage Landen, in which participation in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race formed the basis of a much larger whole, subsequently connecting more than 5,500 employees around the world and creating a fertile ground for better global team performances with the overall goal of optimising customer satisfaction. For four years, during which De Lage Landen took part in two races, this unique concept was rolled out by Pim across all 45 offices of De Lage Landen worldwide.
It was during the first sailing race that Pim was introduced to Stuart Jackson, who at the time was skipper on the ‘De Lage Landen Embraces the World’ yacht. The approach of Pim in activating the stop-over ports and the development and provision of unique sponsorship activities, joined seamlessly with the expertise of Stuart and the substantive team and leadership programs that were offered all over the world.
A combination that proved to be very fruitful; the objectives of De Lage Landen were amply achieved. It is from his passion for sailing and the belief that sailing is one of the best vehicles to change existing teams into high performing teams, that he founded Ocean Sailing Challenges. Along with Stuart Jackson and a team of professional trainers, he guarantees the ultimate organisational development experience.
Stuart Jackson gained his experience and passion for building high performing teams and developing inspirational leaders through an effective combination of global yacht racing, commercial leadership experience and working within an Organisational Development team for a multinational finance company. Stuart at only 28 years of age led Barclays Adventurer to 2nd place overall in the ‘World’s toughest yacht race’ the Global Challenge in 2004-5. Following this successful circumnavigation Stuart built upon his leadership experiences by transferring his valuable leadership lessons to the commercial domain working for Barclays Bank as a Regional Director for International Business. During this time Stuart also delivered keynote speeches on Leadership and Building High Performing Teams to audiences from individual teams to in excess of 500 people. Stuart then progressed to working as a consultant with global companies including Yum! Brands, Wal-Mart Stores, Barclaycard & Barclays International to name a few. In 2011-12 Stuart took to the ocean waves once again to take over as yacht skipper in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, the world’s longest yacht race, for yacht sponsors De Lage Landen, a multinational Dutch asset finance company. After a successful campaign with 6 podium leg finishes Stuart worked for De Lage Landen for 2 years, based in The Netherlands. Stuart is a qualified MBTI practitioner providing feedback and development to individuals and teams. Stuart has specific experience in operational leadership programmes, leadership and management programmes for all levels of managers, coaching to build high performance teams as well as coaching programmes for individual development. This effective blend of sporting, commercial leadership experience and organisational development background enables Stuart to fully understand the challenges and behavioural needs of the corporate environment, to build and facilitate team and leadership trainings to fulfil team and organisational goals.