Fons Trompenaars studied Economics at the VU University Amsterdam and later earned a Ph.D. from Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, with a dissertation on differences in conceptions of organizational structure in various cultures. He experienced cultural differences firsthand at home, where he grew up speaking both French and Dutch, and then later at work with Shell in nine countries.
Fons joined Shell in 1981 and moved into the Personnel Division for Shell in Rotterdam. From 1985, he worked in job classification and management development at the Shell Research Laboratories in Amsterdam. In 1989 he founded the Centre for International Business Studies, a consulting and training organization for international management. Since 1998, Fons has operated as Trompenaars Hampden-Turner.
Fons Trompenaars has worked as a consultant for Shell, BP, ICI, Philips, Heineken, TRW, Mars, Motorola, General Motors, Nike, Cable and Wireless, CSM and Merrill Lynch.
Known all over the world for his work as consultant, trainer, motivational speaker and author of many books on the subject of culture and business. He has spent over 25 years helping Fortune 500 leaders and professionals manage and solve their business and cultural dilemmas to increase global effectiveness and performance, particularly in the areas of globalization, mergers and acquisition, HR and leadership development.
Author of Riding the Waves of Culture, Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business. This book sold over 200,000 copies and was translated into 16 languages amongst them Chinese, Estonian, French, Dutch, German, Hungarian Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish and Turkish, . He is co-author of Seven Cultures of Capitalism, Building Cross-Cultural Competence, Riding the Whirlwind and 21 Leaders for the 21st Century with Charles Hampden-Turner. Recently he published 100+Management Models with Piet Hein Coebergh (2014). Fons has co-written an article with Peter Woolliams entitled “Lost in Translation” regarding culture and failure, which was published in the April 2011 online issue of the Harvard Business Review. Most recently, he has co-authored Nine Visions of Capitalism: Unlocking the Meanings of Wealth Creation, Servant Leadership Across Cultures, M&A Tango on Mergers and Acquisitions and Rewarding Performance Globally.
Voted one of the top 20 HR Most Influential International Thinkers 2011 by HR Magazine. He is also ranked in the bi-annual Thinkers50 ranking as one of the most influential management thinkers alive in 2011, 2013 and 2015 and shortlisted as making substantial strides in the contribution to the understanding of globalization and the new frontiers established by the emerging markets in 2011. He was inducted into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame in November 2017.
In 1991 Fons was awarded the International Professional Practice Area Research Award by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD). He was mentioned as one of the top 5 management consultants, next to Michael Porter, Tom Peters and Edward de Bono in a leading Business magazine in August 1999.
In 1994 the translation of his book Riding the Waves of Culture was awarded "Book of the Year" by the Order of Experts and Consultants on Organization (OOA), a Dutch management organization.
