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dr. Marilieke Engbers

Lecturer, School of Business and Economics, VU SBE Executive Education

Personal information

Marilieke is a distinguished educator at the Finance and Control program and aMBA leading with purpose at the Executive Education of the School of Business and Economics of the Vrije Universiteit. She is also co-director of the Hub Governance and Board Research. Within this role, Marilieke instructs courses such as 'Strategy Realization', 'Personal Leadership', and 'Corporate Governance and Business ethics'. She focuses on governance and leadership from the perspective of what is 'unsaid'. She inductively and reflexively researchers boards and writes papers on 'researching the unsaid', 'how to manage conflict', 'misaligned governance paradigms', 'chairs and CEO's behaviors'.

Her academic journey includes the completion of her PhD in 2020 at the Amsterdam Business Research Institute (ABRI) of the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, focusing on how the unsaid shapes decision-making in boards.

Beyond academia, Marilieke operates as an independent board consultant. She helps board self-evaluate, mitigate conflicts, merge and develop.

Research

Marilieke has written a book named 'Onder Commissarissen' (5 editions and nominated short list management book of the year in 2022) which is currently being translated in English and will be published in the near future. Her new book, written with her co-author Pim Bouwman focusses on executive boards and how what is unsaid shapes these board processes, and is slated for release in 2024.

She has contributed to academic discourse with the publication of several papers, including one in the esteeemded 'Corporate Governance: An international Review'. Her research commissioned by the Authority of Housing Corporations, delving into the oversight role of non-executives and specifically concerning the monitoring of CEO's fit for the organization, has not only been published but has also left a profound impact on the governance culture within this sector.

Moreover, her insights into various facets of board dynamics have been disseminated through numerous interviews, podcasts, lectures and webinars. In addition to her academic endeavors, she hold a notable position as a 'boardroom panelmember' on the Dutch Business Radio Program (BNR). Moreover, several opinion-submisstion to the Dutch Financial Times have been published.

Marilieke moreover actively engages with various Dutch sectors, facilitating discussions and reflections on the efficacy and so called 'best practices' of governance codes. Currently, her involvement also extends to qualitative research on the effectiveness of self-evaluations among Dutch non-executives in the Healthcare sector.

She discusses the effectiveness and best practices of governance codes with institutions of different Dutch Sectors and is conducting a qualitative research on the effectiveness of self-evaluations of Dutch non-executives.

Ancillary activities