Martijn de Liefde is a Dutch entrepreneur, leadership facilitator and change management professional with over 30 years of international corporate experience and 23 years of developing and facilitating Kgotla® Leadership through Dialogue programmes.
His career combines senior corporate leadership roles at ABN AMRO Bank, VNU/ACNielsen and FedEx/TNT with extensive experience in organisational transformation, workplace innovation, cultural integration and large-scale employee engagement.
In 2003, Martijn founded The Kgotla® Company, inspired by the African tradition of collective dialogue and decision-making. Since then, he has worked with more than 85 international organisations, including ABN AMRO, FedEx, TNT, KLM, Rabobank, Heineken, Rio Tinto and De Beers, helping leaders and employees navigate complex organisational challenges and create meaningful change together.
Through large-scale Kgotla interventions, leadership development programmes and facilitated dialogue, he has engaged tens of thousands of employees in transformation and decision-making processes. His approach focuses on strengthening organisational identity, creating shared purpose and building communities where people take collective responsibility for change.
From 2016 to 2024, Martijn held senior corporate real estate and workplace transformation responsibilities at FedEx/TNT Europe, leading major office consolidations, workplace change programmes and the integration of corporate environments following the FedEx–TNT merger. His work connected business strategy, leadership, employee engagement and workplace transformation across multiple European countries.
Earlier in his career, he developed corporate real estate strategies for ABN AMRO Bank and served as Director of Corporate Real Estate for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at VNU/ACNielsen, supporting organisational integration across an international portfolio of 52 countries.
Martijn holds an MSc from Delft University of Technology and has contributed to executive change management education and international leadership journeys, including programmes in South Africa.
Today, through Kgotla, he continues to support leaders and organisations facing transformation, restructuring, cultural change and complex strategic decisions, bringing people together to find solutions from within.
Kgotla® — Leadership through Dialogue. Solving Problems in Harmony.
