Karel de Bakker

Karel de Bakker (1965) received his Master (MA) in Public Administration from the University of Twente, Enschede in 1989. He continued for two further years at the same university as a contract researcher, working in the field of decision support systems. This research led to his first paper in 1991: “Development, Implementation and Impact of the TESSEC Expert System” (de Bakker & Wassink, 1991). At this juncture, rather than pursuing a PhD, Karel chose to leave the university and began working in IT and project management consultancy.

Working for organisations including Ordina and KPMG Management Consulting, and from 2001 as a self-employed consultant, assignments brought him in contact with various organisations. These included ABN AMRO Bank, ING Bank, Interpay (today: Currence), KLPD (Netherlands Police Agency), KPN Telecom, NS (Dutch Railways), Robeco and various government organisations. Over the years, risk management became an important element in his assignments.

Throughout this time, reflection on work situations remained important to him, and in 2001 Karel started publishing again. He became a member of the board of the Risk Management Specific Interest Group (Risk SIG), and in 2004 he received his project management certification (PMP). In 2006, Karel accepted a position as a full time PhD student, to study the relationship between project risk management and project success. He finalized his PhD in 2011 when he published "Dialogue on Risk". Karel is currently working as a teacher, practitioner and researcher in project and risk management.