WILTFRIED IDEMA

About Wiltfried Idema

Wiltfried Idema is Partner of Ward Howell International in the Netherlands.

Wiltfried’s initial career development fundamentally has its roots in the fine arts and antiques industry, concretely at Glerum Auctioneers in The Hague, and later at Bonhams Glerum South-East Asia in Singapore. Here, he was responsible for the company’s finance and operations and the business development in South-East Asia and Australia.

In 1998, Wiltfried moved to YER Young Executive Recruitment where he was appointed Managing Consultant. In this position, Wiltfried held responsibility for the business line Finance, Legal, Insurance and Tax (FLINT) and later also Government. In the Netherlands and the UK, he maintained contacts with Board Members of banks and insurance companies and Partners of law, consultancy and accountancy firms, as well as Key Persons in the national and local governments and/or civil service and in the not-for-profit.

In 2003 Wiltfried joined Hudson Global Services (part of the Hudson Highland Group) as Managing Consultant and part of the Global Legal Team.

In 2004 Wiltfried was invited to join University of Leiden as Director of University Development. Here he was responsible for partnerships, fundraising and alumni. He was involved in the development of the Leiden BioSCience Park, the Medical Delta and the European Region of Knowledge HealthTIES.

In 2006 Wiltfried was elected Vice-president of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) in Lausanne, Switzerland. Here he was responsible for ‘all matters including the law and IBSF’ including contracts, (intellectual) property rights, litigation and arbitration and as such involved in the preparations for Olympic Winter Games of Vancouver, Sochi and PyeongChang. In 2010 he was re-elected. In 2014 he was appointed Chairman of the Ethics Committee.

In 2015, Wiltfried was invited to join Ward Howell International in the Netherlands as a Partner, with the focus of extending local services from consulting, leadership solutions and interim management to executive search, thus matching perfectly with Ward Howell International.

Wiltfried read Medicine at Leiden University, the Netherlands. Wiltfried’s native tongue is Dutch and he speaks English and German fluently. He is an honorary member of several associations. In recent years, Wiltfried has held two supervisory board positions in the Netherlands, one at a Sino-Dutch law firm and another at an educational institute.