I was born in Rotterdam on the 10th of May, 1957. I received a Masters in Econometrics and a Bachelor in Psychology in 1982. I am an associate marketing professor at the Open University of the Netherlands since 1990, after several marketing jobs. Part-time, I also run a branding consultancy company since 1990. This company has recently been re-branded as The Constellation Company. This is due to a PhD project that I hope to finish this year and which I started in 2001. The PhD project is about the usefulness of systems constellations to identify branding problems. Its major findings were published in the Journal of Brand Management of April this year. In addition to their usefulness to identify branding problems, the PHD project made clear that this innovation has opportunities in many areas. An important one is happiness.

Ruut Veenhoven (1942) studied sociology. He is currently professor of social conditions for human happiness at Erasmus University Rotterdam, in The Netherlands. Ruut Veenhoven's research is on subjective enjoyment of life.

Major publications are: 'Conditions of happiness' (1984), 'Happy Life-expectancy' (1997) ‘The four qualities of life’ (2000) and ‘Is life getting better’ (2005). Veenhoven is director of the World Database of Happiness and editor of the Journal of Happiness Studies. He has also published on love, marriage and parenthood.

In 2008 Ruut is appointed as Chair on the Advisory Board for the Huh? - Haring institUte of Happiness.

Prof. dr. P. de Blot SJ,Lic.Ph., de Chauvigny holds the Business Spirituality Chair at the Nyenrode Business University. Next to that Paul joined the Advisory Board for the Huh? - Haring institUte of Happiness in 2008 as Vice-Chair.

Field: Business Spirituality, Spiritual power of cultures in a multicultural setting

The Business Spirituality Chair was created in May 2006 by Nyenrode Business Universiteit and is held by Paul de Blot SJ (Paul de Chauvigny de Blot SJ). The objective of the chair is to develop a high quality knowledge centre to improve the quality of the way business is done in general and the renewal and revitalization of business in particular using organizations’ own spiritual strength.

Onno Hamburger (1969) studied psychology at Leiden university in the Netherlands. Over the past decade he specialized in the science of happiness at work, becoming one of the Netherlands most sought-after speaker on the subject. Positive psychology is one of his favorite subjects.

Hamburger currently works as a senior happiness coach and trainer at Van Harte & Lingsma, a personal development organization based in Oegstgeest, the Netherlands. Over the last nine years Hamburger trained and coached hundreds of people in the area of personal development.

Hamburger is always looking for evidenced based psychological tools in the area of happiness. He blends the latest research in this area with his hands on experience on personal development. In this way he fulfils his own mission by helping his clients to become happier and consequently more effective at work.

Hamburger has learned that more happiness at work will lead to major advantages for both employees and employers.

Maarten Vansteenkiste is a Professor in Psychology at the Ghent University in Belgium. Throughout his work he tries to map out the reasons that motivate people’s behavior and the goals and ambitions that people pursue throughout their lives. In doing so, he examines whether particular motives and goals are more likely to be associated with enduring persistence, high quality performance, personal wellness (e.g., low depression), a smoother identity development, and more adjusted social functioning (e.g., low prejudice), because these motives and goals are more conducive to people’s basic psychological needs. In addition, he investigates how the social environment, including parents, teachers, coaches and therapists, can affect people’s motivation.

What makes people happy? Hein Zegers has been asking this question for more than 20 years, collecting anecdotal evidence in 7 languages travelling and working in more than 100 countries and counting. Now he focuses on evidence-based happiness research, studying psychology at K.U.Leuven University.

His mission is to spread simple happiness: to help with spreading in a simple way the growing body of scientific findings on what makes people happy.

Dick Swaab is team leader 'Neuropsychiatric Diseases' within the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience. The Netherlands Institute of Neuroscience is a merger of the Netherlands Institute for Brain Research and the Netherlands Ophthalmic Research Institute.

Mr. Swaab is also professor at the Department Anatomy and Embryology (UvA). His teaching committment is neurobiology. Reseach interest: sexual differentiation and aging of the brain, depression, Alzheimers disease.

We here at Thoughts on Happiness are very proud to have M. Deric Bownds, Emeritus Professor of Molecular Biology and Zoology, University of Wisconsin, Madison lending us his blogpostings about happiness.

Normally you can find his inspiring views only on Deric Bownds' Mindblog, but for us he will present you with Deric's Thoughts on Happiness. Deric won't attend the symposium, at least not this year... 

Bjørn Grinde (born July 3, 1952 in Oslo) is a biologist working in the fields of genetics and evolution, with a particular interest in human evolution. He studied natural sciences as well as psychology and anthropology at the University of Oslo, resulting in a Dr.scient (1981) and a Dr.philos (1984) from the same university. Presently he works as a chief scientist at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and as a professor at the University of Oslo. Many of his scientific papers have focused on molecular evolution, using viruses as a model system.

Meant for a general audience, his book Darwinian Happiness has the subtitle Evolution as a Guide for Living and Understanding Human Behavior. Just recently Bjørn joined the Advisory Board for the Huh? - Haring institUte of Happiness.

Bas Haring is a thinker and an asker of questions, a writer and a speaker. In a clear and stimulating manner he aims to imbue science and philosophy with meaning for our lives. He does this by writing books, columns and making TV programs. Bas Haring is an endowed professor at Leiden University where he holds the chair for “Public Understanding of Science”. His latest book has just been published: “For a Successful Life” – a plea for unsuccessful living. He has previously written “Cheese and the Theory of Evolution” and “The Iron Will” – about the brain, consciousness and thinking machines.

Arjan Haring, founder of the Huh? - Haring institUte of Happiness is a former Neuromarketing Consultant who dedicates his life to change organisations in a positive way through the Science of Happiness.

Professor Ed Diener: “The science of happiness is based on one straightforward idea. It may sound silly but we ask people ‘How happy are you, 1-10?’ And the interesting thing is that produces real answers that are valid, they're not perfect but they're valid and they predict all sorts of real things in their lives."

Wether you're interested in the model of Gross National Happiness or what positive psychology can do for your business. Maybe you're even looking for ways to implement Key Performance Indicators that are meaningful rather then indicators that show how much money gets pumped around in your organisation. Wondering if you could motivate employees to work more based on their personal passion?