Crew members

Folef Bredt • Co-founder Lifeguard

Folef has nearly 20 years of experience in developing corporate vitality programs in all major industries. He has trained and coached individuals at all levels of organisations and is a seasoned public speaker. Folef wrote (together with Mikkel Hofstee and Pepijn van der Meulen) the book Gezond gedrag is besmettelijk about the fundamentals of corporate vitality. He also wrote WQ, unleash your full potential, diving into the relationship between wellbeing and performance, and empowering readers to enhance their own wellbeing.

Martin Pet • Sport and performance psychologist and physiologist

Sport and performance psychologist and physiologist Martin helps individuals, teams and organizations to deliver sustainable top performance by enhancing their vitality and mental power. As the lead expert at Lifeguard, he is constantly improving the knowledge and content of our training sessions. With his limitless energy he will provide you some tips and tools to stay fit and energetic during this stormy period.

Berend van de Kraats • Former submarine captain

Berend is a former submarine Captain Royal Netherlands Navy. Nowadays Berend uses his knowledge to support companies and individuals with his initiative OceansX, a do-tank, catalyzing collective potential around social issues. Perform in the storm is the fourth movement to which OceansX is contributing.

Vardit Kohn • Body, mind and soul nutrition expert

Vardit is Lifeguard’s Nutrition expert, an inspirational public speaker, experienced trainer and coach and published author. Beside physical nutrition, Vardit focuses on cultivating tools for mental resilience, harnessing the power of the mind and helping you connect with what really matters. With her positive outlook and down-to-earth approach, Vardit will inspire you to turn the lemons of this storm into lemonade – and provide the recipe for it!

Martin Hersman • Managing partner Lifeguard, sports commentator, former Olympic speed skater

After his speedskating career as an olympic athlete followed by work experience at KPN and his role as manager NU.nl, Martin changed his business goals and started practising where he stands for. His ambition is to boost organisations on their vitality level. He focusses on facilitating team sessions to evolve the performance of the team, the people and the organisation.

Wilmar Schaufeli • Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology

Wilmar is professor of Occupational Health Psychology at Utrecht University and distinguished research professor at Leuven University. He is acknowledged as an expert in burnout, and for the past 20 years his research focused on work engagement as well. Together with his colleagues he developed the widely used Job Demands-Resources Model as well as a reliable and valid scale to assess work engagement, known as the Utrecht Engagement Scale (UBES), which is the single-most used scale to measure work engagement in the academic world.

Sandra Le Poole • Former hockey international and Olympic gold medalist

Sandra is a former hockey international and Olympic champion. She support individuals and teams on improving their vitality and mental power and she is an expert in the field of ‘supportive environment’. Sandra inspires teams to get a better grip on their energy and the social support they need to perform optimally in stressful situations.

Witte Hoogendijk • Professor of Psychiatry

Professor Witte J.G. Hoogendijk, MD, PhD is head of the Psychiatry Department at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. He is a member of the Research Council of the Dutch Brain Foundation and specializes in the study and treatment of depression, anxiety and burn-out. His research focuses on biological aspects of depression. Prof. Hoogendijk co-authored two books, Live Like a Beast and From Big Bang to Burn Out (available in Dutch), calling for a radical shift in thinking about stress-related conditions.

Pierre Capel • Professor emeritus Immunology

Pierre is an emeritus professor of Experimental Immunology at Utrecht University. He studied Biochemistry at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the University of Amsterdam. In recent years, he has studied the biochemical background of sports, yoga and meditation - resulting in his book The Emotional DNA, which combines the magical world of feelings with molecular biology. He shows us how our feelings can lead to sickening instructions to our DNA.

Annet de Lange • Professor in Work and Organizational Psychology

Prof. dr. de Lange works as Professor Work and Organizational Psychology at Open University Heerlen and specializes in succesful aging at work and self-management. She is also a Professor Human Resource Management (Lector) at the HAN University of Applied Sciences in Arnhem and Nijmegen, and an affiliate Professor at the University of Stavanger in Norway.

Michael Kortekaas • Expert mental power

During his career with Police and the Department of Defense, Michael learned the value of mental power better than anyone else. Since 2011 he has been involved with the Police Academy and is working with various sport psychologists to structurally anchor mental power and resilience in the lives of the professionals he coaches.

Lucas Schröder • Energy and Performance trainer and speaker

Lucas is a former ocean sailor. He raced more than 30.000 miles at the roughest sees. After 6 years he changed his career and became a trainer in energy & performance and team coaching. Lucas knows everything about the impact of sleep on body and mind and the dangers of fatigue. He uses his knowledge about performing under enormous pressure, in isolation and with minimal sleep during his training sessions.

Bram Bakker • Psychiatrist and author

Bram is a psychiatrist, publisher and publicist. He regularly writes about healthcare and his passion, running. Published author of multiple books, including Verademing, Blijf beter, Geluk uit een potje and Sporten voor beginners. He has led a two day running therapy course for years, and is often on tour with his theatre show Burned-out.

Amaranatho Robey • Former Buddhist monk

Amaranatho was a Buddhist monk for 15 years and has spent long periods of time alone, in isolation and dealing with uncertainty. He has a degree in AI, been a world explorer and now a mindfulness-based executive and agile mindset coach, where he supports executives, leaders, and teams to stay calm and connected in complex situation. He developed the PlayfulMonk approach to awaken people and organization to their true potential.

Amanda Hunt • Psychotherapist

Amanda, LMFT, is an experienced psychotherapist living in Los Angeles, California. Her specialty is working with adolescents and their parents, serving those with learning disabilities, ADHD and other emotional challenges. Primarily using psychodynamic therapy, Amanda believes in empowering her clients by increasing their resilience, exploring their developing identity into young adulthood, and supporting their parents to create or sustain supportive environments in which their children can thrive.

Mark Nicholson • Commercial excellence and mindset coach at ING

Mark studied at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, passing out as a young officer and becoming an Armoured Reconnaissance troop leader in the British army. This experience deepened his understanding of the impact of mindset on performance. After working in advertising and marketing, Mark moved into coaching and trained in mindset, teamwork, performance and leadership with rogenSi. With over 15 years of experience in helping teams and individuals perform at their best, he currently leads a change initiative at ING to drive commercial excellence across the global platform.

Erik Gerritsen • Secretary-General of Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport

Erik has been the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport since 2015. Erik is known as a forward-thinking leader with innovation and e-health being part of his portfolio. Erik and his team translate government decisions into health policies, with a vision to “keep the Netherlands healthy and well”, as their motto goes. The unforeseen COVID-19 crisis has put this vision to an exceptional test.

Lex Burdorf • Professor in Public Health

Prof. dr. Burdorf is Professor in Public Health at Erasmus University Medical Center (Erasmus MC) in Rotterdam. He is responsible for research programs in several areas of occupational health, social epidemiology and health behaviour, and also serves as a government advisor.

Sander Tideman • Author and leadership trainer

Sander started his career practicing law and then turned to international finance, serving in leadership roles at ABN AMRO Bank and Triodos Bank. For the past 15 years, Sander has worked with companies and institutions across the globe, running leadership programs with a focus on shared value strategies and societal leadership. His mission is to help organizational leaders to develop the capacity to effectively respond to the new challenges of this time, utilizing the full potential of the mind. He integrates principles of yoga and mind-training into his leadership development work.

Gys Driessen • HR Director of Radboudumc

Having studied Law, Gys realized his passion lay elsewhere so he moved to work in human resources for Fuji Film, where he spent 18 years, culminating is his role as HR and General Affairs Director. Since 2000, Gys has worked as a senior coach and trainer in his own company, Stratos, and for the past 4 years in his capacity as HR Director for Radboud University Medical Center (Radboudumc) in Nijmegen.