Donald Kalff is an experienced international businessman, entrepreneur, strategist and commentator who takes a fresh and objective look at the past, present and future performance of companies.
Donald Kalff earned a PhD from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Following a period in academia as assistant professor at the Graduate School of Management in Delft, Dr Kalff joined Royal Dutch/Shell in 1980. At Shell he carried out assignments in marketing, oil and products trading, and in corporate and strategic planning, both in the Netherlands and the UK.
Ten years later Dr Kalff joined KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to become a member of the Executive Board, responsible for air political affairs, institutional relations, business planning, fleet planning and acquisition, and strategic alliances. From 1997 until 2000 he was KLM’s chief negotiator for mergers and long-term agreements.
Today, Dr Kalff is co-founder and CEO of Immpact, a biotech start-up company working in the field of immunology, and advisor to the biotech investment fund BTF. Dr Kalff has a long-standing interest in cancer research and has sponsored a number of projects in the field.
Next to his entrepreneurial activities he acts as advisor to strategy consultants Rolandberger and several other companies and institutions. In 2008 Dr Kalff was appointed as Senior Fellow in the Management Department of the Wharton School. In 2010 he became lecturer for the “Comenius leergangen”. In 2011 he joined ELP as an associate partner.
In addition to numerous articles on corporate governance, organizational design and innovation he is the author of “An UnAmerican Business, the rise of the European Enterprise” (2005). In this book Dr Kalff identifies the flaws in the Anglo Saxon way to conduct business, warns of the risks of mortgage backed and other securities and predicts a severe economic downturn. In addition to the US and the UK this book has also been published in the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Russia.
In 2009 Dr Kalff published the Dutch edition of “Modern Capitalism, alternative foundations for large enterprises” in which he offers a radically different but transparent and practical new enterprise model that can benefit maximally from continental Europe’s competitive advantages. The English edition will see the light of day in 2012.
Donald Kalff holds an MBA from the Interfaculteit Bedrijfskunde Delft Rotterdam and a PhD from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
