A Chat with Frits Bussemaker: Business Community Builder; Chair of the 'Institute for Accountability in the Digital Age'; Founding member and vice-chair of the outreach committee of the ITU AI for Good Global Summit (Geneva)

This week, Stephen Ibaraki has an exclusive interview with Frits Bussemaker.

Bussemaker has a passion for bringing people together in the Digital Age. He has initiated and helped run a number of (international) communities focused on linking Information Technology, Innovation and Impact since the 80s. He is furthermore a coach and Program Director and supports organizations on business community building.

He is currently the chair of the 'Institute for Accountability in the Digital Age'. An association instigated by UNESCO aimed to help define instruments for, and manage accountability in the Digital Age. He is also a founding member and vice-chair of the outreach committee of the ITU 'AI for Good Global Summit (Geneva) with over 40 UN Agencies involved. And, he member of the Dutch Government's I-Partnership team which aims to enhance collaboration between science and government to help develop digital skills.

His community building experience includes founding the first European Chapter of the Association for Strategic Alliance Professionals end of the 90s. Founder of the BPM-Forum with chapters in various countries in Europe and Australia. Founder of iPoort, an association to discuss digitization with members of the Dutch parliament. Secretary General International Relations with CIONET. A community of over 7000 digital leaders where he represented the community with international institutes like the European Commission. Here he initiated the Global Digital Leader Alliance linking over 20.000 Digital Leaders from the China, Europe, India, Japan, Russia, South America and the US. Chairing the Dutch Government's Innovation Community.

He does (pro deo) work for number of (international) organizations, conferences and communities starting in the 90s with the Computer User Group NL, part of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, Digital Africa, WCIT2010 (Amsterdam) WCC2012 (Amsterdam), WCF 2104 (Xian) and the Banking Policy Institute's FinTech Ideas Festival (San Francisco). He is a member YPO's Global Impact Board. He is a regular speaker and chair at international events and has spoken in Australia, Belgium, China, Ghana, England, France, India, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Morocco, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Portugal, South-Korea, Sri Lanka, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, the Netherlands. He has an MSc in Geophysics from Delft University.