Roel De Rijck

In 2003, Roel graduated from the University of Antwerp as a Master of Integrated Product Development. He started his career as a designer for Philips Lighting. He then went on to work for several organizations on a series of increasingly complex innovation projects.

For luxury lingerie brand Van de Velde he became responsible for the development of "Future shopping" scenarios. In collaboration with the R&D-team, he developed a proof of concept of an intelligent lingerie dressing-room mirror and supported the start of a successful concept rollout that ended with the installation of the mirror in several of the company's flagship stores in Hong Kong, London, New York, Amsterdam and Dusseldorf.

In 2O12, Roel joined the team of Flanders Inshape, the Flemish knowledge platform for "design-driven innovation" as an innovation coach. This involved combining innovation advice and research, with an emphasis on direct impact. "Design Thinking" thus became the central research and advice methodology.

Since 2016, Design Thinking has been the key methodology for all the research and advice Roel conducts for the Antwerp Management School Business Design & Innovation Expertise Center. There is also cross-collaboration with fellow experts in Antwerp Management School’s various expertise centers.