Erik Jan Scholten

Erik Jan has a varied background, putting him in a good position to quickly understand the specific challenges of the organisations in different sectors. Having started his career in the pharmaceutical industry in a number of European markets (Nordic, Benelux, UK) as sales or marketing director he was Director of Innovex UK (now Quintiles) between 1991 and 1997 and then grew their business across Europe as EVP for Innovex Europe.

He has since served as Board Director for Doctors.net.uk, the country’s largest online network of doctors and founded Your Insight, a performance improvement consultancy. He is highly experienced in pharma and service companies, with particular expertise in providing support for leadership teams.

Erik Jan believes that work matters and therefore he wants to help making work better. That means to him working better together, being fully engaged and getting better results. His work is to support other leaders in their pursuit of high performance (their own and of their teams). That can also include working with their teams and fixing problems. Here’s what others say about working with him as that probably describes best what he does, how he does it and why.

“I cooperated with Erik Jan many times throughout the last few years (2009-2014) both at national and international HQ level. We worked together on a few leadership programmes covering the whole spectrum of behaviours needed to achieve success in the modern, sophisticated pharma environment. In most of the projects coaching was one of the most important aspects/methods.

I experienced Erik Jan as a very open minded, friendly and inspiring expert and leader, always willing to listen and adapt his approach to the given circumstances. He wants to create the best solution together with his customer, trying to understand the underlying complexity before jumping to any kind of conclusions. His personal style is very inclusive, based on sincere interaction and exchange of ideas. He skilfully brings his vast experience in form of coaching or sometimes mentoring, asking very insightful, helpful questions in an informal and easily acceptable way. Interaction with Erik Jan is a fascinating journey for both the coach and the coachee where authentic learning in both directions takes place.

All this makes the cooperation with Erik Jan a great experience, based on trust and friendship, which helps to develop long term solutions bringing added value both on business and personal level. Last, but definitely not least Erik Jan has developed a very high level of intercultural skills (partly thanks to his life experiences but also thanks to a natural talent), which make him very flexible in terms of working with people of different cultural backgrounds.

I can sincerely recommend Erik Jan as a coach, a mentor and a leader to any national or international organisation striving for improvement and excellence.”

“I have worked with Erik Jan Scholten for the past 8 years. He provided consultancy on a number of people development and team management projects as well as on strategic issues. Over the last 5 years he has been a mentor/executive coach to me in the transition to a new position and on a wide range of issues regarding the management of the business. He is a valuable sounding board, who knows perfectly well when to give advise or when to continue probing for what people know themselves.

Erik Jan has a massive amount of business experience/knowledge, which he voluntarily shares with the people he mentors. He is genuinely interested in all aspects of the work, business and private issues of the people he coaches. Whenever possible he lets people find out for themselves how to solve their problems/issues/challenges through productive questioning. He is International Grandmaster level at active listening. Erik Jan is a creative and engaged partner who is really interested in the progress of your operation/project or your individual development. He has been instrumental in the set up of a local strategy (providing purpose) and of well functioning teams in my business. I can honestly state that his input was very effective and as an operational unit we have really benefited (award winning level!) from his approach.

He is 100% involved in all his projects and regularly sends update articles to his mentees on issues one is dealing with. Refreshing approach! He is always available to discuss whichever problem arises. His understanding of people and how to work with them and improve their functioning is phenomenal. The business I lead has thrived because of his involvement and enthusiasm; It really has become a vibrant and progressive organisation.

From my experience, I can honestly recommend Erik Jan to anyone for all types of mentoring, coaching or business consulting.

“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Eric Jan on numerous assignments over the past 6 years. Eric Jan is passionate about continuous organizational improvement and team excellence. He has worked effectively with our senior management team and has mentored several of my direct reports who have achieved more than they thought possible. Erik Jan brings energy, passion, and a constant pursuit to add value to individuals both personally and professionally.”

“Erik Jan worked with my team on a consulting project to assist us in better defining our operating model for product launches and find ways to strengthen teamwork at different levels of the organisation. In the course of the project, he also became a great source of advice and coaching for me, about how to get alignment in organisations, how to lead people, and as a thoughtful sounding board for my own ideas and views.

He is a very experienced, well informed and pragmatic leader who can translate insights from his own experience into the situation of others. He works in a consultative and adaptive way to the situation he is working on, using both good questions as well as pragmatic suggestions to help solve problems. He believes strongly in the power of teams in organisations and knows what can make teams successful. He is also a pleasure to work with – everyone enjoys having him involved.”