Suggestions
Wendy van Leeuwen
Strategist | Innovator | Entrepreneur | Facilitator | Urgent Optimist
Wendy van Leeuwen is an Innovation Coach and Urgent Optimist at WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), a role she has held since August 2022.1 Based in Portugal, she works with the global innovation team to embed innovation thinking into the organization's ways of working.1 Her responsibilities include coaching fundraising teams to scale existing innovative approaches and develop new ones, facilitating meetings and workshops, and conducting one-on-one innovation coaching sessions.1
With a diverse background in innovation, strategy, and entrepreneurship, Wendy has held several notable positions:
- Co-founder and Co-CEO of Secret City Trails (2017-2022), where she scaled city discovery games across 60+ European cities.1
- Director of Brand & Communications at Impact Hub Network (2021-2022).1
- Innovation Strategist and Business Builder at NextGenners (2021-present).1
- Sustainability Programme Lead at Booking.com, where she managed impact funds and accelerator programs (2016-2018).1
Wendy's expertise extends to facilitating innovation journeys, mentoring social entrepreneurs, and designing experiences.1 Her approach often incorporates futures thinking and strategic foresight to help teams across the globe envision and plan for the future.1
In April 2025, Wendy spent three days on a small island, likely as part of her work in bringing new approaches to learning experiences at WWF.2 This demonstrates her commitment to innovative and immersive methods in her role as an Innovation Coach.
Highlights
The global innovation team at the World Wildlife Fund is hiring! I've been working with this team for the past year and I can say they're a bunch of wonderful humans to collaborate with!
If you're an innovator, do-er, hands-on project manager - and passionate about nature conservation, this might be for you! Full time (contract) role. Remote. Preferred start in September.
The work of the innovation team includes growing the innovation culture, innovation capacity building, hosting workshops and design spaces and futures thinking. It touches the entire network of 100+ offices across the globe.
Link to the job description + application form right here: https://lnkd.in/dA4W-usT
