Koen van den Biggelaar

TEDxTheHague

November 8, 2025

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TEDxTheHague

November 8, 2025

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Profile

Koen van den Biggelaar is an executive and thinker at the intersection of technology, leadership, and human wisdom. He bridges the two worlds of advanced technology and mental development. A seasoned tech executive, he most recently served as General Manager at Microsoft Netherlands, leading a 150FTE+ organization and driving the successful adoption of cloud and AI services as a member of the Dutch Senior Leadership Team. Prior to this, he built and scaled global technology teams at Amazon Web Services and Accenture, focusing on cloud transformation and artificial intelligence. Alongside his tech career, Koen has a deep interest in mindfulness, having spent time as a Buddhist monk and contributed to research on advanced mind states. He now helps others cultivate clarity of mind to lead with ethics, peace, and purpose.

Talk Topic

In his talk, “Buddha as AI Engineer,” Koen addresses a critical question: as artificial intelligence races ahead, what’s next for human intelligence? He offers a hopeful answer: wisdom. Drawing on lessons from both technology and mindfulness, Koen reveals how training the mind through attention, feedback, and intention can become humanity’s next great evolution. His talk is a call to slow down, see clearly, and shape a future guided not just by intelligence, but by insight, turning the age of algorithms into an age of human wisdom.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxTheHague, where x = independently organized TED event.

At our TEDxTheHague event, TED Talks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.