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.
In his talk, “Pause as the new Progress,” Koen addresses the critical question of 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.
