Ruud Hendriks

Keynote Speaker

Ruud Hendriks's Biography

After studying journalism Ruud Hendriks (1959) started his career as a DJ on board legendary pirate station Radio Caroline. At the age of 20 he got his first opportunity as a TV-reporter and anchorman with public broadcaster Veronica. During a 9-year period Ruud anchored many Dutch TV programs mainly on news, current-affairs and sports. Amongst others he hosted the 1988 Olympic Games for "Studio Sport" and several telethon’s for "Greenpeace".

Over the years he became head of news and current affairs for Veronica. He initiated the first non-stop News radio format in the Netherlands and several innovative TV formats.

In the late eighties Ruud became a co-founder of Sky Radio and Radio 10. These radio stations used European legislation to beam into Dutch cable head ends from beyond the Dutch borders.
In 1989 he co-founded TV-stations RTL4 and RTL5 and became their first program director and C.O.O. Under his tenure RTL became the market leading TV broadcaster in the Netherlands.
In 1992 Ruud became President of NBC Europe and transformed Superchannel into NBC Superchannel and finally into CNBC Europe.

Back in the Netherlands he became an executive board member of TV-production company Endemol. When Ruud joined in 1994 the company operated in 3 countries, when he left in 2001 Endemol had subsidiaries in 21 countries. Market value grew from 135 million Euros’ to 5.3 Billion.
At Endemol he was responsible for all online activities, international expansion and distribution. He played a key role in Endemol’s I.P.O, the start of failed sports channel Sport 7, and the take over of the company by Telefonica from Spain in 2001.

Ruud accepted several supervisory board positions. He was (chairman) of United Broadcast Facilities, Radio 538 and of "Het Nieuwe Parool” which owns one third of leading Amsterdam newspaper “Het Parool”
In August 2010 Ruud Hendriks sold his shares in “Het Gesprek” a national TV station for an affluent audience that he also co-founded.

Ruud is a co-founder of Startupbootcamp which accelerates startups in 20 countries, of Innoleaps, it’s sister company, accelerating corporates enterprises and of The Talent Institute which trains Growth Hackers and Young Digital Innovators.

Ruud is a regular speaker about innovation, media and entrepreneurship at seminars all around the globe.