Dr. Molenkamp, a native of Haarlem, The Netherlands, teaches courses on leadership, human relations and organizational theory and change. He directs the Leadership for Change conference based on the group relations methodology. He also designs and delivers intensive, experiential leadership development programs and retreats for international corporations, NGOs, non-profit organizations and universities.
René is a founding member and executive director of Group Relations International and Fellow of the A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems. He was Training Director and Senior Fellow at the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership, University of Maryland, and served as first program director of the Howard Peters Rawlings Fellowship Program in Public Leadership. He was also on the faculty of the American University/National Training Laboratory master’s program in Organizational Behavior.
Through these and other organizations, René had directed scores of group relations conferences and related intensive leadership experiences in the United States and Europe. His expertise in working with groups and group dynamics has resulted in clients, such as the School of Management at Yale University, the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland, INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France and Judge Business School at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. He has written articles and developed exercises related to group dynamics, coaching and personal development. His article on “The BART Method of Organizational Analysis: Boundary, Authority, Role and Task,” co-authored with his husband, Zachary Green, is frequently assigned at colleges and universities where group relations principles are practiced.
René started his professional life as a Jesuit priest. His main focus was directing 8- and 30-day silent retreats. He also became a psychotherapist, specializing in group psychotherapy. He is licensed as a Professional Clinical Counselor in the state of California and he is a Board Certified Executive and Leadership Coach.
He has 20 years of coaching experience with individuals and teams. Among his clients are executives, boards and managers at all levels. He focuses particularly on helping individuals and groups to explore the deeper dimensions of their own lived leadership practices, especially elements that are often unexamined and unconscious.
After undergraduate studies in economics and law in the Netherlands and in philosophy in Germany he received his Master of Divinity degree from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and his MS and PhD degrees from Loyola University Maryland.
René holds Dutch and American citizenship. After living in several European countries, he moved to the United States. He now lives with his husband and their two sons in San Diego.