PM - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Senior Partner
- Director of the First Executive
- Expert
- Senior Non Executive Partner
- Senior Non Executive Partner at PM Risk Crisis Change
Hugo Marynissen (born 1966) is a Belgian expert in crisis governance, senior partner at PM•Risk Crisis Change, professor and senior researcher at the University of Antwerp (Faculty of Business & Economics, Management department), and professor at Antwerp Management School. The focus of his current research is on crisis networks, organizational resilience, normal chaos, and the role of crisis governance as a way to anticipate extreme events.
He is the president of CIP Institute, a non-profit organization that brings together scientists and practitioners from various disciplines in an inspiring and innovative platform to exchange and develop knowledge about the Complex and Interactive Processes (CIP) in the field of crisis. Between November 2020 and July 2021, he had been appointed as an expert to the Special Parliamentary Commission investigating the COVID-19 approach in Belgium.
Hugo Marynissen studied change management at Saïd Business School (Green Templeton College, University of Oxford) and HEC Paris, where he received his Master's Degree in 2009. At Cranfield University, School of Management, he received his Ph.D. in 2014 with the dissertation "A constitutive view on risk communication in organizations managing high-risk processes: Towards a conceptual framework".
After his graduation, Marynissen was appointed the Academic Director of the first Executive Ph.D. program in Belgium (Antwerp Management School). In this function, Hugo was responsible for the program design and content, the selection of faculty members, and the support and follow-up of the Ph.D. candidates. During this period (2015-2019), he successfully launched collaborations with Lingnan (University) College, a division of the Sun Yat-sen University in the People's Republic of China, and with Management Center Innsbruck (MCI) in Austria. Additionally, he has been an invited Professor at Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium), Management Center Innsbruck (Austria), Lingnan (University) College, and IE Business School (Spain). He also acts as the Academic Director and professor at the "Crisis Communication Module" in the Post Graduate Program Disaster Management at Campus Vesta.
As a senior non executive partner at PM • Risk Crisis Change, Hugo has provided regular coaching and consultancy services in the field of risk and crisis management. During the terror attacks in Brussels (March 22, 2016), he and his colleagues advised Belgium's Prime Minister on the crisis communication strategy. Together with his colleague Stijn Pieters, he developed the Crisis Communication Work Process (CCWP), an evidence-based method for crisis communication.
Hugo Marynissen co-authored multiple books and book chapters, and his research has been published in the Public Administration Review, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, International Journal of Business Communication, and Sage Business Foundations, among others.
Pieters, S., Marynissen, H. (2017). Crisisbeheer in zorgorganisaties. De gouden driekhoek van operaties, beleid en communicatie (Crisis management in health organizations. The golden triangle of operations, policy and communication). Acco: Leuven / Den Haag.
Marynissen, H., Lauder, M. (2020). Stakeholder-focused communication strategy during crisis. A case study based on the Brussels terror attacks. International Journal of Business Communication, 57(2), 176-193.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Managing Partner
- Co - Founder of the CIP Institute
Stijn Pieters is co-founder and managing partner of PM • Risk Crisis Change. He sets out to create a world wide network (or ‘a company'), changing the minds, attitudes and skills of people on how to handle risks, crisis and change. Stijn dreams of a less dystopian perceived world where people have more capacity to quickly recover from difficulties.
His purpose is to toughen up people, teams, organisations, and societies and to innovate in the broad field of risk, crisis and change and to strengthen individuals and teams who accomplish tasks with virtuosity, mastery, fluency, ability and proficiency, at any given time.
As an advisor to private, non profit and public organisations, he draws practical expertise, knowledge and wisdom from different domains such as integrated crisis management and crisis governance but also performance, risk, change management and paradoxical leadership.
Stijn has a background in crisis communications, strategic communications and web development. Multimedia engineering was his first degree. He also holds a Postgraduate in disaster management, Campus Vesta (University of Antwerp). In his dissertation, he covered the pre-crisis conditions for effective learning during crisis communication simulations in organisations.
Additionally, Stijn is co-founder of the CIP Institute, a collaboration platform that advocates research and development in the field of risk & crisis management. He is an active member of the Federal Belgian Crisis Communications Response Team.