Hans Dekkers
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General Manager, Asia Pacific & China
IBMHans Dekkers is a dynamic global leader who has transformed several IBM businesses across geographies through his exponential thinking and vision. He joined IBM out of business school, rising swiftly to several senior positions - including General Manager of IBM Asia Pacific, the world’s fastest-growing region, at the age of 42.A futurist, Hans believes in harnessing the power of exponential technologies, such as hybrid cloud, AI, and Quantum Computing, to solve the most pressing problems of our time. In his earlier stints, he revolutionised the North, Central, and Eastern Europe market spanning 35 countries, into a thriving hub of innovation and growth for IBM. As IBM Europe’s Chief Digital Officer and Vice President of Digital Sales and Commercial, he also helped traditional businesses reimagine their future through digital transformation. Hans has spent about a third of his life in Asia, including his formative years in India and China. He later returned to the Asia Pacific region as a professional, working across major cities such as Shanghai, Singapore, and Sydney. A true third culture individual, Hans has an innate understanding of the diverse and complex needs and challenges faced by clients in Asia Pacific. Driven by a strong belief in the power of people, partnerships, and collaboration, Hans sees his role as a ‘leader of leaders’ – unleashing the leadership potential of talented IBMers. Hans is a problem-solver and passionate technologist at heart. From a young age, he tinkered with things to learn how they worked and how to improve them. By the time he was 12, he achieved the highest level of tech certification which earned him a place in a technology training cohort for teenage prodigies. In university, he balanced academic rigour with scaling and selling several successful technology startups.Hans graduated with an MSc in International Business and General Management from the Nyenrode Business Universiteit. He is married with three children and counts scuba diving and photography as hobbies. Occasionally, you can catch him taking a spin on his Vespa.
