Freek Hermkens obtained a Master’s degree in Economics at Maastricht University in 1999. He wrote his master thesis on the “Consequences of downsizing and integral management in organisations”. After his study, Freek worked as a teacher at Maastricht University, and subsequently started working as a consultant. He is currently employed as a Principal Consultant at MLC (www.m-lc.nl) and manager of the MLC Academy. Freek has extensive experience in supporting organizations that are implementing business process optimizations with the aim of achieving continuous improvement. In 2011, he started working on a doctoral dissertation at Eindhoven University of Technology, in the ITEM group of the department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences. The results of his studies resulted in the dissertation (3 June 2020): The role of middle management in achieving continuous improvement: a demanding playing field.

Currently Freek is still working as a consultant for MLC and as a researcher for ITEM. His research relates to: Middle management , Continuous improvement, Agile Management and Business Process Management.