Jan Ubels

Jan Ubels is an independent advisor who helps to facilitate change processes, support professional development trajectories, and co-create knowledge products. He is the course director of the Effective Advising in Complex Contexts course. 

Over his extended career Jan engaged deeply in development programs in West and East Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. He held implementation, management, strategy, knowledge management and organisational change roles. His varied experience allows Jan to address situations and processes with deep appreciation of multiple dimensions and dynamics at play. 

Jan is passionate about both global development issues and personal development; a warm person with keen analytical skills, a strong sense of process and mature conceptual and writing abilities.  

Educated in agriculture and water management, sociology and applied psychology, Jan worked amongst others for Wageningen University, Euroconsult (now Mot MacDonald), SNV and Interpeace-IPAT and for a broad range of national and international clients. He is one of three co-authors of The Effective Adviser’s Handbook (129 pages, 2023) and was lead-editor of the book ‘Capacity Development in Practice’ (Earthscan, 338 pages, 2010). He has also written on scaling, public-private collaboration and applied systems thinking & practice.