Dr. R. Schreuders (Riana)

Always live in hope, travel with those you love, strive to change the world, be extraordinary, not ordinary.

Dr Riana Schreuders-van den Bergh joined the Amsterdam School of International Business as a lecturer in 2013. She has been involved in teaching modules related to cross-cultural awareness and cross-cultural business skills, as well as functioning as a mentor and thesis supervisor.

Dr Schreuders feels that teaching young minds and shaping tomorrow’s leaders is a great task and responsibility, and that AMSIB provides a platform for growth and development where both students and lecturers are on a learning journey. The diversity of the school and the innovative teaching environment are what she feels provide a perfect laboratory where students and staff can stretch their minds and prepare for the global marketplace.

She relocated from South Africa to The Netherlands in 2009. She is a registered Industrial/Organisational Psychologist at the Health Professions Council of South Africa, and she started her academic career as a lecturer at the University of Pretoria in 2005. She has also worked as a researcher and guest lecturer at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and she occasionally lectures at a number of universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands.

In the field of Human Resource Management, Dr Schreuders has varied experience, and also she has worked as a freelance trainer and assessment psychologist for various large mines in South Africa. In 2009, she started working as a consultant/trainer for Trompenaars Hampden-Turner Consulting in Amsterdam. There, she was responsible for the development and implementation of tailor-made training programmes and the co-facilitation of executive leadership programmes.

Dr Schreuders is currently involved in a research project called WeSoar, which concerns the dilemmas faced by successful female entrepreneurs around the world. This project is a collaboration between three organisations: Synquity, United Success and Trompenaars Hampden-Turner. The project aims to bridge the gap between the academic and corporate world.

She obtained her Bachelor’s with Honours, and a Master’s of Commerce with specialisation in Human Resource Management (all cum laude) at the University of Pretoria. Upon completion of her Honours degree, she spent three months working on a CSR project with AIESEC Philippines foundation in Cebu City, the Philippines. Her own experiences of living and working in different countries, and adjusting to culture shock fired her passion to conduct her PhD research on ‘The cultural intelligence and adjustment experiences of self-initiated expatriate women.’