From researcher to Academic Director: Roeland Buckinx’s vision on public leadership
Public challenges require more than efficiency alone. Roeland Buckinx shares his perspective on collaboration, systems thinking and the role of leadership in an increasingly complex public sector.
Share item
Major societal challenges can’t be solved in isolation. That belief has been a constant throughout Roeland Buckinx’s career. From biomedical research and university governance to innovation in healthcare, collaboration has always been at the heart of his work. Today, he brings that experience to Antwerp Management School as Academic Director of the Executive Master in Public Governance & Leadership.
A Master that goes beyond management
When Roeland started looking for an executive program to strengthen his management capabilities, an MBA seemed like the obvious choice. However, another program quickly caught his attention: the Executive Master in Public Governance & Leadership.
Courses covering public administration, public law and multi-level governance aligned far more closely with the realities he encountered in his daily work. At the same time, the program offered enough flexibility to tailor the learning journey through elective modules. Yet what stayed with him most was not only the content itself.
The quality of the faculty, the strong academic foundation and the practical adaptability of the insights were truly impressive. But what made the biggest difference was the interaction with fellow participants and faculty members. ‘Opening minds to impact the world’ is anything but an empty slogan to me.
The public sector faces fundamental challenges
Looking ahead, Roeland sees several themes becoming increasingly important in the future development of the program. Artificial intelligence is high on that list, but he believes the discussion often remains too superficial.
Everyone is talking about AI today, but high-quality AI starts with high-quality data. The public sector carries a unique responsibility in this regard. Citizens can’t simply opt out of their relationship with government. That is why questions around AI are inevitably also questions about data governance and data sovereignty.
Beyond AI, he points to broader societal challenges such as population ageing, climate change and growing complexity. According to him, resilience will become an essential capability for public organizations. Building that resilience requires leaders who can look beyond organizational boundaries, connect different interests and approach societal challenges from a broader perspective.
The power of collaboration
This focus on collaboration is also central to Roeland’s experience at Health Campus Limburg, where innovation in healthcare is driven through partnerships between government, knowledge institutions and industry. He also explores this dynamic academically in his master’s thesis on the so-called Triple Helix model.
Successful collaboration is not determined by the presence of strong organizations, but by the quality of interaction between them. Organizations inevitably have different interests, objectives and expectations. The challenge is not to eliminate those differences, but to connect them around a shared ambition.
He brings the same philosophy to his new role at AMS. For him, successful collaboration starts with genuine curiosity about what drives partners, what value they seek to create and how different perspectives can strengthen one another.
Opening minds in both directions
As Academic Director, Roeland aims not only to share knowledge, but also to continue learning himself. He believes this is one of the greatest strengths of executive education. Experienced professionals bring real-world challenges, insights and expertise into the classroom, creating a unique exchange between academic knowledge and professional practice.
I will continue learning from both colleagues and participants at AMS. That is precisely what makes executive education so valuable. Opening minds should work in both directions.
“Perhaps even a Bolleke can’t compete with it”
What sets Antwerp Management School apart, according to Roeland, is its deliberate commitment to public leadership. The combination of academic expertise, experienced professionals and an intensive learning journey creates a unique learning environment. And while the subject matter is serious, he has not lost his sense of humor.
Bring together experienced professionals and state-of-the-art academic knowledge, let them learn from one another and exchange experiences over the course of two years, and you end up with a remarkable blend. One that perhaps even a Bolleke can’t compete with.
