Ronald van Loon is the Founder & CEO of Intelligent World, a global tech event educational marketplace of global thought leaders, analysts & influencers, and an Advisory Board Member & Course Advisor for leading professional certification training company Simplilearn. He helps and coaches companies to implement successful data and analytics strategies to meet and exceed their goals in this digital age. He is an influencer and frequent public speaker for significant AI, Big Data, IoT, and Data Science events. Ronald is a globally recognized thought leader in the industry and has been globally ranked by Onalytica, Refenitiv, GlobalData research & Verdict Media and many others. He has been ranked #1 Influencer in AI, Big Data & Analytics, and Automation, #2 Influencer in Cloud, Internet of Things, AI & Digital Transformation, #3 Influencer in Infrastructure, #5 Influencer in 5G in Telecommunications, #7 B2B & Data Science and #8 Digital Transformation.
Growing up, Ronald van Loon was greatly inspired by his father, who was a technology enthusiast. He recalled fondly, “My father was obsessed with automating everything. He controlled an entire factory from his computer screen in the 80s when such technology was unheard of, yet he kept striving to find solutions and automate mundane tasks.”
Watching his father, deeply embedded in young Ronald, a zest to automate the world around him. His father also taught him the critical value of never giving up, especially when faced with a nerve-wracking dilemma. Instead, he told him to keep learning and persevering to adapt to the new situation, which has served Ronald well in leading and advising some of the top companies in the world.
Following his father’s advice, as a young boy, Ronald tried experimenting with different learning methods to find a more effective way to achieve his goals and started sharing his learnings on social media. Unbeknownst that this would eventually lead him to become one of the biggest influencers in AI, Big Data and Analytics globally in the future.
With his innate ability to lead and find solutions, he decided to pursue a business degree at Nyenrode Business University and completed his Masters in 1994. However, Ronald did not begin his career in technology, instead he began his career working as an Export Sales Manager. At the peak of his career in sales, he was the VP of Sales and Marketing at O2MC 1/O – Prescriptive Web Computing. However, on the side, he continued sharing his insights about technology and the latest advancements in the sector, thereby growing his community online. His valuable insights about the industry soon started gaining momentum, and Ronald found this process of sharing his knowledge online thoroughly rewarding.
But the turning point in his career that pushed him to shift to the technology industry, he says, was in 2016, when he observed how Intel Chief Data Science provided detailed research about the impact and capabilities of AI. He was intrigued and knew he had to move to the Technology industry to solve industry pain points using AI. He adds, “I did not choose what I am doing; rather, I was called to it.”
From there, there was no looking back. Since January 2017, Ronald has worked with more than 70+ respected global tech companies, PR agencies, publishers and event organizations. He has created 400+ webinars, podcasts, videos, articles and other relevant content assets per year. All these learnings accumulated over the years eventually led him to set up his own company, Intelligent World.
Talking about the inception of Intelligent World, he says, “My continuous pursuit of advancing education and thought leadership in big data, IoT, AI, machine learning, 5G, deep learning, predictive analytics, cloud, edge and data science has evolved into me becoming one of the Top 10 Global Influencers and Thought-Leaders. I’ve taken all this knowledge, experience and connections I have acquired and developed a platform called Intelligent World. The organization is a thought leader, analyst and influencer network that connects businesses, experts and influencers to new audiences and empowers them to collaborate, create and share exciting new content.”
He continued, “Here, tech, AI, data and analytics enthusiasts can receive in-depth education from the brightest minds worldwide and even access opportunities for free coaching courses.”
However, Ronald’s interests are not restricted to just Data Science; he adds, “I’m also deeply inspired by the film industry and the visual forms of communication it depends on to create experiences for people. Experience is so important today, which leads me to another topic that influences me: the Customer Experience. Creating a responsive, quick, and personalized experience for customers is vital to the survival of businesses and enables consumers to get what they want and need most.”
He continues, “Deep Learning, and all of its capabilities, is another source of influence. Its video analytics and voice recognition applications drive digital technology trends and allow businesses to handle massive quantities of streaming data better.”
As a digital transformation expert, he adds, “I find companies that successfully manage and implement a transition from traditional to fully data-driven to be incredibly inspiring. They’re helping set an example for other companies who aspire to begin taking steps to be digitally driven, which is becoming a necessity to survive in the ever-changing landscape of business.”
In his attempt to help companies with digital adoption, Ronald has worked with numerous clients, including AWS Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Intel, IBM, NVIDIA, Cisco, SAP, HPE, Oracle, Huawei,
Ericsson, Bosch, Lenovo, Comcast, RELX Group (LexisNexis, Reed Exhibitions, Elsevier), Tata Communications, EY, Tech Mahindra, KPMG, Atos, Mahindra Comviva, Simplilearn, Clairvoyant, Nasscom, amongst others.
With his multiple successes guiding these companies and his incredible prowess in the industry, Ronald has been awarded multiple awards. Including the India Australia Business Community Alliance Award, The Business Leader of the Year Award, Top 10 AI Influencers for 2021 and 2022 and Top 20 Thought Leader to follow in 2022 by Engati, to name a few.
In conclusion, his advice to all budding leaders is, “Always have space to be flexible.” Rigid plans are the highways to failure.
