The Global Environment Top Talk was held in Room 119 in the afternoon on 15 October, 2015. Mr. Wouter T. Lincklaen Arri？ns, a former leading water specialist at Asian Development Bank for over 20 years, was invited to the interview. The interview was organized by students of GEP 2012 and GEP 2013 and chaired by Professor Gang Yu. More than 20 students attended the interview.
The interview started with a brief introduction of leadership by Mr. Wouter. Leadership is a process of influencing for better outcomes and is closely related to communication. He introduced the two sides of leadership training: from inside-out and from outside-in, and three styles of leadership: directive, empowering, and as a team.
At Q&A Session, Mr. Wouter answered questions in the area of life experience, specialization, career path and suggestions for GEP students. During his service for ADB, he gradually realized the deficiency of some technicians and engineers in communication with people from different background, which laid heavy burden on projects he worked on. Then he decided to take leadership training as his new duty. He advised students to listen to others and to build inter-culture awareness, so as to have effective communications. He also suggested GEP students take longer intern at the government or intergovernmental organizations, so as to get exposure to important projects at an early stage. Prof. Yu summarized and commented on the interview.
Mr. Wouter is a coach and advisor on leadership, water security, and sustainability. He had been a leading water specialist of the Asian Development Bank for more than 20 years. Now he coaches and advises UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, Network of Asian River Basin Organizations, and Tsinghua University Asia-Pacific Center for Water Security. Mr. Wouter earned his Master of Science (MSc) degree from Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

Mr. Wouter is accepting interview with GEP students