Rick Mans

Global Head of Web and Social Media Operations, Capgemini Group

Rick Mans was born in 1979 in The Hague, The Netherlands. During his early years he started swimming, and eventually became a successful long distance swimmer who won several national championships and crossed the the IJsselmeer three times (a swim of approximately 25km). Besides that he studied Management Economics and Law with a focus on online communication and behavior, graduating in 2002.

During his study he and three costudents started a company called eMagin in 1999. The focus was based around the web and merely at content management and already at collaboration software. Customers were the municapel for The Hague, several sportclubs and small and medium enterprises.

In 2007 he started working for Capgemini, where he soon became the inhouse social business strategist, besides working on the social media strategy for the Capgemini Group he is also working on national and international cases for several (Fortune 500) customers. Nowadays he lives and loves social media, helping people and enterprises in using social media in a way that adds value for them. He also gives guest lectures at several universities to make students aware of the impact social media will have on their life in general and on enterprises in particular in the near and not so near future.

He mostly blogs about social media and the way people and enterprises could interact and collaborate, and has great interest in anything digital, especially when it impact behavior.

Is he a geek? Well... yes. A geek with a social life though. Even one with a wife and a young son, whose first English words were 'Social media'.