Neeltje van Horen is Professor of Financial Economics at the University of Amsterdam and former Senior Advisor at the Bank of England. Her research focuses on global finance, international banking, and how the financial system shapes the real economy. Neeltje has also worked at the World Bank and De Nederlandsche Bank and has been a visiting scholar at institutions such as the EBRD, IMF, and Chicago Fed.

She works with high-performing professionals operating under sustained pressure helping both leaders and teams who deliver at a high level, often at a growing internal cost.

Her work uncovers a critical hidden dynamic: under pressure, the brain narrows. While this sharpens performance in the short term, when it doesn’t reset, it compounds; driving stress, clouding judgment, and increasing self-doubt.

Blending neuroscience, psychology, and experience at the highest levels of academia and central banking, Neeltje equips audiences with practical tools to interrupt this cycle. Her sessions are insightful, engaging, and immediately applicable, helping people sustain peak performance while improving clarity, effectiveness, and wellbeing.

She is the author of Ignite, exploring the brain’s role in the cost of performance.

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