Who is Jean-Paul Close?

Jean-Paul Close

• Ideological father of Sustainocracy,
• Ideological father of entrepreneurship of the 21st century (4 x WIN),
• founder and researcher about human and institutional engagement and behavioral adjustments at STIR foundation
• co-founder of AiREAS – healthy cities
• developer of the STIR Academy (participatory learning)
• developer of FRE2SH – regenerative local food network
• developer of COS3i – for social inclusion 
• Author and public speaker

Motivation

It is not very common that someone decides to develop a new societal format. Less still to see how this format is being accepted gradually in a complex human world in transition. For many decades Jean-Paul was a world executive with large hierarchical responsibilities. He was career, status and income driven, with no other awareness than that this was “normal”. This mentality was a heritage of his upbringing, education and the standard conditioning of his surroundings. 

In 1996, resident in Madrid (Spain) and expatriated as national general manager of a large multinational, he faced the divorce with his first wife with whom he had a baby daughter. The multinational wanted him to take on a new challenge in the Far East. Suddenly he felt the need to make up his mind about who he really is. Is he an executive that travels the world from position to position? Or was his recent fatherhood a key responsibility and priority that determined also his residence and professional life? He decided for the latter: the responsibility of fatherhood and vicinity of his daughter. 

His surroundings declared him out of his mind. 

He was giving up status and financial wealth “just for a child”?!

This reasoning shocked him. Where had we as humankind taken the turn in favor of financial wealth and status while forgetting the essentials of life, our offspring, that represent our evolution and sustainable progress as a species? His choice, that had placed him in a position of single fatherhood, made him gradually aware of a set of basic values that we share with all living species. In order to sustain ourselves as a species we need, all together, to take responsibility for those values.

Then he became single father a second time (2000). 

In 2001 he had decided to move back to the Netherlands, his country of birth, after 27 years of absence. A culture shock followed that opened up his mind further, this time to changing realities at societal level. He had left the country in 1974, as a teenager, to grow up in Barcelona. In 2001 the country had changed tremendously and, in his view and experience, not at all in its own favor. 

The perception of evolving human system complexities made him develop his own views about the ideal society. He decided to start experimenting with the idea. His first step was to define the values driven “entrepreneurship of the 21st century“. As a serial entrepreneur he could publish his views (2005 and 2008, in Dutch) and try to get business people to do something with it. The 4 x WIN Pyramid Paradigm was born, published and he started to develop himself as an entrepreneurial coach. 

Meanwhile tension in society was increasing and so was the tunnel vision of the authorities. In 2008 the financial crisis upset the world and opened the doors for him and his message “that not everything can be solved with money”. Early 2009 he established the STIR foundation to experiment with human and institutional complexities around developing the core human values. His views were that a new societal story can be told only if all involved (citizens and institutions) participate and commit to it.

In 2010 a start was made with AiREAS as a shared responsibility for environmental health. It involved local governments, business, education, science and citizens. It was the first real expression of his ideology of society as a co-ceation. With such a proof of concept he decided to name the emerging societal vision and methods Sustainocracy. It represents a real time democracy around our shared responsibilities for the essential natural values of our human existence. 

In 2023 he announced the preparation of both constitutional amendments, based on these essential values and the shared responsibilities for all, people and institutions alike, and the declaration of peace for all to commit to. He is also publishing articles and doing presentations on podia worldwide in which Sustainocracy, our changing story and the related Existentialist Ethics are explained.

He invites everyone to become part of Sustainocracy.

His contact details are:

Jean-Paul Close – jp@stadvanmorgen.com

Or  on LinkedIn