Acknowledgements

The concept of ‘agile mentoring’ and this manual would not have been possible without the support of several people.

First and foremost, I would like to thank Frederik Peters, who from the very beginning was willing to think with me about more effective ways of supervising academic research. As Engagement Director at Capgemini Netherlands, he drew on experiences from the corporate world and introduced me to the idea of working in an iterative way. The term ‘agile mentoring’ originates from him.

Secondly, I would like to thank Eisse Wiersema, who observed up close how the supervision of large numbers of academic theses affected both my professional work and, at times, my private life. He helped me reflect on the importance of setting clear boundaries and conditions. As a result, this part of my work became more manageable and created more time and peace of mind.

Furthermore, my thanks go to Professor Caroline Fournet, who was the first colleague to introduce a strict final deadline for submitting international master’s theses. For me, Caroline has been an important source of inspiration and has shown that it is possible to work differently within an academic environment that can sometimes be rather conventional.

Finally, I would like to thank Gerard Tieks, who made a valuable contribution to the Dutch version of the manuscript through his precise and thoughtful feedback.

If you would like to know more about agile mentoring, or if you have questions or feedback, please feel free to contact me at l.j.j.peters@rug.nl.