Education
He received a Master of Science degree in 1983 at the University of Leiden (The Netherlands). And a Master of Business Administration in 1985 at Northwestern University.
He received a Master of Science degree in 1983 at the University of Leiden (The Netherlands). And a Master of Business Administration in 1985 at Northwestern University.
He received his doctorate in 2002 at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, with a thesis on "The Role of Behavioral Factors in the successful Implementation and Use of Performance Management". As a consultant and researcher he primarily focuses on strategic performance management and organizations that excel. In December 2007 he founded his own advisory and research company, Center for Organizational Performance, in Hilversum, The Netherlands.
Besides acting as the academic director there, he is Associate Professor High Performance Organizations at Maastricht School of Management, visiting lecturer at Erasmus University Rotterdam and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
He was selected by managementboek.nl as one of ten "Dutch Masters in Management.".
In 2009 De Waal received the Highly Commended Award from the International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management for one of his articles, "Stimulating performance-driven behaviour to obtain better results" In 2012 De Waal received the Highly Commended Award at the Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2012 for his publication “The Evolutionary Adoption Framework: explaining the budgeting paradox” published in Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change. The article entitled “Longitudinal research into factors of high performance: the follow-up case of Nabil Bank” published in Measuring Business Excellence has been chosen as an Outstanding Paper Award Winner at the Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2012.