Stefaan van Hooydonk started his career in investment consulting in China. From there he moved to set up the executive education arm of a major business school in Shanghai (CEIBS), which he ran for 5 years. Subsequently, he was asked to become head of Nokia's corporate University in Greater China.

After having successfully set up eLearning in this country for Nokia’s 20+ sites and 8,000 employees in China, he was asked to become Nokia's Global eLearning Director. In this role, he was responsible for Nokia's global eLearning strategy, responsible for setting direction, implementing strategy and ensuring that eLearning was integrated throughout the company's training and development processes, both for Nokia's employees, but also for Nokia's partners and end-users. In fact, he set up structures and processes for Nokia to reach 200 million eLearners. He was also the driving force behind the company's goal of introducing mobile learning and 'edu-gaming' to users around the world. He then moved onto Agfa where he was Head of the Academy, and brought in to modernise and innovate the training function. Since September 2010, he is heading the Philips Lighting University, Philips International.