Isaac Bullock — portrait
Singer-songwriter · Creative strategist · Founder

I connect the seemingly unconnected.

I invite people to feel something — then inspire them to move. Ex-refugee from Uganda, 25 years in the Netherlands. From Accenture boardrooms to the Paradiso stage — ISC award winner, TEDx speaker, and founder of six ventures at the intersection of music, technology and belonging.

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The story

01 — Isaac

Born in Uganda. Rebuilt a life in the Netherlands. Turned connection into a career, a collective, and six ventures.

Isaac Bullock arrived in the Netherlands 25 years ago as a refugee. He spent years as a strategist at Accenture — leading marketing, learning how boardrooms breathe — before walking toward the thing that had been calling him all along: music.

As Kyakuwa, he won Best Social Causes Song of 2020 at the International Songwriting Competition, selected by a jury including Dua Lipa, Coldplay and Tom Waits. As founder and frontman of WILDNOFF, he built a live collective with a network of 800+ musicians, playing Paradiso, Bimhuis, the Concertgebouw and North Sea Jazz — trusted by clients like Accenture, Oracle and VodafoneZiggo.

He co-founded The Refugee Talent Hub, and kept building: NetWorthy matches overlooked talent with employers through real connection — hire the human, not the CV. With Quipu and Kitufu he builds for Uganda — the country he left, and never really left him. His philosophy is simple: interact to connect. On stage, in a boardroom, in a brainstorm — connection is the product.

It started with a guitar from his foster mother at fourteen, self-taught through YouTube. In 2015 he wrote “Lioness”, the theme song of Serious Request — and he has been writing for NGOs and causes ever since. When 200 refugees arrived at the Koepel in Haarlem, angry and full of questions, Isaac climbed onto a table with his guitar and sang No Woman No Cry. The room softened. That's the through-line: music first, then movement.

“The Refugee Talent Hub received endorsements from Obama and the King and Queen.” — LEVEN! Magazine Haarlem

25years in NL
800+musicians strong
6ventures founded
1mission: aliveness
Uganda
Named Kyakuwa by his mother — from the proverb: what God gives, you accept with open hands. Accept the Gift.
~2001
Arrives in the Netherlands as a refugee
Accenture
8+ years — Marketing Lead & Digital Channels Lead; raised €1M for Solarus Sunpower; hosted NL’s first Metaverse Townhall
2015
“Lioness” — theme song of Serious Request; writes for NGOs ever since
2020
Wins International Songwriting Competition — Best Social Causes Song
WILDNOFF
Founds the collective — 800+ musicians, full venue takeovers
TEDx
“Cutting Luck Out of the Equation” — TEDxHilversum; 3,000 people at ChangeNOW Paris, closed with a song
Today
Six ventures at the intersection of music, technology and belonging

Everything I build

02 — The setlist

Watch & listen

03 — On stage & on screen
Keynote at ChangeNOW Summit — Paris, 3,000 people, closed with a songChangeNOW
Lioness — Serious Request 2015 themeKyakuwa
Cutting Luck Out of the EquationTEDxHilversum
Dream on a Dream — ft Lavinia Meijer & Azim InamiKyakuwa
Steptember — ft Brownie DutchWILDNOFF
In conversation — IedereenLiveInterview
Isaac Bullock live — photo Franklin van der Erf
Writing for Serious Request — De Wereld Draait DoorBNNVARA
Isaac Bullock — keynote with guitar

Talks that end with a song.

From TEDxHilversum to ChangeNOW Paris — Isaac speaks about what he knows from the inside: how music creates connection, how strangers become communities, and why aliveness is a skill worth practicing. The signature format: keynote + live music. Some things can't be said, only sung.

T1
Cutting Luck Out of the EquationThe TEDx talk — resilience, agency, and building your own odds
T2
Interact to ConnectWhy connection is the product — on stage and in the boardroom
T3
The Ex-Refugee Who Builds25 years of turning arrival into infrastructure — talent, technology and community
T4
Keynote + Live MusicThe hybrid format no one else can sell — strategy that survives contact with a real audience
Isaac Bullock with prof. dr. Erik Scherder
On tour as sidekick of prof. dr. Erik Scherder — Singing in the Brain