As an executive coach, I trust in my clients’ ability to master their challenges on their own. I support them by creating a safe environment for thoughtful questioning, deep reflection, and constructive sparring. I am passionate about executive and team coaching, especially when it involves intense situations, such as managing change, crises, and conflicts.
In my previous life as CEO, CFO, investment banker, and strategy consultant, I worked with companies like Kleinwort Benson, BCG, Brookfields, as well as various start-ups and scale-ups. Over more than 20 years as an executive, I have faced and successfully navigated a wide range of challenges, including change management, M&A transactions, spin-offs, post-merger integrations, start-ups and scale-ups, portfolio adjustments, turnarounds, strategy development and execution, insolvencies, and downsizing programs. Today these experiences are invaluable in helping me understand my clients’ situations, both rationally and emotionally.
Born 1969 in a little town in Germany’s southwest, I lived in various places of Germany, the USA and France and found home in Hamburg, enjoying its lake and parks every day.
My key character strengths are curiosity, bravery, enthusiasm, fairness, leadership, and the ability to love (VIA Character Strength Survey). In complex situations these help a lot in being clear and appreciative at the same time. I love people, inspiration, all kinds of challenges and the calm in the eye of the storm. Time with my wife and children, long walks with the dog, lots of reading, all kinds of outdoor activities, and my early morning meditation are an important counterbalance to my professional life. My daily newspaperreading is Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the New York Times.
I speak English, German and French.
Marcel Proust, the French writer, believed that answering this questionnaire reveals a person’s true nature. Here are my responses to these questions:
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Leadership deeply rooted in humanity fosters the trust and clarity needed to empower individuals and organizations to perform at their best in a rapidly changing world.
What is your greatest fear?
Another war in Europe.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
My tendency to over-rationalize.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Dishonesty.
Which living person do you most admire?
My son, for being so warm-hearted and my daughter, for being so courageous.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Driving an electric car with a realistic range of less than 100 miles and being proud of it.
What is your current state of mind?
Sober.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Diligence.
On what occasion do you lie?
When full honesty would be too hurtful.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
When hay fever hits, my eyes turn red and puffy, making me look 10 years older.
Which living person do you most despise?
All dictators, wannabe dictators, and those who support them for their own benefit.
What is the quality you most like in a man?
Integrity.
What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Integrity.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
„großartig“, i.e. magnificent.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My wife and my kids.
When and where were you happiest?
At that lake on a warm summer night…
Which talent would you most like to have?
More serenity in dealing with irrationality.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I would quadruple the number of languages I speak.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
To have saved my marriage when I had actually already lost it.
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
Our dog Eddie: eat, chase geese, sleep, repeat.
Where would you most like to live?
Right here.
What is your most treasured possession?
The love I give and the love I receive.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Hopelessness.
What is your favorite occupation?
Daydreaming.
What is your most marked characteristic?
To always try with best intentions.
What do you most value in your friends?
That they always accept me as I am, which is not always easy.
Who are your favorite writers?
Stefan Zweig, Lion Feuchtwanger, Gore Vidal, Irvin Yalom
Who is your hero of fiction?
Tintin
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Socrates, who said: “I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.”
Who are your heroes in real life?
All those who, despite the greatest adversities in life, remain optimistic, grounded, and full of integrity.
What are your favorite names?
Leo and Lotte
What is it that you most dislike?
Lentil soup, at least as a child.
What is your greatest regret?
Not having learned earlier to see the world the way I do today.
How would you like to die?
Going to sleep and just not waking up.
What is your motto?
Let’s try.
The Human Impact Advisors GmbH
Chilehaus A, Fischertwiete 2
D-20095 Hamburg
Telefon: + 49 (0)40 4142 4643
E-Mail: humans@thehumanimpact.group
