Get inspired by great leadership stories
All our guests are recommended by others who value their leadership style as inspiring and impactful. Below you find more detailed information about our great guests.
Duncan Barras
Duncan Barras from Cardiff started his career as a logistics planner in the steel industry. This is where he took over his first leadership role in a merely command and control culture.
After some years he switched the industry to another manufaturing company in the hope of experiencing a more people oriented collaboration. But he just experienced a similar culture as in the steel industry.
This changed when his new boss (Alexander ;-)) came to the company and started an agile transformation. Duncan was part of the management team and went through a leadership transformation himself.
Today he works as a segment category manager in the packaging industry.
Boris Bolz
Boris is Chief Platforms & Marketing manager at RTL Disney, a German TV production company. His background is Media Management and he has worked for well known brands like Red Bull, Campari, or Philip Morris International.
He is also a Zen Coach, which helped him mature as a spiritual & purpose driven leader. Together with his family he lives in Munich Germany.
Jürg Federer
It is difficult to put Jürg into one single box because he reinvents himself on a regular basis. He has been a famous chef in New York, the journalist of his own ice hockey newspaper, a publisher, an entertainer who has offered an aphrodisiac dining experience to more than ten thousand (!) people and a television chef. Today he works as a coach to help people explore their own creativity to start being and stop becoming.
Gaby Frischknecht
Gaby has a background in Business Administration. She has worked as a project manager in the insurance industry.
When her company decided to transform to a more agile way of working, Gaby became an Agile Leader and supported the organizational change.
Since August 2020 she is also a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences in Bern, Switzerland.
Ward Graham
Ward works as Executive Creative Director. He is the founder of his own creative agency. During his career he helped developing some of the world's most iconic brands, like Marlboro.
His project management work led to a global workshop based on better partnering between clients and agencies.
He worked and lived in several countries, mainly the US and Germany. Today his home base is Santa Domingo, the Dominican Republic.
Karen Kemerling
Karen brings 30+ years of leadership experience heading all aspects of business as a CIO and COO. In 2011, Karen was nominated by the Denver Business Journal as the CIO of the year in the Non-Profit Sector. In 2015, she was also voted one of the top 3 Business Women of the Year in Denver. Karen successfully completed her doctoral dissertation on the Productivity of Remote Teams and achieved her doctorate degree in Management and Organizational Development.
Karen is a Certified Agile Leader (CAL) co-facilitating the Agile Leadership Journey coaching practice for global leaders online: https://agileleadershipjourney.com/
She is also a Neuroscience Certified Brain Based Coach and a Leadership Agility 360 Certified Coach.
Karen co-developed the Women in Agile Leadership (WiAL) program, supporting and encouraging women executives & leaders to find their voice and lead authentically in a complex multi-cultural setting.
Quentin Pratley
After finishing his high school degree in Germany, Quentin has become a road constructor. He moved to the Congo to help building proper roads in a country less fortunate than Germany. Later back again in Germany he studied industrial engineering while continuing to work as road constructor.
Coincidentally he met a person from South Africa who has asked him to work for her. Seeing this as a chance to escape he has taken that offer and has started to work for FLSK in South Africa. Together they decided to bring to product to Europe/ Germany where he founded his own company at the age of 22.
Björn Winiger
After completing two masters in business and international management at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland he spent about ten years in various business roles like project manager, business analyst, risk management and client advisor in different banks and insurance companies.
Following his true passion, he switched to the learning and development department to do more what he loves. Formal trainings in organisational development and coaching were part of this journey.
Today he works at Swiss RE as a coach for senior executives supporting them personally and to become outstanding teams. About one year ago he founded his own company to also work with executive teams from other companies. Björn lives in Basel, Switzerland.
Alexander Puschkin
Alexander Puschkin has a background in economics and information technology. As an entrepreneur and manager he has founded different start-ups.
As a Chief Digital Officer in an established company he has built up a new segment with innovative products and supported the company in becoming more agile. Today he works as a consultant to support companies in their digital and agile transformation.
Together with his family he lives in Berlin, Germany.