BORN TO BREAK BOUNDARIES
The Berlin School of Creative Leadership is a distinctive business school where talented creative business leaders break the boundaries of personal and professional potential. Through our range of tailor-made programs, we foster a community of continuous and relevant learning, enabling professionals to take transformative steps in their careers and lives. Our mission is to turn great creative minds into great creative leaders.
BORN TO BREAK
BOUNDARIES
The Berlin School of Creative Leadership is a distinctive business school where talented creative business leaders break the boundaries of personal and professional potential. Through our range of tailor-made programs, we foster a community of continuous and relevant learning, enabling professionals to take transformative steps in their careers and lives. Our mission is to turn great creative minds into great creative leaders.
OUR ACADEMIC PARTNER
AND SHAREHOLDER
OUR STORY
Steinbeis University’s Schools of Next Practices, a renowned business school within the state-recognized Steinbeis Hochschule, serves as both our shareholder and academic partner. The Executive MBA in Creative Leadership is an accredited program at Steinbeis Hochschule, where all Berlin School students are enrolled. The academic team at S-Next oversees the entire process. S-Next is renowned for programs that enhance careers in business management, economics, and related fields. Our offerings encompass a wide range of Master of Science (MSc) and Master of Business Administration (MBA) specializations, covering diverse areas such as Data Analytics & Artificial Intelligence, Digital Innovation & Business Transformation, Digital Marketing, Management & Innovation, HR & Change Management, Sustainable Management, and Business & Organizational Psychology.
OUR ACADEMIC PARTNER
AND SHAREHOLDER
Steinbeis University’s Schools of Next Practices, a renowned business school within the state-recognized Steinbeis Hochschule, serves as both our shareholder and academic partner. The Executive MBA in Creative Leadership is an accredited program at Steinbeis Hochschule, where all Berlin School students are enrolled. The academic team at S-Next oversees the entire process. S-Next is renowned for programs that enhance careers in business management, economics, and related fields. Our offerings encompass a wide range of Master of Science (MSc) and Master of Business Administration (MBA) specializations, covering diverse areas such as Data Analytics & Artificial Intelligence, Digital Innovation & Business Transformation, Digital Marketing, Management & Innovation, HR & Change Management, Sustainable Management, and Business & Organizational Psychology.
“By challenging convention, the Berlin School has set out to educate and inspire a new breed of thinkers and leaders in creative enterprises.”
Michael Conrad
President, Berlin School of Creative Leadership Foundation
“By challenging convention, the Berlin School has set out to educate and inspire a new breed of thinkers and leaders in creative enterprises.”
Michael Conrad
President, Berlin School of Creative Leadership Foundation
“By challenging convention, the Berlin School has set out to educate and inspire a new breed of thinkers and leaders in creative enterprises.”
Michael Conrad
President, Berlin School of Creative Leadership Foundation
LEARN FROM ACADEMIC & INDUSTRY EXPERTS
Our faculty comprises of leading international specialsts from Steinbeis University, visiting professors, and industry experts.
Our Executive MBA in Creative Leadership program takes our participants on a distinct learning journey where they have the unique opportunity to interact with leaders who are creatively shaping their industries. Both outstanding creative leaders and academic experts contribute to an authentic and innovative learning experience that resonates to the core of our participants.
LEARN FROM ACADEMIC & INDUSTRY EXPERTS
Our faculty comprises of leading international specialsts from Steinbeis University, visiting professors, and industry experts.
Our Executive MBA in Creative Leadership program takes our participants on a distinct learning journey where they have the unique opportunity to interact with leaders who are creatively shaping their industries. Both outstanding creative leaders and academic experts contribute to an authentic and innovative learning experience that resonates to the core of our participants.
SUSANN SCHRONEN
CEO
SUSANN SCHRONEN
CEO
Susann is CEO at the Berlin School of Creative Leadership Foundation. She is also working as business and executive coach.
In December 2020 after nine years, Susann Schronen stepped back as CEO of the Berlin School operating units. Her remarkable trajectory in this position enabled the school to cement its unique place at the forefront of executive education in the creative industries and beyond.
Susann’s career experience in the creative industry stems from a range of management positions within the agency, client, and institutional side. With this, she brings a valuable combination of high-level strategic thinking, operational leadership, and essential process management to business development and educational tasks and to her practice as executive coach.
Susann’s professional career began as a Marketing Assistant in the chemical industry. She then switched to the agency side, working as an Account Executive for Grey and Ogilvy One for five years. After being recruited for a challenging position on the client side, she led the in-house agency of the number one German department store chain, where she later managed two big mergers and became marketing director of a fashion retail company within the same group. During her 8 years in retail, she significantly influenced the strategic development of corporate brands and the departments she had to lead.
Moving to Berlin in 2001, Susann became Managing Director of the Art Directors Club, and ran the not-for-profit-organization for 10 years. In her position, she focused on building a new structure and developing new business, and was crucial to the founding and development of the Berlin School. Here, she has been playing an active role as Managing Director since August 2011, before becoming CEO in 2017. After stepping back from her operational duties at the Berlin School in December 2020 she continues serving as CEO of the Foundation and is focusing on her activities as executive coach.
Susann graduated from the University of Düsseldorf after studying French and Spanish Literature and Linguistics, as well as Educational Science. She is a certified Business Coach from Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute, at Berkeley University of California and from artop – Affiliate Institute at Humboldt University, Berlin.
DR. ARNO MAHLERT
Board of Directors
DR. ARNO MAHLERT
Board of Directors
Arno is Treasurer and a Member of the Supervisory Board at the Berlin School of Creative Leadership.
Arno studied Economics at the Universities of Münster and Saarland in Germany, and he was a Research Assistant, PhD in the latter.
He began his professional career in 1974 at the Controlling Department of SABA-Werke GmbH. In 1978, he joined Bertelsmann AG, Gütersloh, where he spent ten years and served as Head of Corporate Development and later CFO of the Electronic Media Division. Arno then worked as CFO and Executive Director of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck in Stuttgart for the next 15 years before moving to maxingvest AG as CFO and later CEO. He also fulfilled the role of Chairman of supervisory boards of Springer Science and Business Media, Berlin of GFK SE, Nürnberg and of Indibo Gmbh, Hamburg.
Arno currently serves as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Franz Cornelsen Bildungsholding KG , Berlin and Member of the Supervisory Board of DAL Deutsche Afrika-Linien GmbH , maxingvest AG, Peek & Cloppenburg, Die Zeit all in Hamburg.
MICHAEL CONRAD
President
MICHAEL CONRAD
President
After 34 wonderful years in advertising Michael Conrad retired in 2003. Born in Germany – “a country more famous for great cars and less famous for great ads”, as his friend John Hegarty likes to point out – Michael brought German engineering to global quality management in advertising, helping Leo Burnett Worldwide Inc. become Global Agency Network of the Year in 2000 (AdAge) and Most Awarded Agency Network in 2001 (Gunn Report). Under his creative leadership 27 Leo Burnett agencies were named Agency of the Year in their countries, some of them more than once.
Michael began his career in 1968 as copywriter for Young & Rubicam, Frankfurt. In 1972, then Creative Director at Ogilvy & Mather Frankfurt, Michael left with colleague Creative Director Walter Lürzer to start TBWA in Frankfurt. In 1975, Michael and Walter set up Lürzer, Conrad, subsequently winning Agency of the Year and several Campaign of the Year awards. In 1980, the agency merged with Leo Burnett Germany, continuing its growth and creative success.
When Walter Lürzer retired in 1982 to launch Lürzer’s Archive, the agency was renamed Michael Conrad & Leo Burnett. In 1986, Michael moved to Chicago to become President and Chief Creative Officer of Leo Burnett International, which included creative leadership on global accounts like Marlboro.
In 1996, he became Vice Chairman and Chief Creative Officer Leo Burnett Worldwide. Michael presided over many juries of international advertising festivals, including Cannes, AdFest, Clio and Golden Drum. He serves as Dean of the Roger Hatchuel Lions Academy and is Honorary Member of ADC Switzerland, ADC*Europe and ADC Germany. In 2002, German business daily Handelsblatt and Wirtschaftswoche magazine inducted him into the German Advertising Hall of Fame.
Upon retiring in 2003, ADC Germany’s Sebastian Turner approached Michael to help develop ADC’s education initiatives. Having identified “low quality creative leadership” as the main reason for low quality standards in creative industries, the idea was born to establish The Berlin School of Creative Leadership.
Michael lives with his wife Helga in Zurich, Switzerland. They enjoy their three children’s creative progress: Anja’s fresh photography; Josepha and Philipp’s desperate serenades.
PROF. DR. GERHARD BLECHINGER
Board of Directors
PROF. DR. GERHARD BLECHINGER
Board of Directors
Prof. Dr. Gerhard Blechinger is an Art Historian, Philosopher, Rector of the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences and Academic Director of futur.io Institute Hamburg, and sits on the Board of Directors at the Berlin School.
From 2011 to 2015 Gerhard Blechinger was Dean of the MultiMediaArt Faculty at the University of Applied Sciences in Salzburg. In 2010 he co-founded the Berlin-based company, Experimental Game, and is now working on founding a new university of applied sciences dedicated to sustainability and innovation, also in Berlin. From 2007 to 2010 he was head of the Institute of Design and Technology at the Zurich University of the Arts 2007-2010 and before, between 2000 and 2007, Vice-Rector for Research and Development at the University of Design and Art. Gerhard established first Post-Graduate Masters Programs in Switzerland, including the Masters in Mobile Application Design, amongst others. In 2005, he founded the TRACE research group which works in the field of neurophysiology and aesthetics. He is also the editor of numerous TRACE books. From 1998 to 2000, he was Vice-Director of the Mediamuseum and Director of the Medialab at the Center for Art and Mediatechnology in Karlsruhe. Gerhard finished his Doctorate in 1996 with a thesis on the political implications of Jacques Derrida deconstructive philosophy.
DR. DAVID SLOCUM
Academic Advisor and Faculty Member
DR. DAVID SLOCUM
Academic Advisor and Faculty Member
David Slocum is a Berlin School Academic Advisor and Faculty Member teaching Creative Leadership. As former Faculty Director, David designed, lead, and taught our Executive MBA program and has been instrumental to our global community and to developing the Berlin School’s learning methods, grounded in Creative Business Leadership. David is a certified executive coach, with a focus on leadership of the creative and media industries. A sociologist and historian of media, Slocum’s research and teaching have focused broadly on the transformation of film, media and communication industries, the organization and leadership of creative businesses, and the education and training of creative leaders. He also speaks regularly to academic and industry audiences on these topics. His publications, including four books, have examined a range of cultural, historical, and industry issues in media and entertainment. He is currently dedicated to special projects on Executive Education at the Berlin School and is writing a book on the history of creative leadership.
Slocum previously served as the director of specialized executive education programs at the George Washington University School of Business in Washington, D.C., where he designed and delivered offerings including the STAR EMBA program for individuals, like professional athletes, with strong personal brands, and the ‘On the Board’ fellows program to prepare senior women leaders for placement on corporate boards. Slocum also spent ten years at New York University, as Associate Dean at the NYU Graduate School of Arts and Science and teaching in the Cinema Studies Department and the Art & Public Policy Program in the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Additionally at NYU, he served as Director of the University-wide Center for Teaching Excellence, was Co-Founding Director of the Diversity Studies Program, operated jointly with the University of Cape Town (UCT), and coordinated the Graduate School’s global outreach, program design and development efforts. Earlier, he directed and taught in the Graduate Media Studies Program at the New School for Social Research.
Slocum was educated at the University of Michigan, Harvard University, and New York University, where he earned a Ph.D. studying sociology and media.
DR. ANDREA MEYER
Director of Executive Education and Academic Advisor
DR. ANDREA MEYER
Director of Executive Education and Academic Advisor
Dr. Andrea Meyer is an Academic Advisor and Faculty Member at the Berlin School of Creative Leadership. Since 2021, she has also been associated with the Steinbeis School of Management and Innovation as well as Next Practices, where she holds multiple roles, including Head of Project Coach, Director of Executive Education, and Lecturer. In addition, she serves as a member of the examination committee.
Between 2003 and 2021, Dr. Meyer worked for different airlines, such as LTU, Air Berlin, Thomas Cook and Sundair. There, she held varying positions in departments ranging from Flight Operations and Safety Management, to being the Deputy Security Manager as well as the Head of Operations Documentation and Trainings Management. This period marked her significant contributions to the aviation industry, a sector in which she has also been working as an ICAO Language Examiner for Aviation English since 2020.
Her academic contributions extend beyond her current affiliations. She has been working for different universities, such as Fern Hochschule Hagen, SRH or IUBH. There, she worked not only as a lecturer for different modules (such as “Team Building”, Communication” or “Leading teams and individuals”), but also as an author of various modules, focusing on areas like “Occupational Psychology” or “Health Management”. Since 2009, Dr. Meyer has also been an external staff member at the department for “HR Management and Organization” at Fern Universität Hagen.
During her studies, she concentrated on Human Resource Management and earned her Ph.D in Strategic Management at the University in Linz, Austria.
With a career that spans various sectors, Dr. Andrea Meyer has presented a remarkable blend of leadership, educational expertise, and operational competence. She has been a key figure in multiple roles, from authoring educational modules to serving in high-level managerial positions in organizations.
AKIN DUYAR
COO, Director of Marketing and Faculty Member
AKIN DUYAR
COO, Director of Marketing and Faculty Member
Berlin School of Creative Leadership GmbH
Germany
Akin Duyar serves as the COO and Director of Marketing for the Berlin School of Creative Leadership, where he is also a Faculty Member. As an Innovation Design and Creative Leadership Coach with global reach, he offers bespoke coaching programs in English, German, and Turkish. Holding a master’s degree in Creative Leadership and certified as a Hasso Plattner Design Thinking Coach, Akin equips executives and organizations with both the vision and practical skills necessary for generating and executing innovative solutions.
With a career that spans over 20 years, Akin offers a rich tapestry of experience in intercultural communication and creativity. He honed these skills at his own advertising agency, Cumin, where he managed a diverse portfolio of international clients, including Deutsche Bank, Bosch, Telefonica, and Vodafone.
In his master’s studies in Creative Leadership, Akin delved deeply into the psychological barriers that can hinder the learning and application of innovative work methods such as Design Thinking. This exploration led to the development of the Design Thinking+ method—an enhanced approach that integrates intercultural competence, creative strategies from agency life, techniques to overcome cognitive biases, and abductive reasoning. This methodology propels you several steps closer to achieving breakthrough ideas. To learn more about how Akin can guide your journey toward innovation, feel free to connect with him.
PROF. DR. MARIO VAUPEL
CEO and Faculty Director
PROF. DR. MARIO VAUPEL
CEO and Faculty Director
Prof. Dr. Mario Vaupel is the CEO of the Berlin School of Creative Leadership. He also holds the position of Professor of Sustainable Leadership at Steinbeis University, where he serves as the Director of the Institute of Executive Capabilities. In addition, he is the founder and principal of L21st Consulting, a professional services firm specializing in supporting companies in developing leadership capabilities. Up until 2010, Mario Vaupel was the founding Head of the ERGO Management Academy. In this capacity, he was responsible for designing and implementing a strategy-driven leadership development structure for the senior executive levels within the ERGO Group. His most recent project involved creating a business plan to integrate all training departments of the ERGO Group, coordinating the efforts of 430 employees from seven different companies. Before joining the ERGO Group, he participated in various change management and leadership development activities at HDI, Victoria, and the Allianz Group.
Mario Vaupel is a former Board member and currently serves as an Executive Advisor to the EFMD. He has also facilitated the EFMD Special Interest Group on “Leadership Development 2.0” and is a member of the Academic Board of DUW. He studied at universities in Wuppertal, Bochum, and Amsterdam, graduating with honors in both psychology and economic sciences.
SARA BECKMAN
Faculty Director
SARA BECKMAN
Faculty Director
University of California Berkely
Sara Beckman is a Berlin School faculty member teaching innovation design.
Sara Beckman teaches new product development and manufacturing and operations management at the University of California’s Haas School of Business. In nearly twenty years at the Haas School, she has developed, institutionalized and directed the school’s Management of Technology Program, initiated
new courses on design, entrepreneurship in biotechnology, and new product development, won four awards from MBA students for excellence in teaching, and received the Berkeley campus Distinguished Teaching Award.
Sara Beckman has also taught for Stanford University’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, and been a visiting faculty member at MIT in both 1994 and 1999 where she taught in the Leaders for Manufacturing Program.
Prior to and concurrent with her involvement at the Haas School, Sara Beckman worked for the Hewlett-Packard Company, most recently as Director of the Product Generation Change Management Team. This group was responsible for supporting strategic decision-making, workforce planning and
design, manufacturing education and training, and environmental, health and safety management throughout the company. Before joining HP and the Haas School, Sara Beckman worked in the Operations Management Services practice at Booz, Allen and Hamilton where she developed manufacturing strategy in a number of diverse industries from pharmaceuticals to aerospace.
Sara Beckman has B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management at Stanford University and an M.S. in Statistics from the same institution. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Building Materials Holding Corporation and the Corporate
Design Foundation.
RON BERGER
CEO
RON BERGER
CEO
Euro RSCG Worldwide
Ron Berger is Former Chief Exec. Officer & Chief Creative Officer. Ron was responsible for the management of Euro RSCG’s New York and San Francisco-based advertising and marketing services companies. Under Ron’s leadership, the agency acquired new accounts ranging from Charles Schwab to Jaguar to Claritin to Verizon Business, and added major creative, interactive, and strategic assignments from Volvo, Schering-Plough, Oppenheimer Funds and others. Ron was instrumental in persuading long-time client Volvo to grant the agency its pan-European business, leading to the creation of Fuel Europe, a London based unit totally dedicated to the Volvo business.
Ron has been in the advertising business since the age of 18, when he took the summer job of mail boy and center fielder for the Carl Ally agency. Ron’s most widely acclaimed work there, the “Time to Make the Donuts” campaign for Dunkin’ Donuts, was honored by the Television Bureau of Advertising as one of the five best commercials of the 1980s.
In 1986, he co-founded the agency that became Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer Euro RSCG. Through the 1990s, the agency was the fastest growing major agency in the advertising industry. His commercial for Volvo, titled “Survivors”, was selected “Best Commercial of 1993” by Advertising Age. In recognition of this work, Ron was featured in the Wall Street Journal’s Creative Leader campaign.
In 2003, Ron directed and produced The Boys of 2nd Street Park, an award-winning documentary that premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and appeared on Showtime. And after screening at Sundance in 2005, his second film, Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story, made its world premiere on USA Network that April and was selected by Entertainment Weekly as one of the Ten Best Sports Documentaries of all time.
Ron is Chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, Co-Chairman of Advertising Week, and sits on the Advisory Board for the Children’s Health Fund and the Creative Review Committee for the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.
Ron graduated from the University of Hartford in 1971 with a B.S. in Psychology. In 2001 he received the Vincent Brown Coffin Award, presented to a former student-athlete who has demonstrated excellence in his or her profession.
CHERYL BERMAN
Chair
CHERYL BERMAN
Chair
Leo Burnett North America
United States
Throughout her Burnett career spanning three decades, Cheryl Berman has been responsible for much of the agency’s most creative, brand-building and award-winning advertising. As Chief Creative Officer of Leo Burnett USA since 1997, Cheryl played an integral role in pitches, landing more than half of the accounts that reside in the agency today. Now, as Chairman, she continues to provide senior counsel to many of these brands. Cheryl has been a champion of results driven work and under her leadership Leo Burnett has been the most awarded agency for effectiveness for the past four years.
A former journalist, Cheryl joined Burnett as a copywriter — a job she has called the best at the agency. Proving to be a prolific writer and manager, she eventually became the first woman appointed to Burnett’s Board of Directors in 1994. She has received a number of industry accolades including being named Chicago’s Ad Woman of the Year in 1997 and being featured as the ‘Determined Ms. Berman’ in The Wall Street Journal’s Creative Leaders series. She has also served on numerous award show juries including the prestigious Film and Titanium juries in Cannes and counts numerous awards including 20 Cannes Lions among her proudest advertising accomplishments.
A Chicago native, Cheryl graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She and her husband Randolph Kretchmar have three children who provide Cheryl with insights and inspiration to keep her on her toes.
Cheryl is a role model for women in the industry. In 2004, Cheryl struck a chord with a presentation called ‘Miss Understood: She’s Not Buying Your Ads’, which made its debut at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes. She continues to speak on this topic around the world.
Over the years, Cheryl has also written award-winning music for clients like McDonald’s, Disney and Hallmark that has not only been performed by countless celebrities but has made it to the top of the charts. In 2000, Cheryl launched a full, in-house video facility as well as a state-of-the-art music house. In 2005, she introduced Burnett’s ‘Artist in Residence’ Program, which builds face-to-face, working relationships between guest artists and the agency to streamline musical solutions and opportunities for marketers. This immediately successful new approach has been embraced by brands like McDonald’s, Kellogg and Nintendo, and has been featured in Business 2.0, Billboard and The Wall Street Journal.
UTE BIERNAT
CEO
UTE BIERNAT
CEO
UFA SHOW & FACTUAL GmbH
After receiving a degree in Theater, Film and Television Studies, Ute Biernat started her career as a journalist and documentary film producer. In 1992 she moved to New Zealand as a freelance television producer for TV3 and other local stations. Biernat then moved to Australia where she became a producer for various entertainment formats (including SBS) before continuing her career in USA with CNN, CBS and ABC.
In 1994 Ute Biernat returned to Germany as a broadcast production consultant. In 1996 she joined Grundy TV as Executive Producer. Two years later she became the Senior Executive Producer at Pearson Television Deutschland. In May 2000 Ute Biernat became CEO of GRUNDY Light Entertainment (formerly Pearson Television Deutschland) and in addition to her function she took over the management of UFA Entertainment in June 2010. With the rebranding of UFA in 2013, GRUNDY Light Entertainment was renamed as UFA SHOW GmbH and UFA Entertainment became UFA FACTUAL GmbH. Under Ute Biernat’s leadership both companies merged into UFA SHOW & FACTUAL GmbH at the beginning of 2015.
DANIEL YOUNG
Senior Interaction Designer
DANIEL YOUNG
Senior Interaction Designer
Google Search Ux
United States
Daniel lives in San Jose, California with his wife and two toddlers, practicing boxing and Zen meditation.
In his previous incarnations, Daniel has been an engineer, a consultant, an entrepreneur, and a swing dance instructor. After studying graphic and interaction design at ArtCenter College of Design, Daniel joined Google Creative Lab where he learned the importance of mixing ambition and scale with play and humility. Daniel now leads the design efforts at Google to evolve core search and answers. He spends his 20% time facilitating and piloting mindfulness programs to help fellow Googlers pause, rebalance, and uncover new perspectives to sustain 10x innovation.
ROBERT WEISZ
Professor
ROBERT WEISZ
Professor
IAE Aix-en-Provence School of Management
Robert Weisz is a Berlin School faculty member teaching leading creative people.
Robert Weisz is Professor of Organizational Behavior & Organizational Development at the IAE Aix-en-Provence, University of Aix-Marseille, and Head of Academic Advisory Board at the Berlin School of Creative Leadership. His area of interest focus on communication, change leadership, coaching and personal development.
Professor Weisz is the author or co-author of several books and has more than thirty published articles in the various fields of management, work organization, communication under stress, leadership and the cross-cultural dimensions of pedagogy. Professor Weisz has lead management training workshops for large international companies including Alcatel, BASF, Bouygues, Club-Méditerranée, Deloitte & Touche, EDF, Eurocopter, GDF, ING, Schneider Electric, SHV. Though his consulting work he has developed a ?Communication Profile? questionnaire that assess managerial communication styles and provides executives with individual personal development plans. Professor Weisz was former Dean of IAE Aix-en-Provence. He is currently Director of the Change and Technology MBA, which he created 5 years ago. Robert Weisz holds the Master Degree in Management from ESSEC, Paris. He received a Master in Psychology and in Ethnology and his DEA in Social Psychology from the University of Provence. Weisz was awarded his Ph.D. in Business Administration at the University of Aix-Marseille.
CATHERINE WARREN
President
CATHERINE WARREN
President
FanTrust Entertainment Strategies
Canada
Board of Governors
Catherine is the President of FanTrust Entertainment Strategies.
Catherine’s work has influenced major media networks, Fortune 500 clients, game and mobile companies and advertising agencies, providing them with new ways to capture financing, captivate audiences and capitalize on digital business development. Her client-side successes include Microsoft’s early push into digital content, Gemini Award-winning CTVNEWS.com and the fan strategy for the CSI television franchise as well as fan-building for AAA Sony titles. Formerly the COO of Blue Zone, she spearheaded significant convergence broadcasting deals and developed media creation/distribution/monetization IP, growing this publicly-traded Nasdaq company to a $300 million market cap. Catherine serves on the Boards of the Bell Fund, which has awarded $125M to convergence productions, the United Nations flagship World Summit Awards for digital media and as an international digital Emmy Award judge. Catherine has a degree in Physics from Reed College and a Masters from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
PROF. DR. BENEDIKT VON WALTER
Professor
PROF. DR. BENEDIKT VON WALTER
Professor
Steinbeis University Berlin
Benedikt von Walter joined Steinbeis University Berlin in 2011 as lecturer. Since 2016 he is professor of digital economy and management.
After earning his diploma in Business Administration at Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Benedikt von Walter earned his doctoral degree in 2006. He was part of the interdisciplinary research cluster intermedia that focussed on the Internet Economy and was funded by the Federal Ministy of Education and Research. During this time, he was invited to the London School of Economics & Social Sciences (LSE) as a Visiting Research Scholar and published several scientific articles on Digital Transformation.
Until 2011, Benedikt von Walter was working at MTV Networks (Viacom) as a Senior Manager for Research and Strategy. Since then he has been working as a consultant and lecturer.
DR. PAUL VERDIN
Professor
DR. PAUL VERDIN
Professor
K.U. Leuven / Solvay Business School
Paul Verdin is a Berlin School faculty member teaching strategy and value creation.
Paul Verdin is the Chair in Strategy & Organization at Solvay Business School (ULB, Brussels) and Professor of Strategy & International Management at K.U.Leuven.
Previously at IESE Business School, and “Distinguished Visiting Professor” at INSEAD where he has been on the faculty for almost 20 years, he was Associate Dean at TiasNimbas (Tilburg Univ., NL) and has been with the Berlin School of Creative Leadership since its launch. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School (USA) exploring new ways for value creation in business and government for long-term sustainable growth.
After Master’s Degrees in Law and in Economics, both summa cum laude from K.U.Leuven, he obtained the M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics (Industrial Organization) at Harvard University, where he was a Teaching Fellow with Nobel Laureate Tom Schelling and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich at the JFK School of Government. He combined this with work at McKinsey&Co., Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, the I.M.F. and the World Bank.
He directs executive seminars and strategy workshops, and consults on strategy processes for a wide range of local and global companies, established multinationals as well as small and medium sized companies, across a variety of industries and particularly in the financial sector. A regular keynote speaker at top management conferences, he also serves as a non-executive board member of companies and non-profit institutions.
Dr. Verdin’s widely cited research with Profs. G. Hawawini (Wharton & Finance Chair and former INSEAD Dean), V. Subramanian (Hong Kong University) and P. Williamson (Judge School at Cambridge U.) focuses on the critical role of innovative company strategy & organization for long-term value creation, and how it interacts with industry dynamics and competence- and resource-based competition.
He has researched the strategic and organizational challenges of globalisation and regional integration (European integration), with award-winning case studies, a video in the INSEAD/Financial Times series and a book ‘From Local Champions to Global Masters: A Strategic Perspective on Managing Internationalization’ (Palgrave, London-NY, 2001), translated and reprinted. He has edited and contributed to several books on strategic issues in the Global Asset Management industry, with Prof. I. Walter (NYU-Stern). He is also researching, together with Prof. L. Vanderheyden (INSEAD) and drs. K. Tackx (SBS-EM) the critical role of co-creation and fair process for successful strategy development and implementation.
He has received numerous international prizes and awards, for his original case-based research and publications, as well as his executive teaching, and some of his work has been covered in the professional and general business press in Europe and the U.S. including CFO Europe (UK), the Economist Intelligence Unit (UK), Treasury Management International (UK), Accountancy (UK), Optimize (US), Wirtschaftswoche (D), Handelsblatt (D), Manageris (F), Expansion Management Review (F), Courrier Cadres (F), Agefi (CH), Trends-Tendances Magazine (B), the Wall Street Journal Europe and the Financial Times.
LIDEWEY VAN DER SLUIS
Professor
LIDEWEY VAN DER SLUIS
Professor
Nyerode Business Universiteit
Lidewey van der Sluis is Full Professor of Strategic Talent Management at Nyenrode Business Universiteit (The Netherlands) since 2008 and Extraordinary Professor of Talent Investment at North-West University, in Vanderbijlpark, South Africa. Professor Van der Sluis is also Academic Director for the Nyenrode Executive Program for Interim Managers and the Strategic HRM Executive Course of the Nyenrode Center for Leadership and Management Development. Next to that, she is a member of the Supervisory Board of Inholland University (public sector) and of Schoevers Learning Center (private sector).
Lidewey van der Sluis is the founder and academic leader of the Powerhouse Competing for Talent as being the global network of business and academics leaders in the field of Strategic Talent Management as drivers of International Thought Leadership in this area.
Lidewey received her BSc and MSc degree in Business Economics from the University of Amsterdam. In 2000 she earned a Tinbergen PhD degree from Erasmus University Rotterdam. In the same year, she received a grant from the Dutch Foundation for Corporate Education to stimulate her research activities in the area of employee learning and development.
Lidewey van der Sluis‘ research interests include managers work attitudes, learning behavior, learning opportunities, and career identities, as well as talent development and levels of leadership. She has published numerous academic and vocational articles, has written six books, and has several research work in progress.
UNIV. PROF. DR. DR. H.C. FELIX UNGER
Co-founder and President
UNIV. PROF. DR. DR. H.C. FELIX UNGER
Co-founder and President
European Academy of Sciences and Arts
Univ. Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Felix Unger, born 1946, is one of the world’s leading cardiac specialists, and graduated at the University of Vienna, Faculty of Medicine in 1971. He implanted the first artificial heart in Europe in 1986, and has received numerous awards and citations for his work. The pioneering surgeon is co-founder of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, an organization that now counts over 1,800 members, and he has headed the Academy as its President since 1990.
After graduating at the University of Vienna, Prof. Unger has been appointed 1978 as Assistant Professor and 1983 as full Professor for Surgery. He then directed one of Austria’s largest centers for heart surgery for over 25 years (1985 – 2011). His main interest in research has been the artificial heart. Next to his role as President of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, he is also presiding the Alma Mater Europaea. In the course of his long career, he has published over 400 papers and 17 books on cardiac medicine and is member of the most important Scientific Associations in his field as well as in many Academies of Sciences.
He has been a Member of the Board of Directors at the Berlin School of Creative Leadership from 2015 to 2020.
MARK TUTSSEL
CCO
MARK TUTSSEL
CCO
Leo Burnett Worldwide
As Chief Creative Officer of Leo Burnett Worldwide, Mark Tutssel serves as the creative leader of the Leo Burnett brand, overseeing the work created by the network’s 94 offices, with a focus on improving the product and seeking out new consumer contact opportunities. He is also dedicated to nurturing the existing creative talent within the Leo Burnett network and attracting the very best in the advertising industry to the brand, making Burnett a destination agency for creative talent around the world. Before taking on this role in May 2006, Mark had served as Deputy Chief Creative Officer of Leo Burnett Worldwide since January 2005. In 2002, Mark joined Leo Burnett USA as Vice Chairman/Deputy Chief Creative Officer with a brief to raise the creative profile of the flagship agency. Since then, he has overseen creative for clients including Samsung, Kellogg, General Motors, McDonald’s, Nintendo, Beck’s and Procter & Gamble. In 2004, the agency ranked No. 17 among the Gunn Report’s “Most Awarded Agencies in the World.”
Prior to joining Leo Burnett USA, Mark served as Executive Creative Director at Leo Burnett London. Under his creative leadership, the London agency experienced unprecedented success, becoming the No. 1 creative agency in the United Kingdom and “The most awarded agency in the world in 2001.”
Mark also lends his creative expertise to the global advertising community. He has served as Chairman of the 2000 Eurobest Awards, the 2003 International YoungGuns Awards, the 2005 International Addy Awards and the 2005 Clio Awards Television Jury. He has also served as a jury member at Cannes, One Show and D&AD. In 2006, he has chaired the International ANDY Awards and the International Addy Awards.
Mark is one of the world’s most awarded creative directors, and his work has garnered every major creative award in the industry, including the prestigious Cannes Grand Prix and 24 Cannes Lions. Mark is obsessed with creative excellence and the continuous improvement of our product. In a world that’s experiencing a media explosion, plotting the course to the future is now more critical than ever. His focus is on big ideas that engage and entertain consumers while effectively building brands.
RISHAD TOBACCOWALA
Chief Strategist & Board Member
RISHAD TOBACCOWALA
Chief Strategist & Board Member
Publicis Groupe
Rishad Tobaccowala is Chief Strategist and Board Member of Publicis Groupe.
Before that, he was CEO of Denuo and the Chief Innovation Officer of Publicis Groupe Media which is a management board that oversees two of the world’s largest media companies: Starcom MediaVest Group and Zenith Optimedia. Rishad also leads SMG Next, the first and most comprehensive futures practice in the media services industry. He was a founder and president of SMG IP, a digital communications agency that specializes in Internet contact strategy, execution and measurement.
Tobaccowala’s vision and expertise played a central role in shaping SMG IP into one of the largest digital communications agencies based on IP media in the US, selected by Media magazine as the 2002 and 2004 Interactive Agency of The Year. Additionally, he serves as a board member of Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) – the parent holding company of SMG IP – and is a member of its executive committee.
Tobaccowala brings 21 years of marketing and strategy experience across a wide spectrum of clients and companies. From 1996 to 1998, Tobaccowala was the president of Giant Step, Leo Burnett’s interactive subsidiary. Over the course of his career, Rishad has worked with many marketers including Network Solutions, U.S. Army, Allstate, Kellogg, Miller Brewing, United Airlines, Maytag, Procter & Gamble, and General Motors. His other experiences include founder and director of Leo Burnett’s Interactive Marketing Group, director of Direct Marketing, as well as nearly a decade in account service roles on a range of clients from Heinz to Procter & Gamble.
Tobaccowala serves on the advisory boards of many companies including Yahoo! and MSN, and is on the Board of Directors of Revenue Science. He was named to Advertising Age’s Interactive Hall of Fame and was selected as Adweek’s 2000 Media All-Star for Interactive Media.
Tobaccowala holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Bombay and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago.
JOÃO TIKHOMIROFF
Director
JOÃO TIKHOMIROFF
Director
Jodaf Mixer Brazil
Brazil
João Daniel is the second most awarded film director of the world with 41 lions achieved in Cannes (11 gold lions) and several Grand Prix / Awards in Brazilian Festival, FIAP, New York Festival, London Festival, etc. His production company, Jodaf Mixer, has been elected the “Production Company of The Year” by About Magazine (Brazil) five times in a row since 2001.
In 2003 he assumed the presidency of Mixer Group (also working as film director of Jodaf Mixer, the most awarded commercial production company of Brazil and Latin America). His company, Mixer, presents a new concept regarding production for all medias: a complete synergy of its different expertise. All Mixer companies work as brands and act in an integrated way, under the same roof.
PIA-MARIA THÓREN
Founder and Managing Director
PIA-MARIA THÓREN
Founder and Managing Director
GreenBullet
Pia-Maria Thóren is a Berlin School faculty member teaching Agile People (HR) in our Executive MBA program.
Pia-Maria is the Founder and Managing Director of GreenBullet, and specializes in Agile HR, Agile leadership and Motivation. She has worked as a consultant with many of Sweden’s largest companies, helping them to implement HR processes and solutions, always spiced with an agile mindset. She is a People Management Consultant and devoted change agent with an enterprise perspective. Her main focus is to contribute to creating organizations where people perform better and feel engaged. Agile Leadership and Agile Frameworks are the best ways to create successful change, in her opinion. Pia-Maria is the founder of Agile People, which is a network and a conference with the purpose of spreading the agile mindset in organizations. Her main drive is to see the movement from one state to another in a company, contributing by making that change successful both from a financial and human perspective. Her vision is to create customer value and have fun at the same time!
Special focus areas: Management 3.0, Performance management, Employee engagement & motivation, Talent management, project/program management, change management, agile leadership & HR, workshop facilitation, IT support for HR.
Pia-Maria is the author of Agile People – A Radical Approach for HR and Managers (That Leads to Motivated Employees), and the founder of Agile People. She specialize in Agile HR, Agile leadership and Motivation.
OLIVIER TABATONI
Professor
OLIVIER TABATONI
Professor
IAE Aix-en-Provence School of Management
Olivier Tabatoni is a Berlin School faculty member teaching finance and valuation.
Olivier Tabatoni is Professor of Finance and Strategy. His areas of interest include corporate and financial strategy. More generally, it focuses on the interactions between strategy, finance and leadership.
He is Associate Fellow at the Oxford University Saïd Business School. He was Visiting Professor at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and the Haas Business School, Berkeley. He regularly teaches in various universities and business schools including Duke CE, HEC Paris, Ecole Polytechnique or the Berlin School of Creative Leadership. He is also very active in the far-east teaching in Hong Kong UST, ISB in India or Sasin Business School in Thailand. He won many awards for excellence in the classroom and received for many years the Kellogg-WHU Executive MBA Best Teacher Award. He is acclaimed for his ‘Finance for non-financial executives’ seminars.
Professor Tabatoni is also involved in designing and teaching in many executive and senior executive programs with large international companies. He often uses business simulations which he has specifically designed for the manufacturing, service or luxury industries. He has been consulting and advising companies on financial strategies, value based management and change management. He is the author or co-author of many books and articles on various financial topics such as profitable growth, strategic flexibility and firms performance. His current research interests include value creation, real options and business model innovation.
Olivier Tabatoni received his Ph.D. in Finance from New York University’s Stern School of Management. He is a fellow from the Ford Foundation a European Foundation scholar.
SEYMOUR STEIN
Chair Founder
SEYMOUR STEIN
Chair Founder
Sire Records
Seymour Stein is the co-founder and chairman of Sire Records, the label that put punk and New Wave – not to mention the maverick likes of Madonna – on the map.One of the last old-school ‘record men’ still working in the music business, Stein succeeded by anticipating the next musical wave and signing its brightest lights. In 1975, for instance, he saw four glowering, black-leather-clad guys from Queens who played lightning-fast tunes in a style without precedent. “It was like sticking my hand in a live electric light socket”, Stein recalled of his first exposure to the Ramones. “The jolt went right through me.” Punk-rock was born with the Ramones’ eponymous first album, recorded for a mere $6,400 and released on Sire in 1976. The reverberations from that groundbreaking release can be felt to this day.”Seymour’s taste in music is always a couple years ahead of everybody else’s”, observed Gary Kurfirst, who managed Talking Heads – another of Stein’s signings. Whereas someone more commercial-minded might’ve recoiled at frontman David Byrne’s nervous, yelping vocals and offbeat art-pop songs, Stein saw an essential piece of rock and roll’s future. “I was riveted the whole time”, he recalled of his first glimpse of Talking Heads at New York’s CBGB’s. “It was amazing. And, of course, I signed them”.
Stein also saw merit in the Pretenders, who recorded on Sire for nearly two decades. “Without Seymour, I’d still be a cocktail waitress in Akron”, frontwoman Chrissie Hynde said in 1986. Sire has been a goldmine for cutting-edge music, from popular trailblazers like Talking Heads, the Cure and the Smiths to deserving cult favorites like the Flamin’ Groovies, the Dead Boys, Richard Hell and the Void-Oids, and the Replacements. From Britain he lassoed the Cult, Aztec Camera, Echo and the Bunnymen and Modern English. Stein even went further afield to sign Australian punk-rockers like the Saints, the Rezillos and Radio Birdman. Along the way, Sire helped revive the notion of tuneful, Sixties-style pop singles with synth-pop classics like M’s ‘Pop Muzik’, Plastic Bertrand’s ‘Ca Plane Pour Moi’ and Soft Cell’s ‘Tainted Love’.
A major non-New Wave acquisition during that fertile period was a rising young dance-music artist named Madonna. Sire released her first single (‘Everybody’/’Burning Up’) in the fall of 1982, and Stein asked for a full album from the superstar-to-be at a meeting with her, famously held in a hospital room where he was recuperating from a heart infection.
“He’s more interested in the music than whether he’s going to get platinum records out of it”, Madonna said. “Every time he signs somebody, he’s taking a chance. And there aren’t many people in the entertainment industry who do that anymore”.
The ripples from Stein’s enthusiastic, music-first approach had a positive influence on the music business in general. For instance, the late Greg Shaw – the California-based founder of Bomp! magazine and Bomp! records – cited Stein as his primary role model. “I thought I’d be like Seymour Stein, who had built Sire Records and now had distribution through Warners”, Shaw recalled. “He got to sign anybody he liked and, as a result, was always on the cutting edge”.
Though Sire came to prominence in the latter half of the Seventies with its punk and New Wave roster, the label’s origins date back to 1966, when Stein cofounded Sire Productions with producer Richard Gottehrer. Sire released albums by blues and progressive-rock acts like Climax Blues Band and Focus in the late Sixties and early Seventies.
In 1976, realizing what a motherlode he had discovered in the Ramones and other bands bubbling up from the rock underground, Stein struck a distribution deal with Warner Bros., and the partnership lasted until 1995. In 2003, Sire again became part of the Warner Bros. label portfolio and, under Stein’s leadership, is releasing the work of such contemporary cutting-edge acts as the Von Bondies and the Veronicas.
