The AUTHORS
BACKUP
The Editors
Peter Wollmann has been acting as program director for global transformations within Zurich Insurance Company (ZIC) and as a senior mentor, sparring partner, and catalyst for leaders in new roles and responsibilities and for organizations. His experience bases on a broad career over 38 years in diverse project/program roles at a global scale, or line management roles like leading Project Portfolio Management, Strategic Business Development and Strategic Planning & Controlling units in ZIC, Deutsche Bank Insurance Group and Deutscher Herold. Peter has a degree in mathematics and physics from the University of Bonn (Germany). He is author and publisher of diverse books and articles around strategy, leadership and project and project portfolio management. He additionally founded and leads a wine business start-up named VinAuthority.
Frank Kühn has been facilitating projects on transformation, organization and leadership for over 25 years. His work connects experience, future thinking, and getting into rapid action with the people. His latest project involved building a Business Unit 4.0, transition of a bank towards agile working, customer-centered re-organization of an HR unit, and development of rapid product development processes. Frank graduated in engineering and received his doctorate in work science. After leadership experience in research and industry, he was a partner at HLP in Frankfurt (Germany) and ICG Integrated Consulting Group in Berlin (Germany) and Graz (Austria). Currently, he is a self-employed consultant, business partner of ICG and associated with further development and project partners.
Michael U. Kempf has been an experienced management consultant for over 20 years. The driving force of his professional activities is his strong ambition to design processes and organizations in a sustainable manner. It is a particular pleasure for him to identify key challenges, to diagnose complex relationships and to assist in shaping the future. Gaining experience and learning something new are indispensable parts of his life, that is why he likes to seize new chances: on his way from carpentry to studies in social work, education and business administration, in various jobs in social work; during 10 years as manager (HR and logistics) in industrial and retail companies and since 1998 in consulting people, leadership teams as well as working teams and organizations that are all very different. Michael has co-authored several publications in the field of leadership and organizational development.
Meet the authors who contributed to Three Pillars
An international and interdisciplinary team of nineteen authors, practitioners and consultants worked together to develop the Three Pillars model. Each author presents the concept in a unique context, showing how the Three Pillars are relevant and applicable in a wide variety of fields, industries and organizations.
 Tim Burmeister |  Alberto Casagrande |  Bernadette Cass |
|---|---|---|
 James Chamberlain |  Bob Dignen |  Volker Hische |
 Nicole Hönig de Locarnini |  Isabell Huschka |  Michael Kempf |
 Frank Kühn |  Christal Lalla |  Sharon Lalla |
 Alfred Mevissen |  Mersida Ndrevataj |  Reto Püringer |
 Fernando Sanabria |  Hannspeter Schmidt |  Marie Theres Schmidt |
 Peter Wollmann |
Tim Burmeister is a learning transformation manager for GP Strategies, with a focus on EMEA, working with large, global corporate clients. One of his main goals is to help clients identify an approach to learning that is fit for the future, which involves integrating current best practices. Having worked in Learning and Development (L&D) for 18 years (2 of those with GP Strategies), he sees the learning profession and learning industry on the verge of a profound change driven in part by emerging digital technologies.
Alberto Casagrande is actively involved in the angel investment ecosystem both in California, where he has been member of a 150-member angel community since 2016, and in Italy. For the last 15 years he has managed The Core Inc, a boutique firm devoted to strategic, ICT, and economic consulting. During this period Alberto has advised both the World Bank and several central banks across the world on financial infrastructure reforms and SME finance. He has acted as senior advisor for several banking sector restructuring projects across the world, and has advised several global players in the insurance sector on strategic issues, also supporting various economic ministries on growth strategies and debt management. Project locations have included North and Latin America, Europe, Middle East and North Africa. Alberto was previously project manager at McKinsey in Italy and economist at Italy's Central Bank.
Bernadette Cass is an organizational change consultant and executive coach. Much of her work today is accompanying and supporting leaders in their thinking as they grow and develop their organizations. Bernadette’s commitment to creating sustainable change developed when she held IT directorships for a number of blue chip organizations, and was responsible for the development and delivery of complex global technology programs. Bernadette is accredited by the International Coach Federation, a practitioner of Organizational Transactional Analysis, and a member of the European Association for Transactional Analysis. She leads professional education groups in York, UK. Bernadette is a regular speaker and presenter at International Coaching Week and International Supervision Week. She has published numerous publications and case studies.
James Chamberlain is the acting Director of the Language Centre at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences in Germany. He has studied, taught and worked in the US, UK, Israel, France and Germany. He has been teaching intercultural skills since 1994 in both academic and corporate contexts, and has also supported international team building in cross-border corporate project contexts. His specialist areas can be summarized as training intercultural communication competence for all levels of management, train the trainer seminars for intercultural communication trainers, facilitating international project team performance. James is a co-author in the field of international communication with numerous publications.
Bob Dignen works as a director of York Associates, an organization that supports clients with leadership training, C-suite and executive coaching, international team-building, and consultancy on learning design to achieve better international results. He supports his clients in meaningful ways in complex contexts spanning environmental, organizational, cultural, and personal multi-layered challenges. He recognizes that digital transformation threatens to bring yet more disruption to his clients’ ability to perform. Bob is the author of several books.
Volker Hische has been working as a consultant, trainer and manager/managing director for more than 25 years in a global American technology company. Nowadays, he works as a leadership coach for his clients. He has already published and written books on leadership and project management. Volker has a strong background in HR management. He is an Associate Professor for the Human Capital Management MBA at Lake Constance Business School, and a Certified International Project Manager & Certified International Project Management Trainer, IPMA.
Nicole Hönig de Locarnini is a senior advisory member within one of the "big 4" companies. To date, she has devoted her professional life to developing deep technical insurance / reinsurance expertise at a major global insurance company (she originally trained as an actuary) and later leveraged this, matched with a diverse skills set in strategic transformation architecture and execution, operations, innovation, digital enablement and people and organizational design within the management consulting industry. Her work spans companies and business units within the financial services, life sciences and producing industries. To satisfy her continuous passion for learning and growth, she recently completed the Consulting and Coaching for Change Specialized Executive Master / MBA Program at Oxford Saïd Business School and HEC Paris.
Isabell Huschka likes the fascination of good questions that help to find new ideas and ways into the future. As a consultant, the uniqueness of her clients and the joint journey into something new drives her work. After her apprenticeship and studies (business administration) she worked in different HR-management functions in the Foods and Automotive Industries, before providing clients with an outside perspective as a consultant. Isabell managed the Academy for Modern Leadership at a well-known consulting firm and created numerous complex leadership development processes. The focus of her work in change projects and organizational development is leadership. Her passion is identifying, developing and cultivating a more collective leadership force inside organizations.
Michael U. Kempf has been an experienced Management Consultant for over 20 years. The driving force of his professional activities is his strong ambition to design processes and organizations in a sustainable manner. He relishes identifying key challenges, diagnosing complex relationships and assisting in shaping the future. Gaining experience and learning something new are indispensable parts of his life, which is why he likes to seize new chances. He began his career as a carpenter before studying social work, education and business administration. His career has spanned various jobs in social work, 10 years as a manager (HR and logistics) in industrial and retail companies and, since 1998, in advising people, leadership teams as well as working teams and organizations that are all very different. Michael has co-authored numerous publications in the field of leadership and organizational development.
Frank Kühn has been facilitating projects on transformation, organization and leadership for over 25 years. His work connects experience, future thinking, and getting into rapid action with people. Some of his recent projects have been building a Business Unit 4.0, helping a bank to transition towards agile working, development of rapid product development processes. Frank graduated in engineering and received his doctorate in work science. After gaining leadership experience in research and industry, he became a partner at HLP in Frankfurt and ICG Integrated Consulting Group in Berlin and Graz. Today he is a self-employed consultant, business partner of ICG and is associated with further development and project partners. He has published a wide range of publications and teaches courses at universities.
Christal Lalla is a certified sommelier, working in Italy, Germany, France and USA since 2012. She has established a fast-developing, innovative business around wine, wine services and wine education under the name VinAuthority as well as providing out-of-the-box leadership training. She has a holistic approach which understands wine as something that appeals to all the senses including music, the winemaker’s philosophy and approach, the visual and haptic sensations of the vineyards and the cellars with their barrels, the taste of the wine combined with different varieties of food. Before 2012, Christal worked in the entertainment industry in Las Vegas and Nashville.
Sharon Lalla has worked in industry and higher education for over thirty years. In industry, she learned the importance of leadership, deadlines, project management, effective communication, and team building. In higher education, she adopted a collegial style of leadership balanced with relationship building and shared governance. After being awarded a doctorate in Education Technologies at Pepperdine University, Sharon took a leadership role in the administration of education technologies at New Mexico State University. As a College Assistant Professor, she taught a variety of classes at the undergraduate and graduate level. Currently, Sharon is a New Leadership Academy fellow and Vice President of Instruction at Luna Community College at Las Vegas, New Mexico.
Alfred Mevissen has been working as a European project manager at Novartis Pharma for the last eight years (retired on 01.01.2019). Prior to this he worked as Head of Sales in two other companies after a classic career in Sales and Marketing. He holds a University degree as a teacher and is a certified coach. In his last role he was responsible for identifying and implementing "Strategic Capabilities". He has managed several change management processes and was part of the core group in an important merger. Following his passion for sculpting he has published the books "Perfekt kann jeder - Steine als Wegweiser zu neuen Perspektiven " and "Ich bin die Freiheit - I am the Freedom". He is the initiator of the international art projects www.pillars-of-freedom.com and www.art-moves-europe.eu.
Mersida Ndrevataj is an architect and urban planner based in Venice. Her professional objective is to help better shape the built environment through a multidisciplinary research-based and human-centered design process. To this end, she is currently working and learning, immersing herself in the field of Environmental Psychology. For the last three years she has been working as a Cultural Mediator and Project Manager for the Venice Biennale. This experience brought her international exposure, and provided her with considerable knowledge in cross-cultural and communication abilities.
Reto Püringer has worked for more than 20 years in the banking and insurance industry. He has held various senior positions in global companies. His practical experience ranges from Strategy Development, Business Model Design, Product/Proposition Development/Management, Enterprise-wide Portfolio Management, Program/Project Management, Operations/IT Management, Large Scale Change Program Delivery to Financial/Actuarial Management over different geographies and time zones, hierarchies and units, cultures and systems. Reto has managed multinational and multicultural change and transformation efforts across the globe and managed teams of various sizes both on site and remotely. Reto holds a degree in Economical Informatics and Marketing and completed an Executive MBA at the University of Zurich.
Fernando Sanabria is a Computer Engineer and Program Director with broad experience in managing complex global projects. He specializes in starting up developing and implementing international programs with a good track record in developing high performing teams and becoming a trusted advisor to his business partners. He has held senior management positions in the global consultancy and insurance industries, working with IBM and Zurich Insurance Company, with a special focus on delivery, especially in scenarios with high organizational complexity. Fernando has spent more than 15 years working closely with business partners, acquiring in-depth understanding of real business needs and taking business capabilities to the next level by developing enabling technology solutions and services.
Hannspeter Schmidt - Following his studies of communications, ethnology and religious science at the University of Cologne and Marburg, Hannspeter studied Psychology at the University of Bonn where he graduated in 1980 with a PhD in Psychology. From 1986 to 1995 he lectured at the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne and the University of Bonn focusing on the sciences of binding, interaction, group dynamic theories and psychotherapy in groups. Since qualifying as a psychoanalyst and psychotherapist in 1990, he has worked as assistant professor, trainer and supervisor for psychotherapists and psychoanalysts. He was head of the psychological counsel in Cologne from 1992-2017 and has meanwhile worked as an independent management consultant in the field of human resources management focusing on coaching and team development.
Marie Theres Schmidt studied Health Economics at the University of Rotterdam and SDA Bocconi School of Management where she graduated in 2012. She specialized in Market Access of pharmaceuticals and medical devices throughout her professional career. As Associate Director Market Access EMEA she has led pricing and reimbursement processes of innovative medicines and medical devices for a global research-based pharmaceutical and device company since 2016. Her projects are driven by strong cross-functional collaboration across organizational entities and healthcare authorities, always engaging multiple disciplines in decision-making processes. With her international working culture she effectively manages diverse teams and projects in changing environments.
Peter Wollmann has been program director for global transformations within Zurich Insurance Company (ZIC) and acting as a senior mentor, sparring partner, and catalyst for leaders in new roles and responsibilities and for organizations. His experience is based on a broad career spanning over 38 years in diverse project/program roles with a global scale or line management roles such as leading Project Portfolio Management, Strategic Business Development and Strategic Planning & Controlling units in ZIC, Deutsche Bank Insurance Group and Deutscher Herold. Peter has a degree in mathematics and physics from the University of Bonn. He is the author and publisher of a range of books and articles on strategy, leadership and project and project portfolio management. Finally, he founded and runs a wine business start-up: VinAuthority.