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TEAM

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Managing Partner / Trainer

Kevin Daly is an international training and development specialist with extensive organizational development experience. He holds an MBA in Business and is a qualified administrator of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Neethling Brain Instrument (NBI), Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), EQ-i 2.0, EQ 360, and the Intercultural Conflict Style Inventory (ICS). He has led hundreds of seminars throughout Europe working together with talents, managers and leaders with a particular focus on communication, intercultural competence, and team development. Born in San Diego, California, he has called Vienna, Austria his home since 1996; he enjoys traveling and particularly likes working with multicultural teams.

Peter Biro

Managing Partner / Digital Learning Expert

Peter Biro is a Digital Learning Expert who helps multinational companies structure and distribute organizational knowledge globally by building custom-made, corporate Digital Academies. These Digital Academies consist of tailored, engaging Learning Journeys with modern, high-quality learning content for onboarding, training, performance support, and employer branding. Throughout Lighthouse's digital learning projects Peter advises and assists clients through the entire development process, from idea generation, through conceptualization all the way to development and roll-out of the final L&D product / program. Peter holds a Master’s degree in Finance and a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Sales. Combining these two degrees, Peter finds his greatest joy in creative, technology-driven learning projects and making innovation and digital transformation tangible by following a structured implementation approach that he developed. In his free time, Peter enjoys traveling; his favorite way to get to know new places is “through the eyes of locals”. Born in Pécs, Hungary he has lived and studied in Austria, the United States, and South Korea.

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Training Coordinator / Assistant

Kristina Konjic is an experienced project manager in the NGO sector and the blended learning industry. Prior to her work engagement with Lighthouse, she successfully led several long-term projects meant to establish quality prosthetics & orthotics education in a number of developing countries. Her expertise lies in administrative facilitation of trainings and workshops. Kristina holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature and is currently in the process of acquiring her Master of Arts in International Management and Leadership. She was born and raised in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and moved to Vienna in 2017 to pursue further education. Kristina enjoys reading and spending time in nature.

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Senior Consultant / Business Development, Executive Coach and Trainer

Christiana is a financial services industry expert with over twenty years of international corporate and consulting experience, helping large multinational organizations with their strategic and financial needs. She is a change professional with significant practical experience in businesses and people transformation. Her expertise includes Sales Strategy, Stakeholder Management, Virtual and cross-cultural teams, Innovation Management and Change Leadership (PMI). Christiana is accredited systemic approach Business Coach (ACC), a certified Marshall Goldsmith stakeholder centred Executive Coach and an Emotional Intelligence Professional (Academy of Management). She holds Master degrees in International Business and in Business- and Organizational Psychology. Born in Varna, Bulgaria, living since 1999 in Vienna, Austria, she loves travelling, exploring different cultures and countries, sports, as well as spending time with her family.

Tim Bosworth

Senior Consultant, Trainer and Coach

Tim Bosworth is a ‘leader who develops leaders’. Tim is an experienced trainer, facilitator and L&D program designer for senior, middle and first-level managers. Tim is an accredited International Coaching Federation Coach (ICF ACC) and holds certification in NBI, MBTI, DISC and NLP. Tim brings a wealth of commercial experience through fifteen years working for Royal Dutch Shell. During this time, Tim worked with a wide-range of stakeholders and leading teams of individuals within and across countries. Tim’s experience covers roles in program, change and project management. Tim has held leadership roles in the UK, Greece and France, taking in start up business, operational excellence, continuous improvement and strategy. Tim is passionate about defining the strategy and vision of a company, whilst bringing a pragmatic and credible perspective on leadership and management development.

Elisabeth Cassels-Brown

Trainer, Facilitator and Coach

Elisabeth Cassels-Brown is a university lecturer, trainer and coach with over 30 years in the international learning and development field. Projects have taken her to such far-flung places as Chengdu and Cairo as well as much of Europe. She has worked in a broad spectrum of interrelated topics including intercultural competence, leadership development, and team coaching, as well as stress management and resilience building. The common thread running through all her work is the development for clients of the skills they need to work more productively, especially in settings of considerable cultural diversity. She has a B.A. with honors in East Asian Studies from Wesleyan University (USA) and an M.A. in International Business from Webster University Vienna. She is an Ashridge-trained coach and has, in addition, a Certificate in Resilience Coaching as well as a Diploma in Mental Skills Training. She is a licensed user of (among others) the Cultural Perspectives Questionnaire for teams, the International Profiler, and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Elisabeth works in English and German, on-the-ground and online.

Elisabeth Cassels-Brown

Senior Consultant/ Business Development

Chris has over two decades of professional experience in Management Consulting, Executive Training and Higher Education.   He has worked in leading international companies such as Ernst & Young and Ericsson and has served as Head of the Business and Management department at Webster Private University Vienna and as the Director for an executive training provider.  Chris is a passionate and accomplished educator and executive trainer. His seminars cover a range of management topics such as Change Management and Leadership. His seminars are always well founded in theory and are made relevant through hands-on practice. He is recognized for his talent to explain complex ideas by engaging participants through storytelling. Having lived, worked and studied in Europe, the US and Asia, Chris brings a multi-cultural perspective to his seminars.  He is fluent in both German and English.  Chris loves cooking and history, two passions he brings together in seminars on Culinary History.

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Agile Coach, Trainer, Consultant

Stephanie has been spreading the Agile mindset and methodologies by coaching, leading, training and advising project- as well as product-teams since 2012. Having grown up, studied and worked in California, Austria, France, Great Britain and Germany, Stephanie specifically enjoys supporting intercultural and internationally distributed Agile teams on their way to self-organization. Scrum, Kanban, Design Thinking, Lean Start-Up and Management 3.0 are some of the methods that Stephanie specializes in while taking organizations on their journey to higher productivity, increased end-user focus, better quality and thus more customer as well as employee satisfaction. The fact that Stephanie is also a Systemic Business Coach, lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences in Vienna and founder of two social impact start-ups adds to her out-of-the-box and yet business-minded approach to problem-solving.

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Senior Consultant, Trainer & Coach

Hani El Sharkawi is a consultant, trainer and coach in the areas of leadership, intercultural competencies and service excellence.  He works with companies of all sizes to assist their teams in going through change processes, working more effectively as a team and focusing on customer delight. He also passionately imparts his knowledge as a university lecturer at a number of different universities.
As the son of an Egyptian father and an Austrian mother, he grew up between Vienna and Alexandria and has therefore been familiar with different cultural contexts from childhood. He has extensive leadership experience in international work environments in Astana, Paris, Singapore, Vancouver and Vienna. He graduated from high school in the USA and completed a Bachelor of Science in Tourism & Hospitality Management and a Master of Arts in intercultural competencies.

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Senior Consultant / Trainer

Elisabeth Overbeeke is an international organisation effectiveness expert and Human Resource professional with over 20 years of experience in the fields of Organisational & Culture Change, Team Effectiveness, Organisation Development and HR Management. Her work has focused on supporting global, international leaders and their multi-cultural teams in their efforts to successfully implement large-scale and complex change and increase the effectiveness of their organisations. In her time as a corporate HR leader, Elisabeth acquired key HR capabilities including Recruiting, Leadership development, Compensation & Benefits Management, Performance Management and Organisational Diversity. In recent years her work has focussed on the creation of corporate and brand strategies and helping leaders in their implementation through value-based leadership. She is passionate about working with people and helping leaders and teams get the most out of their resources and successfully navigating and leading their organisations towards success. Born in Vienna, Elisabeth grew up in the United States and has worked and lived in the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Canada.

Djordje Maricic

Trainer

Djordje Maricic is a trainer, coach and facilitator with extensive broadcasting experience. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Arts and German from Bethel College, Kansas. His expertise lies in strategic communication, cross-cultural communication, client service and presentation skills. He has led dozens of trainings in Serbia and Austria, working with top managers, teams and leaders with a particular focus on communication. Born in Belgrade, Serbia, he has lived and studied in Austria and the US where he earned his Bachelor’s degree. Djordje is a family man who loves the outdoors, traveling, sports and tasting different exotic dishes. He is an active participant of community activities through initiatives and as board member of NGO's.

Roland Engel

Senior Consultant / Trainer

Roland Engel is a certified trainer for systemic organizational development (ÖGGO) and diversity management (NTL-Institute, USA), and has 16 years of training and consulting experience with international companies in more than 12 different countries. He was born in Japan, grew up in Kenya and Austria and has lived in the United States for several years. These international experiences have helped his understanding of the dynamics of international teams and organizations and his expertise includes cross-cultural team building, conflict management, leadership development, and change and diversity management. He holds an MA in sociology and educational science, is a lecturer for international leadership and business communication at the Danube University of Krems and at the Management Center Innsbruck, and is a co-founder of the Austrian Society for Diversity (ASD).

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Consultant, Trainer & Coach

Geraldine Foerster is a management and business consultant focused on change management, with a background in private education, hospitality, interior design and luxury goods. She is fluent in German and English. Once Geraldine completed her studies at a Swiss Hotel Management School and accomplished an MBA degree with entrepreneurship focus in 2008, she became Marketing Consultant at a Viennese lifestyle hotel. In 2010, she worked on two projects in London as Brand Manager. In 2011 Geraldine transformed and re-positioned her 110+ year old family business, which she is still running today. From 2014 until 2019 Geraldine was at an international private university filling the skill gap with career coaching, expert talks and workshops. During her time there she was part of the strategy team for the company’s development plan. Geraldine enjoys spending time with her family and friends, playing with her Australian Shepard, travelling and sports. 

Nadine Richani

Trainer

Nadine Richani is Deputy CEO at an engineering consultancy based in Austria and active globally. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and an MBA in Business. She has built her career working with international organizations around the world. Her passion for lifelong learning and her interest in engaging with people from different backgrounds has led her to regularly deliver training courses alongside her main job. She is an expert in topics that include leadership, strategy, team building, intercultural aspects as well as facilitation of workshops. She was born in Lebanon and moved to Austria in 2006 where she is now based.

Mike Walt

Trainer

Mike Walt, holder of a BA in Communications, is a professional development trainer and communications specialist. He worked as director of sales and marketing in the communication industry and as a journalist with publications in major magazines. He has trained a large number of international managers and executives in a variety of business sectors ranging from pharmaceutical to finance. In addition he has taught numerous courses at renowned universities. He was born in Portland, Oregon and is married with two children.

Peter Buchas

Consultant, Trainer and Coach

Peter Buchas is consultant, trainer and coach in the areas of Supply Chain Management, Procurement, Logistics and Project Management. In his years of consulting and training of major international corporations he discovered the importance of a supporting corporate culture and developed and led seminars for leadership and organizational development, conflict resolution and mediation. At the FH Kufstein, LMU Munich and WU Wien Peter focuses on lectures supporting collaboration and developing start-ups. He rounds up his professional experience with qualifications such as NLP Master Practitioner or Mediator (u.S.). Peter holds a BSc in Engineering and Master of Economics from his two years working in China, leads the Austrian Chinese Business Association and shares his experience at the Institute of Peace Keeping and Conflict Management. He loves cycling and mountains.

Najda Walser

Consultant, Trainer and Coach

Nadja Walser has more than 15 years of experience in managing projects, change management and leading local and virtual teams in consulting firms and international companies such as General Electric and Banco Santander. Nadja developed a pragmatic view on project management, team development and leadership in different management positions working as project manager, CIO and PMO lead. The focus of her work and her passion is hands-on project management training and coaching for project managers pursuing project management excellence. Nadja holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration and translation. She is a certified trainer, IPMA and Six Sigma project manager. Nadja is a family person, loves literature, her garden and good food.

Marion Mansberger

Trainer

Marion Mansberger is an international trainer and university lecturer and has over 20 years of international experience. She has lived and worked in France, Greece, Italy, the United States and Germany and has taught at American and Austrian universities alike. Born in Austria, she left at the age of 17. Now, she holds a Master of Business degree from the University of Central Missouri and a Bachelor degree in International Tourism Development from the same university. Currently, she is finishing her dissertation on the subject of training models. She has worked internationally as a trainer for an extensive array of small, mid-sized and large businesses alike. Her intercultural and multilingual abilities, combined with factual knowledge and experience complete her profile.

Tom Venning

Trainer, Facilitator and Coach

Tom Venning is a business trainer, facilitator and coach specialized in business to business sales and communication skills in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This special experience stems from over twenty years of working throughout the region with international groups and teams. Tom’s traveling and interest in different cultures started from birth and developed as he moved around the world, living in eight different countries, working in the USA, Europe, the Middle East and Africa and enjoying various wild adventures on five continents. His working style is tailored to culturally diverse audiences with English as a second language by being highly visual, clearly structured, and personalized with coaching. Outside of business Tom is a passionate artist with a successful international art career, a dedicated family man, active in sport and always ready for travel and adventure.

Matt Guiver

Facilitator, Trainer and Coach

Matt Guiver is an industrial design graduate and qualified transformational coach, trainer and facilitator. His expertise lies in sparking innovation and transformational change in individuals and businesses. English, but born in Nassau; Matt has led an international life working and heading up operations, strategy and training in over 50 countries. His extensive experience working in various international management roles across many diverse cultures and industries has led to his true vocation: combining coaching and training with his love for innovation, experience in leadership and fascination for intercultural differences to truly inspire individuals and businesses to excel and flourish. Matt is married with 2 boys and in his spare time he enjoys outdoor sports as well as dabbling with his inner ‘Edison’ towards the next big idea!

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Trainer and E-Learning Expert

Alex is a corporate communication expert focusing on presentations, pitching and leadership. He qualified as an accountant working at a Big 4 firm and has over 9 years training, coaching and e-learning experience. Combining his financial and business qualifications with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology, alongside further training as an NLP and Mindfulness practitioner allows him to offer a fresh approach to clients across cultures, countries and industries. Additionally, he used his experience becoming the youngest-ever UK public speaking champion to coach others in competitive psychology. Born in Reading, England he has lived in Denmark and Austria and is a lifelong traveller.

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High-Performance Individual and Team Coach, Trainer, Communications Expert

Viktorija is a communications expert, senior coach and trainer dedicated to excellence, high performance and processes of change in people and organizations. With a special focus on personal efficiency, leadership, communication and teamwork, she designs transformative learning experiences to inspire and motivate change through experience. She is an internationally certified NLP Trainer by the co-founder of NLP John Grinder, Senior Coach, High-Performance Team Coach and Systemic Dynamics Specialist. With twenty years of diverse international corporate and entrepreneurial background in the fields of marketing, sales and events management in more than 30 countries, she incorporates her background in Cross Cultural Management into all of her trainings. Her holistic approach blends NLP techniques, Applied Psychology and Systemic Work and with her working style she achieves fast results and supports the growth of the individual and the overall organizational vitality in all kinds of systems.

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