Leading High-Performance Teams

Winfried Ruigrok is the Dean of the Executive School of Management, Technology & Law (ES-HSG) at the University of St.Gallen. He is also a Professor of International Management and the Director of the Research Institute for International Management (FIM-HSG) at the same university. He conducts research in international strategy, corporate governance, the role of the CEO, top management teams and boards of directors, CEO careers, CEO compensation, and research methods. His papers have been published in leading scholarly and popular outlets. He has won numerous awards and has worked as a consultant and leadership trainer with dozens of multinational corporations.

Stephanie Schoss is a Director at the HSG Executive School of the University of St. Gallen and a Director of the Competence Center for Top Team Research at the HSG Institute of International Management. Stephanie studied Business Administration at the Universities of St.Gallen, Harvard and the Singapore Management University. Her research focuses on team personality, leadership and the effects of conflicts, empathy, and “we-consciousness” in (virtual) teams. Before joining the university, Stephanie made her career as an active entrepreneur in various industries and as a passionate pilot (private and commercial). She still serves as Chairwoman of her own business psychology company and as a founding partner of C Talks, a Peer-Community for the most senior European Top Managers. Stephanie was recognised as manager of the year in 2013 by Generation CEO.

Claudio Feser is a Senior Partner Emeritus and a Senior Advisor at McKinsey & Company. He joined the Firm in 1992, was elected Partner in 1998 and Senior Partner in 2004. At McKinsey, he held various leadership roles, including leading McKinsey Greece, McKinsey Switzerland and the global leadership development practice. He was also a member of the Shareholder Council, McKinsey’s Board of Directors. As Senior Advisor, Claudio continues to advise selected clients and to serve as faculty on various McKinsey training programs for CEOs and senior partners.

Maximilian Strecker is a keynote speaker and executive coach on the topics of leadership, motivation, and self-management. He has trained over 10,000 top managers from multinational corporations and high-performance teams in sports. He is lecturer at the Executive School of the University of St. Gallen and author in influential manager magazines such as the Harvard Business Manager. In his PhD with Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Jenewein he researched the emergence of meaningful work and developed practical strategies for creating purpose-driven workplaces. As managing director he has led and now consults the SME family business in the fifth generation.

Sebastian Kernbach is Professor at the University of St. Gallen, Visiting Scholar at Columbia University and Stanford University, and Guest Professor at the African Doctoral Academy and the Central University of Beijing. He worked for Xerox, a Swiss startup, and Interbrand. He advises and consults organizations like Nike, United Nations, IBM, and others. His areas of interest are knowledge visualization, storytelling, creativity, life design and the science of action to overcome procrastination. He has founded the Visual Collaboration Lab and the Life Design Lab at the University of St. Gallen and has co-authored the award-winning book “Meet up!” as well as the best-selling books “Life Design” and “Life Design Actionbook”.