A NON-TRADITIONAL
 MBA FOR
 CREATIVE MINDS

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dr. Felix Langness is a Berlin School Faculty Member teaching Creative Leadership. As a former faculty member of the Institute of Executive Capabilities, Felixdesigned and taught highly engaging and interactive classes regarding Change Management and Coaching as well as Organizational Management and Behavior in the Industrial Psychology Master program. Felix is a certified executive coach, with a focus on leadership in fast growing companies, post-merger integration with an emphasis of cultural integration and systemic leadership. As part of his dissertation Felix conducted research on how personality and intelligence factors contribute to different aspects of job success and how therefore job success can be predicted using psychometric tests.

Felix has worked as a management consultant and trusted advisor to executive teams for nearly 20 years. He is an executive coach to international Senior and Executive Leadership Teams as well as individual leaders globally, but mainly in the U.S. and Europe. In addition, Felix works with renowned private equity companies by selecting and developing top-level leaders, especially during an acquisition process (HR due diligence) and after significant change interventions within the business e.g., pivots to the strategy, reorganization/ restructuring. In these roles he interacts with C-suite operatives all over the world, having trained, coached and assessed over 4.000 leaders worldwide.

Felix also served as the Inhouse Academy Head of a large management consulting company and co-founded and lead a software company with an offshore development center in Vietnam for several years. At the Berlin School he also spearheads the development of new teaching modules and is known for his meaningful interaction with students, connecting to their individual challenges leading them to deeper levels of reflection in order to create their own impactful solutions in a psychologically safe environment.

Felix was educated at the Technical University of Aachen, where he earned his Ph.D. He lived and worked abroad in the U.S. and is a member of the Coach Pools of several global companies.