Area of Expertise: Business strategy

Lisa Neuberger Fernandez is a sustainability strategist, social innovator, and thought leader. She is Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at SharpBrains Advisors, a boutique consultancy offering strategic advisory and ‘innovation as a service’ in partnership with Axialent to high growth, purpose driven organizations.

Lisa has twenty-five years of experience leading global strategy and innovation teams to deliver value for business and society as Managing Director at Accenture, Head of Sustainability at a cleantech startup, and Senior Advisor to the World Bank.

She advised pioneers at Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and multilaterals on how to apply technology and innovative business models for sustainable and inclusive growth. She launched social businesses, shaped and implemented sustainability strategies, and built purpose-driven collaboration platforms to upskill thousands.

Recognized as an Unusual Pioneer by Yunus Social Business and the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, she holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business and a Master’s from the Fletcher School at Tufts.

She enjoys unlocking human potential teaching at IE University, mentoring youth and social entrepreneurs, and hosting #rebalancetothrive workshops. She recently moved to Madrid with her family and loves to ‘walk and talk’ in beautiful places, sing jazz, and play tennis.

Alex has 17 years of experience in the field of Business and around 8 in B2B Sales Management consulting. Alex’s approach involves crafting a strategy grounded in the company’s mission. He excels at translating overarching visions into actionable plans to meet organizational objectives.

Starting his career, Alex worked primarily with multinationals from various sectors, including Biofuels, Oils, Engineering, and Software (Tech). He also has experience with SMBs and has taken on roles as an entrepreneur.

Along with joining Axialent, Alex is a Managing Partner at Raisethebar.tech, a hybrid consultancy and training company helping founders, owners, and executive teams grow. The focus is always on the individual, developing their position, and aligning the team to hyper-grow your company.

Previously, Alex set up two different entrepreneurial ventures and is involved in several startups and SMBs as a mentor and minority shareholder. As an Executive Director, Alex showcased exceptional leadership qualities, demonstrating a remarkable talent for crafting and executing visionary strategies that propel organizations to new heights. Under Alex’s leadership, CTAIMA Group not only met but consistently exceeded expectations, establishing industry benchmarks and earning accolades for excellence. This success culminated in a purchase by a PE group.

Alongside his vast Sales experience in the B2B space for consultative sales, Alex possesses a deep understanding of people and their development. He finds it intrinsically rewarding to aid in their growth.

Alex holds a degree in chemistry from URV in Tarragona, located in one of the most significant chemical hubs in Southern Europe. He also pursued an MBA from the same university. More recently, he completed an Executive Program on General Management (PDD) at IESE Business School.

Based in Barcelona, Spain, where he was born and raised, Alex brings to the table extensive work experience from across Europe — including Spain, Germany, Italy, and Belgium — as well as Southeast Asia, with stints in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

Outside his professional commitments, Alex is passionate about sports, with a particular love for fitness and marathon running. He’s also keen on exploring facets of business, leadership, and talent management.

Stefaan is the founder of the Global Curiosity Institute where he and his team are supporting professionals, teams and organisations to foster a mindset of curiosity.
 
He started his career in investment consulting in China. From there he moved to set up the executive education arm of a major business school in Shanghai, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), which he ran for 5 years. Subsequently, he moved to the corporate side and set up global learning teams and innovative corporate universities for Nokia (China/Finland), Agfa Healthcare (Belgium), Philips (the Netherlands), Flipkart (India), Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia) and Cognizant (UK). His last role was that of Chief Learning Officer for Cognizant, where he overlooked the learning and development for over 300k associates across the globe. He has been globally recognized for his innovative approach to learning, people and technology.
 
Stefaan has a Master’s degree in Economics and in Chinese, together with postgraduate degrees in Marxist Economics from China, Cross-Cultural Management from France and an Executive MBA from Rutgers University. He is a certified ACS and NLP coach. A Belgian national, Stefaan has been married for 25 years to Jeltje Peletier: a successful psychotherapist, coach and yoga teacher. Together they have 4 children: Rik, Femke, Koen and Menko. He practices meditation daily, is a marathon runner and is currently pursuing a masters degree in philosophy.
 
To learn more about the institute click here: https://www.globalcuriosityinstitute.com/
nelson granja

Nelson Granja is an innovator by heart with an intrapreneurial spirit. Nelson has ten years of experience working in the intersection between business, strategy, and technology. His field of expertise is innovation management and he has worked with corporations in Latam, the US, and Europe to design and run innovation capability programs, strategies, and cultural transformation processes to lead disruption. Some of his most recent clients include Procter & Gamble, Walmart, Fox, and Femsa.

With a focus on ambidextrous organizations, he supports organizations to explore innovation opportunities, while keeping their core business running. Before joining Axialent, Nelson worked with startups, private and public organizations.

Nelson holds a master’s degree in Technology and Innovation Management from the University of Queensland, Australia, and a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas, Ecuador.

Nelson was born in Ecuador, and he is based in Guadalajara, Mexico. He enjoys spending time with his friends and family and he is passionate about mountain climbing, hiking, and trail running.

Rolf has been working for 10 years with Axialent and other international consulting firms, specializing in leadership development for senior executives. Rolf worked with senior leadership teams at several companies across the world including France’s largest insurance company, Brazil’s largest retailer, and one of the largest United States banks. In each case, he helped design and implement culture change programs and acted as a coach to the leadership team. Before that, Rolf worked for four years as a founding partner at Sustainomics, a consulting firm focused on supply management, low-cost country/global sourcing (mainly focused on China) and organizational transformation.

Before this, Rolf was a senior principal with the international consulting firm A.T. Kearney, where he worked for 10 years in the New York City office. In this role, he led various projects in strategy, organizational design and the supply chain area. As a leader of the Strategic Sourcing practice, he led various international projects, yielding more than $400 million in annual savings. Rolf also developed a performance measurement tool for A.T. Kearney that linked shareholder value to individual performance indicators. Rolf was also responsible for the training and recruiting of consultants, both at A.T. Kearney and Sustainomics.

Rolf worked in various parts of the world, also doing projects with Andersen Consulting in Germany and Braxton Associates in London.

Rolf has a Master of Business Administration degree from the Wharton School of Finance and a postgraduate diploma in economics from the London School of Economics.

Today, Rolf lives in Munich, Germany. He is married and has two children. Rolf loves to play tennis, and he recently achieved a personal goal, completing the New York City Marathon in less than four hours.