Area of Expertise: Cultural change

Oseas Ramírez Assad is an entrepreneur and corporate innovation expert. He started his career as a CIO for one of Jalisco’s largest newspapers at age 18. He then worked as a CTO and eventually obtained his degree as a family counselor. This eclectic background set the stage for him to become the founder of one of Mexico’s largest e-learning providers.

Oseas then obtained his MBA, studying in the United States as a Fulbright Scholar. This opened up the opportunity to join Cisco Systems, in the heart of Silicon Valley. While at Cisco, he was in charge of the development of the top 2 percent of senior managers worldwide. While in that position, he led the creation of Startup//Cisco, an internal innovation program that draws from startup innovation best practices — such as Lean Startup and Design Thinking — to help internal Cisco teams accelerate their innovation efforts. Finally, he was in charge of the co-innovation strategy for Cisco’s global network of innovation centers.

Oseas works with Fortune 500 corporate senior leaders to accelerate innovation in their organizations. He also sits on the board of his e-learning company, a boutique venture capital fund and an innovation consulting company.

Oseas has been recently announced as Axialent’s new CEO. He will be guiding the company to explore and develop new channels and to keep helping companies from new markets and industries connect to their purpose and have a positive impact on more people.

Philip has held various management positions during his career to date, including co-founder, partner and managing director of Headspace PR; marketing director of Yahoo! Germany; and vice president of Consumer and Commercial Marketing at Universal Music International. He has also been facilitating leadership trainings on behalf of Axialent since 2009.

With his background in international business management, Philip started coaching in 2005, is certified as a professional coach with ICF and CTI, and specializes in executive coaching, leadership training and personal development.

He draws on his extensive experience when working with his clients, who range from international captains of industry to CEOs and senior executives, from small companies to billion-dollar corporations. Based in Berlin, Germany, Philip coaches or facilitates in English and German internationally.

Philip integrates his corporate background, expertise in executive coaching, leadership training, leadership and personal development, and experience gained as a yoga instructor to help his clients to explore valuable perspectives with which to address potential barriers that might be impeding their own development, or that of their organizations. Over the years, he has coached and trained more than 1,200 executives, transcending all organizational levels in multinationals, including intact senior teams.

His incisive approach enables him to help his clients maximize their leadership impact on their organizations and goals. Philip’s ability to empower his clients — individuals or groups — in both a challenging and supportive role enables them to unlock their full potential as people who think and lead with clarity and vision, in tune with their own values and those of their organizations, to meet the evolving challenges of an uncertain, ever-changing and unpredictable world.

Philip holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Hon) degree in business administration from the University of Pretoria. He is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) through the International Coach Federation (ICF), and was trained and is a Certified Professional Co-active Coach (CPCC) through the Coaches Training Institute in London and San Francisco. He is certified in group coaching with Potentials Realized and is certified in various 360° tools from Human Synergistics, Energy Leadership iPEC and The Leadership Circle (TLC). He is also a certified leadership trainer with The Leadership Circle.

Born in South Africa, Philip immigrated to Germany in 1992 and has subsequently been based in Frankfurt, London, Munich and Düsseldorf. He currently calls Berlin, Germany, his home.

Albert Durig is a seasoned management consulting professional specializing in executive leadership development, cultural change management and strategic planning. Over the past two decades, he has worked with numerous leadership teams and developed long-term visions and short-term execution programming with senior-level leadership teams.

In the past, Albert held positions as president of United States operations for Axialent as well as chairman of Burson-Marsteller’s technology practice for both Latin America and the United States, director of Mexican operations for Retail Planning Associates, and general manager of L.I.A. Limited’s Caribbean operations.

Albert has published numerous articles in several countries, including the United States, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. His publishing and public speaking endeavors have focused on corporate communications, leadership in times of change and business agility.

Some other companies Albert has worked with include Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google, Motorola, VISA, Glidden, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), LAN, TAM, UNFPA, Hewlett-Packard, NCR, Sun Microsystems, SAP, Qualcomm, Comercial Mexicana, Banco Mexicano, BanPais, Banco Internacional, Banco del Sureste, Playtex, the Mexican Ministry of Culture, the Mexican Ministry of Tourism, the National Museum of American Art, a Smithsonian Institution, and the National Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Property.

Albert received his Bachelor of Arts degree in communications and his Master of Arts degree in sociology with an emphasis in statistics and research methodology from the University of Louisville. He is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Today, Albert lives with his wife and two children in Buenos Aires, Argentina.