Ekkehard is a global citizen with deep leadership experience across a wide range of roles (CEO, investor, entrepreneur, consultant, board member), industries (services, fast-moving consumer goods, media, financial institutions), countries (Germany, Spain, France, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Switzerland) and companies (Axialent, Adecco Human Capital, Lee Hecht Harrison, Jacobs Holdings, 20 Minutes Holding, McKinsey & Company).
In his mid-forties, he recognized that he had put a lot of professional energy on the “hard stuff” (strategies, structures, numbers), and he experienced the need and the opportunity to integrate additional key drivers for success — namely, balanced relationships and cultures as well as self-actualization and purpose.
For this purpose, Ekkehard founded Sum People. Today he is helping CEOs, top executives and their teams integrate the three dimensions: It (goals, tasks), We (relationships) and I (self).
Ekkehard is also the founder of Mountain Wisdom, a Swiss foundation that takes CEOs to the mountains to explore the fundamental questions in life.
“During my corporate career, I was focused on solving problems. This is what I had learned and what I was good at. Later in my career, I asked, ‘how did I contribute to these problems?’ I recognized that my executive task focus did limit my ability to productively relate with colleagues and partners (and actually my family), and it did not allow me to explore who I was and what I really wanted to do with my life.
“I am still very passionate about business, I love strategy and high performance. Today, I am convinced that in order to achieve sustainable success, we have to apply the same standards of excellence to the human dimension.
“The corporate world is full of task-oriented, hard-working and ambitious executives. I want to work with those who are curious and open to integrate the We — and the I — dimensions at the service of a better It (results, performance). It is my purpose to help executives take their heart to work.”
Ekkehard holds an engineering degree from the University of Karlsruhe in Germany, a postgraduate degree in international management from the Université Paris Dauphine, and a doctorate degree in economics from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.
Ekkehard lives in Switzerland with his wife and two children.