German-speaking Area

While and after acquiring a good inside knowledge of how organisations work from an employee's and management stance (her work included managing international project groups referring to international copyright monitoring), Veronika Dalheimer did her studies in psychology - which also included terms at the Sorbonne, in London , and Oxford - and graduated in social psychology in Vienna. To this, she has added further qualifications in group dynamics in OeGGO (Austrian Association for Group Dynamics and OD), as an organisational consultant in EIT (European Institute for Transnational Studies in Group and Organisational Development), and in systemic consulting. - She is also a registered and practising psychoanalyst (member of the International Psychoanalytical Association) and an experienced executive coach. What is striking about her is her tremendous sense of humour, which she sometimes employs slightly to veil justified criticism vis-á-vis other perople. Today Veronika Dalheimer is active as a supervisory consultant and trainer in the educative programmes of EIT and OeGGO, besides being involved in numerous consultation and training projects in group dynamics, conflict resolution, employee motivation, personnel and managemnt development, and organisational dynamics (dalco consulting). In addition she lectures at Klagenfurt University (Austria) and is involved in pertinent research projects. Here, she is a cooperation partner of Futuresearch Network, a group of consultants that is globally active in accompanying and supporting democratic decision-making processes. Her working languages are GE,EN, and FR.

Ever since his graduation in Civil Engineering Johann Pavelka in his career has cherished the combination between an engineering and the OD world. This joint way of viewing organisations very often proves an especially valuable contribution in assisting today's organisation in their efforts to "meta-rationalize" operations through sound management and leadership approaches. After holding several purely engineering positions, his "insider" career culminated in his function as Head of Personnel Development for Siemens AG Austria, which gave him full responsibility for the development and coordination of all PE development and training activities in the group. From his consulting background Johann Pavelka feels particularly indebted to a systemic approach (Heidelberg) and the Austrian group dynamics school (OeGGO). His special fields today - he has been free-lance for a number of years - are OD consulting and change processes, process re-engineering, and innovation management. In addition, he has engaged in and very much committed to high-quality train-the-trainer programmes.

Gerald Renger's personal scope encompasses an extremely wide field, ranging from a sound academic education in mechanical engineering through linguistics - English from Shakespeare right to computers - into OD, group dynamics and a specialisation in cross-cultural change management. Starting from his roots as an engineer in a development position in Daimler Chrysler, Gerald Renger soon moved on into the ME and PE areas in the group and among other projects acted as a coach and change management agent within their vast structures. This finally took him into Europe-US change and development projects with a strong cross-cultural touch. He has been managing his own company (deloop management consulting) for several years now with a strong focus on decision-taking processes in change and strategizing, virtual cross-cultural cooperation, leadership development, and executive coaching. His working languages are GE and EN.

Gerhard Schwarz's reputation as a philosopher, group dynamics lecturer, specialist and consultant in conflict management etc. etc. has long transcended the borders of the German-speaking area. His books on conflict (Conflict Management, now sixth edition) and religious philosophy (What St Augustine really said, What Jesus really said) have been translated into a number of languages and have brought their readers at least as much insight and enlightenment as they have raised controversy among philosophers and theologists. It is fair to count Gerhard Schwarz among the European initiators both of group dynamics and conflict handling, and both in academic teaching and business consulting these areas even today occupy a large portion of his time and attention. Apart from this, he has developed an in-depth approach to motivation research (MDMA, multi-dimension motivation analysis). This has been highly successful in consultation projects with numerous large European business groups and e.g. the Austrian government. Today apart from his academic obligations and his focus on specialized research he is engaged in projects on conflict mediation, change, and motivation research in large business organisations. He also does a certain amount of training in these fields, and those who have had the pleasure to work with him have come highly to appreciate his enormous sense of humour that does not ever let him down.

Helga Stattler - one of the grand ladies in the German-speaking world of management and leadership development - led Hernstein International Management Institute for almost 20 years, laying the foundation for a number of the Institute's contemporary achievements. After graduating in Industrial Management from Vienna Business and Commerce University she started off as a product manager and consultant and took over in 1980. Before she retired from this function - the term "retirement" here is open for discussion - she served on the Executive Board of the European Foundation for Management Development in Brussels (Hernstein under her belonged to its founder institutions), and on the Prague University of Economic's Academic Council.- She has authored publications such as "The Motivation of Start-up Entrepreneurs" (London 1985), "Women Leaders" (Vienna 1987), and co-authored "Group Dynamics" in 1997. Besides she has published several articles on contemporary issues both in management and society in general.- In addition to her executive activities she has always been active herself in training and consulting in management and leadership development. Of late she has added a new touch to her many facets by very actively embarking on theatrical methods in change and development processes, such as corporate theatre, scenic performance, and interactive forum theater.  She is an honorary Board Member of SOS Children's Villages Austria, and also provides her expertise in personnel and organisation development in various projects. Her working languages are GE and EN.

Werner Zatorski holds his degree in General Business Administration and Tourism from Vienna Business and Commerce University. He started his own management career in Hernstein International Management Institute in Vienna where he was responsible for the Leadership and Personality Development Training Department. In this capacity he increasingly also managed consulting projects, among them a large contract with the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs resulting in a comprehensive training course for Malaysian entrepreneurs in Austria of several months' length. Similarly after he had set up on his own he took responsibilty for marketing and sponsoring management for the 1992 international congress of the European Foundation of Management Development held in Vienna. As a coach and trainer of tremendous experience Werner Zatorski today focuses mainly on those subjects in management and leadership development that are most promising in yielding quick results - among them communication as the "99-per-cent-topic" in leadership, teams, conflict, and change. He has trained in numerous projects both in Austria and Germany.- One of his special areas of expertise lies in public administration.

A graduated biologist from her academic education, Liselotte Zvacek is one of those rare women consultants with a firm executive background. Actually, she led Ecocounselling Austria, a consulting firm specializing in environmental issues, as CEO for some years before she decided even further to broaden her scope by going in for advanced education in OD and group dynamics. Today she lectures at Vienna, Graz, Klagenfurt, and Krems Universities (all Austria) and is a member of the OeGGO (Austrian Society for Group Dynamics and OD). Perhaps it is her background in biology that occasionally brings up in her the most interesting, and in consulting situations also extremely helpful, morphological similes and images for making complex situations easier to grasp for everybody involved. Not only for this, has Liselotte Zvacek been highly successful particularly in culture change and similar projects of high complexity. In her consulting and training activities she has mainly focused on complex change, comprehensive OD projects, post-merger integration, and innovative learning designs, both in national and international/cross-cultural projects. In this capacity she has served a number of large international business groups as well as large public administration organisations. Especially in training there has been a focus on the CEE countries. As a person, Liselotte Zvacek combines an extremely dynamic and accommodating approach with a well balanced assertiveness. Those who have had the pleasure of working with her have come to appreciate this combination especially in edgy situations. Her working languages are GE and EN.