About

My academic interest centres on theory and framework development: examining the assumptions through which we understand complex phenomena and developing perspectives that open new directions for research. I have been a professor at FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences since 2018 and hold a PhD and an MA in Chinese and Business from the University of Leeds. For me, the value of a framework lies not simply in organising what we already know, but in helping us recognise what we have yet to question, explain or explore.

My professional background includes ten years at McKinsey & Company and Amazon, where I worked as an Associate Principal and a Director of Pan-European Processes, respectively. At McKinsey, I also worked as a trainer and coach at the firm’s Alpine University in Kitzbühel. These experiences provide a practical foundation for my interest in how ideas translate into learning, decisions and purposeful action.

Alongside these roles, I have held teaching positions at universities in China, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. My teaching spans executive, postgraduate and undergraduate education and has received several awards for a problem-based learning approach. Originally from Germany, I have also spent extended periods studying, living and working in China, England, the Netherlands, Scotland and Thailand.

My coaching and training qualifications include NLP Master Coach (DVNLP), NLP trainer training (DVNLP, completion in 2026) and Specialist in Coaching the Gifted, the latter completed at the International Centre for Gifted Research at the University of Münster. My professional development also includes training as a Mental Health First Aider at the Central Institute for Mental Health in Mannheim.

Beyond formal qualifications, my approach has developed through long-term engagement with systemic NLP, supervision with Tom Andreas and experiential work with other NLP practitioners. These influences inform my attention to language, perception and the patterns through which we make sense of our lives. In coaching and training, I seek to help people recognise those patterns, reconsider habitual limitations and discover more possibilities for understanding and action.

My contemplative foundation is in Dzogchen Buddhism. Buddhist inquiry with Dzogchen teacher James Low has been an important influence on my approach. It brings a further dimension to my exploration of the mind: not only how we might change what we experience, but how we relate to experience itself, including our attachment to particular thoughts, feelings and understandings of who we are.

These influences come together in NLA, which I develop as a Buddhist-informed extension of NLP. My approach is a two-way dialogue: I draw on Buddhist perspectives to broaden the questions NLP asks about subjective experience, while using NLP’s descriptive and experiential precision to make contemplative themes accessible at the level of perception and everyday life. I pursue this as a comparative inquiry, preserving clear distinctions between the traditions rather than treating their assumptions, purposes or practices as equivalent.

In this dialogue, I place compassion and wisdom alongside practical action and responsibility. I am interested in awareness that deepens our participation in life rather than distancing us from it. For me, the value of this inquiry lies in everyday situations: greater openness to what is happening, more care in how we engage with others and greater freedom in how we respond.