TLS 2022 | Speaker

Elma Akob

Elma Akob | Moderator, founder and speaker

Elma Akob is a 3-time graduate with a Bcom Law degree, a Communication Management Honours degree and a Masters degree in Strategic Business Management. She Heads up the Marketing and Communications for the Albert Luthuli Leadership Institute, SDSN South Africa and the South African SDG Hub at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. She is an international award-winning speaker, a voice over artist who records for Disney, DSTV, Nedbank and 100 other companies, a TEDx speaker and a renowned conversation strategist. She is listed as one of Gradstar’s Top 100 employable graduates in South Africa, and was recently recognised as one of the Top 10 Outstanding Young Persons in South Africa and Top 30 Outstanding Young Persons Globally through Junior Chambers International. She is also recognised as a Global Keynote Speaker and Conference MC on the prestigious “WESpeak” Platform.
She recently launched a company called Elevate Africa with the vision of equipping a generation of Africans with the skills needed to amplify the ideas that will Elevate Africa. Whether a leader, an engineer, teacher or accountant we are all required to speak and Elevate Africa helps to make sure that when you speak we are forced to listen. Her company recently won the Top Youth Owned Education Brand in South Africa.

Topic at the TLS: Moderation

Dr Bayo Akomolafe

Dr. Bayo Akomolafe | Philosopher, writer, activist, professor of psychology, and executive director of the Emergence Network.

Bayo Akomolafe (Ph.D.), rooted with the Yoruba people in a more-than-human world, is the father to Alethea and Kyah, the grateful life-partner to Ije, son and brother. A widely celebrated international speaker, posthumanist thinker, poet, teacher, public intellectual, essayist, and author of two books, These Wilds Beyond our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity’s Search for Home (North Atlantic Books) and We Will Tell our Own Story: The Lions of Africa Speak, Bayo Akomolafe is the Founder of The Emergence Network and host of the online postactivist course, ‘We Will Dance with Mountains’. He currently lectures at Pacifica Graduate Institute, California and University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont. He sits on the Board of many organizations including Science and Non-Duality (US) and Local Futures (Australia). In July 2022, Dr. Akomolafe was appointed the inaugural Global Senior Fellow of University of California’s (Berkeley) Othering and Belonging Institute. He has also been appointed Senior Fellow for The New Institute in Hamburg, Germany.

Topic at the TLS: Panel discussion | Leading towards participatory futures

Dr Stefan Bergheim

Dr Stefan Bergheim | Director, author, co-founder of ZUKÜNFTE and facilitator 

Stefan Bergheim was trained as an economist in the USA and in Germany. He worked on forecasting and trend analysis in the financial industry for companies such as J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank. As the director of the think tank “Center for Societal Progress” he focuses on normative methods such as visioning and on the inclusion of seldom heard voices into dialogue processes. In this capacity, he advised the German government on its national well-being strategy. His experience with different ways to use the future is captured in his book “Futures – Open to Variety” (German “Zukünfte – Offen für Vielfalt”)
Since 2015 he has been deeply involved with UNESCO’s efforts to strengthen the competence of Futures Literacy. This work included roles as editor and contributor to the 2018 book “Transforming the Future – Anticipation in the 21st Century” and as a curatorial coordinator of the 2019 “Futures Literacy Design Forum”, the 2020 “High-Level Futures Literacy Summit”, and the 2021 conference of the World Futures Studies Federation. As a co-founder of ZUKÜNFTE he designs and facilitates Futures Literacy Laboratories both online and onsite in English and in German for companies, associations, governments, and universities.

Topic at the TLS: Facilitator of the Future Literacy Laboratory

Dr Fernanda Carreira

Fernanda Carreira | Head of the Education for Sustainability Program at FGVces (Brazil)

Fernanda Carreira is the head of the Education for Sustainability Program at the FGVces in Brazil. Her areas of expertise are education for sustainability and organization strategies. Ms. Carreira has led projects of education for sustainability in Master and undergraduate courses, as well as applied research and projects in companies. At FGVces she has also coordinated a business platform called Companies for the Climate and was for 3 years the Executive Secretary of the Center, responsible for strategic planning, fundraising and institutional representativeness. Prior to FGVces, she had a six-year experience in advisory firms such as PwC and Edelman Significa, always in sustainability projects, and she has also worked at NGOs. PhD candidate in Organizational Studies at FGV EAESP, exploring how the theory of imaginaries can be brought to business education in the Anthropocene Era. She holds a MsC in Management with an emphasis on Sustainability at FGV EAESP, where she also has a postgraduate degree in Sustainability Management and has a degree in Business Administration.

Topic at the TLS: Panel Discussion | Leading towards sustainable futures

Kwamou Eva Feukeu

Kwamou Eva Feukeu | Facilitator, researcher and future literacy expert

Kwamou Eva Feukeu is the Africa lead at Max Planck Institute for Comparative Private International Law (Germany), specialised in decolonial comparative law. She previously worked as the Africa coordinator for Futures Literacy at UNESCO for 4 years. She is an experienced facilitator and lab designer involved in labs run mainly in Africa and Europe since 2014 for governments, NGOs, CEOs, but also in family settings. Feukeu is also a member of the editorial board of two scientific journals, Futures and Prospective et stratégie. She has spoken for a variety of constituencies: Stanford University, World Bank, UN Office for Africa, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, African Technology Policy Centre, etc.
A legal scholar by training, she focuses her recent works on the role that norms play in the production and evolution of anticipatory systems using lessons learned from decolonial studies and pluralist legal contexts as evidence of complexity. She is also keen to work on African representations and uses of the future. She is currently a PhD candidate in Complexity Studies and Law at University of Lancaster (UK). She holds a Master’s Degree in business litigation and arbitration and a Bachelor in African studies from Sciences Po Paris.

Topic at the TLS: Panel discussion | Leading towards participatory futures

Rubens Filho

Rubens Filho | Director of Spell aka Co-Founder, CEO and Magilitator of Abracademy

Rubens’ background is diverse, to say the least! He followed the family tradition and started his working life as a lawyer in Brazil. After ten years and a stint in NY however, he realised law wasn’t the right place for him. He made the decision to return to Brazil and moved into ad-land as a Copywriter. He eventually became a Creative Director at Ogilvy, leading many award-winning campaigns for global clients. In 2012 Rubens brought his family to the UK to do a Masters in Digital Media Management at Hyper Island. This was to be another pivotal point in his career and in 2013, he founded Abracademy with the dream of helping people grow, personally and professionally.

Topci at the TLS: Magic impuls

Dr Thelse Godewerth

Dr. Thelse Godewerth | Chief People Officer, Labor Director, Legal, Compliance, Integrity & Export Control at Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG

Thelse Godewerth has been Chief People Officer and Labour Director of Rolls-Royce Power Systems since 14 January 2022. She has more than 15 years of experience in
leadership positions in the areas of human resources, corporate and organizational development, and in these functions also assumed responsibility for the areas of finance, HSE, real estate and communications, among others.

In January 2021, Thelse Godewerth took over the global leadership of the Human Resources & Organizational Development functions of Rolls-Royce Power Systems. Previously, she was responsible for the global HR & Organizational Development function in a leading international provider of laboratory products and services in the life sciences sector. Other positions included the role of Managing Partner of an international consulting firm, Head of Corporate and HR Development at a leading German media and newspaper publishing group, and her work in the Strategy Department of the State Chancellery of Lower Saxony in Hanover.

Thelse Godewerth studied politics, economics and psychology at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, where she also completed her doctorate.

Topci at the TLS: Welcome Address

Tobias Grünfelder

Tobias Grünfelder | Moderator, Ph.D. candidate and project manger

Tobias Grünfelder is a research fellow and Ph.D. student at the chair of Institutional Economics at Zeppelin University’s Leadership Excellence Institute (LEIZ) and a project manager at the Transcultural Caravan. His research focus on transcultural management studies aims at understanding the conditions and determinants of productive transcultural cooperation, focusing on the related organisational and individual learning processes.
In addition to his research, he works as a facilitator, keynote speaker, magician and intercultural trainer. In cooperation with the German embassy and the Goethe-Institute he has traveled to various countries as a “magical ambassador” to promote cultural exchange.

Topic at the TLS: Moderation

Prof Dr Tomasz Kaminski

Tomasz Kaminski | Associate professor at the Faculty of International and Political Studies, University of Lodz

Tomasz Kaminski is a political scientist and associate professor at the Faculty of International and Political Studies, University of Lodz. His research activities are concentrated on the topic o paradiplomacy and city diplomacy, particularly in the context of EU policy towards China. He has worked in numerous research projects funded by the European Commission (Horizon 2020, Jean Monnet Module) and the Polish National Science Centre. Recently he has co-authored a book, “The Role of Regions in EU-China Relations”.

Topic at the TLS: Panel Discussion | Leading towards participatory futures

Please visit his website to find publications and details about his work.

Andrea Klusendick

Andrea Klusendick | Director Human Resources Organizational Development at Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG

Topic at the TLS: Panel discussion | Leading toward participatory futures

Prof Dr Tawana Kupe

Prof Tawana Kupe | Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria

Professor Tawana Kupe has been Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria since 2019. He holds a DPhil in Media Studies from the University of Oslo, Norway. In December 2019, he received an honorary doctorate from Michigan State University in the US, and another from the University of Montpellier in France, in October 2021. Prof Kupe has a notable publication record, having authored journal articles, books and book chapters in his main discipline, media studies and journalism. He is an active member of several civil society organisations and is a board member of a number of tertiary education networks, organisations and initiatives around the world. He also chairs the Sustainable Development Solutions Network of South Africa.

Topic at the TLS: Panel discussion | Leading towards sustainable futures

Prof Dr Jörg Metelmann

Prof Dr Jörg Metelmann I Associate professor of Culture and Media Studies at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of St. Gallen (HSG) in Switzerland

Jörg Metelmann is an associate professor of Culture and Media Studies at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of St. Gallen (HSG) in Switzerland. From 2009 to 2018 he served as program director of “Leadership Skills” in the Contextual Studies of the HSG, from 2015 to 2020 as academic director of the Coaching Program on Assessment Level. Furthermore, he was program manager of the interdisciplinary Haniel Seminars (2009–2018) and the European Haniel Program on Entrepreneurship and the Humanities (EHP, since 2013), both in cooperation with
the German Haniel Foundation. He has (co-)written and (co-)edited more than 20 books on various aspects of the cultural dynamics of modernity, with particular interest in narrativity, visuality, and emotions. His recent research focuses on transformation processes both in Western societies in general, and management education in particular (cf. Transformative Management Education (2019), with Ulrike Landfester; Imagineering (2020), co-edited with Harald Welzer).

Picture: © Lukas Peters

Topic at the TLS: Interview

Dr Njeri Mwagiru

Dr. Njeri Mwagiru | Senior Futurist at the Institute for Futures Research (IFR), Stellenbosch University

Njeri Mwagiru is a Senior Futurist at the Institute for Futures Research (IFR), Stellenbosch University. She leads the African Futures portfolio, and is editor of the IFR monthly, quarterly and annual subscription publications on African Business Futures. She is also co-founder of a research and business development organisation SCEZONS that has facilitated long-term institutional partnership building between United Nations (UN) bodies and universities in South Africa.

Njeri Mwagiru has a Masters in International Relations from the University of the Witswatersand and holds a PhD in Business Administration from the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business. Her research and professional interests include leadership, organisational performance, knowledge, gender and diversity, inclusivity and transformation.

Dr. Mwagiru has worked with a range of organisations in several capacities and contexts including research; higher education teaching and skills building; executive management training; policy, strategy and programme development; short course design, planning and delivery; project coordination; evaluation of initiatives for valued business, public sector, and international partners. Her professional work and research contributions focus on capabilities of individuals, organisations and countries in Africa to realise sustainable growth and collectively beneficial development. Her vocation is to support knowledge sharing and exchange, facilitate integrated strategic planning, and enhance decision-making and performance to achieve desired futures.

Topci at the TLS: Keynote

Prof Dr Klaus Mühlhahn

Professor Klaus Mühlhahn | President of Zeppelin University

Professor Dr. Klaus Mühlhahn, born in 1963 in Konstanz, has been President of Zeppelin University and Chair of Modern China Studies since June 1, 2020. Mühlhahn was previously Vice President for Research, Promotion of Young Academics, and Knowledge Transfer and Spin-offs at Freie Universität (FU) Berlin since 2018 and Vice President for International Affairs in a first term from 2014 to 2018. Mühlhahn is considered one of the most renowned sinologists in Germany. After studying sinology and earning his doctorate at the FU Berlin, his academic career initially took him to the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, as a Visiting Fellow from 2002 to 2004. Further stations were the Institute of History at the University of Turku, Finland, as Professor of Contemporary Chinese and Asian History from 2004 to 2007, and Indiana University Bloomington, USA, as Professor of History and Associate Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures from 2007 to 2010, before Mühlhahn returned to FU Berlin as Professor of Chinese History and Culture in the same year. In 2019, his work “Making China Modern – From the Great Qing to Xi Jinping” was published by Harvard University Press, which has also been available in German since early summer from the publisher C. H. Beck under the title “Geschichte des modernen China – Von der Qing-Dynastie bis zur Gegenwart”.

Topic at the TLS: Welcome address

Julius Palm

Julius Palm | Head of Strategy and Brand as well as Deputy Managing Director at the sustainable food brand followfood

Julius N. Palm is Head of Strategy and Brand as well as Deputy Managing Director at the sustainable food brand followfood. Started as a student start-up with the followfish brand, followfood is now one of the key pioneers regarding the question of a futureproof and sustainable food supply and the role of entrepreneurial action.

Julius Palm has always been driven by the sociological question – what is a good life? First theoretically with a degree in cultural studies. Whether sustainability theories, environmental sociology, societal nature relations or the sociology of the good life – for him, everything revolved around the question of future viability and the compatibility of society and what we call “nature”. A seemingly obvious realisation changed everything for him: societies and thus companies are part of the ecosystems and thus of the planet. The fact that food production is the biggest lever in this relationship determined his further path: what does food have to do with the future viability of humans on this planet? Why is sustainability no longer enough? What can regenerative business models look like?

Julius is trying to answer this question today with followfood. For him, it is the perfect combination of theory and practice: the visioning of a good life and the identification of possibilities on the one hand, and the implementation and transformation in society on the other. That, in his opinion, is the desirable self-image of companies and the necessary goal of entrepreneurship – followfood as a social protagonist and political voice, as a part of this planet with responsibility for more than just its own wallet. With the term “Regenerative Business”, followfood belongs to a new movement of sustainable development – beyond sustainability, so to speak.

Topic at the TLS: Panel discussion | Leading towards sustainable futures

Dave Snowden

Dave Snowden | Founder and chief scientific officer of Cognitive Edge

Dave is the creator of the Cynefin Framework, and originated the design of SenseMaker®, the world’s first distributed ethnography tool. He is the lead author of Managing complexity (and chaos) in times of crisis: A field guide for decision makers, a shared effort between the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s science and knowledge service, and the Cynefin Centre.

He divides his time between two roles: founder Chief Scientific Officer of The Cynefin Company and the founder and Director of the Cynefin Centre. His work is international in nature and covers government and industry looking at complex issues relating to strategy and organisational decision-making. He has pioneered a science-based approach to organisations drawing on anthropology, neuroscience, and complex adaptive systems theory. By using natural science as a constraint on the understanding of social systems this avoids many of the issues associated with inductive or case-based approaches to research. He is a popular and passionate keynote speaker on a range of subjects and is well known for his pragmatic cynicism and iconoclastic style.

Dave holds positions as extra-ordinary Professor at the Universities of Pretoria and Stellenbosch as well as visiting Professor at the University of Hull. He has held similar positions at Bangor University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Canberra University, the University of Warwick and The University of Surrey. He held the position of senior fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at Nanyang University and the Civil Service College in Singapore during a sabbatical period in Nanyang.

His paper with Boone on Leadership was the cover article for the Harvard Business Review in November 2007 and won the Academy of Management aware for the best practitioner paper in the same year. He has previously won a special award from the Academy for originality in his work on knowledge management. He is an editorial board member of several academic and practitioner journals in the field of knowledge management and is an Editor in Chief of E:CO. In 2006 he was Director of the EPSRC (UK) research programme on emergence and in 2007 was appointed to an NSF (US) review panel on complexity science research.

He previously worked for IBM where he was a Director of the Institution for Knowledge Management and founded the Cynefin Centre for Organisational Complexity; during that period, he was selected by IBM as one of six on-demand thinkers for a world-wide advertising campaign. Prior to that he worked in a range of strategic and management roles in the service sector.

Topic at the TLS: Keynote

Lena Tünkers

Lena Tünkers I Process designer and facilitator 

Lena Tünkers aims to expand people’s capacity to imagine and uses the future to alter perspectives and narratives in the present. After, studying Innovation & Organisational Entrepreneurship, she worked in the field of innovation and business design. First, in a corporate context with HelloFresh, Spotify, and the UN. Then, in the start-up ecosystem in Denmark and Kenya with a focus on frugal innovation, sustainable consumption, and agriculture.
Today, she guides people in their work with the future. As a process designer and facilitator, she preferably uses methods from Futures Literacy and Experience Design for change, strategy, innovation, and team processes. She is co-founder of ZUKÜNFTE, board member of Founders of Tomorrow, and hosts the House of Beautiful Business in Copenhagen.

Topic at the TLS: Facilitator of the Future Literacy Laboratory

Prof Dr Josef Wieland

Prof Dr Josef Wieland I Director of the Leadership Excellence Institute Zeppelin and Founder of the Transcultural Caravan

Prof. Josef Wieland holds the Chair of Institutional Economics, Organisational Governance, Integrity Management and Transcultural Leadership and is the Director of the Leadership Excellence Institute Zeppelin | LEIZ. An expert in the field of compliance and business ethics for more than 30 years, he initiated the Forum Compliance & Integrity (FCI) and chairs the Advisory Board of the German Network of Business Ethics (DNWE). He is a member of, inter alia, the national CSR Forum, the jury for the German government’s CSR Award, and the Advisory Council for Sustainability of the government of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg. Josef Wieland developed the theory of Relational Economics, and he is the founder and academic director of the “Transcultural Caravan”.

Topic at the TLS: Keynote