Stephan Ackermann began his career as Sales Manager, with Dr. Ingold AG, Process Analytics Instrumentation. He then was the Export Director at Salvis AG and Kontron Instruments Inc., his focus being on recruiting and managing distributors for all European countries. From 1990-1993, Stephan was with Hamilton Inc. as the Product & Key Account Manager, where he was responsible for Process Analytics, the focus on key account/OEM sales and dealer recruitment. After 2000, Stephan was the Key Account Manager at EMS-Dottikon AG, Custom Synthesis (intermediates & API’s for the pharmaceutical industry). From 1998-2000 he was the Managing Director of EMS-Dottikon USA Since 2003, Stephan Ackermann has been the Head of Global Key Account Management at Mettler-Toledo Inc., where he focuses on cross-divisional and multinational management of strategic accounts.

Valéry Beirnaert is Senior Director, Service Management EMEA, at DHL Customer Solutions & Innovation (CSI), the global customer relationship unit of Deutsche Post DHL, the world’s largest logistics group. Based in Belgium, he leads a team of 12 program managers active in cross-business unit aftersales activities in the Automotive and Technology sectors.

The Service management team works in close collaboration with the CSI Sales team and ensures that Supply Chain solutions sold are executed to the customer’s expectations and is continuously focusing in finding ways to achieve service excellence and improve the customer experience across Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Valéry’s passion for logistics and customer satisfaction has been built through various positions within the DHL group, ranging from Customer Implementation across EMEA, Supply Chain IT consultant and IT product management.

Valéry holds a Master in Commercial Science from Cooremans institute Brussels and a DES in Electronic Commerce from ICHEC Institute of Business Management.

Roger has over 25 years of enterprise sales and marketing experience in complex go-to-market segments of software and services, including as an Associate Partner at Accenture, at a $400M software company and for the successful IPO of a data analytics company. In his current role with Focused Growth Partners he works with clients to define and execute strategies for growth, with a focus on enterprise customer engagement and personalization, analytics and digital marketing. As a CMO, Roger’s experience includes business and market strategy, marketing analytics, account-based marketing, content marketing, marketing automation, and product marketing Roger is a frequent speaker on go-to-market strategies for complex sales environments and marketing automation. He also sits on the board of GT Schmidt, a manufacturing company, and MyPartsGarage, an auto parts commerce site of which he was a co-founder.

Robert has been with Mercuri International since 2000.

Robert has responsibility for the sales and delivery of international projects within Central Europe. In this capacity he has successfully developed solutions for customers to support their development requirements in sales, sales management and Key Account Management. This also included the deployment of Consultative Selling and Account Management for Business Relationship Managers in several IT organizations in Europe, Asia and South America.

Robert has worked as an international project manager for a key customer in Europe, Africa and Middle East. In the role of the International Project Manager, he has implemented Consultative Selling and Sales Coaching skills as well as managed the customer relationship globally.

In addition, Robert has responsibility for Mercuri’s own development and coverage in 3 countries. In this role he has developed the business to support the needs of international clients in the region. Robert has also contributed to internal product development and the skill and knowledge development of other Mercuri Consultants. He is based in the Czech Republic, in which he is the local champion for analytical tools and analysis. He has performed client work focused on improving the results of global KAM organizations.

Prior to joining Mercuri Robert worked as a Manager in an International company and gaining extensive experience in project management and sales management.

Robert holds a dual degree in International Studies and Philosophy from the University of Washington, Seattle, USA and an MBA from the Open University, UK. Robert resides in Prague, Czech Republic with his wife and 4 children and is an American Citizen

Tim is an industry veteran with significant experience in technology and strategic sales consulting. He brings to Revegy a rich background in sales and sales management that spans more than 20 years and numerous industry verticals. He has a working knowledge of the challenges faced by companies – from start-up organizations to global enterprises – in the Management Consulting, Financial Services, Supply Chain, Government, Technology, Manufacturing and Retail verticals. At Revegy, Tim applies his breadth of experience to help companies optimize and realize their revenue potential by achieving consistent sales processes and employing collaborative tools that cover the spectrum from strategy to execution. Previously, Tim spent six years with InfoMentis (acquired by The TAS Group), where he worked with global accounts to help them achieve strategic improvements in revenue growth, market share, client loyalty and renewals. He began his career at Dun & Bradstreet Software (formerly Management Science America), where he worked in various sales positions over a 12-year tenure. Tim is an honors graduate of the University of Florida with a BSBA in Computer Science.

Volkhard Bregulla leads HP’s Global Account Organization for Germany & Central Eastern Europe. Mr. Bregulla is responsible for addressing and solving business and technology issues with HP’s global customers and as a result delivering significant business value for both HP and its largest clients. The responsibility includes profitable share of wallet growth based on strategic account planning and management. Key measures of success include technology and business solution leadership as well as executive relationship management.

Previously Mr. Bregulla managed Global Accounts for Industry Vertical Organizations and the global business relationship with one of HP’s top corporate customers. His core Industry expertise resides within Discrete Manufacturing and the Communications, Media and Entertainment Industry, 2 key customers segment for HP’s Enterprise Group.

In his role, he leads global as well as a regional and local account teams who develop and position solutions for Cloud Delivery models, Converged Infrastructure, Security and Information Management while leveraging and representing the entire portfolio strength of HP’s Hardware, Software, Services as well as a select set of strategic partners.

Since joining HP in 1985 from Siemens AG, Volkhard Bregulla has held a series of executive management positions in regional as well as global business units. It included multiple lines of business in the Consulting and Systems Integration Organization of HP as well as global services and technology R&D.

Mr. Bregulla has extensive background in general management of international businesses and finance and has served in the Board of several of HP’s equity investments and as Chairman of the Board of an HP subsidiary.

Mr. Bregulla has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Fachhochschule Nuremberg and a business master’s degree in Finance and Quantitative Methods from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. In his spare time, he enjoys the family life with his wife and three children;  his passions include motor biking and skiing.

Corrado graduated in Mechanical Engineering in Politecnico of Turin. He started his career at SKF working in The Netherlands as Product Manager and gaining some good European knowledge of main customers in the process industry, then moved into a Sales role within SKF Italy. After some years being in charge of SKF Reliability Systems organization in Italy with several successes in building value approach to customers. In 2005 moved into a Global Account Manager position and since 2008 in charge of Service Division Global Accounts for EMEA region.

Brian is a Partner with ZS Associates. He has consulted with medical technology companies for more than a decade globally, having spent several years in Asia, the US and Europe. He has worked on a range of sales and marketing issues which are both central to strategic account management and supporting of their success. Areas of expertise include organizational design, channel strategy, talent development, marketing strategy and planning, segmentation, new product launch, value proposition development and sales force effectiveness. Prior to ZS in 2004, Brian spent ten years in the chemical industry in a variety of technical and commercial roles. He has an MBA with distinction from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Michigan Technological University.

Thomas Christensen has been with Maersk Line for 3 years. Thomas is responsible for the external reporting to clients more specific the Performance Dashboard with the mobile App. The Performance Dashboard is a fact-based performance discussion enabler available for the Key Client and their Key Client Manager.

Thomas has been with the Key Client programme for the 3 years working both on the Global Forwarder desk and with Performance monitoring for all Key Clients. Prior to joining Maersk Line Thomas worked with Maersk Broker and a large Danish insurance company both places with Sales and Performance Review as areas of responsibility.

Thomas has a BA degree in Business Administration and an MSc degree in Innovation and Business development both from Copenhagen Business School.

Pascal Claes joined Volvo Trucks 18 years ago in the aftermarket department where he quite rapidly took on the challenge to introduce the in-house developed Volvo telematics system. From various product management positions in Belgium & Sweden, it was only a small step to identifying the opportunities which lie beyond the “mere” technology. The intense collaboration with customers gave an invaluable insight in what drives a client and how innovative solutions can boost a customers’ productivity and reduce downtime.

4 years ago, Pascal joined the Volvo International Fleet sales team where he works as a Global Key Account Manager.

Graduated as an engineer in mechanical design, Pascal had his first working experience in the dredging industry in Hong Kong, building the Chek Lap Kok airport, before ending up in the truck business as a designer of containers and container hooklift systems.

Dominique Coté has joined Zoetis (former Pfizer Animal Health ) in Feb 2013 at the start of standing up Zoetis. She is part of the EuAfME leadership team and responsible for Setting up Commercial Operations strategies, implementation and organization for the principle Company based in Brussels and for the EuAfMe region. She was previously with Pfizer Pharmaceutical Emerging Markets Europe (Human Pharma ) between 2010 -2013, where she was part of the European Regional Leadership team based in Belgium as the Business effectiveness lead Europe- Africa – Russia-India and Turkey. She was leading business effectiveness organizations in 36 European emerging markets leading activities to optimize profitability and effectiveness of Field force. She has had key role in enabling new business models like the retail business, implementing SFA/CRM strategies, looking at resources allocation & deployment capabilities in these roles .She was also the lead for the Global EMBU regarding commercial training / L&D and KAM capabilities and spearheading these strategies for the 70 emerging markets. She comes from Canada where she worked for the first 20 years of her career in the human pharmaceutical industry , and joined Pfizer through the Pharmacia acquisition. She has a scientific and research background in genetic and molecular biology.

Dominique has held positions of increasing responsibilities in Canada in the area of specialty markets & oncology, Sales , Marketing , learning & development , KAM and line management including P&L Management within countries and Regionally . She has acquired solid management background in leading the Canadian oncology business as well as EMEA operations and competencies in Key Account Management by being part of Spearheading the KAM strategies and implementation while at Pfizer . Her career has also provided her Global experience /varied markets experience and diversified culture knowledge. Dominique sat on the Canadian Board for Pharmaceutical Education before leaving Canada and has been on many global council for learning and development, KAM and still is very active on Women & Diversity councils.

With more than 25 years of experience in commercial real estate, Barbara Desmond has acquired a vast array of real estate skills in her role with Cushman & Wakefield. As Global Practice Leader, Account Management, Ms. Desmond supports Client Solutions Account Teams in delivering best-in-class services to clients. She assists the Account Teams with establishing a robust service and technology platform to collaboratively develop and implement innovative portfolio strategies that support the business and financial plans of client organizations—adding real, quantifiable value to real estate portfolios.

Ms. Desmond helps clients, through the Client Solutions platform, reposition real estate as a valuable asset within the corporation, one that enhances business strategies, reduces costs, increases operational efficiencies and aligns the real estate portfolio with overall corporate objectives. She counsels our teams on the selection and use of technology, process development and improvement, as well as the adoption of global Best Practices. She has a proven methodology of assessing client’s existing practices and developing customized improvements for the implementation of transaction management, portfolio planning, benchmarking, risk assessment, policy and guideline governance. Ms. Desmond has directed all phases of managing corporate clients in their outsourcing initiatives and strategic management of their portfolios through well-crafted roadmaps. She has represented PricewaterhouseCoopers, Pfizer, Morgan Stanley, Investors Group, ING Insurance Canada, EDS, Ericsson, CMHC, FedEx, WPP (holding company for Ogilvy & Mather, Hill & Knowlton, Young & Rubicam, J. Walter Thompson) and TELUS Corporation.

Previous positions with The Cadillac Fairview Corporation in Toronto, Canada, positioned her well with a solid understanding of all faucets of real estate including leasing, property management, construction and development of over 3M sq. ft. of speculative properties. She has also managed many large-scale consolidations, including the operational and corporate objective alignment of developing several headquarter buildings in Canada for Hewlett Packard, Federal Express, Bell Sygma, ING Canada, and TELUS representing more than 1.5 million sf of design build projects.

Ms. Desmond is an active member of the CoreNet Association, representing the Toronto Executive Board for more than 10 years and more recently served a 2-year term on a global committee Membership Services. Committed to ongoing professional development, she has received CoreNet’s MCR designation and became the first professional in Canada to receive the Senior Leader of Corporate Real Estate (SLCR) accreditation – CoreNet’s highest distinction. Barbara is also a member of SAMA, Strategic Account Management Association, where she is a regular speaker at their Annual Conferences and is a member of their Global Board.

Joshua is a B2B sales and marketing expert with over 15 years of experience facilitating strategic transformation in two of Canada's largest organizations. While previously working with The Summit Group as a client, Joshua was inspired by the opportunity to apply his skills and experience to help a broader group of sales and marketing teams elevate customer business relevance and value creation capability. Joshua is based in Toronto and supports clients not only across Canada, but globally as well.

As a versatile, insightful, and creative change leader, Joshua brings specific expertise in telecommunications, digital media, marketing to and creating value for SMBs, and designing and executing sales enablement strategies that align to corporate strategy.

Prior to joining The Summit Group, Joshua had a progressive career in B2B marketing and sales enablement with Bell Canada and Yellow Media. He has worked with both senior leaders and face-to-face and inside front line sales teams to make lasting business impacts.

Dynamic international business leader and chief executive with a distinguished track record delivering results and shareholder value through innovation, growth and business transformation initiatives. Lived and worked in a variety of countries.

Throughout his career Roland created and implemented successful business strategies, resulting in large profitable operations and partnerships in North- and Latin-America, Europe, Japan, China, Korea, SE Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Currently the president of Focused Connections, he is assisting companies and investors with their growth, value creation and acquisition agendas.

Most recently (2002-2006), Roland was President and CEO of Endeavor Information Systems, Inc, a $30M division of Reed Elsevier. At Endeavor, Roland led the successful turnaround of the core business, while developing a new business with archival software solutions for digital information generating $8M of new revenue in the first year of operation.

Previously, as  Executive Board director and M.D. (COO) Global Sales and Marketing for Elsevier Science, a $ 2B division of Reed-Elsevier, Roland revolutionized the business and the industry with a new site-license approach and the build up of a worldwide sales, marketing and service organization. These initiatives created an effective transformation into the largest Internet based provider of Scientific, Technical and Medical information. 

Roland was founder and chairman of SciencServer, LLC and chairman of Adonis B.V. both essential components in a business development strategy for digital delivery of STM information on a worldwide scale. He served on the board of Ticer, currently assists St. Xavier University as a member of the advisory board to the President and is senior advisor at Cybersmart! Africa.

President & CEO of AAK AB, Sweden, since April 2010. AAK is the global market leader within speciality vegetable oils & fats. 56 years old, married with 2 grown up children.

Arne Frank has a M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management from the Linköping Institute of Technology, 1981.

Mr. Frank joined Schneider Electric 1991 as Managing Director for Elektriska AB Delta, a subsidiary of Schneider Electric. Delta is one of the Nordic market leaders in medium voltage switchgear. During 1991-99 Mr. Frank then held a number of various international senior management positions within Schneider Electric, based in Sweden and later in France.

1999 Mr. Frank was appointed CEO of TAC. TAC was then held by the largest PE firm in Scandinavia, EQT. 2003 TAC was acquired by Schneider Electric and Mr. Frank became responsible for the Building Automation Division of Schneider Electric and soon later a member of the group’s Executive Committee.

2007-2010 Mr. Frank was also active as a senior advisor to EQT, amongst others as Chairman of the Boards of Contex, a leader in 3D printing and colour scanning, and of Carl Zeiss Vision, a global leader within eye glass lenses. The Chairmanship for Contex also continued under the following ownership of Ratos, a large cap public Swedish PE firm.

Other current responsibilities include Chairman of the Board of Inwido, the largest window producer in northern Europe. Inwido is also owned by Ratos.

Mr Frank is also a Board member of globally well reputable Alfa Laval.

David began his career in a UK economic think tank and then worked as the speech writer for the President of IBM Europe. He later founded marketing services consultancy The Business Works, then became Managing Director of Hill Murray Public Relations where he provided consultancy and strategic advice at CEO level for some of the world’s leading companies. David joined Huthwaite in 2002 and has worked in a number of senior roles, including Sales Director, in which he has been responsible for winning and developing global enterprise business for all sectors, and uniting sales and marketing strategies. David is a Fellow of the Institute of Sales & Marketing Management, a council member of the Management Consultants’ Association and a former Chairman of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations MarComs group. He has spoken for Huthwaite at conferences and exhibitions throughout Europe including World of Learning, IACCM, APMP, SAMA and a variety of academic forums.

Neil is a Partner within Cushman & Wakefield’s Corporate Occupier and Investor Services (CIS) team based in London. He has 25 years real estate experience including 8 years client side and is responsible for directing and executing real estate strategies, processes and tools required by global businesses to align real estate to business need. He has worked with Business Units and Geographical Unit leaders to deliver real property solutions including Business Re-organisation, Corporate Acquisitions and Disposals, Transaction Management, and Investment Sales including managing internal and external delivery teams of multi-disciplined professionals both remotely and “face-to-face.

Darrell W. Gunter a “Digital” publishing executive is one of the leading advocates of consultative sales, “Big Data” analytics, social professional networks and social media in the information industry. Over the course of his career, he launched ScienceDirect, Scopus, BiomedExperts.com, Reviewer Finder and UniPhy.org. He is embarking on the launch of Pubs21.com, the world’s first semantic discovery platform for the scholarly publishing industry. He is a frequent speaker and moderator at many industry events advocating the benefits of consultative sales, semantic search technology, mobile applications and social networking. 



Having worked for industry leaders, Xerox, Dow Jones Financial News Services, Elsevier, Collexis and the American Institute of Physics, his strategic consultancy firm Gunter Media Group, Inc. brings a very unique vision to helping companies define a strategy for significant growth.

A graduate of Seton Hall University’s Stillman School of Business he also attended Lake Forest Graduate School of Management where he obtained his MBA. He is an adjunct faculty at the Stillman School of Business and lectures at Rutgers University on the topic of “Building High Performing Teams”. His radio program, Leadership airs every Saturday 8 am on Seton Hall University’s WSOU 89.5FM / wsou.net.

In his role as Vice President Market Development Unit Continental Europe at Wipro, Ashiq is responsible for sales enablement, marketing, analyst and advisor relationships, key alliances, lead generation, and two service lines. Over the past 25 years he has been working in Coca-Cola's European Logistics operations and IT organisation and as an Executive in Volkswagen's former IT Company.

Prior to joining Wipro, he held executive roles at T-Systems in global sales and global portfolio management. Most recently he was Vice President Offering Management Application Services at T-Systems. Here he was responsible for the definition of the offering strategy and development as well as for the overall governance for offering implementation within Application Services. In addition to that he was also driving the global sales enablement and worked closely with sales operations. He is currently based in Frankfurt, Germany.

Dr. Florian Heidecke is currently responsible for Key Account Management at Namics AG, a Switzerland and Germany based digital agency offering the full range of high quality professional services for e-business / e-commerce and brand management. He is leading the company's SAM program and the internal CRM initiative. Florian has previously been holding positions as Director Business Process Management and Executive Assistant to the CEO at arvato (Bertelsmann). His responsibilities included: strategic business development and process management within European HQ of video games publisher Electronic Arts and development and design of customer-specific BPO solutions in the area of online, finance and logistics. Florian Heidecke holds a doctorate in Business Engineering from the renowned University of St. Gallen (HSG). There he also led several multinational consulting projects for companies like Roche Pharmaceuticals, Airbus and EADS.

Richard is an engaging speaker who combines a warm, enthusiastic style with powerful insight into customer interaction.  He has won and led highly effective development programmes with some of Europe’s largest financial institutions.  His deep experience of long term projects in the financial sector include the design and delivery of comprehensive relationship management, sales, service and leadership programmes for financial institutions across Europe and the US.. 

Over the past twenty years he has helped in the development over 5000 individuals from more than 100 financial institutions, ranging from banks to accountants, actuaries, insurers, fund managers and private equity. 

He writes regularly for financial publications on business development and relationship management issues.

His speaking has ranged from sales strategy for asset finance CEOs in Texas to professional selling for actuaries in London; from delivering the global account management sessions of a postgraduate diploma in international sales in Dublin to “Structuring Global Account Teams” in Paris; from “Being a Customer Centred Financial Institution” for an executive forum in Vienna to “Extreme Customer Intimacy” for Scandinavian insurers in the Pyrenees.

Beyond the financial sector Richard focuses particularly on strategic account management.  He has consulted and trained for leading manufacturing, logistics and engineering companies; is a guest speaker for business schools, trade associations and professional bodies on both sides of the Atlantic.

Richard holds an MA in English Literature from Cambridge, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Fellow of the Institute of Sales & Marketing Management.  He retains a love for the spoken and written word, a fascination with military history and a delight in good conversation.  He lives in the West of Scotland with his wife and dogs, where he helps lead a community church and continues to appear as a hockey goalkeeper for club and country!

Andreas Hinterhuber is a Partner of HINTERHUBER & PARTNERS. He heads the company’s Pricing practice. He is a leading pricing expert and advises companies worldwide.

Andreas has published numerous articles on pricing and strategy in MIT Sloan Management Review, Long Range Planning, Industrial Marketing Management, Management Decision and other international journals. He is editor of the books “Innovation in Pricing” (Routledge, 2012), “The ROI of Pricing” (Routledge, 2014) and “Pricing and the Sales Force “Routledge, 2015). He has successfully led consulting projects on pricing for large and medium-sized companies globally, most recently for 3 member companies of the DAX 30 and a number of family-owned, medium sized companies in Germany and Austria.

Andreas conducts workshops on pricing for the Professional Pricing Society, the Strategic Account Management Association, Marcus Evans, the European Pricing Platform, Management Circle, Business Circle, EURAC, and numerous other institutions. He has more than 10 years industry experience working for Hoechst AG (printing ink division and pharmaceutical business unit), Aventis (agrochemicals and biotech) and Bayer AG (agrochemicals).

Andreas holds an MA from Bocconi University and a PhD in Business Administration from the Vienna University of Business and Economics. He has been acting Chair and Head of the Institute of International Management at Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (Germany) a long-term visiting professor at Bocconi University (Milan, Italy). He is currently a visiting professor at USI Lugano (Switzerland) and at the University of Bolzano (Italy).

Andreas is a faculty member of the Professional Pricing Society. Business Strategy Review, the strategy journal published by London Business School, lists Andreas Hinterhuber among major management thinkers in the area of pricing.

Andreas Johansson is Vice President, Global Account, at DHL Customer Solutions & Innovations, the global customer relationship unit of Deutsche Post DHL, the world’s largest logistics group. Based out of the DHL offices in Brussels, Belgium, he is advising global clients on supply chain solutions tailored to their business objectives and leads a team of regional account managers around the world.

Since he joined the company in 2002, Andreas has been responsible for DHL’s global commercial strategies towards the Technology sector customers, led a team to streamline European operational processes, as well as headed up DHL’s market research & customer loyalty initiatives across Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Prior to joining DHL, Andreas worked at Toyota Motor Europe within a number of supply & demand-related projects that successfully enabled the company’s ambitious European strategy for the 21^st century.

He holds a Master of Science degree in International Business from Linkoping University, Sweden, and has certificates in Business Excellence from Columbia Business School, New York, and in Global Account Management from both Columbia Business School and the University of St Gallen, Switzerland.

Pascal Kemps, with DHL since 1999, joined Global Customer Solutions & Innovation (CSI) – the newly founded cross-BU Strategic Account Management group within Deutsche Post DHL – in 2004 as Global Strategy Manager for Automotive, Engineering & Manufacturing and Public Sector. He has since held various positions within CSI including the roles of Regional Customer Manager and Head of Program Management Office. Before starting a career with DHL, Pascal worked for Black & Decker as a Trade Marketeer. He is a specialist in the fields of International management, Innovation & change management, Cross-cultural management and global integrated Supply chains. Pascal is holder of a Master in Economics from the University of Brussels, complemented with several sales (leadership)-, leadership- and technical (Prince 2 project management, 6-sigma/lean) certifications.

Michael Kleinaltenkamp’s research interests include the fields of business-to-business marketing, relationship marketing, and services marketing. He focuses on the changes within the business-to-business value chains and the impact these developments have on the marketing and sales approaches as well as on the procurement strategies applied in this area. Among others he is author and co-editor of a five-volume textbook series on business-to-business marketing and sales. Furthermore, he is the Editor-in-Chief of the “Journal of Business Market Management” and Director of the “Executive Master of Business Marketing” program.

LaVon Koerner has spent the last 23 years consulting in the highly specialized field of revenue acceleration through Sales and Marketing Effectiveness. He is internationally recognized as a leading subject matter expert in diagnosing and transforming sales and marketing organizations. He has been privileged to contribute to and assist many of today’s Fortune 500 companies. LaVon’s insights from having worked with so many global market leaders uniquely position him at the forefront of thought leadership in formulating the design and installation revenue acceleration processes and sales and marketing methodologies. After years of running a sales training firm, LaVon is enjoying working as the Chief Revenue Officer for Revenue Storm. This has enabled him to fill in the final pieces for providing a “total” solution for addressing the “growth engine” of a company.

Dan Kosch  Shonka is Co-President of IMPAX Corporation and co-author of Beyond Selling Value: A Proven Process to Avoid the Vendor Trap. Dan is leading authorities in the areas of strategic account selling, strategic account management (including account planning), sales management/leadership and the integration of strategic selling efforts into broader management systems. His concepts enable organizations to catapult themselves beyond today’s challenges, steering them away from selling based on price and product alone–a long-term formula for failure–and establishing unwavering competitive immunity by creating high-level, long-term strategic customer relationships. 

He has more than 40 years of experience in direct sales, sales management, and sales consulting and training. He is a highly sought-after speaker on a range of sales topics including selling value, strategic account selling, strategic account management, account planning and sales leadership, presentations and gaining competitive immunity.

Florian Kraus is Professor of Marketing, Dr. Werner Jackstädt Endowed Chair, University of Mannheim (Germany) and Research Fellow, C.T. Bauer College of Business, University of Houston (USA).

Professor Kraus’ current research focuses on frontline employees’ behavior and performance. He also conducts research on house brands, motivation, and organizational identification in the context of services marketing, sales and key account management. Professor Kraus’ work appeared in the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Service Research, Schmalenbachs Zeitschrift für betriebswirtschaftliche Forschung, and Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaftslehre.

Prior to joining the University of Mannheim he worked as an Assistant Professor at the Ruhr-University in Bochum. Florian Kraus obtained his Ph.D. from the Philipps University in Marburg and held a research position at the University of Houston, Texas, USA. He has substantial experience conducting marketing research with companies in the B2B sector as well as service firms.

He is Editorial Board member of the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management as well as the British Journal of Management.

Gaurav Mishra, born in 1975 in Arga/ India, has been with Otto Bock HealthCare since July 2010. As Vice President Global Sales, he is responsible for key global sales projects and growth. He has been heavily involved in Orthopaedic business efforts in US and also took over the additional responsibility for Orthopedic Rehab business in US for Otto Bock. Gaurav Mishra has extensive experience of developing international business for high tech and medical technology companies, successfully setting up and managing business relationships in more than 70 countries across 6 continents. Before Otto Bock, he was International Business Director of Touch Bionics UK, where he led the global expansion of the company in more than 35 countries, set up clinical centre of excellence in UK for developing the clinical business and was also overall responsible for customer service and training of international customers and professionals. He has been speaker in major prosthetic shows around the world and invited by institutions for mentoring business students and speaking on international business. Prior to Touch Bionics he worked in international business development roles for UK high tech companies. He is MBA from University of Edinburgh Management School with specialty in International Business and B2B Marketing, Masters Diploma in Business Studies from IIMM India and BA from Jawahar Lal Nehru University of Delhi. Before his international business career, Gaurav flew fighter MiG aircraft in the Indian Air force for 7 years and is a graduate of Indian National Defence Academy.

An entrepreneurial and commercially aware professional, with extensive experience in the Management of Innovation, Sales and Marketing within the Chemical Industry.

Bernard started his career in 1969 with The Boston Consulting Group and then joined Telemecanique (Schneider Electric Group) in 1975 as Vice President, Corporate Strategy.  Following a succession of executive positions, he moved to Chicago in 1997 as Senior VP/General Manager of Schneider Global Business Development (SGBD) at Square D/Schneider Electric – the entity managing global strategic accounts (GSAs) for Schneider Electric worldwide. The compounded growth of Schneider Electric

sales at GSAs was twice the average growth rate of the total company. Since retired from Schneider Electric in 2005, Bernard joined SAMA as President and CEO in October 2006. Bernard holds a BS degree in electrical engineering from the University of Paris and an MBA from the University of Chicago

Robert Racine is a Vice President and Global Head of Sales Enablement and Sales Operations with Wipro. During his 31 years in the IT industry, Mr. Racine has led sales transformation programs and held various sales leadership roles at Wipro, TCS, EDS (through Revenue Storm), SAP, and Oracle. He started his career in IT delivery with CGI. Mr. Racine has broad experience in all aspects of enterprise selling, including demand creation, deal shaping, sales management, and sales coaching. A global executive, he has extensive on-the-ground operational experience from various base locations across Europe, North America, and India. His interests include sales enablement, sales transformation, deal shaping, and sales operations. He is also an experienced business excellence assessor using the Malcolm Baldrige framework.

Born February 19th 1962 in Germany, Dr. Hajo Rapp completed his University degree in business sciences followed by his doctorate in social- and business sciences.

1994 he started his career as Management Consultant for Management Partner in Stuttgart. From there he moved to Siemens Nixdorf as sales representative for IT Services and joined Account Management in 1997. In 1999 he took over his first leading role in an Account team responsible for Europe. From 2002 to 2007 he was responsibile worldwide for one of the largest customers of Siemens covering the total Siemens portfolio.

In June 2007 he moved to Siemens Headquarters as Head of Account Management & Market Development within the Corporate Development Department in Munich. There he leads a team of specialists which harmonizes the global approaches in Account Management - like structures and processes - within Siemens.

Dr. Rapp is married and has two children. 

Tim Riesterer has dedicated his career to improving the conversations salespeople have with prospects and customers. He is the co-author of two books on the subject – “Customer Message Management” and “Conversations That Win The Complex Sale” – and has consulted and trained the top companies in the world. As chief strategy and marketing officer for Corporate Visions, he sets the direction and develops products for this leading marketing and sales messaging, tools and training company.

Oracle Corporation employed Lee Riles for 16 years in a number of different positions across various lines of business. She has an extensive business operations knowledge and sales enablement experience. At the time of leaving Oracle she was hardware Business Operations Regional Director for UK, Ireland & Israel.

She traveled widely on behalf of the company, successfully coaching and training customers, partners and colleagues. Her extensive experience covered a wide range of applications and various sales methodologies including Financials, Customer Relations Management, Supply Chain and GOSPA.

Lee has accreditation from the Institute of Customer Service and she has used that organization for her own and others' advancement. She has introduced and successfully implemented Revegy to the Oracle UK Sales teams for Business, Technology, Applications, Consulting and Hardware.

James brings over 20 years international and cross-industry experience in consumer products, advertising, business consulting, manufacturing and packaging industries. He leads The Summit Group’s relationship with covenant clients including 3M, Abbott, Cisco Systems, Cooper Industries, General Mills, Hilton Hotels, Medtronic, Novozymes, Procter & Gamble, Textron, and U.S. Postal Service.

James joined The Summit Group from Tetra Pak where he held general management as well as senior sales and marketing roles in Southern Africa, India, Europe and the USA. James championed the companies’ approach towards the customer by leading the implementation of enterprise-wide strategic customer management and customer loyalty programs. He also led global account teams, re-designed customer-facing business processes and managed CRM and ERP technology initiatives.

James’ strengths lie in strategic customer management, business value creation, sales transformation, collaborative innovation, sales performance coaching, and go-to-market execution - enabling companies to accelerate growth, elevate strategic account relationships and differentiate how they go to market. He has taught at the University of St.Gallen’s Global Account Management Executive Program (Switzerland), SAMA University, and speaks at the Strategic Account Management Association.

James holds a B.Com (Hons) degree from University of South Africa, a Diploma in Financial Management from University of New York and has participated in Executive Development Programs at IMD, Kellogg and Carlson Schools of Business.

James lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Dr. Julia Sloan, author of the definitive book, Learning to Think Strategically (2^nd Ed. Routledge, 2012, Elsevier, 2006) and is widely recognized for her pioneering work in the application of complex cognitive theory to everyday global strategic thinking practice. Her work draws upon more than two decades of her own expatriate corporate experience in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and the United States working on strategy to align the business agenda with prevailing economic, cultural and social issues. She teaches at Columbia University and has lectured at some of the premier academic institutions including MIT and Harvard University (US); Beijing University (China); Tokyo University and Keio University (Japan); Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government (Dubai); Singapore University and India Institute of Management (India) and the Brookings Institute. A resident of New York City, Dr. Sloan's educational background includes a doctorate from Columbia University; master's studies at Yale University and University of Alaska; and undergraduate studies from Kent State University.

Professional Global Executive with SKF, the world’s market leader for bearing and related industrial products. With over 10 years experience in being the team leader on understanding, presenting, calculating, and purchasing on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Todd has developed and implemented his leading insight into strategies for developing distribution channels, sales and marketing programs, strategic account management, customer value partnership agreements, TCO procurement strategies, and numerous programs that help customers increase profitability by measuring and reducing acquisition, operation, and disposal costs.

Todd has demonstrated successful customer partnership agreements with Fortune 1000 companies, in numerous industries and segments, in all geographies of the world. Work has been featured in articles on TCO buying and selling, in Purchasing Magazine, and also has been referenced in articles from leading business schools and scholarly reviews published by Kellogg, Harvard, MIT Sloan, and Wake Forest, and others Business Press. Todd has also led sessions on value at Executive MBA courses from IMD Switzerland, Chalmers Sweden, and London Business School.

An energetic leader with experience as key presenter at meetings on the need to buy and sell based on value created and documented; for associations such as Manufacturing Alliance (MAPI), Strategic Account Managers Associations (SAMA), Certified Purchasing Professionals Association, and Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM), and numerous others.

An expert in business leadership through the disruptive potential of innovative technology, I have earned my tiger stripes in sales and commercial management functions at IBM, iPLATO, and Nokia. Now at LinkedIn I’m proud to play my part in elevating the sales profession by helping companies and sales people develop a more perceptive way of building strong customer relations through Social Selling.

LinkedIn Sales Solutions will enable a sales person to get in early on the customer conversation on the basis of their own industry expertise and on intelligence about the customer, the relevant stakeholders and how to build a strong customer relationship by leveraging both their personal network and the wider network of their colleagues.

Following a successful entry of LinkedIn Sales Solutions in the Benelux, I consider myself lucky to be able to continue my passion for the commercial impact of ‘leading edge’ technologies to now build a promising business for LinkedIn Sales Solutions in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, supported by the finest and most entertaining group of people I have ever worked with. I aim to do this through a mutual understanding, enthusiasm and results with my customers, through clear communication with integrity and through my desire to relate with interesting and inspiring people.

Dr. Storbacka, Professor of Markets and Strategy, is one of the global forerunners in the field of developing customer oriented business models. He has thirty years of experience as a strategy consultant to major European and global companies – in finance, media, travel, retail, utility, manufacturing and telecommunications. Dr. Storbacka is a frequent speaker at internal seminars for major global corporations, at Executive MBA programs and leading management development institutions in Europe, Asia and the US. He has previously held professor chairs at Hanken School of Economics in Finland and at Nyenrode Business Universiteit in the Netherlands. In 1994, he founded Vectia Ltd., a management consultancy focusing on customer oriented strategy, solution business development and customer experience management. He is now on the board of Talent Vectia Ltd., the largest consulting firm in Finland and, since 2004, on the board of the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA). Dr. Storbacka has published over sixty books and academic articles. His books Designing Markets: Are you Market Driven or Market Driving (with Dr. Suvi Nenonen), and Customer Relationship Management – Creating Competitive Advantage through Win-Win Relationship Strategies (with Dr. Jarmo R. Lehtinen) have been awarded as the best business books in Finland in 2010 and 1997. His academic research has been published in journals such as Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, European Journal of Marketing, and Market Theory./p>

Helena Stoy heads up the Sales Excellence and Sales Coaching teams at Wipro Technologies. She started her career in enterprise software and IT services sales almost 20 years ago. For the past eight years, she has focused on developing and driving global Sales Excellence programs at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and global Sales Enablement & Sales Transformation programs at Wipro. She has collaborated closely with Corporate Visions, Inc. and successfully applied their training, tools and methodologies as part of those programs at both companies.

Philly has an established track record leading commercial excellence in the logistics and supply chain industry.  A McGill University graduate, she has extensive international experience gained from working and living in Canada, USA and across Europe (France, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark).

She has lead worldwide strategic accounts for most of her career and as an Officer within FedEX, CMA-CGM and Maersk Line.

Huw has just joined Baxter as the the CVP of commercial excellence at Baxter. Previously, he spent 10 years at Novartis where as the SVP of Commercialisation he developed and implemented their KAM strategy. He’s passionate about building innovative multi touch point support services. He will share success stories and failures in creating and developing value propositions whilst securing internal support to ensure projects fly.

Joanna manages regional and global programs for allocated customers for all contracted DHL services: Air Express; Freight Forwarding; Air and Sea; Road Freight; and, Supply Chain. She drives continuous process improvements, and acts as an interface between DHL customers, various DHL business units, and DHL Customer Solutions and Innovation.

Ivan is currently responsible for C.R. Bard´s largest OUS region- EMEA. In his current role, he oversees over 80 countries and close to $1B in sales across multiple therapeutic areas and business cycles. Prior to joining C.R.Bard in 2011, Ivan worked in the Medical Device and Pharmaceutical industry for close to twenty years at Johnson & Johnson, Covidien, and Baxter having held roles in General Management, Business Development, Strategy, and Sales & Marketing. A native of Spain, Ivan has lived and worked across the US, Latin America, Asia, and Europe. Ivan graduated with honors with undergraduate degrees in Finance/Economics and International business from the University of North Carolina and The University of Georgia. He is also an honors graduate (MS/MBA) from the University of Miami and the Wharton School of Business at U. Penn. Recently he graduated from the AMP Program at Harvard Business School.

Wolfgang Ulaga is Professor of Marketing and Strategy at IMD. Professor Ulaga's research focuses on value-based differentiation and pricing in industrial markets (understanding, creating & delivering value for customers) and his major interests are in the areas of B2B marketing and industrial services. He currently works with B2B firms on managing the transition from product-centric to service-led business models in industrial markets. His current research investigates how manufacturers can sell services more profitably and become solution providers in industrial markets. Prior to joining IMD, Professor Ulaga was on the faculties at HEC School of Management (Paris), ESCP-EAP (Paris), EDHEC (Lille), and the University of Notre Dame (Indiana). Before starting his career in academia, he worked in Frankfurt and Paris as a consultant for DML & Associés, an international management consulting firm. Professor Ulaga's research has been published in several academic publications including Harvard Business Review, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Services Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, and Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing. Professor Ulaga is a member of the Editorial Boards of Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Journal of Business Market Management, and Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal. In addition, he is a member of the European Marketing Academy (EMAC) and the American Marketing Association.

Dr. Janny Vos serves as CABIs Strategic Partnerships Director, based in the Netherlands. Her  responsibilities are growing CABIs business with strategic key accounts worldwide. Her customers are donor organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, other private donors, as well as governments, the European Union, and institutions involved with agriculture environmental and bio-sciences. Strategic account management in this industry involves deep knowledge of the domain, the complex stakeholder field and how to align and create value for the parties involved. Dr Vos manages the SAM team for CABI, and actively bridges the extensive CABI capabilities with the needs of the clients. She has been able to achieve trusted advisor status with key institutions like the European Union and others. Since 2007, when strategic account management was introduced into the organization, CABIs revenue in development has grown very significantly, validating the SAM approach.  Dr. Vos previous experience is as a technical specialist in Integrated Crop / Pest Management, with ample working experience in developing countries. She has been technical advisor on projects funded by several of CABIs current key accounts.

Mark Wanic leads C&W’s Americas Occupier Services business. He manages the goals, objectives, and financial performance of the Occupier Services Group across the Americas. Mr. Wanic's primary focus is to grow new and existing occupier clients by leveraging C&W's global platform. Mr. Wanic will collaborate closely with the firm's brokerage professionals, leveraging their deep client relationships and proven ability to execute on behalf of their clients. His unique blend of corporate sales experience and his impressive background in international real estate operations, leveraged by our Global Corporate Occupier & Investor Services Group, greatly enhances our selling position. Mr. Wanic has 15 years of commercial real estate experience. Previously, Mr. Wanic served as Vice President of Global Channel Partner Sales Operations at CA (Computer Associates, Inc.), where he managed a worldwide team to select, train and manage Channel Sales Partner companies to resell CA software. He also performed a similar Global Channel Partner Sales role at Lucent Technologies (now Alcatel-Lucent) from 2002 to 2006. He also was head of North America Sales Operations from 2000 to 2002, when he co-led the restructure of Lucent’s North American direct sales force into account management structured teams.