The cracks don't diminish.
They become gold.
The Japanese call the art of repairing broken things with gold Kintsugi. After 30 years of building, breaking, and learning, I've discovered this is equally true of leaders, organizations, and the digital infrastructure of entire continents.
He is mid-keynote, delivering the most important presentation of his career. The one person he needs to impress, Madame Renou, Director of European Operations, is not watching. She is scrolling through her phone, completely checked out.
Something breaks in him. Not dramatically. More like a thread quietly pulling free. And instead of doubling down on the perfect script he has rehearsed for weeks, he abandons it entirely. He starts speaking from a place he rarely shows anyone: his real failures, his real doubts, his real thinking.
It becomes the most impactful keynote of his career.
He later learns that Madame Renou does not speak English. She was not disinterested. She simply could not understand a word he said. Her apparent rejection had cracked him open, and the cracking had made him better.
Applying Everything
Redirecting three decades of hard-won experience toward the work that matters most.
Business in Tech
Advising leadership teams on AI strategy, competitive advantage, and organizational transformation. No frameworks from textbooks. Real decisions, real pressure, real results.
run.events
Leading strategy for Europe's most ambitious event management platform. The Event Intelligence Cloud (EIC) is a multi-agent AI system serving events from executive gatherings to 150,000+ participant conferences.
reTECH Europe
Working on digital infrastructure that is sovereign and secure, without sacrificing openness. Bringing 30 years of building across European regulatory environments.
Beyond the Boardroom
Impact that extends beyond business. These roles represent causes and communities where I invest time, expertise, and advocacy.
Carbon Drawdown Initiative
Climate Solutions & Carbon Dioxide Removal
Advocating for scalable carbon dioxide removal technologies and helping bridge the gap between climate science and business implementation. Working with policymakers and industry leaders to accelerate the transition to net-negative emissions.
IThilft gGmbH
Digital Accessibility & Responsible AI
Promoting inclusive technology that serves everyone, regardless of ability. Focusing on AI systems that are transparent, fair, and designed with accessibility at their core rather than as an afterthought.
EU BEFuture Programme
Next-Generation European Tech Leaders
Guiding emerging entrepreneurs and technologists across Europe, sharing lessons from 30 years of building companies and navigating the European regulatory landscape. Helping the next generation build with purpose.
European AI Forum
AI Governance & Ethics
Contributing to frameworks for responsible AI deployment in enterprise settings. Working to ensure European AI development maintains human-centric values while remaining globally competitive.
Health & Longevity Deeptech
Investing at the convergence of biotechnology, AI, and preventive medicine. The most consequential technology of the coming decades will be the technology that extends and improves human life.
Kintsugi Leadership
The Golden Seam Principle
Co-authored with systems philosopher and executive coach Thomas Bothe, this is not a business book in the conventional sense.
It is a sustained, honest examination of what leadership actually requires when things break, written by two people who disagree about almost everything they can articulate and have learned to disagree beautifully. The book opens with the Madame Renou story. It ends with a question neither author can fully answer.
Kintsugi
Leadership
The Golden Seam Principle Core Values
Respect
Every interaction begins here. Not as a policy I follow, but as a practice I return to. Respect means genuinely valuing how another person sees the world, especially when that view challenges my own.
Inclusion
Technology that excludes people is not innovation. It is a more efficient version of what already exists. The best solutions emerge when the people most affected by a problem are present in the room where it is being solved.
Equal Chances
Background, circumstance, and geography should not determine who gets access to excellent technology, meaningful work, or the opportunity to contribute. Equal chances is not idealism. It is a design requirement.