Dr. Thomas R. Henschel

CEO Signet GmbH u. Co. KG

Thomas is founder and owner of the ACADEMY OF MEDIATION and the SIGNET Association for Advanced Thinking for Cooperation. With more than 20 years of experience as a manager, mediator, trainer and coach he is a highly demanded consultant for senior management and complex strategic challenges both by corporations and government organizations. Over the last 14 years he has trained over 900 professionals in business mediation.

His message and philosophy is that people confronted with conflictuous and challenging situations carry all necessary personal resources for positive and value- adding solutions. Co-operation is the key to create value by following a systemic thinking-pattern and a structured communication process.

Some of his career cornerstones are 10 years Senior Manager at the Bertelsmann Foundation with international responsibilities as the head of the global network for Tolerance, Human Rights and Democracy. Later he was the funder of the European School of Governance at the University of Erfurt. Further more he is consultant and trainer for Siemens, Puma and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in the field of negotiation, mediation and leader-ship. As an expert for conflict resolution he is frequently asked by the German Government and international organizations such as the OIE, FAO and other UN organizations to facilitate international multi-stake-holder negotiations and change processes. Thomas appreciates to take care for a close link between scientific based knowledge and transferring the essentials to day-to-day business.

He keeps up his state of the art know-how being Professor at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy in Berlin. Among his recent projects has been the mandate in Libya to develop a community relation strategy in the transition period after the revolution and to facilitate negotiations there. Lately he was a short term consultant for the Foreign Office of Germany to Egypt training Judges in Mediation. He frequently is asked by International Organization like the FAO (Rome), the EU and National Governments Thomas to facilitate complex international multi-stake-holder negotiations Within his collaboration with companies like Bayer, PUMA or Brenntag he is Trainer and Coach for Leaders and Senior Executives as well as Board Members. Thomas is a certificated trainer for Strategic Debates for Bayer.

His academic expertise is driven by writing articles and books, his certificate in Negotiation at the Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) as well as his certificate in Conflict Management at the ADAM Institute (Jerusalem, Israel). In 2018 he becomes Professor at the International University of Dresden. Next year he will publish his new Book on Humanistic Mediation.