Author: CIO Times

Leadership is being redefined. Today, it is less about titles and more about impact measured not by authority, but by the ability to create meaningful change in people’s lives. It is rooted in empathy, strengthened by action, and sustained through connection. Among those shaping this new definition is Eunice Adjei, Director of Multicultural Services at St. Cloud Financial Credit Union, whose work sits at the powerful intersection of community, inclusion, and systemic change.

A Calling Rooted in Experience

Eunice’s path to leadership did not begin in boardrooms, it began in lived experience. As an immigrant, she encountered firsthand the challenges many face when navigating unfamiliar financial systems, accessing education, and securing essential resources. These experiences revealed critical gaps that too often left individuals and families without the support they needed to thrive.

Rather than waiting for change, Eunice chose to become part of it. She committed herself to simplifying systems, connecting people to opportunities, and advocating for those whose voices often go unheard. The results have been profound: individuals gaining confidence, families reshaping their financial futures, and institutions becoming more responsive to the communities they serve.

For Eunice, the work has always been about balance empowering individuals while pushing for broader systemic transformation.

Building Inclusion Through Action

At St. Cloud Financial Credit Union, Eunice turns values into outcomes. Her work is centered on making financial services accessible, relevant, and responsive to diverse communities. She leads with authenticity, focusing not on abstract markets, but on real people and their lived experiences.

Through financial education initiatives, community partnerships, and culturally responsive outreach, the credit union has helped families move from uncertainty to stability. Whether it is a first-time account, improved credit, or the ability to plan for long-term goals like homeownership, the impact is tangible. These efforts are not just changing individual lives they are strengthening entire communities.

By consistently asking who is included and who may be left out, Eunice ensures that inclusion remains intentional, not incidental. Her work reinforces a clear truth: sustainable growth is built on trust, empathy, and accountability.

Bridging Strategy and Reality

Eunice brings a rare ability to connect high-level strategy with real-world impact. Grounded in grassroots experience, she ensures that ideas are not only visionary but actionable. She connects data with human stories, helping organizations move beyond planning into meaningful implementation.

She also emphasizes clarity and shared ownership within teams. When individuals understand both the purpose and their role, work becomes more than a task it becomes a mission.

Compressing Policy Gaps

Eunice’s influence extends beyond direct service into the realm of policy and systems change. Through her engagement with the Minnesota Credit Union Network, as a grassroots coordinator, she operates where community insight meets institutional decision-making.

From this vantage point, she sees clearly where policies succeed and where they fall short. While policy can drive large-scale progress, it often misses the complexity of everyday life. Eunice addresses this gap by staying deeply connected to the community, listening closely to lived experiences, and translating those insights into actionable feedback.

In doing so, she serves as a bridge ensuring that policies are not only well-designed but also grounded in reality. Her work helps transform intention into impact, creating solutions that are both practical and lasting.

Developing Purpose-Driven Leaders

Through her Jugaad Leadership Program, Eunice is cultivating the next generation of leader’s individuals motivated not by perfection, but by purpose. She emphasizes resilience, adaptability, and commitment to collective success.

Her approach challenges traditional notions of leadership by focusing on impact over recognition. For Eunice, true leadership is measured by how many others are empowered along the way.

Practicing Humble Leadership

At the core of Eunice’s leadership style is cultural humility. Shaped by her own experiences, she fosters environments where learning, reflection, and open dialogue are encouraged. She does not position herself as having all the answers, but as someone willing to listen, grow, and evolve.

This openness builds trust creating space for others to bring their full selves to the table. For Eunice, cultural humility is not a one-time effort, but a continuous practice embedded in everyday interactions.

Earning Trust Through Consistency

Working alongside underrepresented communities has taught Eunice that trust is built over time. It requires presence, consistency, and genuine intention. It cannot be rushed or replicated through transactional engagement.

She emphasizes the importance of proximity of staying close enough to understand the real needs, challenges, and diversity within communities. This approach ensures that solutions are not assumptions, but informed responses that truly resonate.

Expanding Access to Leadership

Eunice recognizes that access and representation remain significant barriers. Leadership opportunities are often shaped by networks that are not always inclusive, making it difficult for many to see themselves reflected in positions of influence.

She actively works to change this mentoring individuals, opening doors, and encouraging organizations to rethink traditional pathways. Her goal is clear: to create spaces where diverse voices are not only present, but valued and heard.

Connecting Systems with Reality

With experience spanning corporate, nonprofit, and public sectors, Eunice understands how systems operate and where they break down. She focuses on aligning strategy with lived experience, ensuring that initiatives translate into meaningful outcomes.

Her ability to connect grassroots insight with policy-level influence allows her to advocate for solutions that are both informed and effective.

Defining Meaningful Change

For Eunice, inclusion must be both visible and felt. It should be reflected in representation, decision-making, and organizational culture. But beyond metrics, it must create environments where people genuinely feel seen, valued, and understood.

Meaningful change, she believes, goes beyond surface-level commitments. It requires consistency, accountability, and a willingness to embed inclusion into the fabric of systems.

Staying Grounded in Purpose

In moments of challenge, Eunice returns to her purpose. She focuses on progress, celebrates incremental wins, and remains committed to long-term impact. Her journey reflects a deep understanding that lasting change is not immediate it is built over time through persistence and clarity of vision.

Looking Ahead

Eunice envisions a future where inclusion is no longer treated as an initiative, but as a standard. A future where leadership is shared, opportunities are accessible, and systems reflect the diversity of the communities they serve.

Her work offers a powerful reminder: when inclusion is intentional and sustained, it does more than strengthen organizations it transforms lives. And in that transformation lies the true measure of leadership.

Read full digital edition now: The 10 Most Empowering Women Leaders Making an Impact in 2026

Leadership nowadays demands more than just vision. It asks for skills to navigate uncharted environments, bridge multiple industries, and drive meaningful change. The impactful voices are those who challenge convention, embrace change, and create pathways for sustainable growth. Innovation takes shape due to a dynamic shift in business operations, while the role of forward-thinking leaders becomes increasingly critical. They influence broader industry narratives. One such leader is Petra Sarke, Founder & CEO, RMP Eventservice GmbH. Her extensive experience in event management, healthcare-focused events, and renewable energy industries has molded her approach towards precision and efficient problem-solving.

Authentic Responsibility

Petra’s professional journey has moved across event management, healthcare-led platforms, and renewable energy, very different worlds, yet connected by how she leads within them. For her, it has always come down to one thing: building environments where people can step up and perform, even when the pressure is high and timelines are tight. Early in her career, she realized that systems don’t succeed on structure alone; it’s the people inside them, and the way they’re guided, that truly make the difference.

She doesn’t approach a new role by focusing on the industry itself. Instead, Petra looks at what needs to function better, what’s slowing things down, and where clarity is missing. That perspective allows her to settle into complex situations quickly and start making meaningful changes without overcomplicating the process.

There’s a certain calm decisiveness in the way she works. She notices the small cracks before they turn into larger issues, steps in without hesitation, and takes ownership where it counts. It’s less about having all the answers upfront and more about seeing things clearly and acting on them with confidence.

What has carried her across such varied fields is not just experience, but a grounded, consistent way of thinking. Petra doesn’t feel the need to reinvent herself with every shift. She brings the same focus on clarity, accountability, and execution, no matter the industry, allowing her to move forward with purpose and steady direction.

She shares, “I never tried to just ‘fit in.’ I simply made sure that things worked.”

Operational Integrity

At RMP Eventservice GmbH, Petra has shaped the business around a belief that being “different” isn’t something you declare; it’s something people experience in the way you show up and deliver. From the outset, she chose not to follow the usual model of a staffing agency. Instead, she built the company to function as a committed part of the production itself, taking responsibility, thinking ahead, and staying closely connected to the bigger picture.

That thinking naturally carries into how the work is organized. There’s a strong sense of structure, but it doesn’t feel rigid. Processes are clear, expectations are understood, and teams are trusted to do their job without needing constant oversight. Even in fast-moving or high-pressure situations, there’s a quiet confidence in how things come together.

For Petra, though, what truly holds everything in place is the culture. She’s seen that systems are only as strong as the people behind them, especially when things don’t go as planned. That’s why she places so much importance on how individuals carry themselves. Reliability, respect, and a genuine sense of responsibility aren’t just ideals; they’re what keep everything from falling apart when it matters most.

When she brings people into a team, it’s never just about filling a role. She looks for those who can stay grounded when things get unpredictable, who don’t lose focus under pressure. Because in her experience, the real measure of any promise isn’t how things run when everything is smooth, it’s how a team responds when it isn’t.

Nurturing People

Uncertainty comes knocking at unexpected times in large-scale events. No matter how pre-planned an event is, there are times in the live event industry when it is only the beginning.

Petra likes to go with the flow. Being rigid and stern about activities to be done will take the event nowhere. She envisions a foundation that is agile enough to absorb the shocks. It is never about ‘perfect workflows.’ It is about a shared vision of direction. When the way to the finish line is clear, every nuanced detail needn’t be discussed.

She shares, “What I’ve learned over the years is that you need a feel for the situation. Processes are like guardrails—they provide guidance, but you still have to be able to steer the ship.”

At the end of the day, the crucial part is the human element, which is composure. During complex situations, calm is the trait that works for Petra. When she is unshaken, her team remains active and grounded. Chaos suppression is what she believes in. Leading her team out of the situation safely, so that everything looks easy, is a life lesson to learn from her.

Adapting Accordingly

Petra works across multiple events like concerts, corporate events, trade fairs, and highly regulated medical conferences. When juggling between creative, commercial, or compliance-oriented environments, her core remains constant. The scenery changes frequently. Handling a concert while being soaked in mud, handling a corporate event, or hosting a medical seminar, the core principle remains: the event needs to be seamless. No compromises on time, place, and quality of the event is her motto.

The dynamic changes as per the nature of the event. During concerts, everything is much more immediate, often even a bit rougher. Decisiveness in terms of the situation’s demand and making it happen then and there is the key, as time is the constraint. Action and momentum need to be perfect.

It is different when medical or corporate environments are to be managed. Accuracy, compliance, and perfectionism are a win-win for her as there needs to be an error-free environment.

She shares, “I don’t try to bend over backwards or reinvent myself every time. I look at the environment and ask: What does this system need from me right now?”

All in all, being at a live event, standing in mud, or working on nuanced detail during a corporate event, behind-the-scenes work never stops for her. Being reliable is what she nurtures, while experimenting with the approach. She believes this amalgamation has kept her work going and kept it so intrinsic for all these years.

Deep Inside Discrepancies

It is a myth, according to Petra, that people still believe that an event succeeds or fails due to visible issues like stage, lighting, etc. It is just a thing assumed. Reality is intangible to the audience. The main issues are the interfaces. Logistics, technical aspects, and timings are the components that, when collapsed, the whole event goes for a toss. The ruckus caused is quite visible, and the audience starts to believe the harmony of the event is shaken.

Time is another issue. Planning an event on paper and making it happen onsite are poles apart. Uninvited happenings always arise. The questions start to arise, like:

• Does the team have enough bandwidth to handle the issue?

• Or does the system collapse at the first sign of trouble?

Calm in the storm is the key. If mismanagement is visible backstage, it takes no time to be visible in front of the whole audience. A good event is perceived as effortless, as people believe it happens in thin air. A struggling event is perceived due to sudden mismanagement and sluggishness.

Pressure Reveals Character

When nurturing a team, Petra pays careful attention to people’s actions. In the event industry, she highlights that it is easy to find out who is a convincing talker and who shows actual results. In pressure times, the difference is quite visible. She needs people whom she can rely on blindly. When she delegates responsibility for a task, it should be done.

Inner calm is also what she seeks. She needs clarity in things and dislikes drama when pressure mounts. She dislikes self-promoting individuals who show off being important. She nurtures people who think in a cycle, complete their job, and keep their cool in uncertain times.

Respectfulness is the most crucial. A person’s character is seen when the whole team is tense.

She shares, “For me, a team only works if it doesn’t fall apart the second things get difficult. I don’t believe creativity comes from chaos; it comes from a stable foundation. If that foundation is there, everything else follows.”

Voluntary Decisions

Petra has a high regard for practical implementation when it comes to sustainable actions. Such ‘paper-only’ doesn’t impress her. The photovoltaic industry has given her this life lesson.

Conscious decisiveness about sustainability has molded her outlook. Wastefulness in the event industry is undeniable. At the same time, it is also fast-paced and temporary, too. One has to have the skill to optimally use the resources at hand with minimal wastage.

Nurturing efficient structures is a mandate for her. Wasting resources is in no way acceptable. Also, decisions should be taken keeping in mind the moment and the impact it will create in the near future.

Petra shares, “It’s not about being morally perfect. It’s about integrating responsibility into the daily grind. At the end of the day, it’s the small, practical steps that make the real difference—not the big marketing buzzwords.”

A True Leader

There have been several moments that tested Petra’s leadership skills. The COVID pandemic was a phase that made the event business vanish within minutes. Her team had nothing. No bookings, and work was nowhere to be seen. She was responsible for a team that didn’t know where the rent and food expenses would come from.

The question was of survival now. The situation had brought up a scenario where the leadership was going to be tested in its truest sense. Instead of choosing to wait, she took all her savings and put them into tools and vehicles.

Shopfitting was the idea to restructure. She and her team took up stints that were not related to their core business at all, as the question was earning a living for her team.

The COVID pandemic phase taught her:

• Responsibility doesn’t end just because things get uncomfortable or money gets tight. You lead from the front.
• One cannot keep lingering on the thing that worked yesterday. Leadership, for her, has been decisive even when all odds are against us.

Human Touch in Decisive Moments

Petra believes that no matter how many technological improvements surge, they can never replace the human brain’s functioning. When it comes to the event industry, the feel of the event is what is observed at the end of the day. Technical aspects are not given much importance. No event can be entirely controlled by leveraging digitalization.

Undoubtedly, for her, digitalizations like tools, systems, and data help in efficient planning and minimize errors, but it is not the sole aspect to consider. Another aspect that counts is experience, perspective, and an intuition for the situation.

There are some tough calls needed that only a human brain can channelize:

• When does a human need to step in?
• When does a human let things run?
• When does the human change something even though the plan says it’s still ‘correct’?

No amount of digital means can take these decisions for us as humans, Petra believes. Technology is a tool; it can never be the ultimate solution.

She shares, “The right balance happens when both work together: solid digital support in the background to keep your back clear, and sharp, human decision-making in the heat of the moment.”

An event is an experience at the end of the day. It cannot be replicated, even by the latest of the latest technology.

In-person Operations

Petra prefers being on the site herself for big shows that have large crews. She watches her people work to not micromanage them. It allows her to feel who they are. Sitting in an air-conditioned office doesn’t help her know her team. She feels it is important to know how each person functions to make the event a success when the stress is high.

It also comes down to respect and connection for her. She knows her team by their names and greets each team member during load-in and load-out. This warmth is crucial for her. Strategy shows up on the battlefield for her. Not on an office desk.

She states, “I rely heavily on my gut feeling. I regularly take a moment to step back and look at the bigger picture: Is it flowing? Where is the friction?”

For her, being on-site or foreseeing from a distance isn’t a contradiction. It ensures strategic clarity for her without being distanced from the ground reality of the work.

Owning the Situation

To fit better in the business realm, Petra has never replicated any other business professional. She always walked the path crafted by herself; she doesn’t stress it to be the fastest or safest. Instead, she is proud that it was her own.

Identity for her is to grasp what exactly one stands for. Not only when fate is on one’s side, but specifically when things get uncertain.

She shares, “Courage isn’t found in big words; it’s found in the decisions you make—particularly in those moments where you don’t have a guarantee that you’re right. You take the leap anyway.”

Transformation is consistent in the event industry, says Petra. There is no standstill. It represents how she leads. She doesn’t indulge in overly controlling situations. She acknowledges the fact that work comes with mistakes or errors. It is a part and parcel of it. Handling a situation when things go wrong is her priority.

She believes one needs the courage to own the situation and find the best solution for it. The blame game doesn’t work. Finding a solution for the same is the key for her. She makes a decision, owns it, and moves forward. She wants her team to be on the same page. Of course, errors will occur, and not everything will go as planned, but she finds honesty in people when things get tough.

She adds, “I’m not interested in playing a role someone else wrote. It’s about staying authentic, even when it would be a thousand times easier to just conform.”

Undisturbed in Uncertainty

In the future, Petra wants to witness the real difference in how stable a system will be when things don’t go perfectly. She doesn’t see a difference in technology or in the size of the company, either. As the events industry shifts towards complexities, fast-paced, and being more demanding, companies are becoming more seamless in their interfaces and reliable in their workflow. Exceptional companies will be the ones that things work consistently, not the ones that shout the loudest in the market.

Nurturing an ideal team culture is also a decisive factor. Only hiring good people doesn’t do the deed; the leader has to stand by them. In times of uncertainty, the leader needs to step up and safeguard the whole team if need be. Every day, working in a union, imparting support, and providing an opportunity to grow are what she nurtures in a team.

She shares, “I believe that in the future, it will become even clearer who is just going through the motions and who truly understands what’s behind a flawless production. It will be less about individual, flashy highlights and more about consistency. About well-oiled teams and workflows that click instinctively.”

At the end of the day, one will distinguish great companies from the rest. The chaos is handled so seamlessly that the clients perceive it as magic.

Tax litigation matters compel individuals or organizations to incur higher costs. The expenditures are rising and never-ending. Shelling out money at this level isn’t really worth it. To handle these matters, ideally, we need tax controversy professionals who have the right knowledge and expertise to bring the tax regime back to normal. These professionals not only deal with the rules and regulations, but they also help us make sense of those rules. Years of study and practice enable them to guide their clients to manage those procedures ideally. One such similar leader is G. Michelle Ferreira, Executive Vice President, Co-Chair, Global Tax Practice at Greenberg Traurig, LLP. She has decades of expertise as she handles the organization’s Silicon Valley office and the firm’s Global Tax Practice. She also maintains ease with the firm’s recruitment, business development, and strategic growth.  

Factual Works

Michelle shoulders the dual responsibility of Executive Vice President and Co-Chair of the Global Tax Practice. These roles require oversight of the global tax department and law firm strategy while ensuring client satisfaction. At an institutional level, she molds the strategic direction of the global tax practice and oversees  Greenberg Traurig’s (GT) California offices as regional operating shareholder. She is expected to forecast regulatory shifts, market trends, and client needs. She also ensures that the teams are performing efficiently. 

Law firm strategy isn’t something that just lives in a handbook; it’s a constant, living balance. She looks at the legal world through two lenses: a big picture view that stays ahead of a shifting global market, and a much more personal view that focuses on what a client actually needs in the moment.

She brings that same energy to her tax controversy work. Whether she’s defending a case in U.S. Tax Court, navigating a state-level dispute, or handling a sensitive audit, she knows that legal expertise is only half the battle. The other half is staying hyper-aware of the political climate and changing audit priorities that could affect her clients’ futures.

Ultimately, her philosophy is simple: great results come from combining broad strategy with an obsessive attention to detail. She wants her clients to feel like more than just a case number; she wants them to feel steady and supported from the first meeting to the final resolution.

Wisdom Counts

When Michelle looks at today’s enforcement trends, she’s drawing on a unique vantage point from her time at the IRS Office of Chief Counsel. Litigating for the Commissioner wasn’t just a job; it was a front-row seat to the agency’s inner workings. She saw firsthand how the IRS selects its battles, builds its cases, and navigates the long road from the first audit letter to a final resolution. It gave her a grounded understanding of how the agency manages to stay focused on its goals despite limited resources and constant political noise.

Through that experience, Michelle realized that enforcement isn’t just a mechanical application of rules. It’s a human process driven by policy shifts, public sentiment, and very real practical hurdles. Having sat on both sides of the table, she offers her clients a perspective that is as balanced as it is sharp. She can anticipate what will catch an agent’s eye and understands the internal logic that drives the IRS’s biggest decisions.

She shares, “I advise clients to anticipate the IRS’s audit targets and to navigate the process proactively, drawing on my knowledge of how enforcement decisions have been historically made and executed.”

She also knows that, in the heat of a dispute, the small things are actually the big things. Whether it’s the strength of a single document or a well-timed procedural defense, the details are what win cases. Michelle’s goal is to keep her clients one step ahead, predicting where the spotlight might land and walking them through the process with a steady hand and a clear sense of direction.

Aligning Strategies Well

Michelle stresses that enforcement priorities used to target emerging risk, such as cryptocurrency reporting, foreign asset disclosures, and large partnership structures, where compliance gaps were perceived. Michelle gets why taxpayers are feeling uneasy right now. Between a shrinking IRS workforce and the wild west of crypto and digital asset rules, the path forward isn’t always clear. When case law is thin, and the official signals keep shifting, it’s frustrating to try to play by the rules. Michelle doesn’t just cite the law; she recognizes human frustration. She sits down with her clients to cut through the noise, offering the kind of steady, practical advice that turns total uncertainty into a clear, confident plan of action.

Before the 2025 budget cuts and the resulting dip in the IRS workforce, everyone knew where the lines were drawn, especially with things like foreign assets, crypto, and large partnerships. Michelle knows that even though the headlines have changed, the underlying laws haven’t. The rules are still there, even if the police on the beat look a little different these days.

In this quieter but more unpredictable environment, Michelle understands that clients aren’t just looking for a lawyer, they’re looking for a compass. When the signals from the government feel fuzzy, it’s easy to feel a false sense of security. Michelle is there to remind her clients that while enforcement might feel less aggressive right now, the risks of a mistake-like heavy fines or even criminal exposure- are just as sharp as ever.

She takes the guesswork out of the equation. By offering clear, honest guidance, Michelle helps her clients find that middle ground: staying fully compliant and protected, without the stress of wondering what if the wind shifts again. 

She adds, “In this environment of lack of guidance or tax enforcement, sophisticated tax clients need my advice more than ever before.”

California’s Tax Policy

Michelle believes that California’s tax environment is uniquely challenging. Especially, the fiscal policy revolves around budgetary pressures and income inequality. The state holds a robust approach to income, residency, and sales tax disputes. It is now intersecting with proposed wealth-based initiatives, such as wealth taxes or exit taxes targeting California’s high-net-worth individuals. 

There prevails a significant tension between California’s fiscal objectives and taxpayer residency in California. As policymakers and unions propose new health and exit taxes, individuals and businesses are increasingly scrutinizing their residency status and are relocating to more tax-friendly states. The Billionaire Tax Act of 2026 has caused a lot of genuine local anxiety. Because it’s a ballot initiative to amend the state constitution, it feels different, more permanent, and less negotiable. Michelle has seen how even the talk of a 5% wealth tax makes California’s highest earners pause. It’s not just about the money; it’s about whether they still see a future here. She understands that if these individuals leave, they don’t just take their tax dollars; they take the businesses, jobs, and networks that have helped the state thrive.

Michelle sees a similar story playing out with aggressive sales tax enforcement. While the goal is to fund vital services like schools and healthcare, she’s watched how it can backfire. When the environment feels more like a penalty than a partnership, businesses eventually look for the exit. She’s already seen companies that once called California home move elsewhere, and with them goes the innovation that defines our state.

For Michelle, this isn’t just a series of technical tax hurdles; it’s a question of confidence. She believes California needs a balanced way to fund its future without making people feel like they’re being pushed out. 

She adds, “Navigating these complexities demands not only technical expertise, but also a thorough understanding of how government fiscal and policy priorities motivate resident businesses and individuals’ desire to remain in California.”

Striking Own Balance

Recently, Michelle has observed a distinct shift in the balance between taxpayer rights and governmental enforcement power. These are largely driven by decreased funding for the IRS, limited technological capabilities, and heightened political attention. The government’s enforcement tools have become limited, particularly in staffing, leadership, audit priorities, published guidance, and technology resources. At the same time, administrative law developments in prior years led to an evolving economic policy to aggressively pursue civil and criminal penalties and target tax shelter transactions. This robust focus on auditing the wealthy and enforcing tax shelters has been scaled back considerably in the last year. 

While taxpayer protections, such as procedural safeguards, appeal rights, and statutory defenses, remain firmly embedded, the pace and complexity of enforcement have decreased.   This has left practitioners and taxpayers to wonder what the agency’s audit priorities and enforcement direction are. In the prevailing environment, tax controversy practitioners like Michelle are left without information from the IRS about what tax positions to take and what audit risk is prevalent for clients. This has placed greater pressure on taxpayers to substantiate positions, comply with information requests, and proactively defend their interests, essentially in a vacuum. 

She shares, “I believe the pendulum has shifted towards less government enforcement power. However, this enforcement direction can shift again with new political powers who will oversee the IRS in the future.”     

Open to Learning

Michelle manages recruitment, strategic growth, and shareholder compensation within the global law firm. She highlights that the tax controversy practice, which is institutionally resilient, does not depend only on technical proficiency. Structurally, it cultivates multidisciplinary experience, invests in technological innovation, and fosters a culture of collaboration and adaptability. Recruitment is strategic, emphasizing diversity of experience, backgrounds, markets, and skills.

Institutionally resilient teams prioritize ongoing education, anticipate regulatory and market shifts, and proactively develop strategies for emerging legal demands such as digital assets, wealth taxes, and cross-border enforcement. The team deploys data analytics, automation, and AI into daily business that brings in precision and efficiency. Client engagement is holistic and anticipatory, not just reactive. Compensation and growth are tied to knowledge sharing, innovation, and client outcomes. 

She shares, “A successful law firm rewards individual and collaborative success of its lawyers while also constantly adjusting to ever-changing market demands, priorities in clients, and evolving legal practices.” 

The organization’s success is in its ability to adapt, innovate, and lead to help ensure the practices and firm are positioned to navigate complex legal matters today and to seize market opportunities in the future. 

Principled Tax Controversy Practice

Michelle shares that a lawyer who is interested in resolving tax disputes efficiently distinguishes themselves through strategic foresight, clear communication, and a deep understanding. This can be done through both substantive law and procedural nuance. Efficient resolution stems from anticipating the concerns of tax authorities, providing thorough and well-organized documentation, and addressing issues proactively before they become contentious. 

According to her, the most successful and powerful tax controversy lawyers are proficient at building credibility with state and federal taxing agencies. It fosters constructive dialogue and identifies common ground in audits and appeals. 

She shares, “They know when to negotiate and when to assert defenses (“know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em”), always aligning their approach with the client’s objectives and risk tolerance.”

In contrast, disputes can take a disastrous turn when a lawyer is more reactive than proactive, isn’t prepared enough, adopts an unnecessarily adversarial posture, or even worsens the situation. This happens when the professional is hyping up the fees to the expense of the client’s best interest in settling. Mistrust surfaces when there is a failure to understand agency priorities or to communicate transparently. 

 Shifting Enforcement Landscape

When considering whether the rise in Employee Retention Credit and conservation easement disputes points to cyclical compliance waves or a broader shift in IRS oversight, Michelle sees both at play. In her experience, the IRS has long followed a pattern focusing on areas where it senses potential abuse, then moving on as those issues evolve. But this time, the intensity of the enforcement felt different. To Michelle, it reflected a wider, more intentional shift in how the IRS was approaching oversight, even if that momentum has softened more recently.

She remembers how, during that period, the IRS leaned into new tools like advanced data analytics, backed by increased funding, to spot aggressive tax positions more quickly. It wasn’t just about targeting a few problem areas; it felt like part of a bigger effort to strengthen compliance across the board. Then, in early 2025, things changed. Funding cuts and a smaller workforce naturally slowed that pace, and enforcement priorities became less visible.

This quieter phase doesn’t mean the focus has disappeared; it’s more of a pause than a full stop. She believes the IRS will eventually rebuild and turn its attention back to high-risk and emerging areas. For now, though, she understands why things feel less active, given the agency’s current limitations, even if the underlying concerns are still very much there.

Progressive Leadership

Michelle has been working in a leadership position for a long time now and has gained some insights on the same. The sphere has changed dramatically in context to generational shifts, technology, and changing client expectations. In her experience of leading the San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices, she has witnessed how today’s diverse workforce values flexibility, transparency, and inclusion. 

She advises that leaders need to foster collaborative environments and prioritize mentorship to support talent across generations. She also stresses that technology has disrupted the way organizations provide services to clients. Also, embracing digital tools and data analytics is now essential for efficiency and responsiveness. It results in clients expecting customized advice and real-time communication. 

She adds, “I feel that success hinges on embracing change and empowering teams to deliver exceptional, forward-thinking service.” 

Truth Does It

Michelle highlights the complexity in matters alleging fraud, unreported income, or criminal exposure. Says that they’re sensitive and a daunting task to tackle. Both clients and lawyers like her must look at these cases with transparency, integrity, and meticulous substantiation. Doing so brings a balance with the necessity to maintain credibility with the taxing authorities and the client. Clients involved in criminal disputes have their livelihood at risk. Advocacy in a criminal or fraud case oftentimes requires the assertion of certain constitutional and legal protections for the client, which may inflame the taxing agency investigating the client, which can be particularly stressful and difficult. 

Her philosophy is to pursue the strongest defense while preserving integrity, ensuring clients are positioned for both legal success and continued credibility in the face of a serious tax dispute or allegation. 

She says, “Throughout my career, I have always strived to have reputational credibility with state and federal taxing agencies. While my obligation lies with the clients’ outcomes in their case, experienced and ethical tax controversy lawyers can zealously advocate and be truthful in a client’s defense while at the same time maintaining professional integrity.” 

She underlines the fact that lawyers in all practices adhere to this very important tenet in the legal profession. 

More Than Just a Specialist

When Michelle thinks about what makes a firm stand out today, she doesn’t see it as a fixed marketing strategy. She knows that in a world where legal problems are becoming more tangled, clients aren’t looking for a box to fit into; they’re looking for someone who can connect the dots. While being a specialist still matters, Michelle believes the real value lies in how we work together. To her, true differentiation is about breaking down the walls between practices and locations so that a client’s experience feels seamless, intuitive, and genuinely helpful.

She also knows that a firm’s brand is really just how they show up every single day. Being quick to respond, staying adaptable, and embracing new technology isn’t just a bonus anymore; it’s the baseline. She pushes for a culture where people never stop learning, but she never loses sight of the old-school fundamentals. At the end of the day, a solid reputation is built on the quiet, consistent work of earning trust and simply being there when it counts.

She adds, “Differentiation is about building enduring relationships based on trust, insight, and a relentless focus on helping our clients succeed, no matter how specialized or complex their needs may be. That’s the value proposition we strive to deliver every day.”

Standing out isn’t about being the loudest in the room. It’s about building the kind of relationship where you understand what a client needs before they even have to ask. 

 Clearing the Air Around Myths

Michelle hints at the complexity and nuance inherent in the process, which is often misinterpreted in the tax controversy sector. People are blinded by assumptions about numbers or technical interpretations, when in reality it’s about strategy and judgment. It also involves long-term experience, negotiation tactics, and a deep understanding of the regulatory landscape. Leaders, due to a lack of regulatory knowledge, rely on accountants who have filed the return at issue while not giving enough heed to proactive engagement and advanced documentation. Accounting teams do not always account for the ever-present risk of litigation during an audit. In navigating the process with the best of intentions, they may inadvertently make representations that materially steer the outcome away from resolution and toward dispute.

A second mixed-up view she points out was viewing tax controversy as a discrete, isolated event rather than a continuum that can impact broader business objectives. It includes transactions, restructuring, or even long-term growth. Being decisive during such unstable situations can lead to effects on operations, partnerships, company sales, growth, and future compliance. Leaders get carried away at times as they want to get out of the situation, which leads them to not adopt a holistic approach and only focus on the immediate dispute. They should also take into consideration aspects like the strategic implications, missing opportunities to leverage settlement options, preserve advantageous positions, or mitigate risk going forward.

Michelle shares, “From my experience, the most effective approach is holistic and forward-looking: incorporating tax controversy into broader business strategy, engaging expert advisors early, anticipating litigation always, and fostering a culture of compliance.”

She advises that coming to terms with misunderstandings will improve the efficiency in individual disputes and toughen the organization’s overall risk management and decision-making. 

Tax Evolved

She sees a decade where the cat-and-mouse game of tax enforcement goes high-tech. With AI now at the helm, tax authorities aren’t just hunting for errors; they’re using lightning-fast analytics to flag patterns and risks before a human auditor even opens a file. This shift toward data-led enforcement means investigations will move faster and hit harder, effectively ending the era of slow, predictable audits and forcing taxpayers to be as digitally fluent as the agencies tracking them.

At the same time, the old walls of financial privacy are crumbling under global transparency rules like the OECD’s reporting standards. Michelle notes that for ultra-high-net-worth individuals and complex entities, there is simply nowhere left to hide. We are entering a glasshouse era where a single red flag in one country can trigger a coordinated, multi-jurisdictional crackdown. As governments get hungrier for revenue, the scrutiny on the world’s wealthiest taxpayers will only intensify, turning local disputes into global headaches almost overnight.

She asserts, “Ultimately, the practice will require agility, collaboration, and a deep understanding of both emerging technologies and global and state policy trends to effectively protect taxpayer interests in a rapidly changing landscape.”

To survive this, Michelle believes practitioners have to stop being purely reactive and start thinking like technologists. The future isn’t just about knowing the law; it’s about having the financial insight and digital agility to build ironclad compliance frameworks long before an inquiry arrives. 

How Rachel Linnemann is turning generative AI and cloud into Europe’s most powerful and ambitious AWS platform — one acquisition, one partnership, and one bold vision at a time.

There is a phrase Rachel Linnemann keeps returning to — a personal tagline that doubles as a life philosophy: “Always dream of being part of something bigger.” For a CEO who spent 21 years at Microsoft spanning 55 countries, then led global hyperscaler partnerships at T-Systems before taking the helm at tecRacer, it is not a hollow mantra. It is the throughline of a career defined by the conviction that technology, when done right, changes the competitive architecture of entire economies.

Today, as CEO of tecRacer, she is executing on that conviction at scale. Her mission: to build Europe’s foremost AWS pure-play platform — combining generative AI, cloud engineering, digital sovereignty, and e-commerce performance into a single, scalable, end-to-end partner for enterprises across Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Portugal, and beyond.

Rachel cares deeply about the role Europe can play in shaping its own digital future. She is a vocal advocate for European digital sovereignty, a frequent voice on AI leadership, and a champion for women in technology leadership. But at the core of her thinking is a quiet, firm belief: Europe does not have to play catch-up to stay competitive. The real opportunity lies in building world-class expertise at home — and she is building it.

We sat down with Rachel for this exclusive profile to explore how she thinks about cloud strategy, leadership, European sovereignty, and the road ahead.

“Each acquisition adds a specialized competency to our portfolio — this is our path to becoming the European AWS Thought Leader.”

TECHNOLOGY & VALUE CREATION

Over your career you have witnessed several waves of technological transformation. Which structural shifts have most fundamentally changed how enterprises think about value creation through technology?

The most profound shift I have witnessed is the move from technology as infrastructure to technology as strategy. When I started my career, IT was the department that kept the lights on. Today, cloud architecture is a boardroom conversation because it determines how fast you can innovate, how quickly you can enter a new market, and whether you can comply with a regulation without a two-year migration programme.

Three shifts stand out. First, the democratisation of computing power through public cloud: companies that would once have spent years and tens of millions building a data centre can now access elastic, enterprise-grade infrastructure on demand. Second, the emergence of data as a genuine competitive asset — not just a by-product of operations, but something to be designed for and monetised. And third, generative AI — which I believe is the most structurally disruptive of the three. It is not merely restructuring the cost curve of knowledge work; it is rewriting the rules of competitive advantage in real time. Organisations that treat genAI as a productivity tool are already behind. The ones that treat it as a strategic architecture decision — determining how their business model generates value — are the ones we are building for at tecRacer.

What unites these shifts is speed. Enterprises that used to plan technology in three-to-five-year cycles now need to make bets in quarters. That changes everything about how you organise, partner, and lead.

STRATEGIC ECOSYSTEMS

What distinguishes a transactional partnership from a truly strategic ecosystem relationship that drives long-term innovation and market differentiation?

A transactional partnership is built on a contract. A strategic ecosystem relationship is built on a shared vision of what the market could become.

I have had the rare vantage point of working deeply inside three of the world’s largest technology ecosystems. At Microsoft for 21 years, I saw how platform dominance is built from the inside — through developer ecosystems, enterprise agreements, and a relentless focus on productivity software becoming infrastructure. At T-Systems, as Vice President of Global Hyperscaler, I held strategic relationships with all three major clouds simultaneously: Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS. That position gave me something most people never get — a truly comparative view of how each hyperscaler thinks, invests, and partners.

What I found was this: each cloud has genuine areas of excellence. But when I looked at where the most ambitious, technically deep, and commercially transformative work was happening for European enterprises — in cloud-native architecture, in generative AI, in sovereign cloud, in contact centre intelligence — AWS was consistently leading the field. Not in every category, but in the categories that matter most to the clients I care about.

That comparative experience is precisely why my decision to go all-in on AWS at tecRacer was not a default or an accident of circumstance. It was a deliberate, informed bet. When you have seen all three platforms from the inside, you stop being agnostic out of habit and start making choices on conviction. AWS’s depth of services, its engineering culture of customer obsession, its partner co-investment model, and its European sovereign cloud commitment gave me the confidence to place a focused wager rather than spread across all three.

The partners who grow with hyperscalers are the ones who co-invest in building capability, not just reselling it. They contribute to roadmaps. They bring customer problems to engineering teams early enough to shape solutions. They show up not just as a sales channel but as a force multiplier. Breadth of hyperscaler coverage can actually work against this — you cannot be a deep co-innovator on three platforms simultaneously. Specialisation is the price of genuine partnership.

At tecRacer, our relationship with AWS is built on exactly this principle. We are not certified resellers who happen to carry the AWS badge. We are co-innovators in sovereign cloud architecture, generative AI deployment for regulated industries, and contact centre transformation through Amazon Connect. That depth of collaboration — built on the conscious choice to go deep rather than wide — is what creates differentiation that no price comparison can dissolve.

“The partners who grow with hyperscalers are the ones who co-invest in building capability, not just reselling it.”

MULTI-HYPERSCALER STRATEGY

Beyond flexibility, what deeper strategic advantages can a multi-hyperscaler approach unlock for enterprises at scale?

Flexibility is the obvious answer, but the deeper advantage is negotiating leverage and architecture independence. When you are genuinely capable across multiple hyperscalers, you make better technology decisions — because you are choosing the right tool for the right job rather than rationalising a sunk investment.

My time leading hyperscaler partnerships at T-Systems, where I was responsible for relationships with AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure simultaneously, taught me that each platform has genuine areas of superiority. The organisations that extract the most value are those that build the internal capability to evaluate these differences honestly and architect accordingly.

There is also a talent dimension: multi-hyperscaler teams build broader, deeper engineers. And there is a resilience dimension: concentration risk in a single provider is a real operational and commercial risk that sophisticated boards are increasingly scrutinising.

But here is the critical nuance: while enterprises may legitimately operate across multiple clouds, the partners they rely on must go deep, not wide. You cannot be a genuine co-innovation partner on three platforms simultaneously. The organisations I have seen extract the most value from multi-cloud are those that choose specialised partners for each platform — partners with the engineering density and ecosystem intimacy that only comes from full commitment. That conviction is at the core of tecRacer’s 100% AWS focus.

DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY & INFRASTRUCTURE

Public cloud, sovereign cloud, and AI-driven platforms are reshaping digital infrastructure. How do you see these forces interacting to redefine how organisations architect their future technology environments?

Sovereignty is no longer a compliance checkbox — it is a strategic design principle. In Europe especially, where GDPR, the EU AI Act, and data localisation requirements create a complex regulatory landscape, organisations cannot afford to treat sovereignty as an afterthought bolted onto an existing cloud architecture.

What I see emerging is a three-layer model: a global public cloud layer for scale and speed, a sovereign cloud layer for regulated workloads and sensitive data, and an AI platform layer that must operate within the constraints of both. These layers need to be designed to interact coherently, not exist as three separate silos managed by three separate teams.

At tecRacer, digital sovereignty is one of our core pillars. With the AWS European Sovereign Cloud now generally available — fully designed, built, and operated within the EU, physically and logically separated from existing AWS regions — we are among the first partners helping enterprises architect for full EU-resident data processing. We work with these capabilities to help clients, particularly in public sector and regulated industries, capture the full power of cloud innovation without making sovereignty compromises. This is genuinely hard to do well, and it is a significant source of differentiation for us in the DACH market.

“Sovereignty is no longer a compliance checkbox — it is a strategic design principle.”

CLOUD-LED TRANSFORMATION & BUSINESS VALUE

How do you ensure that cloud-led transformation initiatives translate into measurable business value rather than remaining purely technology-driven agendas?

The single most important discipline is starting with the business outcome, not the technology. It sounds obvious, but the graveyard of failed cloud transformations is littered with architecturally elegant projects that could not answer the question: what business metric does this move?

At tecRacer, we have structured our entire delivery methodology around this. Every engagement begins with a value mapping exercise — identifying the specific operational, commercial, or customer experience outcomes the client is trying to achieve, and building the architecture to serve those outcomes. We then instrument those outcomes from day one so that value is visible, measurable, and attributable.

The other discipline is ruthless prioritisation of adoption. Technology only creates value when it is used. Many organisations invest in migration but underinvest in change management, training, and the cultural shifts that allow people to actually work differently. Our Amazon Connect practice, for example, generates its biggest gains not from the technology itself but from the operating model redesign that it enables.

ORGANISATIONAL BARRIERS TO CLOUD ADOPTION

What are the deeper organisational or cultural barriers that prevent companies from realising the full potential of cloud adoption?

The deepest barrier is almost always identity, not capability. Legacy technology organisations — and many have been extraordinarily successful for decades — have built their self-image, their career ladders, and their internal power structures around specific ways of doing things. Cloud transformation threatens all of that, and the resistance is rarely explicit. It manifests as process delays, procurement complexity, and a thousand small decisions that slow velocity without anyone formally objecting.

The second barrier is leadership confidence. Cloud transformation requires business leaders — not just IT leaders — to make decisions about architecture, vendor relationships, and operating models they have historically delegated entirely to technical specialists. When business leaders do not feel confident enough to engage, transformations either stall or drift into purely technical territory, disconnected from commercial reality.

The third is a talent paradox: the organisations that most need transformation are often the ones least able to attract the cloud-native talent to drive it. This is a structural market challenge, and it is one reason partners like tecRacer play such a critical role. We bring the talent density that most enterprise organisations simply cannot build on their own balance sheet. This is also why tecRacer uniquely combines its status as AWS Premier Tier Services Partner with our designation as Advanced Tier Training Partner — the only partner in the DACH region to hold both. We don’t just build the architecture; we equip the people who operate it.

LEADERSHIP & STAKEHOLDER ALIGNMENT

What leadership approaches are most effective in aligning complex stakeholder networks — hyperscalers, clients, and internal teams — toward shared outcomes?

Radical clarity about what winning looks like for each party. In a complex ecosystem, misalignment almost always traces back to different definitions of success that nobody made explicit. I invest significant time at the start of any significant relationship — internal or external — in building a shared scorecard: what does success look like in 90 days, in one year, in three years, and how will we know?

The second principle is presence. You cannot lead a distributed stakeholder network through email and dashboards alone. The relationships that create real alignment are built in rooms — workshops, strategy sessions, shared problem-solving. My background spanning 55 countries taught me that trust is built in person and maintained digitally, not the other way around.

The third is consistency of character under pressure. In any partnership, there will be moments where short-term commercial interests diverge from long-term relationship value. How you navigate those moments defines the quality and durability of the alliance. I have walked away from revenue when the terms would have compromised the integrity of a relationship I valued more.

CO-INNOVATION WITH HYPERSCALERS

How can organisations move beyond standard service delivery to build truly collaborative innovation frameworks with their cloud partners?

Co-innovation requires skin in the game from both sides. The hyperscaler needs to see that you are investing in building genuine capability — not just packaging their services — and the partner needs to see that the hyperscaler is prepared to share roadmap visibility and go-to-market resource in return.

The mechanism that works best in my experience is joint solution development anchored to specific customer problems. Rather than abstract innovation programmes, identify two or three clients with a well-defined, unsolved problem that sits at the intersection of your capabilities and the hyperscaler’s platform roadmap. Build a solution together, with joint engineering resources and shared IP. Then productise it. This creates something real: a referenceable solution, a co-developed architecture pattern, and a go-to-market story that neither party could have built alone.

tecRacer’s “eCommerce Performance on AWS” offering — developed in part through our acquisition of KaWa commerce — is a direct example of this principle applied to our own growth strategy.

This approach reflects a deliberate strategic shift at tecRacer — from purely project-based consulting toward scalable, productised solutions that combine our deep AWS expertise with repeatable architecture patterns. Offerings like eCommerce Performance on AWS, our Amazon Connect practice, and our Bedrock-based generative AI solutions are designed to be deployed faster, scaled more efficiently, and deliver measurable value from day one.

“Co-innovation requires skin in the game from both sides.”

LEADERSHIP IN AN AI-DRIVEN ERA

How do you see the role of human leadership evolving as technology becomes increasingly autonomous and data-driven?

Leadership becomes more important, not less. As AI handles more of the analytical and operational work, the distinctly human contributions — judgment under uncertainty, ethical navigation, the ability to inspire and unite people around a vision, the courage to make decisions that data cannot fully resolve — become the scarce and differentiating resource.

What changes is the nature of the work. Leaders who spend most of their time processing information and managing execution will find those activities automated first. The leaders who thrive in an AI-abundant environment are those who excel at setting direction, building culture, and making the calls that require human wisdom and accountability.

I am deeply committed to being a practitioner, not just a commentator, on this transformation. I hold AWS certifications and actively work with Amazon Bedrock and agentic AI architectures — both in my own workflow and in shaping our client delivery methodology. I cannot credibly lead a company whose mission is cloud and AI transformation if I am not personally engaged with the technology. It also keeps me honest about the gap between the marketing narrative and the operational reality of deploying AI at scale.

GEOPOLITICS & CLOUD STRATEGY

How do geopolitical, regulatory, and data sovereignty considerations influence global cloud strategy design and execution today?

Profoundly and increasingly. When I was leading hyperscaler strategy at T-Systems, geopolitics was a consideration at the margins — something that occasionally affected procurement decisions in specific markets. Today it is a central design variable for any enterprise with operations across multiple jurisdictions.

The GDPR established a template that other regions are following. The EU AI Act adds another layer of compliance architecture for AI deployments. Data localisation requirements in various markets mean that what looks like a unified global cloud architecture on paper can be operationally fragmented in practice. And the broader trajectory of digital sovereignty — Europe asserting the right to process its data under European law, on European infrastructure — is reshaping the competitive landscape for cloud providers and their partners alike.

For tecRacer, this is a tailwind. Our focus on European markets, our expertise in AWS sovereign cloud capabilities, and our understanding of DACH regulatory requirements position us well to serve enterprises that are navigating exactly this complexity. Digital sovereignty is not a constraint we work around — it is a value proposition we lead with.

THE DECADE AHEAD

Which emerging shifts will most profoundly reshape the cloud services landscape over the next decade?

Three shifts will define the next decade. First, the full industrialisation of AI — the transition from AI as an experimental capability to AI as a standard component of every enterprise architecture. This will compress differentiation timelines dramatically: the advantage from an AI implementation will be shorter-lived, which means the organisations that win will be those with the operational discipline to continuously adopt and integrate new capabilities.

Second, the consolidation of cloud from infrastructure utility to platform ecosystem. The hyperscalers are becoming the operating systems of the enterprise — providing not just compute and storage but the entire stack from data architecture to AI models to business applications. Partners that can operate at this full-stack level, across the entire customer lifecycle, will capture disproportionate value.

Third — and I believe this is underappreciated — the rise of sovereign and federated cloud as a mainstream architecture model. As geopolitical fragmentation continues, the dream of a single, borderless cloud will give way to a more complex, federated reality. The organisations and partners who have built expertise in navigating that complexity will be extraordinarily well positioned.

A CLOSER LOOK

Beyond the boardroom — a glimpse into the person behind the portfolio.

Currently reading: A rotating stack of books — right now a mix of AI ethics, European economic history, and a novel that has nothing to do with technology.

One word for your personality: Relentless.

Most important lesson learned: Speed matters, but direction matters more. Moving fast in the wrong direction just gets you lost faster.

Best professional advice received: “Build your next role by being indispensable in your current one — but never so indispensable that they can’t afford to promote you.”

Favourite quote: “Always dream of being part of something bigger.” — My own personal north star, and the lens through which I evaluate every major decision.

ABOUT RACHEL LINNEMANN

Rachel Linnemann is the CEO of tecRacer, a German AWS pure-play consultancy on a mission to become Europe’s leading AWS Thought Leader. An AWS Certified Solutions Architect and Generative AI practitioner, Rachel is one of Europe’s most credible voices at the intersection of cloud strategy and enterprise AI. She brings over two decades of technology leadership to the role — including 21 years at Microsoft spanning 55 countries, and four years as Vice President, Global Hyperscaler at T-Systems, where she led strategic partnerships with AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure.

Backed by IT Capital Partners, tecRacer is pursuing a European buy-and-build strategy to become the continent’s leading AWS platform. Rachel is expanding the company’s capabilities in cloud engineering, data and AI, security, Amazon Connect, and e-commerce performance — increasingly through scalable, productised solution offerings that complement its consulting and training expertise. She leads a growing team of approximately 150 professionals across Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Portugal.

Rachel is a vocal advocate for European digital sovereignty, a frequent voice on AI leadership, and a champion for women in technology leadership. She believes that Europe’s best response to the global technology race is to build world-class expertise at home — and she is building it.

tecRacer GmbH · Hannover, Germany · www.tecracer.com

Creativity has taken a different shape altogether. It is never confined by boundaries. It gets reshaped and reimagined by individuals who see potential unexpectedly. An excellent creative similar to this description is Miriam Schnyder, Founder and CEO at Art X on Glass AG. She taps the growing demand, blending artistic vision with everyday materials to create visually appealing art pieces that feel personal and impactful. These consist of a niche carved by herself by enhancing glass into a medium of expressive and customized art. Via her leadership, the organization focuses on delivering vibrant, appealing, and hand-crafted creations that reflect emotion, originality, and storytelling. 

Purposeful Expression

When we asked Miriam why she started Art X on Glass, it’s clear this isn’t just a business. It is a labor of love. It began as a tribute to mothers raising kids with Autism, ADHD, CDKL5, and other rare conditions that often fly under the radar. She talks about these families with genuine warmth, honoring the quiet strength it takes to navigate a world that doesn’t always get the daily hurdles their children face.

But for her, the art is just a beginning. She’s driven by a bigger dream: starting a foundation that provides a true safe harbor, a place where kids with special needs can hang out after school or during holidays and just be themselves, no strings attached.

There’s a beautiful metaphor in the work she does, too. In reverse glass painting, you have to work backward, layering details on one side to create the final image on the other. Miriam sees life the same way; so many of our deepest struggles are hidden from view, yet they are very real and deserve to be seen with compassion.

Whether she’s creating a gallery piece or something functional for the home, her goal is the same: to bring a bit of soul into a space and help people connect with their world in a deeper, more thoughtful way.

Emotion Behind the Craft

The very soul of the art makes Miriam inclined towards the art form. It finds solace in his form, and the old school charm entices her that most modern techniques have lost. It’s an ancient craft tracing its roots back to the Byzantine Empire, but Miriam isn’t interested in just repeating history; she’s reimagining it.

The process is a creative tightrope walk. You have to paint the finish first, the tiny details, the highlights, the final touches, and then layer the background over them. You’re working in a mirror image, trusting your instincts because you can’t see the final result until you flip the glass over. For Miriam, that complexity isn’t a hurdle; it’s the whole point.

She adds, “Like reverse glass painting, life asks us to begin with what’s unseen, trusting that meaning will reveal itself in time.”

At Art X on Glass, the studio is a hive of tradition and rebellion. Miriam and her team of seven artists push the medium into the 21st century, mixing gritty acrylics and classic oils with the shimmering elegance of 24-karat gold leaf.

While many artists shy away from such an unpredictable and risky medium, Miriam embraces it. She isn’t chasing a status symbol; she’s chasing a feeling. She sees a profound connection between the artist’s hand 

and the lives of mothers raising children with rare diseases. Both require a specific kind of bravery:

• The Resilience to work through layers of uncertainty.
• The Strength to build something beautiful from the wrong side.
• The Courage to wake up and begin again, even when the path isn’t clear.

Every brushstroke is an act of empathy as she sees it. As both an artist and a mother, she pours that dual identity into every pane of glass, creating pieces that feel as enduring as they are emotional.

Unfiltered Human Soul

About individuality, Miriam doesn’t blame the system for our cookie-cutter world. She looks at the tug-of-war inside us: that deep ache to be ourselves clashing with the quiet fear of being judged. To her, this is why so many homes feel scripted rather than lived-in.

Her perspective was forged in the high-stakes world of big pharma in Basel. There, she saw how structure moves mountains, but she also learned a vital lesson: efficiency doesn’t always equal meaning. She realized that the most valuable discoveries usually happen in the unoptimized moments along the way.

At Art X on Glass, Miriam protects those human moments. She gives her artists the floor, guiding them to let their own voices bleed into the glass. For her, a home shouldn’t be a showroom; it should be a deep, honest breath, a space that isn’t afraid to be different because the person inside it finally is.

Courage Through Glass

Individuality matters to her more than anything else. In a world obsessed with perfect design, she doesn’t point to AI or algorithms. She looks at the tug-of-war inside us: that deep ache to be seen clashing with the quiet fear of being judged. To her, this inner conflict is exactly why so many of our living spaces feel scripted rather than lived-in.

She knows the corporate side, too. Her years at a major pharmaceutical firm in Basel taught her that structure and logic can move mountains, but she walked away with a vital realization: optimized doesn’t always mean successful. Sometimes, the real value isn’t the result we planned for, but the messy, human discoveries we stumble upon along the way.

At Art X on Glass, she protects those unoptimized moments. She gives her artists the floor, guiding them to let their own voices bleed into the glass. For her, a home shouldn’t be a showroom; it should be a deep, honest breath, a space that isn’t afraid to be different because the person inside it finally is.

She adds, “The greatest competition is the fear that stops us from showing who we truly are.”

An Earful to the Client

Art X on Glass comprises the highest level of customization in terms of client needs, both in living and commercial environments. The creative process involved in the whole process is the vision of the customer. Be it his/her living space or working space, the customer vision is the team’s highest fallback. When the client discusses his/her imagination, the artist brainstorms it with Miriam. This discussion involves the colors that will be used and the way they will be done. Right from deciding which part will be handled primarily and which will be kept for the end, each detail is discussed. 

She shares, “Many paintings we see first, when the painting is already done, because the painting will be done on one side of glass, but to look at it, we will see it from another side of glass.”

An Empathetic Approach

Miriam’s previous roles involved global corporations, being in leadership roles with multiple entrepreneurial ventures. Her professional journey began in a pharma company. Whatever she learned there, she wanted to implement those work structures in her own venture. Realizing this cannot work, as she came from a giant company where a hundred thousand employees were working. 

Now she handles a 7-employee team where she needs to be patient and more sensitive to the change and give enough time to the employees too. She realized she needs to practice and implement social listening and start to read between the lines. She understands the fact that the employees should feel motivated to go to work the next day and not give excuses due to unempathetic management. 

Trust Beyond Glass

Miriam believes that great partnerships are built on soul, not in spreadsheets. She points to SCHNYDER Glasworld GmbH in Switzerland as a perfect example of a specialist manufacturer that handles the heavy lifting of 6mm tempered glass for her functional art, from sleek shower walls to kitchen backsplashes and room dividers.

She adds, “Real collaboration doesn’t happen overnight—it grows when people begin to truly understand each other’s vision.”

She’s firm in her belief that these bonds can’t be fast-tracked. They need breathing room to grow, letting trust settle in naturally on both sides. It’s vital that her partners truly get how her work shifts the energy of a room, how it moves beyond simple decor to change how a space feels. Once that shared vision clicks, architects and designers can instinctively weave these pieces into their projects, creating environments that feel as purposeful as they are beautiful.

Living Depth

Miriam’s obsession with glass is because she likes how it feels on glass; it isn’t just seen. Most people expect art to have a physical texture they can touch, but reverse glass painting replaces that with a subtle, almost emotional depth.

Glass has this rare, quiet magic that creates an illusion of layers where there are none. As you move around a piece, it reveals a soft 3D effect; the colors seem to breathe and shift, creating a sense of movement within the stillness.

According to Miriam, this completely transforms a room. Whether it’s a shower wall or a room divider, the artwork doesn’t just sit there, it surrounds you. It invites you to step inside the atmosphere of the piece rather than just standing back and observing it.

She says, “Innovation is very important for us. Every artist has his / her own style, which defines the path of the artist.”

Crucial Learnings

Entrepreneurship in the creative sector demands both artistic intuition and strategic discipline. The most crucial lesson she has learnt is not to suppress oneself. If things do not work out as planned, do not go into self-doubt, is what she suggests. 

The Personal Touch

Luxury has outgrown its price tag for Miriam. It’s no longer about what’s expensive; it’s about what’s personal, the feeling of owning something that simply can’t be replicated. This is the pulse of Art X on Glass, where every handmade piece carries its own unique DNA.

She’s especially proud of the Glamour Collection, where she blends gritty acrylics with the timeless glow of 24-karat gold leaf. These aren’t just decorations; they add a soul to everyday spaces from shower walls to kitchen surfaces that mass-produced items just can’t touch.

As our living spaces shrink, our expectations for them skyrocket. Architects are no longer looking for add-ons; they want defining features. According to her, bespoke art isn’t just a luxury; it’s the voice of the room.

She adds, “Real luxury is something that feels like it was made only for you, and could never exist the same way twice.”

Glass Reflects Human Soul

Art influences how people influence people’s experiences and connect with people emotionally. Glass is cold, according to people. Miriam disagrees with it. Glass lives with us. It mirrors our face, and many people aren’t ready to face themselves in the mirror. As the eyes are the door to our soul. Many people prefer a white shower wall as they do not want to think about their needs and desires. The products at Art X on Glass AG are different. Their products tell stories about people who bought the product and about the artist who made it. 

Not to forget the good deed the organization does. It honors every mother of a child with a rare disease. 

Future Vision

Her long-term vision for Art X on Glass is transparent. She aims for each family to have a piece of their glass artwork in their homes. She wants it so that the products are a declaration of love to humanity. She says that the organization’s products are made by humans for humans. 

She adds, “Architectural design is a question of fashion, but of the traditions too. Our products connect love to the art with the functionality of the modern bespoke design.”

Women leaders bring invaluable perspectives that enrich problem-solving and decision-making processes. Their presence fosters structured, effective daily operations while serving as a source of inspiration, particularly in sectors such as education. A notable example is Kathy O’Sullivan, Director of the Language Center at the Asian Institute of Technology, whose leadership exemplifies this transformative influence. 

Hailing from Ireland, a small island, she always knew she wanted to travel and experience different places. She adores her professional life, and her career has taken her from teaching international students in the UK to roles in Japan, Egypt, Oman, the UAE, China, Europe, and now Thailand, including leadership positions along the way. Given that Critical Thinking was her favourite subject when she was a full-time teacher, she particularly enjoys supporting that process in others, helping students and colleagues develop their own independent thinking and problem-solving skills.

From student recruitment and admissions to academic leadership, Kathy’s career reflects a remarkable breadth of experience. Rather than seeing versatility as a limitation, she views it as an advantage in truly understanding the education ecosystem. In today’s evolving realm, shaped significantly by AI, she believes adaptability is not only valuable but essential. Her diverse roles across recruitment, admissions, and leadership have given her a holistic perspective, allowing her to see how every function connects. With this understanding, she finds joy in motivating young people to dream ambitiously and embrace the wide range of opportunities available to them.

True Education

Education is often described as the foundation of opportunity, but Kathy views it more broadly as a process of learning, questioning, and growing, regardless of where it comes from. She has met some of the most “educated” individuals who never progressed beyond elementary school, yet their curiosity, resilience, and critical thinking transformed both their lives and their communities. She also believes educational institutions should be more supportive of mature students, who are frequently overlooked despite their determination and perseverance. For her, true education goes beyond grades, nurturing curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking that empower individuals and strengthen communities. 

Inspiring Lifelong Learning

Kathy’s experiences at Canadian University Dubai and Niagara College KSA played a pivotal role in shaping her leadership style in education, making it both adaptive and people-centered. Working across such diverse academic environments highlighted for her the value of cultural awareness, flexibility, and inclusive decision-making. Equally, she views leadership as more than setting direction; it is also about mentoring and empowering colleagues while fostering an environment where both staff and students are able to grow. 

For her, being regarded as a role model is both humbling and motivating. Inspiring learners beyond the classroom, to her, means embodying values such as integrity, curiosity, and resilience in everyday life. It also involves showing students that learning is not restricted to exams or grades, but rather a way of seeing and engaging with the world. She believes educators hold the privilege of shaping lives by nurturing confidence, fostering critical thinking, and guiding students to take responsibility for their actions as they discover their voices and contribute meaningfully to their communities.

At the same time, she observes concerning trends in education today: freedom of speech being eroded on campuses globally, robust debate becoming increasingly rare, and students sometimes reluctant to hear perspectives that challenge their own. She emphasizes that while respect is vital, genuine learning comes from engaging in dialogue, even uncomfortable dialogue that broadens thinking and builds empathy.

Kathy also holds deep admiration for mature students, who embody lifelong learning in its truest form. Balancing family, work, and study, their determination makes them role models not only for their peers but also for educators themselves.

Guided Growth

As Director of the Language Center, Kathy balances administrative responsibilities with strong connections to students by being intentional about her time and priorities. While she oversees strategic planning and operations, she makes it a point to remain visible and accessible to students, whether through workshops, mentoring, or informal conversations. Often, the true impact of such connections is not seen until years later, yet those moments frequently prove to be the most meaningful. They not only ground her decisions in students’ real needs but also remind her of the deeper purpose of her work: supporting academic and personal growth.

Learning Happiness

During her tenure as Dean for first-year students at the Canadian University of Dubai, Kathy focused on supporting young learners as they adjusted to university life and began unlocking their potential. Students often shared that what mattered most to them was feeling heard and understood. She worked to create that environment, listening to their perspectives while also encouraging them to take responsibility and be accountable for their learning. She aimed to help students grow both academically and personally. Kathy holds high expectations of students and finds that they generally respond positively.

She was even nicknamed the Dean of Happiness, as she believes that people are most effective when they enjoy what they do. Happiness, in her view, is a choice, and when students see their teachers and leaders embracing positivity, it encourages them to approach challenges with optimism and resilience.

At the same time, she recognizes that many young people face significant pressure from parents to pursue certain universities or programs. While this comes from a place of love and a desire for the best, it can sometimes have a negative effect. She believes that when students are genuinely passionate about what they learn, they are most likely to flourish.

Lasting Impact

Kathy is often pleasantly surprised and delighted by how many former students stay in touch, and she takes immense pride in their personal and professional milestones. What she hopes they carry forward is not just knowledge, but confidence, curiosity, and a sense of responsibility, the ability to think critically and take ownership of their decisions. If she has inspired them to pursue their passions and make a positive impact, she feels she has fulfilled her role as an educator. Her students know she is always there for them, no matter their stage in career or life.

Through her work, she aims to instill integrity, curiosity, resilience, and accountability in both students and colleagues. She encourages them to think critically, take responsibility, and embrace a growth mindset. These values, she hopes, guide them not only academically but also in life, helping them make a meaningful impact. 

Meaningful Learning

For Kathy, ensuring curricula and teaching approaches remain innovative is not simply about keeping pace with global trends, but about returning to the essence of education: cultivating curiosity, critical inquiry, and a love of learning. She believes innovation holds value only when it serves this deeper purpose. She encourages faculty to experiment with new approaches, technologies, and methods, but always in ways that foster genuine engagement and independent thinking.

At the same time, she stresses the importance of asking hard questions. Education today is often measured in terms of Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), rankings or linked to the Sustainable Development Goals, yet she believes such frameworks should not be accepted blindly. While they can offer value, they must never overshadow the fundamental aim of education: to help people think critically, grow as individuals, and contribute meaningfully to their communities. She holds particular admiration for mature students, who often balance study with work and family, embodying this spirit in its truest form. For her, institutions carry a responsibility to support them as much as younger learners. At its core, she views education as the process of shaping reflective and adaptable individuals who can apply their learning meaningfully in both life and work.

Amalgamating Empowerment with Leadership

Some of the most rewarding moments in Kathy’s leadership journey have been when former students reached out to share their achievements, career milestones, or personal growth. She is often surprised by how lasting the impact can be, and finds it remarkable to see how mentoring, or simply listening and challenging them at the right moments, has helped them succeed.

Her role also involves empowering women and young professionals in the education sector, both as learners and as future leaders. She focuses on supporting them to have the courage to stand up for themselves, take ownership of their careers, and pursue leadership opportunities without fear. Kathy also highlights the importance of viewing men as partners, colleagues, and mentors, acknowledging that some of her best mentors have been men, while encouraging women to support and uplift each other actively. Her goal is to help women lead with confidence, integrity, and mutual respect, shaping a professional culture where they can thrive and inspire others.

Future Predictions

Kathy envisions the future of the Language Center at the Asian School of Technology as one that creates a dynamic, inclusive environment where language learning extends beyond grammar and vocabulary. The aim is to equip students with communication, critical thinking, and intercultural skills that prepare them to thrive globally. The focus is on fostering innovation in teaching, encouraging educators to experiment with new approaches, and cultivating a culture where others feel empowered to pursue and carry forward their own vision.

There is also an acknowledgment of the importance of continuous learning, with a genuine desire to continue this work because of the enjoyment it brings. Within international education, there is a deep awareness of being a guest in the countries where the work takes place, recognizing the responsibility to adapt to the environment rather than expecting the opposite. The goal remains clear: to create something with a lasting effect, empowering local professionals to carry it forward, shape it in their own way, and make it even better.