STEPHAN

PFINGSTEN

 

After graduating with a Masters in Business and Administration from the University of Augsburg, Germany, I spent 3 years with Coopers & Lybrand (PricewaterhousCoopers) in San Francisco to become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the State of California, U.S.A. After that I held various senior management positions in multinational enterprises in the software, banking and automotive industries in the US, Italy, and Germany.  Later I received various Coaching certificates. 

 

The last 15 years of my operational career, I worked for a very reputable, multinational US based company- the Penske Group- in various executive roles: for about three years as a Chief Financial Officer for an Italian Diesel engine manufacturer (VM Motori S.P.A.) and then for more than 10 years as CEO (Chief Executive Officer) for a German Group that designs, manufactures, and sells automotive and commercial vehicle lighting and which was part of Truck- Lite US Co. LLC. in which Penke Corp. held a major interest. My commitment to that entity was concluded with the successful sale of the German Group to a Chinese investor.  

With this sale and the sale of VM Motori and through various similar activities, I gained a lot of in-depth experience into Merger & Acquisition (M&A) activities on both the seller's and the buyer's side. 

 

Besides my professional career, at a young age already, I started to be very interested in understanding the full capacity of the human potential. Never has it been more important to understand the full scope of the human potential and ways to develop it than today with the world's environmental crises, its conflicts between countries and the huge migration streams. Looking at that it amazes how far many countries are developed technologically, however, how low the average development in those countries is of the human consciousness. We badly need leaders whose motivation is beyond ego- or ethnocentric motives and who start to mature in a world- or better cosmocentric consciousness. This means that those individuals not only grasp with their mind that their actions influence the world and the universe but that they realize this with all of their being. 

 

During my last engagement as a CEO of an automotive supplier in Eastern-Germany, we led big groups of employees through integral training programs (connected to the Integral Theory by renown American philosopher Ken Wilber who has influenced my work significantly) with the goal to develop the potential of the employees and with it that of the organization.  Despite enormous efforts to restructure the business under varying ownership and frequently changing senior management, the company had failed to be sustainably profitable in the past.  The integral programs- based on the "Four Quadrants Approach" by Ken Wilber (looking also at the interior of a human being such as feelings, emotions, intentions, etc. and the interior of an organisation such as shared values, goals, pain, etc) - conducted by my team and myself resulted in a lot of healing and improved the quality of life for individuals and entire families. However, the performance of the company did not improve significantly. Conducting a lot of research and also looking at other organisations in the region and into the past, we realized that people in the region had been collectively traumatized over decades and that the subsequent symptoms often made it impossible for the employees to contribute in a way that a successful organisation would be the result. To really improve the situation, a recognition of that trauma and its effects and symptoms would be necessary between businesses, politics, and the unions  before any healing can occur. On the level of an organisation, various tools exist to deal with, to reveal, and to eventually heal collective trauma. Some of these tools allow navigation beyond time and space which is very helpful to accelerate what otherwise would take a long time to heal (i.e. systemic constellations). Lately, collective traumas  and its effects on life in any society have been recognized by an increasing group of experts and with it the research and attention to it.

 

This work with the people and more than 20 years of my own inner work with tools including meditation and contemplative techniques, shadow work, systemic constellations, Spiral Dynamics and more have resulted in a much expanded awareness of the infinity of the human potential and of course of my own. It has resulted in an increasing alignment with the universe and every day I understand a bit better why I am allowed to live this wonderful life and what my tasks and responsibilities are during it this time around.  I am very grateful for all the wonderful experiences I have had and for what I am allowed to see. I am as grateful for everything that is yet still beyond my awareness. On this beautiful journey I would like to accompany as many people as possible. 

For that reason, I founded the  ANANDA Academy for Enlightened Leadership in February 2021, which has already seen more than 3000 people go through the various Online classes. In the courses the goal is always to increase our own level of consciousness which is mandatory for anybody who holds a leadership role:

 

  • to receive and accept any responsibility with humbleness and gratitude  
  • to always empathically consider all stakeholders involved with any decisions to be taken- in other words: watch the world through an open heart! 
  • to develop an increasing awareness for the impact of personal and collective trauma on our actions and lives 
  • to get more and more connected to the Universe and lead from that connection to this higher intelligence. This allows you to know what the world really needs now and in the future in terms of products and services. Become a co-creator of a loving human society leading form an emerging future. 

 

Consequently, I view the crisis around the Covid virus, wars, and other traumatic events as huge opportunities - and not only as a threats- that humanity increasingly realizes that many of the directions taken lead into dead ends and that we start to choose different, more sustainable and more human forms of living together... As Albert Einstein already had pointed out "Current human challenges will not be resolved on the level of consciousness on which they were created in the first place!"