Meet the partners
In Pro-Lead we believe in hiring people smarter than ourselves. But the best and brightest people are rarely open for traditional job offers - they are busy pursuing their own careers as researchers or self-employed business consultants.
So we offer something that is hard to get as an individual: Joint research projects, seminars where we share insights and co-create new concepts, and the privilege of working with other high-calibre individuals.
Each partner is carefully selected based on our professional experience in working closely with them as former colleagues, clients or vendors for an extensive span of time. Partners in Pro-Lead are always individuals, and never companies, as we believe that chemistry and close personal relationships are key components to the success of our collaboration, and when working on joint projects with our clients. Collectively we boast of more than 200 years of international leadership and HR development experience, over 100 years of academical research and teaching experience, and +25 business books or A-rated research articles published.
Scroll down to meet them.
Frank Dybdal Lilleøre
Henrik Jespersen
Nicolai Houe
Stoyan Yankov
Nicolai Houe joined Pro-Lead in summer 2018. Prior to joining Pro-Lead Nicolai worked as a consultant with CISU – Civil Society in Development and Mac MannBerg.
Besides working as a consultant and advisor, Nicolai is an entrepreneur and has co-founded a couple of startups alongside his own consultancy praxis. He is also a member of the board in Coop Amba.
Nicolai has a masters from University of Aarhus, Denmark. He has supplemented this with a number of courses in systemic thinking and praxis, organizational development, capacity development and professional board development. Lately Nicolai has worked with design thinking and play in a professional context to further develop his own praxis.
Nicolai is a licensed practitioner of Insights Discovery Profiles.
Nicolai has worked with SOS Børnebyerne, BØRNEfonden, The Danish Afghanistan Committee, Dansk Handicap Forbund, Styrelsen for Sundhed og Forebyggelse (Grønland), Danish Foreign Ministry (Danida), Nyborg Kommune, Gladsaxe Kommune, Aarhus Kommune, Deres Auto, Greenland Facility Service and a number of other companies.
Nicolai facilitates organizational processes with a focus on ownership, implementation, follow up and praxis effect.
Prior to joining Pro-Lead, Stoyan has been running a number of businesses, including his own consulting firm - Stoyan Consult. He worked in communications, digital marketing, event coordination and movie production, leading teams to deliver on large and small scale projects; working with clients globally.
Stoyan is an international expert in the areas of productivity and performance. He helped hundreds of teams in +10 countries to improve their effectiveness, through trainings, workshops, 1-1 consultations and coaching sessions. He routinely gets invited to share his knowledge at international conferences, as a keynote / motivational speaker.
Stoyan has developed a 7-pillar model for team productivity - P.E.R.F.O.R.M, which is based on his years of experience as a producer, entrepreneur and consultant, backed with proven methods and strategies from productivity experts and researchers. The model is the at the core of his upcoming book about team productivity.
Stoyan holds an MSc Finance degree from Aarhus University-BSS.
Additionally he has attended a large number of trainings and educations within the areas of productivity, time management, leadership development, entrepreneurship, innovation, storytelling, movie production, digital marketing and professional speaking.
He is a certified “Passion Test” Facilitator; a decision-making tool based around one’s passions. Stoyan is also a partner at Samodiva Masterminds, a company specialised in a high-profile corporate & personal growth retreats.
Prior to founding Pro-Lead A/S Henrik has held senior positions in Grundfos, Fertin Pharma and Gumlink (formerly Dandy).
Henrik has served in international companies in the Production, FMCG and Pharmaceutical industry throughout his career. Henrik has acquired extensive knowledge and experience in working across cultures and has strong expertise in advising on strategy processes, change leadership, HR, Communications to top and middle level management.
Henrik has +15 years experience in developing programmes within talent development, leadership assessment, performance manage-ment and succession planning at national and international level.
Through his membership of the external board he has worked with media companies, focusing on strategy development, business development, organisational development and international expansion of client bases.
Henrik holds an Executive Master of Business Administration and is an accreditated facilitor of the Lencioni/DiSC team development suite and tests. Moreover, he is certified in Garuda, MBTI, PI and Hogan Assessment Systems.
Henrik’s approach is business oriented and with a strong focus on creating results by linking business strategies to HR strategy. Henrik has for 10 years served as chairman of the board in NOCA (Nordic Corporate Academies).
Prior to founding Pro-Lead A/S, Frank was for 10 years First Vice President in Danske Bank Group’s international HR function responsible for etablishing a Corporate University operating all leadership, transition and talent development programs on a single platform.
He has +20 years experience in the role as management consultant from among others PricewaterhouseCoopers, with a constant focus on implementing strategic change and using leadership and organisational development as levers for cultural transformation.
Frank has a strong academical background. He holds a PhD from Institute for Organisational & Leadership Studies at Aarhus University and a Doctoral Candidate degree from Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, USA. At Aarhus University he co-founded an Executive MBA program focusing on Change Leadership. He serves in the role as Associate Professor and external lecturer supervising and counselling MBA students on assignment covering personal leadership development and strategic change projects.
Frank works extensively with developing leadership teams and coaching indvidual leaders through personal and professional transitions in all career phases and across organisational levels and cultures. Frank is a seasoned executive coach and Authorized WILEY Partner and accredidated facilitor of the Lencioni/DiSC team development suite and tests. Moveover, he is certified in Hogan Assessment Systems.
He recurrently publishes articles and book reviews and gives presentations and guest lectures at leading International Business Schools and MBA programs.
Tobias Mahr
Bente Wennerberg
Tobias Mahr has gained his 25+ years – mainly international experience – in Consulting and the Corporate world across Europe, the US and Emerging Markets.
Having been a senior HR Business partner within Gillette and Procter & Gamble, he gained experience in country, regional and global roles. He is an expert in Strategy Implementation, Organisation Transformation, Talent- and Leadership Development and M&A.
His last assignment before joining Kinetic Consulting was in a senior European HR role with the people responsibility for about 14,000 employees in a Global Logistics company.
Bente has for more than 30 years held several senior management positions and directorships in both public and private organizations. A dedicated +15 years of consulting experience has provided Bente a unique view into many companies' “engine room”.
Her expertise is based on many years of hands-on experience in managing and developing organizations, combined with theory from a Master of Public Administration from Copenhagen Business School and courses in psychology, sociology, political science and management at INSEAD, ESADE and Stratchclyde University.
Dr. Bertolt Stein
Simone Ulv Kankowski
Bertolt has more than 20 years experience in Consulting, across all industries, regions and cultures of the world, which makes him an experienced global player.
His main focus has been supporting leading international organisations, often over many years. Examples include Alcatel-Lucent, Johnson & Johnson and Gillette (P&G).
Although there are few areas Bertolt has not covered in his career, he has particular expertise and passion for Leadership Development, Organisational/Culture Change and Executive Coaching.
Simone is the team's IT and design expert. She is Cand. IT and has worked for companies such as Siemens DFPD, Humac and Byrd.
She is experienced in developing and designing websites, logos and products, always keeping the user experience in mind.
Simone is also designing and developing Pro-Lead board and card games, which focuses on team development.
PhD, Professor Frans Bévort
Jan Nielsen
Frans is a seasoned HRM manager and
scholar. He has held several senior management positions within HR and teaches executive-MBA programs at CBS where he holds a position as professor and leads research programs on Human
Resource Management.
Frans has been a regular contributor to the debate on the HRM-field both in Denmark and internationally. He has also contributed with his expertise in books, academic articles and features in newspapers as well as industry journals for the last 25 years.
As a former full-time HRM-practitioner, Frans is certified in a range of HRM-tools within selection and development (e.g. MBTI, OPQ (SHL), PAPI and more.) and is a certified Executive Coach.
Frans' contributions in Pro-Lead spans from counselling on developing high impact learning solutions to delivering modules
and assignment to leadership development programs.
Frans special competences lies within HRM and management in professional service firms and he has furthermore intensive organisational knowledge.
Further information can be found on bevort.dk
Jan Nielsen joined Pro-Lead in January 2019 as a consultant and advisor on operational aspects regarding Human Resources.
Jan Nielsen has an extensive background in working with teams in high risk and extreme environments and has a passion for creating a mentally and psychologically safe working environment in small and larger teams.
After 30 years in the military as helicopter pilot and officer, Jan started flying for the National HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) operation in 2014. He is responsible for the company’s ACRM (Aeromedical Crew Resource Management) which is a highly developed management system based on leadership, communication, stress handling, risk management, and decision making. Jan has worked with Special Forces and has 5 years international experience working as a Senior National Representative in the US.
Besides flying helicopters, Jan has his own jazzband with some of Denmark’s finest jazz musicians. He finds that CRM (Crew Resource Management) is the same in music as in aviation. It’s all about human factors.
It is only in a psychologically safe working environment that it is possible to perform at your highest level. This is only achievable through mutual trust and respect with open communication where error is used for improvement.
Jan is a certified EHAC ACRM trainer (European Helicopter and Air Ambulance Committee Aeromedical Crew Resource Management).
Lisbeth Rasmussen
Lisbeth has many years of experience as a leader in the Health Service in both Denmark and Greenland, as well as as a nurse, deputy director and director.
She has also worked several years as a consultant, where she has conducted numerous leadership development courses for senior consultants and overseas nurses.
Lisbeth has extensive experience in conflict management and coaching of managers. She has a Master from Odense University and has completed long-term courses in consultancy work, among others from "Udviklingskonsulenterne".
For the past two years, she has sailed around the globe in her own ship and through stories and pictures from the voyage, she links management on board her ship to managing companies under pressure.