Dr. Katharina Balazs is a Professor within the Management Department at ESCP Business School in Paris, France, where she is actively engaged in executive development, teaching, and scholarly research. She also leads her own executive development and coaching practice, partnering with top-tier executives worldwide. Her expertise spans leadership, leadership communication, executive presence, women in leadership, board dynamics, the development of diverse high-performance teams, and organizational change.

Katharina Balazs is dedicated to helping executives realize their full potential and optimize their performance, thereby driving strategic value at the C-suite level. Her client portfolio includes organizations such as the World Economic Forum, Avolon, Akzo Nobel, Bech-Bruun, Boehringer Ingelheim, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, EDF, EIF, Generali, GlobalFoundries, IFF, IWF, Janssen, JTI, KBC, Kone, KPMG, Merck, Pernod-Ricard, Randstad, Siemens, Société Générale, Sonepar, Sonova, Vivendi, TÜV, Unicredit, Umicore, and the World Economic Forum.

Before transitioning into leadership development, Katharina Balazs had an extensive career as a strategic consultant in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, with a specialisation in cultural and cross-cultural issues in international mergers and acquisitions (M&As).

With an academic background in both humanities and business administration, Dr. Balazs holds a Ph.D. from HEC Paris, an MBA, an MSc, and an Executive Master’s degree in Coaching and Consulting for Change (EMCCC) from INSEAD. She is the author and co-author of numerous books, scientific articles, case studies, and research papers on leadership, leadership communication, executive coaching, organizational excellence, downsizing, and organizational transformation.

She is a member of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (ISPSO), as well as a Certified Advisory Board Member at Sciences Po/IFA Paris. Dr. Balazs’ working languages are English, French, German, Swedish, and Hungarian.