About Zest for Work

Founder, Yvon Golbach, is an expert on contemporary careers, sustainable performance, and the well-being of human capital in organizations. For years she was responsible for energy management, well-being, and corporate wellness in several corporate environments, such as Johnson & Johnson, where she was part of the EU Leadership team, responsible for Employee Health and Well-Being. Yvon’s contribution impacted thousands of people, across 45+ countries, helping them to be happier, better versions of themselves, while also increasing their performance. Her in-depth knowledge of how to manage energy effectively has led to people being physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused, & spiritually aligned. She is passionate about what drives motivation and knows how to let individuals perform and excel, without compromising their happiness and long-term health. Her insights into organizational culture creation, personal leadership, and performance in high-pressure environments are transforming organizations, helping to create a modern talent culture in which subjective success and self-management are the standards. Yvon is also an international Corporate Athlete Trainer, ICF certified coach, leader in the field of contemporary career management, and Academy partner of TalentlogiQs®, a spin-off of the University of Antwerp, all of which have positioned her at the center of mobilizing positive change and inspiring action.

Caroline Thomas, is a leading expert, facilitator and coach, in the field of HR Leadership, Talent Development and Sustainable Careers. Her holistic and extensive experience is deep-rooted in years of safeguarding both people and processes related to change management, organisational and talent development, performance management, and learning within several corporate environments. Her focus on cultivating successful organizations, coupled with her genuine care for, and belief in people and their abilities, has led to her initiating transformational programs that create spaces for growth and meaningful change.

As Partner at Zest, she is co-piloting the business with a focus on Career / Talent Development consulting services and learning products, and represents Zest in the Swiss and French markets. She works as an impactful and trustful partner for organisations and their employees focusing on developing the environment, capabilities and mindset required to build win-win career pathways – engaging and successful for both parties. Specialising in work-life integration and sustainable employability is ideally aligned with her passion for people and her deep interest in behavioural science. Caroline is also a co-active Coach, having recently completed her coaching education with the Co-Active Training Institute (CTI), one of the largest experiential coaching training organisations in the world. Beyond her work, Caroline enjoys nature and mountains, she is also passionate about art and culture.

Heike Mischler Pera is German and lives in Lugano, Switzerland. She is a business economist with a background in business development and corporate health management.

Her professional competence in holistic health is her passion. She likes to inspire people to achieve their goals starting with small changes which bring a big positive impact. Implementing a health management system in the corporate world to create a win-win situation for both employer and employees is her motivation and objective.

Heike is a certified fitness instructor (SAFS / AFAA) with 20 years of fitness coaching experience facilitating all different kinds of fitness classes on company site as well as personal training. She has been working since 2017 as an Energy for Performance (E4P) coach within Johnson & Johnson across EMEA regions, mainly in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.

When Heike is not helping others ignite their own energy, she spends time with her daughter and husband, not to forget her little Kooiker Hundje dog, which keeps her active and energized as well as different sports like hiking, fitness, swimming, and tennis.

John Grocott is based in Inverness, Scotland and has a background in the petrochemical and medical device industries. He has over 25 years of experience in coaching, and has been teaching corporate health and wellness courses since 2014, working as an Energy for Performance (E4P) coach within Johnson & Johnson across the US and EMEA regions. He also acts as a Corporate Athlete energy management facilitator in other multinational companies.

John is the founder of ENERJ and enjoys working with a variety of companies and charities, both internationally and locally, across the Scottish Highlands.

In his spare time he enjoys open swimming, road cycling, teaching Tai Chi and building/playing his own guitars.

Jon is an experienced corporate trainer and executive coach, specialized in working with groups and individuals around leadership, well-being and resilience. With a background in health and social care, Jon now works with a range of clients within the corporate and the public sector.

Within his work with his clients, he specializes in helping people to maximize their impact, and to thrive in an increasingly complex and demanding world by focusing on developing habits that increase energy and maintain resilience.

Jon holds a BSc in Psychology and an MSc in Forensic Psychology. He is also an accredited Co-Active Coach, certified with the International Coaching Federation.

In recent years he has developed a focus on mindfulness and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Jon has co-authored two books – popular self-help title ‘ACTivate Your Life’ (2015) and 2019’s Acceptance and Commitment Coaching: Distinctive Features.

Lars is affiliated with Zest for Work as an educational and motivational specialist. He deals with questionnaire development and data analysis. He has been working in various educational institutions for more than 15 years. During these years he has developed from executing, to directing, to investigating and guiding. Nowadays he is involved in educational research and guiding educational professionals in transitions that changing environments demands from them. The individual norms, values and beliefs of individuals are the starting point of the conversation.

Within Zest for Work, he brings his years of knowledge of learning and expertise in the field of motivation (SDT) and research to support our team in the development of new learning methods based on an evidence-based concept. This is what he also likes to do most; finding evidence to properly interpret the human story behind it. This requires interaction and a good translation of the most recent scientific insights into learning and the development hereof into a practical and effective concept. Support and mutual trust are key concepts for making developments sustainable.

Liza Knyazeva is based in Moscow, Russia and has an impressive background in the Healthcare and FMCG companies. She has more than 15 years of experience in HR (Learning & Development, HR Partnering, Internal Communications, Talent). She also has a certification in Insights methodology, Design Thinking, assessment methodology. Liza as a ICF certified coach has extensive experience as an internal corporate coach.

Since 2017 she became a certificated coach for Energy for Performance (Human Performance Institute®️, Johnson & Johnson), a solution that helps drive engagement and reduce burnout so individuals, teams, and organizations can perform at their full potential.

Liza has in-depth experience in establishing corporate culture, creating and implementation action learning programs, and HPT (High Performing Teams). Committed to building a culture of recognition and diversity, she brings experience in business, strategy, and organizational transformations, as well as building effective management teams. She is passionate about people and their development.

Louise is an experienced health and wellbeing trainer and facilitator specializing in physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing, and works with organizations around the globe. Having forged her early career in marketing, Louise decided to change direction in 2011 and follow her passion for health and wellbeing, leading her into the corporate wellbeing space.

Louise is passionate about helping people move better, feel better and have more energy, and all the benefits this can bring them both personally and professionally. She collaborates with her clients to both educate and empower them in the role wellbeing plays in effective and positive leadership and helps business professionals move from functional to exceptional; fully engaged in all aspects of their lives.

Louise has an MSc in Workplace Health & Wellbeing, is a Corporate Athlete trainer, ICF accredited coach, Certified Personal Trainer, and Sports and Exercise Nutritionist. She brings enthusiasm, passion, professionalism and humor to every workshop. When Louise is not helping others ignite their own energy, she is often found participating in her other passion – the great outdoors; whether it’s hill walking with her husband (and their energetic collie), on the mountain bike, on skis, or taking part in events that stretch her own boundaries and comfort zones!

Mark Teijgeler is a business economist, former investment banker, former top wind surfer, mindfulness and meditation trainer, personal energy management trainer, peak performance coach and author of the book ABC van Meditatie. After his studies in Business Economics, Mark worked in the hectic dealing rooms of ABN AMRO and NIBC for six years. In 2004 he decided to turn his work into his passion and founded his company ABC van Meditatie.

Since then he has given meditation and mindfulness courses to many companies and thousands of students. In March 2015, Mark published his first book ABC of Meditation. Mark’s style is “down to earth”, airy, professional and passionate. His hobbies are traveling, windsurfing, wave surfing and standup paddle surfing (SUP), playing the piano, snowboarding and yoga. Since 2013, Mark has been regularly active as an Energy for Performance (E4P) coach and facilitator for Johnson & Johnson in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Trainees in the Energy Management training courses learn to better manage their energy and to increase and more consciously spend their energy and attention. The goal is to be able to function and perform in a more involved way without sacrificing their health and well-being. Mark is currently working on his second book De Examenatleet.

Sergej is a certified EMCC professional coach and trainer with a business environment background where he worked for more than 16 years as a project manager and team leader on international projects in the European and African markets such as France, Morocco, Russia, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Ukraine, and England. He speaks four languages: Russian, Czech, English, and French. Sergej’s coaching fundamentals are within systemic coaching, life balance coaching, and psychosomatic approach. He aims to connect body and mind, to see a person in a holistic way, in order to achieve the best results for him and his closest family and friends. Since 2017, he has been apart of the Energy for Performace (E4P) team for Johnson & Johnson in the Czech Republic. As a part of the E4P, Sergej became a Fitness instructor in 2018. When Sergej became a member of the E4P team, it led him to take a closer look into the topic of burnout syndrome and put the focus on prevention against burnout on his private projects and has become one of his passions. Sergej is a huge fan of cycling and yoga. He recently started braving Prague’s river where he has started ice swimming as a hobby. He likes cycling around the world to explore local cultures and his own limits. He is a father to two children and is based in Prague.

Sue has over thirty years’ experience in the field of self-development as a trainer, clinical supervisor, executive coach, coach supervisor, and psychosynthesis psychotherapist, working with individuals and groups in diverse fields. Sue has been training and coaching internationally in Energy Management since 2013.

Also specializing in grief work and post traumatic growth, Sue supervises teams working with collective trauma and she is passionate about supporting people through periods of suffering and loss.

Sue is an associate lecturer at the London Institute of Psychosynthesis, where she was senior faculty for thirteen years. Having brought Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing training to London from the USA in 2006, she is a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. She is also a certified gym trainer and nutrition coach. She recently completed her certification in Lotus Neigong.

Sue is a member of both the Global Supervisors’ Network and the Climate Coaching Alliance, through her accreditation with the Association for Professional Executive Coaching and Supervision. These organizations explore and share cutting edge application of both coaching and supervision through these turbulent times.

Sue is published. She works in French and some Dutch, she loves learning and speaking in different languages. Communication across difference is a field of interest for her.

Overall, Sue is fascinated by the dynamic interplay of spirituality, psychology and physiology, which she has studied extensively over her career. She is called by the transformational potential of engaging in the dance between these three areas, towards increasing wholeness.

Tom is a charismatic and passionate trainer-coach, skilled in development and motivation of people and building powerful and driven teams.

Forging a group of people into an effective and enthusiastic team is what gives him energy and will never bore him.

Sustainable, effective collaboration can be a real challenge, especially when the interests are high and characters differ.

In a successful team, all forces work in the same direction in a functional way. To make a real difference, the team members must be willing to give their best energy to the team with full dedication. This is only possible if they are convinced that energy from the team will flow back to themselves. Finally, an important key to strengthening the team is to strengthen the various members. A team must therefore be a place where individual and personal growth is fully made possible, stimulated and valued.

Within Zest for Work, Tom brings an extensive experience through a combined career of 15 years of volleyball coaching of an A-league team, Corporate Athlete energy management training in business and a 20-year active career in the business world. In addition, he individually coached a varied group of sport and business professionals.

Vladimir is a seasoned expert in the field of assessment and development.  Being the owner of FORTEM Consulting Group, Vladimir has an outstanding record of senior HR and Business Development management roles at large international and Russian companies of FMCG, Banking and Oil & Gas sectors.  Based in Russia (Moscow / Sochi), Vladimir specializes in management assessment, leadership development, executive coaching, building effective teams and enhancing communication.  Vladimir holds a Master of Science in Human Resources Development and is a certified expert in psychometrics and human behavior diagnostics tools such as Hogan and TTI Success Insights.

Since 2017 he became a certificated coach for Energy4Performance (Human Performance Institute®️). Vladimir not only helps people to get the best of their energy, but also is a living example of applying energy management principles to his life, being a passionate long-range cyclist and a versatile person.