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.

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 delivers our Energy For Life program at Zest as well as impactful keynotes. He also works closely with us to support the qualification of new Energy Management Trainers.

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.

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.

Using a model of ‘personal energy management’, Bethan works with individuals and businesses to maximise both personal and team performance. Bethan originally qualified as a trauma staff nurse with a BA nursing degree from Oxford Brookes University before attaining her Occupational Health BSc Honours degree at Brunel University. She managed GlaxoSmithKline’s Occupational Health Department at their Head Office in London, before establishing her own company in 2009.

Bethan designs and facilitates courses to support people’s understanding of the factors impacting their daily energy levels and personal resilience. These interactive programmes offer practical advice and insight enabling attendees to start increasing their energy levels overnight.

Bethan has an understanding of cultural awareness, having worked globally for companies including GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson and Johnson, Marks and Spencer and Shell, and spent a year rolling out resilience courses in Australia and New Zealand. She has a passion for adventure leading to experiences such as a double marathon trek across the Sahara Desert and volunteering at an orphaned rhino sanctuary in South Africa. These types of adventures add to her knowledge of resilience, endurance and the drive to embrace life’s experiences, rather than simply surviving them.

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.

Tamsin has over 20 years’ experience in mentoring, coaching, and training across an eclectic career portfolio.  After studying Astronomy and Physics at University she went on to join the military.  After which she moved into the fitness industry and then on into education. She is a certified fitness trainer, holds a Science Post Graduate Certificate in Education, and is a master trainer for Energy for Performance courses.  For the last 6 years, she has been a corporate trainer focusing on Wellbeing and Energy Management for multinational companies, as well as supporting the implementation of such courses for Johnson & Johnson across the whole of the EMEA region.  She is presently going deeper into the realms of Positive Psychology in coaching by studying for a Master’s, exploring the impacts of this on individuals and within teams.  Her real passion is wanting to support others not to just survive through life but to flourish and thrive within it.

Tamsin loves to travel and has spent the last 4 years in Rome.  Now she is based in the UK spending much of her time enjoying the change of the seasons by walking and being outdoors and is always on the lookout for good coffee.

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.

Arturo is based in Madrid, Spain, and has 20 years of work experience. Most of his professional life has been in the finance industry, in New York and London.

He has been teaching corporate health and wellness courses since 2018. Trained by the Human Performance Institute, Arturo worked as an Energy Management coach for a large Fortune 500 company across EMEA. ​As of December 2021, he has coached more than 50 energy management courses to more than 600 people.

At Zest for Work, Arturo works as a coach for the Energy for Life course, primarily but not only focused on the Spain market.

In addition, Arturo is a leadership development trainer and consultant for mid and large-sized companies in the EMEA region. He also facilitates digitalization fundamentals workshops from the IMD in Lausanne.

In his spare time, Arturo enjoys cycling, reading, nature, eating out, and traveling. ​He has two daughters, 19 nieces and nephews, and 51 first cousins!

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.

Mirka lives on the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland. She has a 27-year of experience in managing and developing people in the corporate environment. ​

For the last 25 years, she designed people management programs and projects, worked as a facilitator, developed other facilitators, coached executive managers. She has been teaching corporate health and wellness courses since 2013. Certified as a gestalt psychotherapist and mindfulness teacher Mirka run personal resilience and energy management programs for international pharmaceutical companies, banks, and small enterprises. At Zest for Work Mirka works as a facilitator.

Next to this, Mirka continues to provide certified mindfulness programs on the regular basis and run her psychotherapy practice. She is also a member of EAMBA – an international organisation associating mindfulness teachers’ national organisations, where, as a member of the EAMBA EXCHANGE team, she is responsible for organising regular experience and knowledge exchange meetings for European teachers.

In her spare time, she enjoys traditional and recumbent road cycling, fusion cooking, gardening, and spending time with her grandchildren.

She is happily married, has one daughter, one son, five grandchildren, and two cats.

Hartmut looks back on more than 25 years of leadership experience in large international corporations. He discovered his passion for the development of organisations, teams, and people early on and as an HR Executive, Hartmut initiated and led various local and regional change processes.

Since 2016, Hartmut has been working as an independent consultant, trainer, and coach. He and his business partner specialise in leadership development, career development, and executive coaching. In Johnson & Johnson’s Energy for Performance programme, he has, as a certified HPI coach, accompanied over 100 groups on their way to more energy and joy in life. Hartmut has a special interest in the integration of energy management and leadership. He is a certified NLP Master Practitioner (BSO) and Career Fitness Profiler (TALENTLOGIQS).

At Zest for Work, he has been active as a trainer in German-speaking countries since the beginning of 2021.

Hartmut is fascinated by the beauty and magic of nature. When he is not out and about with his dog Vasco in the Lucerne area, he can be found on his yoga mat, on hiking or ski tours in the Swiss Grisons mountains, picking herbs and mushrooms, or sailing in the Mediterranean. In addition, he is involved in the local scout organisation and has been a mentor at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences for many years.

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.

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.