Matthias Birk is an organizational psychologist with a Phd in business. He started his career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, advising clients on leadership development and organizational change. He was also the Senior Director of Learning & Professional Development at the Ralph Lauren Corporation and the Global Head of Coaching & Advisory at Goldman Sachs. He is an ICF certified executive coach, has taught team-coaching at NYU in collaboration with the United Nations and is trained in family therapy by the Ackerman Institute in New York. He has taught leadership as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School and NYU for over a decade and published numerous articles in Harvard Business Review and other journals. He is a long time Zen practitioner and teacher at New York's Still Mind Zendo. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two kids and is an equally passionate and mediocre surfer