Coaching Perspectives 2026

Jeffrey Hull, Ph.D. BCC is CEO of Leadershift, Inc. a leadership development consultancy based in New York City and Amsterdam. Named by Thinkers 50 as one of the fifty best coaches in the world in 2024, he, along with co-author Margaret Moore, was the winner of the Thinkers50 award for Coaching and Mentoring in 2025. Dr. Hull is the best-selling author of FLEX: The Art and Science of Leadership in a Changing World in 2019 (available in 5 languages), and The Science of Leadership: Nine Ways to Expand Your Impact, from Penguin Random House and Berrett-Koehler (July 2025). A highly sought coach with over twenty-five years C-suite coaching experience, Dr. Hull is the Executive Director of the Institute of Coaching, a Harvard Medical School Affiliate, and a Clinical Instructor in Psychology at Harvard Medical School.

Sandra J. Diller is a Professor of Organizational Psychology at the Seeburg Castle University (SCU), a Research Affiliate at Harvard Medical School's Institute of Coaching, and an Affiliate at the Ludwig-Maximilian-University’s Center for Leadership and People Management. She researches leadership and personnel development and is responsible for the MBA in Coaching at SCU.

Prof. Dr. Melanie Hasenbein is a professor of business psychology and artificial intelligence at SRH Fernhochschule – The Mobile University in Germany, where she leads the master program Business Psychology & AI. Her work focuses on human-centered artificial intelligence, and the question of how emerging technologies are reshaping work, leadership, and human development. She is the author of the Springer books Human and AI in Organizations (2023) and The Human in the Digital Workplace (2020), which explore the psychological implications of digital and AI transformation. Alongside her academic work, she is a coach and consultant at CHANGE FORMAT, supporting leaders and organizations in navigating transformation processes and designing more human-centered futures of work.

Prof. Nicky Terblanche is an academic, researcher, leadership coach and entrepreneur. He has a master’s degree and PhD in Leadership Coaching and a master’s degree in electronic and software engineering. He is Professor of Leadership Coaching and Research Methodology at Stellenbosch Business School, South Africa. His research interests include leadership coaching with a focus on Artificial Intelligence Coaching. He also runs an executive and leadership coaching practice. Nicky has published more than 50 peer-reviewed research articles and book chapters and regularly presents at international conferences as keynote speaker. He is also the founder and CEO CoachVici.com that creates AI Coaches for organisations.

Stefan Stenzel (Dipl.-Psych.) studied Organizational Psychology at Heidelberg and Mannheim with a minor in business administration. He has nearly 30 years of experience in PD and OD. Since 2001, he has worked at SAP SE as an HR Senior Expert for Learning in Global Leadership Development with varying responsibilities. Following his initial coaching training in 1998, he has been an internal coach at SAP since 2002. With short interruptions he is globally responsible for the external coach pool across all management levels and is currently implementing a coachbot to complement the service portfolio. He is Co-founder of DBVC e.V. in 2004. In 2023 he co-founded in this context with, Dr. Uwe Böning. the so called Think Tank “Future of Coaching” . He is author of various publications on the topic of (the future of) coaching.

Madeline McNeely is a master‑level leadership and executive coach whose mission is to condition leaders and organizations to do meaningful work for decades. Founder of Conditioning Leaders LLC, she brings more than 30 years of experience advancing belonging, justice, equity, inclusion, and diversity across sectors. Her global perspective – shaped by studying and working in Kenya and Senegal – grounds her interdisciplinary approach as a coach, facilitator, consultant, and educator. As a specialist in somatic intelligence, embodied leadership, and trauma‑informed practice, Madeline inspires leaders to cultivate presence, relational intelligence, and trust as they navigate complex organizational, and community challenges. She teaches at Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education and has coached hundreds of leaders across corporate, nonprofit, and government settings, always championing the truth that the «soft stuff is the hard stuff».

Dr. rer. nat. Vanessa Mai is head of the «Post-Digital Education & Meta-Learning» research group at Cologne Cobots Lab at TH Köln/University of Applied Sciences. She is also a member of the board of the Center for Academic Development at TH Köln. As a systemic coach and supervisor (DGSv-certified), she researches and teaches in the field of human-AI interaction in coaching and learning processes – particularly with regard to the effectiveness of hybrid learning and coaching formats. In her doctoral thesis, she investigated factors for building relationships in AI-based human-machine coaching. To this end, she developed and evaluated a coaching chatbot for students. Vanessa studied psychology, communication sciences, and linguistics at RWTH Aachen University and works as a freelance business coach.

Sebastian Ulbrich is an organisational psychologist, consultant, and coach working at the intersection of psychology and technology. He holds a PhD in organisational psychology, with a focus on collaboration, networks, and change processes. He is the founder of Connection Mindset GmbH and the developer of Connection Mindset® Coaching (CMC), the first hypnosystemic VR-based coaching protocol to strengthen self-efficacy and readiness for change. His work integrates organisational psychology, network science, and neuroscience to support mindset change and organisational transformation. He also lectures at FHNW and ZHAW, and advises organisations on digital transformation and workplace change.

Rebecca Rutschmann is a pioneer at the intersection of coaching and artificial intelligence. As co-founder of Viva la Coaching Academy, she launched the first AI literacy movement for the coaching and learning profession in 2024. Her journey into AI coaching began in 2019 as co-founder of evoach, where she developed early AI coaching experiences and in 2023 created Alpina — one of the earliest generative AI-driven coaches, now central to multiple published research studies on AI coaching effectiveness. Today, Rebecca partners with global organizations to design conversational AI experiences that foster genuine self-reflection and growth, not just mimic human speech. An advisor to the NYU Coaching & Technology Summit and sought-after speaker, her work lives at the edge where human intelligence and artificial intelligence meet, driven by the conviction that as AI becomes a given, human presence remains the ultimate differentiator.