Team

We combine skills from investor relations, media, marketing, law, risk management, acting, communications and technology.

About us

CEO Positions AG is an international consulting and production company based in Zurich specialized in Digital Stakeholder Management for CEOs.

Since 2006, it has become a trusted advisor to top-tier companies including Helvetia Group, AMAG, Vodafone UK, and Climeworks. It specializes in top-level strategic communication, reputation management, and hybrid communication strategies for top executives —areas that are increasingly critical in today’s fast-evolving business landscape. This assists them with broader business goals, helping enhance their impact and drive organizational success.

The firm was recognized as the Best Corporate Reputation Management Consultancy in Europe in both 2020 and 2021 by AI Magazine.

Watch: Founder’s Message on positioning

Positioning and Reputation Management

Mission: We measurably enhance the company’s reputation by positioning the members of the Executive Board. The process contains three steps: assess, advise, activate. Like in professional sports.

What is …

Positioning is about establishing a distinctive space that you own within the marketplace or in your customer`s mind.

Why it matters?

  • Helps attract the right customers by clearly communicating what you offer.
  • Guides strategic decision-making, branding, marketing campaigns, and even product development.
  • This helps charge a premium for products and make customers loyal to the brand.
  • Builds clarity and consistency

Clients

Target Group: We routinely work with CEOs and their leadership teams, servicing a powerful network of business leaders and academics.

Industry Focus: Technology, Finance, E-mobility, Carbon Capture.

Markets Served: U.S., Central Europe.

Founded: In 2006 by Susanne Mueller Zantop and Nadia Belatrache

References

Companies

Technology:

AMAG Group | Autoneum | Axpo Services | Avaloq | BT British Telecom | Cisco Systems | Climeworks | Dell/EMC | EMPA | Deutsche Messe | Deutsche Telekom | Lufthansa | Microsoft U.S.A. | Swisscom | Swissgrid | VDI Technologiezentrum | WorldQuant LLC | Vodafone UK

Finance:

Berner Kantonalbank | Cembra Money Bank | Deutsche Börse | Helvetia Group pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank |Raiffeisen Schweiz | Zürcher Kantonalbank

Other:

EY Ernst & Young | Lee Hecht Harrison | Lufthansa | Manor | PwC PricewaterhouseCoopers | UZH University of Zurich |

Individuals

Abolhassan, Dr. Ferri | Agarwal, Rohit | Alder, Stefan | Al-Haij, Zeina | An de Meulen, Helmut | Arndt, Andreas | Apotheker, Léo | Asavathiratham, Chalee | Bagnoli, Philip | Bächli, Hansueli|Baltisberger, Stefan| Ban, Linda | Barbosa, Luis | Barrett, Craig | Beck, Thomas | Berg, Achim | Berger, Joel | Better, Manuela | Baumann, Otto | Biedermann, Dominique | Bieler, Dan | Biller, Sarah | Blum, Lenore | Boerries, Marco | Bohnet, Iris | Bonn, Heinz Paul | Book, Thomas | Brooks, Simon | Brown, Frank, J. | Brugger, Ernst  | Brunner, Benno | Bui, Crispin | Büttner, Armin | Carletti, Marc | Carr, Peter | Caselitz, Christoph | Cemerlic, Alma | Chilton, Bart | Clement, Wolfgang  | Cohen, Michelle | Crump, Blair | Duhoon, Prakarsh | Dunne, Dana | Danielsohn-Weil, Petra | Damodaran, Ramu | Danuser, Hanspeter | Decyk, Roxanne | De Maeseneire, Patrick | De Wolff, Angela | Del Degan, Juliska | Diamond, Stuart | Dietl, Christian | Dirks, Thorsten | Drüner, Marc | Donchev, Veliko | Dupire, Bruno | Dutronc, Perrine | Durchslag, Scott A. | Dyson, Esther | Evenett, Simon J. | Farkas, Marton | Fernandez, Francisco | Fichtner, Johann | Flückiger, Reto | Fox, Michael | Fränkl, Charles | Frutig, Daniel | Gabler, Mathias | Gaillard, Daniel | Gangaputra, Sachin | Gebald, Christoph | Geldmacher, Jan | Gessinger, Rudolf | Gil, Ori | Gilbert, Andrew | Gosalvez, Julie | Graf, Dino | Graf, Pierre-Alain | Grande, Fabian | Grau, Sandra | Grauer, Bodo | Greweldinger, Martin |Griffin, Paul | Groth, Arndt | Gruchow, Andreas | Gross-Selbeck, Stefan | Hannesbo, Morten | Hansen, Wolf Rüdiger | Hartmann, Mathias | Hauck, Wilfried | Heer, Lorenz | Heij, Peter | Henseler-Unger, Iris | Hermann, Jürgen | Hermann, Sascha | Hickox, Winston | Hirshberg, Peter | Hoang, Cong | Hoffmann, Reid | Hopfgartner, Jürgen | Huber, Martin | Humm, Philipp | Hünziker, Jürg | Ingari, Frank | Jääma, Jukka | Jacquet-Lagreze, Thibaut | Jaeger, Franz | Jermann, Dieter | Jetter, Martin | Joga, Jesus | Johansson, Bjørn | Joussen, Friedrich | Kalter, Alan | Kagermann, Henning | Karius, Oliver | Kaspersky, Eugene | Kelly, George W. | Kempf, Dieter | Kesselmeyer, Bodo | Kielgas, Sven | Kinne, Martin | Kircher, Herbert | Knorren, Roland | Koentgen, Thomas | Koh, Geoffrey | Kohler, Markus |Koll, Thomas U. | Koller, Werner | Krumm, Torsten | Krümmer, Stephan| Kwon, Olivia | Lauprete, Geoffrey | Leitz, Christian | Lelicova, Lenka | Lereuth, Karsten | Loacker, Stefan | Lovell, Jim | Koppitz, Rainer | Maini, Nitish | Maradei, Brunno | Maricza, Istvan | Magda, Beverly | Marmolejo, Francisco | Mani, Nitish | Martin, Edward | Martin, Claude | McCabe, Kathy | McChrystal, Stan | McCue, Sarah | Meineke, Christoph | Melvin, Colin | Meyer, Christopher | Mueller, Nils | Noser, Ruedi | Oeberg, Stefan | Ochoa, Mel | Milani, Oliviero | Mora, Peter | Nägeli, Isabelle | Neff, Damien | Nenkov, Stelian | Neuhaus, Guido | Nocito, Carlos | Oosterom, Richard | Ortlepp, Michael | Pacey, Dean | Pahlke, Michael | Peltz, Michael | Pinna, Andrea | Prentice, Steve | Protopapa, Sergio | Poetzl, Georg | Patil, Sukanya | Peltz, Michael | Poettering, Hans-Gert | Poppinga, Hartmut | Powell, Colin | Pukall, Britta | Rabinowitz, Robert | Ramin, Kurt | Raschle, Lukas | Raue, Ernst | Rao, Suman | Reed, Zak | Reymond, Réne | Riecke, Markus | Ricks, Tom | Ringger, Reto | Rink, Anthony | Rose, Michael  | Rosenberger, Frank | Rossi, Adriano | Rousseaux, Clemence | Ruhl, Helmut | Rukshin, David | Runnals, David | Sasirajpornchai, Ramestr | Schädler, Karl | Scharrer, Otmar | Schäuble, Wolfgang | Scheer, August-Wilhelm | Schiessl, Johann-Christian | Schenk, Karl | Schlobohm, Bernd | Schmiegelow, Axel | Shrier, David | Shocair, Nadahl | Schmid, Peter | Schneider, Thomas | Schoder, Detlef | Schuppisser, Santiago | Schwager, Sandro | Seiz, Gabriela | Shkolnikova, Ekaterina | Shields, Mark | Sideco, Francis | Simmen, Patric | Smid, Volker  | Schindler, Richard |Spelman, Matt | Spreitzer, Thomas | Stavridis, James | Stern, Herman | Steiner, Achim | Soltermann, Bernhard | Steinemann, Juergen | Streibich, Karl-Heinz | Struchen, Beat | Sullivan, JF | Swantee, Olaf | Szerdahelyi, Imre | Takai, Teri | Tanner, Ida | Tengler, Marcus | Tett, Gillian | Thomsen, Lars | Thanh, Binh | Thrun, Sebastian| Tulchinsky, Igor | Tydeman, Justin | Unger, Christian | Upton, Jordana | Vasella, Daniel | Verwaayen, Ben | Vesper, Martin | Viljak, Pekka | Vogels, Werner | Voncina, Libor | Von Zitzewitz, Friedrich | Wiandt, Axel | Walker, Oliver | Weber, Sarik | Weaver, Phil | Weinrauch, Günter | Wennemer, Manfred | West, Jeffrey | Wetzel, Philipp | Wolford, Susan | Wu, ChiaHsin | Wurzbacher, Jan | Zehnder, Alexander | Zimmermann, J.B. | Zollinger, Gery | Zuber, Andreas | Zwyssig, Martin

Press Coverage

Scientific Background

Our work is based on four theoretical pillars:

1. Systems Theory

A computer scientist by training, Susanne was fascinated early-on with research in systems theory (system dynamics, industrial dynamics) by J.W. Forrester, Joseph Weizenbaum and Gerhard Niemeyer, her professor in Regensburg. Her first essay in 1979 was entitled: “The Manager as Regulator/Stabilizer” – It was about the difference between regulating and directing a system. She was impressed with simulation and object orientation. Times have passed, yet the love for all things digital remain.

2. Linguistics

Susanne’s second education was in linguistics. She learned about the importance of a single phrase or character, and also how context determines the interpretation of almost everything. Her diploma thesis was on automatic error correction – how to find errors without a dictionary – through logic only. Important theorists that have influenced her thinking: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Noam Chomsky, Benjamin Whorf and Gregory Bateson. Her writing was highly influenced by Wolf Schneider.

3. Systemic organizational theory

Apart from the business fundamentals from MBA classes, we have found the best approach to organizational dynamics in the works of Matthias Varga von Kibéd and Insa Sparrer. Their working model is called “Tetralemma”-work and we adopted it to to support top managers interacting with their stakeholders (see below). The “St.Galler Management model” was helpful to integrate these theories into our work too.

4. Body psychotherapy

Our fourth pillar is body psychotherapy. As a sports person Susanne always felt that we all bring our bodies into the work place. She is particularly happy to see that the video revolution and the transparency of the Internet has brought this into the foreground. Our education here is based on the work of Moshe Feldenkrais, Paul Watzlawick, Boudewijn Vermeulen and Joachim Baur. We owe a lot to actor Armin Berger.