Joshua is one of the world’s preeminent experts on developing emotional intelligence to improve performance.  With warmth and authenticity, he translates leading-edge science into practical, applicable terms that improve the quality of workplace relationships to unlock enduring success.

Freedman is one of a handful of experts in the world with over 20 years of full-time experience implementing emotional intelligence.  He’s personally led EQ initiatives in a wide range of business and government organizations, including FedEx, Intel, Etihad Airways, Amazon, Microsoft, the UN, all branches of the US armed services, and many more (see case studies here).

Joshua leads the world’s largest network of emotional intelligence practitioners and researchers; Six Seconds methods & tools are used in 160 countriess.  He co-developed Six Seconds’ EQ Certification Training which he has delivered on five continents as master-trainer to thousands of professionals seeking practical tools for learning and teaching emotional intelligence, and has helped launch emotional intelligence programs and companies in over a dozen countries.

As a Co-Founder and CMO at Peppy Pals, she is devoted to changing the educational system for children to focus more on humanity and soft skills. Peppy Pals, founded by Rosie Linder in 2013, is a pioneer within the field of digital, play-based social and emotional learning for children as they are the first company in the world that has gamified EQ for children without using text or language. The Swedish start-up has developed a series of educational, award winning apps, books, movies and activities that nurture children’s ages 2-8 Social & Emotional Intelligence using story-telling and humor.

Paulina is also a founding partner of Six Seconds global event “EQ for UN Children’s Day”, where she works actively in promoting children’s rights worldwide. She lives by a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt; “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”. To Paulina this means that those who are too afraid of dreaming, will never see change. So what’s her dream? For every child to grow up practicing empathy and kindness, and where EQ is a subject taught in school.

He is a founding board member of the Leonardostichting, a foundation aimed at setting up fulltime programs for the gifted and talented. He then started Novilo, which an educational training company in the Netherlands. Novilo trains 5,000 teachers per year about the importance of developing talents and mindset of their students, rather than focusing on passing a standardized test.

Tijl also started Feniks Talent, a care center that supports gifted dropouts. The program consists of psychotherapy, activities ranging from drone-building arts and drama. His most recent projects focus on creating a new type of public school in the Netherlands and Levanimo Educational Support, an international change facilitator for the education sector. He is the founder and executive board member of the School of Understanding, a school focussed on developing talents, positive life attitudes and well-being.

Tijl lives and works in the Amsterdam area of the Netherlands.

Trapasso published in peer-reviewed journals and, over the past decade, has co-authored several OECD reports focussing on skills policies, green economy, regional development, and open government, among others. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars. Before joining the OECD he had served as a policy advisor to national and local governments. Trapasso holds a Ph.D. in economic policy from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan, and a degree in economics from the University Federico II of Naples.

A native of Catanzaro, Calabria, Raffaele is based in Paris, is married and father of two boys.                                                    

As a member of the Global L&D team, with more than ten year of experience in learning, he is also involved in the ideation of corporate transformation programs (digital transformation, cultural transformation, learning transformation…) and in the Executive Coaching program. In addition, Francesco leads talent operations – talent acquisition and development – in France, Benelux, UK and Nordic countries. He is also a certified executive coach and trainer of leadership, transition and emotional intelligence programs.

Francesco is passionate of the Future: future of work, future of learning, future of mankind in general; for this reason, in 2013 he co-founded a small publishing house (futurefiction.org) focusing on speculative fiction from the best sci-fi authors around the world: coming from different countries, cultures and languages they describe the near future of humanity as it’s impacted by technologies and disruptive change.

In addition to her work in the UN, she also studies on organizational design and development, and volunteers for associations dealing with positive change. She advocates for improving awareness and developing EQ in the workplace to improve performance, and to create a better working environment. Her lifelong exposure to literature has solicited her curiosity and has contributed to her understanding of interpersonal dynamics, and human behaviors.

In the last couple of years I have discovered a passion for ‘giving joy’ through emotional intelligence, having become a 6Seconds practitioner and assessor in 2017.  Since then  I have been working within my organisation to embed emotional intelligence practice for our people to use, not just at work, but in their whole lives – this reflects the company’s approach to hiring the whole person (see this article on launching EQ in the tech sector). 

My experiences of introducing EI in a technology business have been both inspiring and challenging.  My hands-on work with people gave me the idea to create a scale, the Emotionally Quick Scale, which simply outlines how personal effectiveness can be impacted by how speedily they can identify their emotions.  I am currently planning how to introduce EQ into our leadership development programme, use it in hiring and further integrate its language and practice at tombola.                                                                                                                                                              

Achieving the first impact with an EQ assessment (individual and team) and then providing the participants with the tools for improving self-awareness and self-management Nomeda works in business, education and public service (see this article about Nomeda’s work in the community, connecting teens with emotionally intelligent role models).

The longitudinal EQ projects for the communities of education institutions have lead to increased involvement of every single member, higher effectiveness, more encouraging and supporting microclimate and progress in academical results. The topics related to personal resilience, perfectionism and self management in VUCA world are the most actual in business world today and are always present throughout business organizations.

Lieve is an experienced corporate coach/facilitator and has over 25 years’ experience of working in an international environment.  Her drive for this work is to support people finding a (working) life of fullfilment and joyful growing by doing.

She likes to help people to develop their personal leadership capabilities, to cover their own qualities and to seek how they can match their talents and goals with the organisations where they are working.

Laurence lectures on leadership and management issues at top French business schools and international academic programs. Before that, she worked in international agencies (NGOs, consultancies and United Nations) on sustainable development issues, in several countries and managed the Masters in Strategic Management of Sustainable Development at Skema Business School in Sophia Antipolis, France.

She has lived and worked in France, the UK, the US, Tunisia, Spain, Chile, Mexico and has worked extensively with multicultural teams.