This February, the new student cohort is about to embark on a journey with their first EMBA module - Leadership & Organizational Change. The module is part of the Executive MBA validated by the University of Buckingham, and delivered in Cluj-Napoca. The module will be taught by Dr. Elesa Zehndorfer, multiple award winning writer and researcher, and Dr. Andrew Taylor, lecturer and consultant with a global experience. Students will be introduced to core concepts regarding leadership and organizational change and will be exposed to a large variety of leadership models. The module is being taught between 16th of February and 19th of February.
Who is delivering the module?
Both Dr. Elesa Zehndorfer and Dr. Andrew Taylor are experienced lecturers and have previously taught on this Executive MBA programme.
Elesa Zehndorfer PhD is the Research Officer for British Mensa and author of five non-fiction books with Taylor & Francis, one of the worlds' leading academic publishers, across the fields of politics, business & finance. Elesa earned her PhD from Loughborough University in 2006 and prior to writing full time, she spent many happy years as an academic, delivering lectures and helping talented young people to achieve their potential. She has a great love of science, being particularly interested in the way that our neurology and physiology drive our emotions and decisions. Read more about Elesa’s profile on her Linkedin page.
Elesa is returning to teach in Cluj and shares with us her enthusiastic expectations regarding this new group of MBA students:
"In a few days I am looking forward to returning to the beautiful and historic city of Cluj to co-deliver the inaugural module of the 2023 TEE Executive MBA cohort - Leadership & Organizational Change. I had the pleasure of delivering the module in 2022, and am delighted to return. As was the case last year, this years' cohort brings together a really talented and diverse group of students, so I am really looking forward to meeting them all.
Andrew Taylor PhD has more than 20 years of business experience across Europe, North America & Asia, as a head-hunter, management consultant, interim HR Director, learning facilitator, and business school lecturer on Human Resources Management, Leadership & Organisational Change, Complexity & Network Thinking, and Research Methods at MBA level for the Hull University Business School and Staffordshire University. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Cardiff. Andrew has worked for a wide range of multinational clients such as Coca-Cola, Holcim, AIG, PwC, GSK, IKEA, Deloitte, Orange, Volksbank, ING, Avon, Vodafone, Banca Transilvania, Rottaprint, and many more. The founder of Connect CEE (consulting) and Endike Associates (executive search), he has also written for current affairs magazines & academic journals. Since 2014, he is leading the Transilvania Executive Education team in developing executive programmes and bringing to Cluj international academics and business experts. You can read of Andrew’s work on his company website, Connect CEE.
"I am thrilled to welcome a new class to our Executive MBA programme, where they will join a growing alumni network that has been exposed to a global teaching faculty and using the knowledge from our classrooms to lead Romanian business in global markets" - declares Dr. Andrew Taylor.
Special guests for the module
For each module, a guest speaker will join the discussion in order to offer his/her expertise in the field and address the subject of Leadership and Organizational Change. For this module, we are pleased to have Sinziana Maioreanu and Eugen Vaida joining us.
Sinziana is an Executive Coach and Top Executive in financial services for over 25 years. Currently, in addition to executive coaching, Sinziana serves as CEO of Aegon, the 7th largest life insurance company in Romania.
She has always been involved in the most challenging and innovative projects of the moment such as the first electronic banking system in Romania, the first mortgage loans, the first private retail banking system in the country (ING Offices), the launch of the first Employee Benefits concept, the private pension reform in 2007, the launch of the first private health insurance and the first private hospital in Romania, the management of the first company specialized in private health insurance and the first insurance company specialized in bancassurance.
Sinziana calls herself a servant leader and coach whose mission is to drive performance by building strong organizational cultures and by encouraging, growing and motivating the people around her.
Eugen Vaida is the President of the Monumentum Association and the Director of The Prince's Foundation - Romania.
In the field of heritage, he initiated and developed through the Monumentum Association a series of applied conservation and educational programs in close cooperation with local communities from the Saxon villages. He owns a vast ethnographic collection, being the founder and president of The Network of Private Rural Ethnographic Museums and Collections from Romania (RECOMESPAR).
Through his research and education programs, he has an important role in the preservation of the historic built landscape in Transylvania.
The Ambulance for Monuments project was awarded by the European Comission with the ” Europa Nostra” award in 2020.
Recent activity of the lecturers
Elesa Zehndorfer PhD
- Contributed to “The Weaponization of Climate Change: Environmental Leadership” chapter in the Age of Trump in the book 'Rethinking Leadership for a Green World (Ed. Andrew Taylor), published by Routledge in 2022.
- Authored an article for leading American finance company Hartford Funds titled “An Investor's Brain on Inflation”, alongside authoring many other medical, science, and health-related articles for key clients.
- Invited to the Philippines by the World Olympians Association to deliver a series of keynotes on the themes of leadership and storytelling.
- Co-founder and a partner of finance company Lakeside Partners GmbH.
Andrew Taylor PhD
- Taylor, A. (2021, March 21). Rethinking leadership for a Green World. Routledge & CRC Press. Retrieved February 13, 2023, from https://www.routledge.com/Rethinking-Leadership-for-a-Green-World/Taylor/p/book/9781032041841
- Taylor, A., & Bronstone, A. (2022, October 7). Re-constructing the global network economy: Building pathways to resilience in local economies. Routledge & CRC Press. Retrieved February 13, 2023, from https://www.routledge.com/Re-Constructing-the-Global-Network-Economy-Building-Pathways-to-Resilience/Taylor-Bronstone/p/book/9780367702595