Our Switzerland-based trainers in project management and people skills

To chat with us, please find a time slot on our calendar

Contact us

VIRAK
Via Longhena 5
6900 Lugano
SWITZERLAND
info@virak.com

Christine Petersen, PMP, Founder and Managing Director - petersen@virak.com

Christine's approach to training is to ensure that the course content clearly targets the needs of the participants, that they learn quickly and are ready to apply their new knowledge and self-awareness as soon as they are back in the work environment. She believes that if participants are enjoying themselves, are interacting and are actively participating, then they will be much more likely to achieve this goal.

Christine has been managing large, multi-national projects Europe-wide since 1990. She is now based in Switzerland, speaks Danish, English, French, Italian and German fluently, and has been training in these languages since 1999.

Her experience as a Project Manager led her to realise the vital importance of using people management skills in Project Management. Christine founded VIRAK in 2001 in order to be able to train, coach and consult full-time and has since built up an important client base throughout Europe.

Please browse Christine Petersen's LinkedIN Page

Steven Sloan, PMP, Director

Above all, Steven believes that project management processes and tools should be used to support the work and should not in themselves become an overwhelming burden on project teams.

After graduating from Glasgow University with a B.Sc. in Electronic Engineering, Steven worked in multi-national, hi-tech companies gaining experience in a wide range of functions – Services, Sales, Human Resources and Communications. Involvement in business process improvement, specifically related to new product development and introduction, gave him a hands-on appreciation of the need for project management both as a discipline and a culture in driving change within organizations.

Anders Pedersen, PMP, Director

Anders has a patience with which he gives his audience room to learn and he has always enjoyed finding, matching and challenging each participant's different levels and competencies. He does this using his natural empathy and well developed sense of humour. Seeing the progress and providing the right tools for each individual is what drives Anders.

With experience in training clients and colleagues since 2000, training and all its aspects have been a very central part of Anders's professional career since he finished his master degree in economy and finance in 1999. Anders is very confident standing before any audience doing what he enjoys most – teaching and encouraging his audience with often very different backgrounds to learn and transform sometimes highly complex subjects into “human language”.

Edgar Bernardi, PhD

Edgar has an outstanding international business career and extensive experience. His passion is to share all his perceptions, conserved influences and involvements now with young, curious and engaged people which are willing to align their view and values with his subsequently gained knowledge over years instead of just try to copy it. Edgar is still an active and agile board member, focused on digital transformation and Cyber Resilience, has been a dynamic and result-oriented operational manager and is hands-on, empathic with intercultural & social competence. Based on his education on Design Thinking at the Hasso-Plattner-Institute in Potsdam, Germany, he already navigated quite some teams through stormy waves, finally reaching the bank.

Francesca Betteni

"The difference that makes the difference": this is, according to Francesca, the value of individual and team coaching, seen as a useful tool to re-awaken one's abilities, re-discover one's resources, and unleash one's potential.
Thanks to her active and conscious listening skills, Francesca develops harmonious work environments where everyone's creativity and talents can be expressed and blended favourably. After more than 15 years in international business and sales, Francesca decided to devote herself to Business and Personal Coaching. From 2010 to today, her wealth of experience and her qualifications have been enriched by participating in several leadership programs, Business&Personal Coaching, the NLP Meta path, and the achievement of the higher level of a Master in Neuro Linguistic Programming as well as certification as Professional Certified Coach (PCC of ICF - International Coach Federation)

Julie Charef

Julie spent few years in Sales and Marketing positions before working in training, her real calling, and becoming a Training Director. Whether for famous international brands or niche names, she always enjoys helping people learn by being passionate about the topics and building on stories to make the difference.
Julie trains and coaches in English and French and her main focus is on Soft Skills: helping people grow, be happier in their work, and work smarter. Using her creativity, she develops tailored-made trainings for different clients and audiences, as well as facilitating brainstorming workshops.
Julie is also a certified Business/Life Coach. This side of her career adds another touch to her trainings, more focused on soft skills, communication and leadership.
Her international background, having worked in the UK, Switzerland, France, Germany, Ukraine and Japan enables her to adapt her presentations to different cultures and environments.

Nicole Crabtree

Since 2001 Nicole has dedicated herself to training and coaching and employs all of her professional, cross cultural and personal experience to each individual client.

Her professional and life experience has ranged from teaching underprivileged children in urban areas of the U.S. South to giving marketing and management courses to adult professionals in Russia during their transition to a market economy through the 1990’s up to 2007.

Her personal experience of living in different cultures – Russia, Turkey, Italy and Switzerland enables her to understand and appreciate cross cultural issues and challenges faced by individuals and families when they enter, transition and integrate into a new culture. Nicole works in English, Russian and Italian.

Fermin Gutierrez, PMP, FISAF Personal & Performance Trainer

Fermin started his career in IT as Consultant, Project and IT Manager within international companies in Finance, Telecom, Sport Events and Health domains.

Fermin is delivering and animating wellness seminars and has developped a Partnership with Compex (electro stimulation technology) as expert for the development of a new product protocols. He is also a member in multidisciplinary teams within a Foundation to eradicate the children obesity, a Fitness & Wellness Coach at a private hospital for local, international and multicultural patients with psychic and/or physical pathologies.

Fermin is also a world-class athlete, as a Swim Instructor, a Triathlete since 1992 and as the Finisher Ironman of the Triathlon World Championship in Hawaii in 1997. His Goal is simply to educate and support people in well being, by anchoring new habits to have a better Life Balance.

Maria Teresa Paladino, interpersonal and managerial skills expert

Master’s degree with honour in Psychology of social processes, decisions, and economic behaviors. Certified Professional Counselor with Transactional Analytical approach, Professional Corporate Certified Coach (PCC ICF), Mindfulness-based Protocol Instructor, and Hogan Certificated Assessor.
After studying Nuclear Engineering at the Milan Polytechnic, she worked for many years in a leading IT company in the Italian market, first in technical and project roles and then in managerial roles.
Since 2003, Maria Teresa has been dedicated to developing people in the private and corporate spheres, working on interpersonal and managerial skills development, self-esteem topics, and motivation.
Maria Teresa works with Talented Managers on their management approach to gain more efficacy and win a brilliant reputation.
She speaks Italian and English.