Leading Across Cultures in Practice

Fernando Lanzer Pereira de Souza is Dutch and Brazilian, born in 1952. He started writing at age seven, but the reaction of others to what he wrote was never again so enthusiastic as then in those first days. He earned a degree as a Psychologist at PUCRGS in 1975 and began his career working in a team of consultants, in which he had the longest hair and the shortest experience. Soon he was absorbed by a client and became a Human Resources Manager at the now defunct Sulbrasileiro Bank. Unable to get a real job, he was stuck in HR and in organizational consulting, alternating between these roles for many years until he acquired 23,000 reasons for an ulcer as Human Resources Director of ABN AMRO/Banco Real in Brazil. Eventually he moved from São Paulo to Amsterdam, as Global Executive Vice-President for the ABN AMRO Group, in charge of Leadership Development & Learning. He left that organization after completing 15 years of service and returned to his roots as a consultant, this time based in Amsterdam. He founded LCO Partners as a consulting firm dedicated to Leadership and Organization Development; in parallel, from 2008 ro 2016. he also collaborated with ITIM International, a firm now based in Helsinki. Fernando lives in Amstelveen, the Netherlands, with his wife Jussara who is also a Psychologist and consultant. He travels all over the world serving his clients and visiting his four daughters who live in different Continents. He is a former member and Chair of AIESEC International’s Supervisory Group, the world’s largest student-led organization dedicated to arranging cross-border internships. He sits on the Board of Trustees of ISA - the International School of Amsterdam.