Henrike Wilkes, born in 1977, grew up in a small town between the Ruhr area and the Rhineland, Germany. After graduating from high school, she discovered her passion for people and communication during an au pair stay in Rome. This was followed by a 6-year professional career in the hotel industry in various regions of Germany and in Australia at the time of the Olympic Games. She also completed her two degrees in business administration partly abroad – with a semester at the Università Luigi Bocconi in Milan, and an MBA degree at the University of Stellenbosch Business School, South Africa. During her more than 12 years as an executive and manager in a DAX company in the insurance industry, she specialized in the development of managers and was particularly committed to the interests of women in business. She founded an internal women's network and made films to get more women interested in insurance sales. As she was particularly fascinated by the combination of coaching and leadership, Henrike Wilkes completed various coaching courses to enable her to develop her employees effectively. In addition to traditional coaching methods, she makes use of the unusual, using horses for coaching and in leadership seminars to sharpen participants' senses for non-verbal communication, effectiveness, and authenticity. Her everyday experience with her large and very dominant mare, Swari, shows her that you can learn a lot about leadership from horses. If you would like to find out more about the author, please visit her website at www.henrike-wilkes.de. You can also contact her personally there.