Exploding Turkeys and Spare Trousers: Adventures in global business

TALES FROM THE ‘INDIANA JONES OF CULTURAL ADVENTURES’…

From New York to Beijing, Paris to Juba, Moscow to Mexico City, Ken Pasternak’s distinguished career as a banker, management consultant, executive educator, author and keynote speaker has provided a wealth of experience with people and organizations internationally. In this book he shares some of the most memorable stories from his wide-ranging travels and his many encounters with different cultures, and draws out truths that still apply today in both life and business.

‘Inspiring!… Stories that pack profound insights… A great read for the fundamentals of business.’<br />MARSHALL GOLDSMITH<br />New York Times #1 bestselling author of Triggers, Mojo, and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.

A former Director at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Vice President at Citibank, Ken’s unique background combines experience in executive development, management consulting, institution building and corporate banking.<br />He is the co-author of Managing Your Strengths and Performance at the Limit, Business Lessons from Formula 1 Motor Racing.

Ken’s unique background combines experience in executive development, management consulting, institution building and corporate banking. He has lived in six countries and worked with executives in the public and private sectors around the world. In his speaking engagements and workshops Ken focuses on building high performance organizations through visionary leadership, team effectiveness, creating a winning culture and improving cross-cultural understanding.

Previous to his more than twenty years in consulting and teaching, Ken was Director of Education and Training for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London; and prior to that he was Vice President at Citibank where over an 18-year career he was based in New York, London, Helsinki, Istanbul, Brussels, and the Channel Islands.

He has taught on Executive MBA programs at the Trulaske School of Business at University of Missouri, Aalto University (Helsinki), Koç University (Istanbul) Copenhagen Business School and lectured for Wharton Business School Abu Dhabi. His clients have included Ford Motor Company, Nokia, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Ecobank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, American Tower, Newmont Goldcorp and Bosch Automotive to name just a few.

He is the co-author of Performance at the Limit, Business Lessons from Formula 1 Motor Racing published by Cambridge University Press (3rd edition 2016) which served as inspiration for an eight-part BBC World television series (2007) titled “Formula for Success.” Performance at the Limit is available in Japanese, Turkish and Chinese.

Ken is also the co-author with Allan Katcher of Managing Your Strengths (2002) which discusses Life Orientations® as a practical strength-based methodology for gaining better self-understanding and developing successful strategies for improving one’s effectiveness with others.

In March 2019 he was selected to join Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches cohort. Worldwide, one of just 160 people from 16,000 applications.

In 1998, Ken was awarded the title of Academician of the Russian Federation by a consortium of seven major Russian universities in recognition for his efforts in establishing a country-wide network of business centers focused on training and supporting small and medium size enterprises. During his career, Ken has been instrumental in establishing teaching institutions in Istanbul, Beijing, Budapest, Moscow, and Tashkent. Representing the EBRD, he played a key role in establishing the Joint Vienna Institute (JVI) in close collaboration with the IMF, World Bank, OECD, EU and World Trade Organization. He was twice the Institute’s Chairman and for over 20 years, Ken taught seminars four weeks a year at the JVI to thousands of executives from countries undergoing major transformation and change.

Ken has been a member of the International Council of the American Management Association, the Academy of Management, and the Association for Talent Development.

A graduate of Yale University, Ken is a citizen of the USA and Finland and splits his time between Helsinki and Boca Raton, Florida.