Axel Kravatzky (USA 86-88) is an Executive Director of Aegis Management Solutions Ltd, an organisational consultancy which uses experiential methods to support leaders in transforming their organisations. He is also Chair of the Trinidad and Tobago National Committee, Vice-Chair of the Community Improvement Committee of the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce, and recently became a member of the UWC International Board of Directors..

 

“It was turbo-charged!” says Axel of his experience at UWC-USA. “Even though I had encountered cultural diversity before – I was born in Transylvania, emigrated to Germany in 1980, and lived a year in the USA as a German Bundestag-US Congress exchange student – this was different. The people I met at UWC were real characters, and the UWC values really spoke to me. I loved the boundless opportunities, and I had a wonderful time.

 

“Looking back, the thing that has probably influenced my life the most was the service element of the programme. I hadn’t done any community service before, and although I took Mountain Search and Rescue, which was well within my comfort zone as a climber, it was a new experience to be helping people in life and death situations. Afterwards, I read Kurt Hahn’s perspective on service, and realised why this all felt right and how it worked.”

 

Axel’s current service project has developed from his membership of the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce, and involves the improvement of homes for the elderly.

 

“We decided to launch a process to find out what practices best exemplified what we called ‘Living Homes’. We wanted it to be a collaborative process, with all the stakeholders involved in making a person’s time in such a home what it is, working together. It was a very appreciative approach, and it has enabled us to share best practice in a really meaningful way. More volunteers, and more sponsoring companies than anyone had expected, signed up faster than anyone had anticipated. This enabled us to engage many more stakeholders across the whole country and to give each of them four prizes – such as training or equipment – that re-enforced the emerging core practices of ‘Living Homes’. The feedback has been excellent, with the homes and care-takers re-energised. I can honestly say that I would never have been involved with this kind of service work now if it wasn’t for my experience at UWC.”

 

After UWC, Axel studied Philosophy and Economics at the LSE, and followed his first degree up with a Masters in Development Studies and a PhD in Development Studies and Operational Research, also at the LSE.

 

“I became interested in Environmental Economics,” he says. “I wanted to help all the different stakeholders work together – fish farmers, bureaucrats, economists, ecologists – and so I developed a socio-technical approach, getting people to work together and discuss ways to move forward. After working on several projects in Romania, my wife (who had recently finished her Ph.D) had to return to Trinidad for three years as part of her scholarship agreement, so in 1996 we moved to the Caribbean.”

 

Axel began lecturing in Economics and Environmental Economics at the University of the West Indies, and helped to found the Sustainable Economic Development Unit there. But it wasn’t quite what he was looking for. His focus on the social element of his socio-technical approach led to the formation of Heads Together Ltd – originally Tet Ansamm, after the Creole term for Heads Together – which Axel had learnt while working on a disaster mitigation project in Haiti.

 

“Now, at Aegis Management Solutions Ltd I mostly work on leadership development, coaching and change management,” explains Axel. “We have contracts with energy companies, government ministries, banks and insurance companies, among others. With the support of the company, I also led the organisation of a series of six international Group Relations conferences in the Caribbean on Leadership, Encounters, and Transformation.”

 

Axel is also the Chair of the UWC Trinidad and Tobago National Committee, which he set up a few years ago with fellow UWC graduates from Simón Bolívar UWC. Apart from the usual National Committee tasks such as selection, the Committee is currently working towards the wider acceptance of the Simón Bolívar Diploma, and has achieved success at the University of the West Indies, which will now give credit for the Diploma.

 

“When you leave UWC, your instinct is to give something back,” says Axel. “The timing is right for me to do that now, and it is a good feeling.”