Our Founder

S.N. Zeynep Tözüm, MA, PCC

Zeynep’s focus is the link between personal growth, performance development and business growth. She works internationally as an organizational development consultant and executive performance coach, based on 20 years’ global management and leadership experience with a multinational organization, plus a decade of consulting with senior executives and teams for more effective human processes and leadership development for business growth.

She guides businesses to articulate their collective ambition, to attend to existing strengths, and to re-purpose the resistance that hinders business growth. She specializes in working with businesses as a whole, supporting all levels of systems: with new lenses to view where they are; to create and articulate a collective vision; to understand, appreciate and work with resistance to change; to collectively plan and execute transformational projects. Within that framework, she also designs learning interventions based on specific needs and aspirations of managers/teams, shaped by business context and measured impact on desired results.

With an M.A. in Economics, Zeynep joined Unilever in 1986 in marketing. After 14 years as an executive in operations, her career took a dramatic turn in 1999: she joined a restructuring project for Unilever Turkey, and later led a cost optimization project for Central Eastern Europe for Unilever Foods companies. Those successes illuminated her real aspiration to help expand peoples’ capacities in leading and generating value, rather than helping shrink businesses for short-term gains. This commitment led to her next assignment as Change Manager for Unilever Turkey.

After graduating from an intensive international development program for senior leaders, she trained as a senior executive coach and joined faculty for that program parallel to her executive role. This move was the beginning of a new professional path in performance development and organizational impact. Zeynep was appointed to Unilever Corporate HR team in 2002 as VP, Performance Development. This role added substantially to her leadership experience: with 4 years’ work in Unilever businesses in Latin America, Germany, France, USA as a consultant, specializing in organization development for higher performance and growth. During that time, she also served as an executive performance coach with leaders and teams around the world. Testimonials

In 2006, Zeynep left Unilever to found FARBEYOND CONSULTING to focus on her work in the area of organizational transformation, reinforcing the link between personal growth, performance development and business growth. Her practice thus extended her work and experience into the larger corporate world.

Zeynep leads the projects at FARBEYOND CONSULTING as an organizational development consultant. She is also a Professional Certified Coach accredited with the International Coach Federation (ICF). Parallel to her role in FARBEYOND CONSULTING, she is a Professional Associate and Faculty at the Gestalt International Study Center in Mass. USA.

Over the years, Zeynep graduated from many programs in personal and leadership development, studied various approaches and continues to integrate all that input and experience into her work. Zeynep is a member of organizations like The Society for Affective Science (SAS), Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy and a founding member of Common Purpose Turkey and of the International Association for Gestalt In Organizations (INTAGIO).

She calls herself a world citizen, with a strong sense of cultural diversity nurtured by her native country, Turkey, as well as by her education and work over a wide geography. Zeynep says people, progress, curiosity, learning, enjoyment and action are central to her life. Her basic conviction is that every person and system is doing the best they can, given the information available to them. With expanding awareness and will to experiment, she sees no limits to human development, as long as there is clear purpose, commitment, and beliefs that expand one’s world, not limit it.

Publications

“What’s Growing Ourselves Got to Do with Growing Our Business?” A chapter in the book titled, Leaders for Tomorrow, edited by Eric Vogt and Robin Grumman-Vogt (Interclass), Beaver Pond Press, April 2009.
“Intimacy: Why Do We Need More Of It In The Corporate World?” Gestalt Review; Volume 11; Number 3,The Gestalt International Study Center, 2011

Education and Training

MA in Economics, June 1985
Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey
BA in Economics, June 1983
Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey
Notre Dame de Sion French High School, Istanbul, Turkey (1972-1979)

Zeynep attended following programs to enhance her self-development and consulting and coaching practice:

Leading Change and Organizational Renewal; Harvard Business School, Executive Education Program
USA-May 2000
Performance Coaching Workshop by Kelly Poulos from Asia Works and Janet Jones from Momentis
UK-Sept.2000
More-to-Life Weekend; Life Training Program
UK-Mar.2001
7 Days of Creation by Dr. K. Bradford Brown and Pascale Asher; Life Training Program
UK-2002
Gestalt Experience Workshop; Gestalt Institute of Cleveland
USA-Aug.2004
Tolbert’s Leadership Development Profile; Certification Program for consultants coaches and change Agents/HARTHILL
UK-Nov.2005
Gestalt Coaching: Enhancing Your Competency Workshop; Gestalt Institute of Cleveland-OSD Integrative Study Center
Turkey-Aug.2006
Coaching Across Cultures; Rosinski & Company
Belgium-Nov.2006
International Gestalt Coaching Program; Gestalt Institute of Cleveland
USA- Sept 2006- March 2007
Group Intensive; Gestalt Institute of Cleveland
USA- Feb 2007-May 2007
Becoming a Better Intervener; Gestalt Center for Organization & Sytems Development
USA- Oct 19-21, 2007
Applying the Cape Cod Model in Organizations; Gestalt International Study Center
USA- Oct 28- Nov 2, 2007
Executive Personality Dynamics, Gestalt International Study Center
USA- July 20-24, 2008
Gestalt Constellation Workshop; Gordon& Nancy Wheeler; USA-Oct 2015
ICF Ethics Core Competency Program; International Coach Federation; Oct 2016
Leading Virtual Teams Program; Gestalt International Study Centre; Nov. 2016
Encountering the Other: Personal Growth and Group Process Workshop; Association for The Advancement of Gestalt Therapy; Italt- Sept. 2016