Matt:

When asked whom I would like to meet or have met in my lifetime I can not help but think of Richard Feynman who has inspired many a reflection and approach to linking the scientific and "human" worlds. In particular his role in the challenger accident investigation commision whereby his simplicity and integrity revealed the classical political and hypocritical behaviours of much of modern days management (an area of particular interest and study for me).

Richard P. Feynman -- scientist, teacher, friend and musician -- stretched the bounds of theoretical physics into the real world.  He played a role in the development of the atomic bomb, expanded the understanding of quantum electrodynamics, and cut to the heart of the Challenger disaster.  But beyond that, Feynman was a unique and multi-faceted individual.  Explore this site to find out why Feynman remains one of the most celebrated and revered scientists of modern times.

William 'Bill' Lear, best known for his famous Learjet as an adventure into the advanced performance business jet design and manufacturer. He actually revolutionised many of our every day actions by designing and introducing the car radio and the eight-track tape and negociating its standard installation in all Ford automobiles produced at the time. His work on a Swiss fighter aircraft and the developement of an eco-friendly steam based automobile engine long before we even new of the importance of ecological issues in the car industry, puts him into the category of entrepreneurial mavericks. Bill Lear was able to see, and dared to venture into, ideas he believed in. My own aeronautical background has naturally influenced this choice allthough I would recommend any one interested in knowing what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur to read his biography entitled: Stormy Genius (out of print but maybe Amazon can help) .
But Lear, who had only an eighth-grade education, also held more than 150 patents. He is credited with inventing the car radio, the eight-track stereo tape player and cartridges, the autopilot for jet aircraft, the navigational radio, and the radio direction-finder for general aviation aircraft.


A little earlier in time, Aristotle, still a sciences man, also an educator/philosopher, by my standards a man to be admired and hence a man to meet. Aside his contribution to physics he expanded on the interesting concept of ethics which is most important in the work we are now doing with our clients. Simple questions such as: Why do we work?, Why do we behave the way we do at work? and How can so much of todays management get away with such lack of human and ethical behaviour ? are often addressed in our workshops and much inspiration comes from the works and ideas of Aristotle.
" He thought, indeed, that a man could not claim to know a subject unless he was capable of transmitting his knowledge to others, and he regarded teaching as the proper manifestation of knowledge."

Mark :
	Since the worst catastrophy that happened to humanity, the Second World War, killing 55 million people, an old idea started to finally have success: do not respond to aggression by aggression. In other words conflicts often show that
after massive losses on both sides, no one really wins. The man that most symbolizes this change is Mahatma Gandhi. My question to him would have been: where did you find that inner strength to believe in the human kind when all rational observation gave you the opposite image?

Being an opera fan and very much interested in interpretation and exceptional voices I have always been fascinated by an atypical tenor: Mario del Monaco. He practiced what I would call instinctive singing. Italian Maestros still today believe that it is impossible to sing with this technique, and there is the phenomen, a man that did it all wrong but had one of the most incredible presence and voice volume. I would have enjoyed assisting to one of his performances as "Pagliaccio" that is said to have left the public in transe.


Christophorus Colombus - I have always been fascinated by the incredible will of this exceptionnal leader. A moment I would have liked to witness was during his first trip in 1492, when in the middle of the Ocean, the crews were about to rebel and seriously thinking of killing him as no land was in sight. How can a man, in the middle of nowhere change the mind of hundred other men from murdering him to go on searching for land no one was even sure existed? How many contemporary leaders would survive that situation today?