Between two worlds
Inner Peace or Outer Impact
From a young age, I was deeply attuned to emotions and energy. I experienced the world intensely, both its beauty and its pain.
To function, I learned to adapt. I developed a strong, analytical mind and built a career in finance and investment banking, where success was defined by speed, performance, and results. I learned to operate in high-pressure environments and, outwardly, I was successful.
But internally, something felt off.
I felt disconnected from a deeper part of myself, the part that sought meaning, peace, and inner alignment. For a long time, I believed I had to choose between two worlds: inner peace or outer impact.
Only later did I realise this was not a real choice.
Sustainable leadership requires both. Clarity and presence. Intellectual sharpness and emotional depth. Ambition and heart.
Seeing the bigger picture
Everything Is Interconnected
Despite outward success, I felt an ongoing tension between my mind and my heart, between what I was doing and what felt truly meaningful.
I began to notice the same pattern in others. Many leaders were highly capable, yet operating under constant pressure, caught in reactivity, and quietly disconnected from themselves and their sense of purpose.
My desire to understand this more deeply led me to explore these questions both in practice and through study, including at the London School of Economics, Harvard Business School, and ETH Zurich, where I later earned a PhD in Science and deepened my understanding of complex systems.
What I began to see was a simple but profound pattern.
The challenges we face in business, society, and the environment are not isolated. They are deeply interconnected. And many of them stem from a fundamental disconnection from ourselves, from each other, and from the natural world.
From insight to practice
Inner Work for Outer Impact
This understanding led me to found VDB Insights, where I support leaders and changemakers in creating space for reflection, clarity, and meaningful change.
My work brings together experience in finance, governance, and leadership with mindfulness-based practices, including meditation and breathwork. It is designed to help people navigate complexity with greater awareness, stability, and intention.
Meditation has been part of my life for over 25 years. I began teaching after becoming a Certified Mindfulness Meditation Teacher, trained by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach and accredited by the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. I am also a Transformational Breath Coach, using breathwork as a powerful way to release limiting patterns and reconnect with the body.
Over time, I came to see that what I once considered a weakness, my sensitivity, is in fact a strength. The more I cultivate presence, the more clearly I see. And the more clearly I see, the better I can support others in doing the same.
Bringing it into the world
Leadership, Service, and Impact
Today, I bring this work into different contexts, through investing, board leadership, and transformative retreats.
I previously served as Chairwoman of The Klosters Forum, an environmental non-profit dedicated to accelerating solutions to global challenges. I was named a “Rising Talent” by the Women’s Forum for the Economy & Society and am honoured to be featured in Standing Up for the Planet: 45 Stories of Extraordinary Women Who Are Changing the World.
My book, Conscious Impact: Mindful Leadership for Meaningful Change (Triarchy Press, 2025), brings together these perspectives in a practical and accessible way. It is written for those who want to create meaningful change by starting within.
I no longer see leadership as a choice between inner peace and outer action, or between intellect and intuition. For me, it is an ongoing practice of integration, reconnection, and leading from a place of wholeness.
I live near Zurich, Switzerland, with my husband, our two children, and our dogs.
