Dr. Eleftheria Egel, an entrepreneur and researcher in sustainable leadership, consultant, and active member of several foundation boards, has built a career at the intersection of entrepreneurship, leadership consulting, and academia. Bridging idealism and pragmatism, she places people and dignity at the heart of her thinking on organisational transformation and sustainability. Drawing on a wide range of experiences, her approach highlights the importance of leaders’ inner development in addressing today’s challenges.

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What, in your own journey, convinced you that sustainability begins first and foremost with the inner development of leaders?

Eleftheria: I have a broad, generalist background. I started out in entrepreneurship, then worked in finance before moving into academia. I am currently a consultant for start-ups and actively involved in several foundation boards.

When I first started out as an entrepreneur, I was very young. For me, the most important thing at work was to feel safe and to thrive. It seemed natural that this should be at the foundation of any business. After all, unhappy employees do not contribute positively to a company, and this inevitably affects customers. This cannot have positive effects, neither for leaders nor for the organisation!

But when I started working for a company, I realised that my perspective was the exception rather than the rule. This affected me deeply: I began to doubt myself and to become wary of others. I felt anxious going to work because making money was the company’s sole objective. Eventually, I left…

Today, I believe that all these experiences are valuable in helping us understand what we want for ourselves and how we wish to live our lives, both as individuals and as professionals.

These experiences led me to pursue a PhD in spiritual leadership and management. In this context, “spiritual” does not have a religious meaning, but rather refers to human dignity.

In the context of SMEs, this means that employees are treated as individuals with fundamental dignity and intrinsic worth, regardless of their role or status. This attitude has a ripple effect throughout organisations and leads to positive outcomes.

We invest heavily in technology, public policy and strategies. Why isn’t this enough to address the major crises of our time? What is missing?

Eleftheria: We talk about deep tech and AI as if these technologies operated independently of human life, whereas their purpose should be to improve humanity. There is a sense that human beings no longer matter, as if we wanted to do away with them altogether, as if we had forgotten that our purpose was to flourish, both individually and collectively, to connect with one another and to create beautiful things. This obsession with technology diminishes the value of humanity, and that is very dangerous. What is missing is a fundamental reflection on the very foundations and purpose of these technologies.

Peter Drucker, one of the most influential thinkers in modern management, reflected on the purpose of business. In his view, creating a business means thinking about the customer — and therefore understanding people’s real needs before trying to meet them.

Yet many of these new technologies do not focus on the genuine needs of human beings and societies. On the contrary, they create artificial needs. As a result, these technologies often generate more problems than solutions. From an environmental perspective, these technologies also raise many questions.

We are encouraged to make individual efforts and asked to reduce the number of showers we take, while very little is said about the enormous amount of energy consumed by artificial intelligence.[1]

A single AI query may consume only a few watt-hours of electricity, but billions of queries every day require gigawatt-hours of energy, turning seemingly insignificant digital actions into energy consumption on a scale comparable to that of entire cities.

Not to mention the electricity required to power new generative AI models!

We are here at the Caux Palace, a historic place dedicated to dialogue. Why do we need spaces “away from everyday life” to engage in inner work and develop these individual capacities?

Eleftheria: First of all, Caux is a beautiful place. It is truly exceptional: we are surrounded by nature, with a breathtaking view of Lake Geneva below us. Being here gives us a different perspective. For leaders who spend every day in their offices and who are often caught up in reacting and managing problems rather than taking considered action, this provides an opportunity to step outside their daily routine.

Here, they can come together in a safe environment, which is very important for communicating more freely and learning from one another. They can take the time to turn inward, reflect, and explore different ways of addressing problems that are more closely aligned with human values.

I think places like Caux help us remember that we also have an inner voice and an inner life. After all, we cannot separate our professional selves from our personal selves. Our professional lives are, or at least should be, grounded in our personal values.

A lack of alignment between the two leads to difficulties we know all too well: a poor organisational culture, mental health problems, conflicts — all because people do not feel well in themselves.

Indeed, nearly two-thirds of SMEs in Switzerland are affected by mental health-related absences, resulting in additional costs, loss of productivity, and negative impacts on other staff members.[2]

When you are in a leadership position, you develop a certain persona within your organisation. But outside that role, you can allow yourself to be vulnerable. You have the right to say, “I don’t know,” or  "I want to do the right thing, I just don’t know how.” When you find yourself surrounded by other people at the same level of hierarchy, you feel less alone and realise that others are facing similar challenges.

I think places like Caux help us remember that we also have an inner voice and an inner life. Indeed, we cannot separate our professional selves from our personal selves. Our professional lives are, or at least should be, grounded in our personal values.

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Many SME leaders say, “We don’t have time to reflect — we need to survive.” What would you say to them, and how can you show them that reconnecting with our humanity can actually become a competitive advantage?

Eleftheria: On the one hand, it is enough to look at the cost of recruiting and training someone new when an unhappy employee leaves.[2]

On the other hand, we know that an employee who is simply doing the bare minimum is insufficient to deliver truly excellent customer service. And in a saturated market, excellent customer service can be a competitive advantage for a small business. We can see how important this is with new technologies: customers are getting tired of chatbots, where they do not feel valued and where the service is not centred on their needs.

By contrast, an employee who feels good at work genuinely feels part of the company because their voice is heard, and their opinions and concerns are taken into consideration. They know that their superiors have their back, that we are working together to create a product or service that meets customers’ needs and enables all of us to make a living. This shared sense of humanity also creates resilience in difficult times.

SMEs are particularly well placed to foster this kind of culture, partly because they are rooted in their local communities, and their leaders are part of the same community as their employees.

This is very different from the situation in large, faceless corporations, where decisions are made at headquarters in another country and then cascaded down to us. It can also foster a sense of internal competition, because employees who do not instinctively put themselves forward, even when they do an excellent job, are not necessarily recognised by those in leadership.

Despite the tensions and complexity of the crises we are facing today, what gives you hope about leadership?

Eleftheria: What a crisis reveals is that things are not working well.

What gives me hope is seeing that many people are realising that perhaps we need to return to fundamental human values. More and more people are speaking up, reflecting, and coming together to take action at different levels of society.

I see this in academia as well, where there is a growing body of engaged, activist-oriented research.

Globalisation has not delivered what it promised. I think that simplicity, at the local level, is very important when it comes to finding solutions to the complexity of the world and discovering new ways of living and working together.

What gives me hope is seeing that many people are realising that perhaps we need to return to fundamental human values. There are many more voices speaking up, reflecting, and coming together to take action at different levels of society.

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[1] According to a 2022 study by the insurance company AXA, the direct and indirect costs of mental health conditions are estimated at around CHF 19 billion per year — more than 3% of Switzerland’s GDP.
Source: https://www.kmu.admin.ch/kmu/fr/home/actuel/news/2023/les-absences-dues-aux-maladies-psychiques-augmentent.html

[2] The most common repercussions include overtime and increased workloads for remaining staff (54%), costs associated with recruiting additional personnel (38%), lost production or disruptions to services (37%), and the costs of continuing to pay salaries (30%).
Source: https://www.shkudo.org/en/post/macroeconomic-costs-of-mental-illness-across-all-sectors

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Does this perspective resonate with you? Join us in Geneva for an interactive workshop on democracy and youth employment in the age of AI, or find out more about our upcoming seminar in the unique setting of the Caux Palace, “Leading with Humanity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”, a residential experience featuring an exceptional panel bringing together leading academic institutions, international and Swiss CEOs, technology journalists, and experts in inner transformation.

The Caux Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of Olivier Anselmo as its new Executive Director, effective 15 October 2026. With extensive leadership and management experience across the humanitarian and international sectors, Olivier Anselmo will lead the Foundation as it continues to advance its mission of fostering dialogue, building trust and promoting ethical leadership. Olivier Anselmo joins Caux today for a one-month transition period alongside current Executive Director Ignacio Packer, who will retire in October.

Olivier Anselmo is a senior humanitarian professional with extensive leadership and management experience. Before joining the Caux Foundation, he served as Deputy Executive Director of the Switzerland for UNHCR Foundation, the UN Refugee Agency’s national partner in Switzerland. He joined the organisation when it was established in 2020 as Director of Operations and Finance, before being appointed Deputy Executive Director in January 2024.

Earlier in his career, Olivier Anselmo spent nine years with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), working both in the field in Afghanistan, Haiti, Niger, Senegal and Sudan and at headquarters. He also worked with DNDi, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, where he was responsible for human resources and administration.

Olivier Anselmo holds a degree in economics from the University of Geneva, as well as two Master’s degrees, in human resources management and in communication and media.

“Joining the Caux Foundation as its incoming Executive Director is both a great honour and an important responsibility,” says Olivier Anselmo. “I look forward to bringing my energy and commitment to the Foundation and its mission. Together with a strong and dedicated team, and with the continued support and engagement of the Board, I am confident that we can build on the Caux Foundation’s achievements and strong values to open a new and impactful chapter for the Foundation.”

“We are delighted to welcome Olivier Anselmo to the Caux Foundation,” says Jacqueline Coté, President of the Caux Foundation. “What particularly impressed us was the combination of his strong leadership, fundraising and management experience with his deep belief in the power of dialogue and trust. He is a pragmatic and energetic leader, with the determination to turn ideas into action. I very much look forward to working with Olivier Anselmo as the Caux Foundation enters its next chapter.

We are also deeply grateful to Ignacio Packer for his leadership and commitment to the Foundation over almost four years. He has made an important contribution to where the Caux Foundation is today, helping to drive progress, strengthen partnerships and put strong foundations in place for the future.”

Ignacio Packer will remain Executive Director until 15 October, working closely with Olivier Anselmo throughout the transition period.

The Caux Foundation is an autonomous Swiss foundation based at the Caux Palace, above Montreux. Established in 1946, it develops and hosts programmes, conferences and events focused on democracy and human security, peace and reconciliation, inner development, arts and culture, heritage and community engagement. Its activities bring together participants and partners from civil society, public institutions, international organisations, academia, business, culture and local communities. The Foundation works both in Switzerland and internationally, with the aim of creating opportunities for dialogue, exchange and collaboration across different sectors and perspectives.

The Caux Palace is central to the Foundation’s activities and serves as a venue for international gatherings, cultural events, exhibitions, heritage activities and public engagement. The Caux Foundation is a member of Initiatives of Change International.

Photo: Mark Henley

From 31 August to 4 September, Ignacio Packer, Executive Director of the Caux Foundation, joined participants from around 70 countries at the Global Conscious Food Systems Summit in Bhutan. What began as a gathering focused on food systems became, for him, a much broader invitation to reflect on the relationships that connect food with soil, nature, livelihoods, dignity, democracy and peace. In Bhutan, agriculture, spirituality, community and human wellbeing are deeply intertwined and the Summit left him with a simple but powerful question: What do we really see when we look at our plate?

Everything on our plate has a story

I came to Bhutan for the Global Conscious Food Systems Summit with food systems not exactly as my area of expertise. I leave convinced that they are very much my business - and everybody’s business.

Perhaps I should have known this from breakfast.

During the Summit, Bhutan’s Prime Minister, Dasho Tshering Tobgay, invited us to look beyond what is on our plates and see the people, resources and effort behind every meal.

This question stayed with me, not least because I had the privilege of staying with a Bhutanese family, Norbu and Chencho and their children, in their small rural guesthouse. I arrived as their only guest and, with the extraordinary warmth of Bhutanese hospitality, very quickly became a friend.

Each morning, Chencho brought breakfast to the table with extraordinary care. My hosts would explain where the food came from, what had been grown locally, and something about the farming behind it. And suddenly, breakfast was no longer just breakfast.

Before the food, there was soil. A seed with its history. Water, sun and a climate that had to cooperate. Knowledge accumulated over generations. A farmer who planted, waited, worried and harvested. Transport. A market, perhaps. Someone who prepared and cooked the food. And finally, the hands that placed it in front of me.

All of that was on my plate. But how much of it do I normally see?

“When in doubt, go local.” said Bhutan’s Prime Minister, Dasho Tshering Tobgay. It was an invitation to see the people behind every breakfast, including Norbu and Chencho, and the warmth of Bhutanese hospitality.

We need to look beyond what is on our plates and see the people, resources and effort behind every meal.

Learning to see the whole

It is difficult to imagine a more meaningful setting for the Conscious Food Systems Summit than Bhutan and m deep gratitude goes to the Royal Government of Bhutan, UNDP and the Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA) for creating this remarkable gathering. Bhutan itself was part of the conversation. Mountains, forests, water, agriculture, spirituality, community and human wellbeing do not easily fit into separate boxes here. Nature is not somewhere else. And we are part of it.

And then there were the people.

There were so many wonderful encounters with people from Bhutan and participants from around 70 countries: farmers, policymakers, practitioners, entrepreneurs, researchers, investors and many others. Different cultures and experiences, but all connected through a strong sense that we were dealing with something that concerns us all.

It very much reminded me of the core of our work at the Caux Foundation for the last 80 years: create spaces where people who might otherwise not meet can encounter one another and make connections between issues too often treated separately.

Food is connected to climate. Climate to justice. Justice to dignity. Dignity to democracy. Democracy to peace. And all of them to our relationship with nature and with one another. And we urgently need to learn to see the whole.

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What does it mean to be "conscious"?

The name of the Summit in itself has been a source of reflection for me. What does it mean, to be "conscious"? For me, consciousness is seeing what we have learned not to see. It is the willingness to look again at what has become invisible through habit, assumption, conditioning, or familiarity. It is noticing the things we have stopped questioning, the perspectives we have stopped considering, and perhaps even the parts of ourselves we have learned to overlook.

I think of it as an inner compass: the values and convictions that help us find direction when there is no obvious map. I usually carry a small compass in my pocket and often find myself fiddling with it as a simple reminder to pause, question myself and ask: Am I still heading in a direction consistent with what I believe in?

Consciousness means recognising relationships and consequences: between my choices and somebody else’s livelihood; between what I consume and the soil; between economic decisions and dignity; between how power is exercised and whether people have agency.

Consciousness requires attention: slowing down enough to notice. It requires self-reflection, asking what part I play. It requires responsibility, because once I have seen something, I cannot entirely unsee it.

This resonates deeply with the long experience of Initiatives of Change and our activities in Caux and Geneva: change begins with oneself.

In a very practical way, I have sometimes struggled to fully understand that phrase. Our challenges are profoundly systemic. This means that climate change, inequality and dysfunctional food systems will not be solved by personal reflection. But change beginning with oneself does not mean that change ends with oneself. It means connecting inner development with outer change.

I believe that consciousness without action remains reflection. Action without consciousness risks reproducing the patterns we are trying to change. We need both.

For me, consciousness is like an inner compass: the values and convictions that help us find direction when there is no obvious map.

What is a food system for?

Of course, we need better, fairer and more inclusive markets, finance, technology and policies. But I kept returning to a more fundamental question: What is the purpose of a food system? Surely it cannot simply be to produce more food. It must be to nourish people, communities, soil, nature, human dignity and future generations.

This is why an important moment in Bhutan was the launch of the Conscious Food Systems Framework, bringing together more than five years of CoFSA’s co-creation, inquiry and movement-building.

The Framework connects vision and values, conscious ways of working, inner change and systemic transformation, alongside practical experience from more than 50 initiatives.

Its value, for me, will be in what happens next: not another framework to put on a shelf, but something to work with, question, test and put into practice for a more just and sustainable future.

What does democracy have to do with breakfast?

My own professional journey has increasingly brought me into questions of democracy, trust and peace. Looking at my breakfast plate, I found myself asking: What does democracy have to do with what is on my plate? Quite a lot, I think.

Who owns the land? Who controls seeds? Who decides what is grown? Who has access to finance and technology? Who receives the value created? Who carries the risks when the climate changes? Whose knowledge counts? And fundamentally: Who has a voice?

These are food questions, but they are also questions of power, participation, justice and dignity. They are democratic questions.

This is the reason why our democracy work at Caux Foundation does not only focus on institutions and elections, important as they are. It also focuses on trust, relationships and our capacity to live with difference. Democracy depends on people believing they have agency, that their voice matters and that they belong. The same is true of food systems.

When farmers struggle to make a living, when soil is exhausted for short-term returns, or when decisions are taken far from those who live with their consequences, dignity, agency and trust are affected.

This is where food systems, democracy and peace meet. Peace is not simply the absence of war, as we hear repeatedly. Peace also grows from dignity, fairness, belonging, trust and the possibility of imagining a future.

Democracy depends on people believing they have agency, that their voice matters and that they belong. The same is true of food systems.

Pain, hope and small islands of leadership

One thought in particular stayed with me throughout the Summit: pain and hope can coexist.

Soils are being degraded. Climate change is disrupting livelihoods. Farmers are struggling or abandoning the land. Inequalities persist. Democracies are under strain and trust is declining. We should not minimise this pain. But recognising pain does not require surrendering to despair.

Bhutan gave me plenty of energy to continue choosing hope over cynicism and despair. Among the people gathered from 70 countries were so many already doing things differently: restoring soil, recovering knowledge, experimenting with new models, rethinking finance and reconnecting food with health, community and nature. 

A farmer restoring exhausted soil. An investor accepting a different understanding of return. A policymaker genuinely listening to those who cultivate the land. A chef choosing ingredients with care, honouring where they come from and turning them into nourishment. A community reclaiming agency over how it feeds itself. I think of these as small but crucial islands of positive leadership.

This also echoes the long experience of Initiatives of Change’s Farmers’ Dialogue, bringing farmers together across countries around our relationship with land, food and one another. It recognises farmers not simply as producers, but as custodians of soil, knowledge and our common future.

None of these actions transforms a global system alone. But each shows that another way is possible. Perhaps systemic change starts with enough people, in enough places, behaving differently - and then finding one another.

Our task is to connect these islands of leadership.

What comes after the Summit?

CoFSA partnered with the Caux Foundation for the 2024 Caux Inner Development Goals Forum, particularly around the SDG 2 workstream, and right from the start, this connection has felt natural: creating spaces where people can slow down, build trust, see differently and return to the world better equipped to act. I am also proud to have served, since the beginning of this year, on CoFSA’s International Advisory Committee. After Bhutan, I hope to deepen my contribution.

What Andrew Bovarnick, Charlotte Dufour, Thomas Legrand and the fantastic CoFSA team have helped guide feels quite unique: a deeply collective endeavour, engaging many people and perspectives, and connecting knowledge, consciousness and action across boundaries that too often keep us apart.

But a Summit should not end when the Summit ends. So, what will I do differently after the Summit in Bhutan?

First, I will never look at my breakfast in quite the same way again. Where did it come from? Who produced it? What soil, water and human labour made it possible? What remains hidden from my view?

Second, I will use and promote the new Conscious Food Systems Framework, including in conversations beyond food systems around democracy, peacebuilding, humanitarian action and leadership.

Third, I will keep making connections. Food, climate, democracy and peace are not separate agendas. Questions of land, resources, agency, participation and dignity concern the kind of societies we build.

And I will try to connect those small islands of leadership. One of the privileges of my professional life has been moving between communities that do not always meet. I hope to continue doing that.

Everything is urgent: climate, soil degradation, farmers’ livelihoods, democratic decline, war and polarisation. Yet both, Caux and Bhutan, remind me of the importance of giving ourselves permission: not to act less urgently but to see more deeply.

So tomorrow morning, perhaps we could pause before taking that first bite. Look at the plate. And see beyond it. The soil. The seed. The farmer. The rain. The market. The cook. The choices. The relationships. The extraordinary web of cooperation between people and nature that allows us to eat.

Then ask: What do I really see on my plate?

Perhaps consciousness begins there: seeing more of what is there, recognising that we are part of it, and accepting that what we see asks something of us.

Because the purpose of a food system should not simply be to feed the world. It should help us nourish the world: people, nature, dignity, democracy and peace.

Consciousness begins there: seeing more of what is there, recognising that we are part of it, and accepting that what we see asks something of us.

Ignacio Packer is Executive Director of the Caux Foundation, a Swiss charitable foundation committed to promoting trust, ethical leadership, sustainable living, and human security. With more than 30 years of experience in humanitarian work and development, he worked at the Development Bank of Latin America and at KPMG before becoming a recognized leader of NGOs and international alliances for over 25 years. An expert in human rights and social issues, he has been particularly engaged in advocating for the protection of migrants and refugees, especially children and young people.

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Further reading & connections

• Global Conscious Food Systems Summit - Bhutan 2026. Visit the Summit website
• Fiona Harvey, “Bhutan hosts first ‘conscious food summit’ amid threats to global supplies,” The Guardian, 31 August 2026. Read the article
• Explore the Conscious Food Systems Framework - CoFSA’s framework for bringing consciousness and inner capacities into food-systems transformation. Explore the Framework
• “From Caux to Bhutan: Water Knows No Border”. Read the story on LinkedIn
• “How the Inner Development Goals can help shape Conscious Food Systems: reflections from the Caux IDG Forum”,  2024, Charlotte Dufour, Nadene Canning and Ignacio Packer. Read the article

Photo credits: Caux Foundation, CoFSA, Elise Buckle, Norbu