Emmanuel de Haller

Growing up bilingual in Italian and French, and educated in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, I developed an early sensitivity to language, structure and meaning. I pursued Mathematics and Physics, earning an MSc and a PhD in Physics, and later complemented this academic foundation with an MBA and extensive training in healthcare, the medical device industry and its regulatory environment.

Alongside my professional career, training and developing people have been a constant thread. From training recruits in the army in my early twenties, where I discovered my love of sharing knowledge, to working with surgeons and operating-room teams, sales and marketing professionals, and university students, I have always enjoyed creating conditions in which learning can happen and people can develop their own capabilities.

For more than a decade, Neuro-Linguistic Programming has been part of that journey. I followed an in-depth curriculum at NLP University (NLPU) in Santa-Cruz, under the guidance of Judith DeLozier and Robert Dilts, completing Practitioner (2014), Master Practitioner (2015), Trainer & Consultant (2024), with the support of NLP Greece under the leadership of Alexandra Efthymiadou, and, in summer 2026, the Master Trainer, Facilitator & Transformational Entrepreneur programme.

This journey has allowed me to experience the evolution of NLP through its different generations while preserving what I value most in the spirit of Santa Cruz: curiosity, modelling, experimentation, and respect for the uniqueness of each person and system. Along the way, I have also explored Success Factor Modeling and Mindset Mapping, further extending the bridge between individual development, collaboration, leadership and systemic change.

I continued this development through Generative Coaching, including the privilege of attending a module with Robert Dilts and Stephen Gilligan, and subsequently completing the full Generative Coaching curriculum with Nathalie Lebas at Chrysalys.

Following my retirement from corporate life in summer 2024, I founded reach-4-11 as a healthcare consultant, coach and trainer. Its purpose is simple: to continue contributing, to individuals, teams, organisations and the wider systems of which we are part.

Four ideas describe how I approach this contribution:

Exploring.
I often think of Thor Heyerdahl and his companions aboard the Kon-Tiki: curiosity strong enough to leave familiar shores and discover what becomes possible beyond the known.

Sharing.
Each of us placing a log on the fire, making it warmer and brighter through what we bring.

Challenging.
Perhaps the expression of a certain rebel trait in me: questioning assumptions, testing boundaries and remaining resourceful when the map no longer fits the territory. Sir Ernest Shackleton and the story of the Endurance remain a powerful image of this spirit for me.

And emergeance: witnessing what becomes possible when people discover resources, choices and possibilities they may not previously have seen — like a flower blossoming and eventually dispersing seeds of its own.

This is why I increasingly think of myself as someone who cultivates explorers.
Van Gogh's The Sower has become an image deeply anchored in me: we can prepare the ground, sow seeds and create favourable conditions, but we cannot command what grows. There is humility in that idea, and also trust.

My vision is simple:
A world where people live their lives fully.

My contribution, my mission, is to awaken the explorer within, one explorer at a time.

And my role is to create the conditions for people to discover what they are capable of, and then trust them to play their own game.

NLP is one of the principal ways through which I bring this mission to life. Through NLP Practitioner and Master Practitioner certification programmes rooted in the NLPU tradition of Judith DeLozier and Robert Dilts, I seek to share the NLP spirit of Santa Cruz that I cherish: modelling excellence with rigour, humility and respect, while keeping alive the ethical foundations of the discipline as a practice of awareness, responsibility and generative change, in service of individuals, organisations and the wider systems in which they evolve.

Perhaps my own “superpower” is the ability to create a space of trust, curiosity and courage in which people feel able to step into the unknown.

What connects all of this is something I have enjoyed throughout my life: sharing knowledge, curiosity and passion while challenging people to discover their own way forward.

Today, I pursue mandates in healthcare, training and education, work with surgeons and operating-room teams, and support start-ups and organisations by sharing the experience and knowledge gathered throughout my professional journey.

Outside this work, I find solace in the alpine heights and in playing guitar. The mountains teach me perspective, humility and perseverance; music brings resonance, expression and balance to the soul.