Alex Wippel: “I am an ordinary person having an extraordinary passion. I surf the world’s biggest waves.”
Alex Wippel works with leadership teams on the quality of their decisions, above all where information is incomplete, time is short and mistakes are hard to correct. He combines his experience as a big wave surfer with more than 20 years of practice in leadership development.
As a professional, Alex Wippel has surfed the biggest waves in the world, including Jaws on Maui and Nazaré in Portugal, where water walls of up to 30 meters roll toward the coast. He was the first European to surf Jaws and the first Austrian to surf Nazaré on a so-called XXL day. In doing so, he learned what decisions under uncertainty demand. In these waves, it is not the courage of the individual that decides, but the preparation of a team in which roles, procedures and responsibilities are clear. In Nazaré, he built an international team and developed and trained safety procedures with it. He applies this way of thinking to companies.
Alex Wippel Keynote & Workshop Topics
Decision Quality When Old Standards No Longer Hold
Successful teams rely on standards that have proven themselves. It becomes difficult when the environment changes faster than the standards. In this keynote, Alex Wippel tells a true story that leads from Jaws in Hawaii to Nazaré in Portugal and shows how the question of good decisions changes once what has made you successful no longer holds. It is not about motivation, but about how a team evaluates incomplete information, stays able to act under time pressure and recognizes when a standard has to change. This includes how you handle yourself under pressure, because those who want to lead others have to be able to lead themselves. He gives the audience his model for decisions under uncertainty: set priorities, test assumptions, change the standard. The audience takes away a clear approach it can apply in its own leadership practice.
The keynote lasts 60 minutes and opens with a ten-minute film about Nazaré, which Alex Wippel shows exclusively at events. A Q&A follows or, on request, a fireside chat. It is available in German or English, on site or online.
AI-Ready Is Not Decision-Ready
What big wave surfing teaches about data, risk and decision quality. Technology brings teams faster into situations for which their existing skills are no longer enough. When tow-in surfing made large waves accessible, technology was never the shortcut: skills, roles, safety and accountability had to evolve just as fast. Alex Wippel applies this idea to the use of AI and data in companies. Three thoughts are at the center: speed without maturity increases risk, knowledge remains the decisive lever, and teams must become decision-ready. The keynote addresses leadership teams and events on data, technology and AI, and shows that being ready for AI is only the beginning. The real leadership task is to develop skills, roles, guardrails and accountability together.
Both topics can be deepened in a workshop, half-day or full-day, online or on site. It consists of three modules that can be combined: Leading Myself, Leading Others and Leading as a System. They follow one idea: those who want to lead others have to be able to lead themselves. Results are a decision checklist, a team communication protocol, an escalation card and a debrief template.
More about Alex Wippel
Since 2000 he has worked in leadership development and organizational development, in the public sector as well as in an international technology company, where he was responsible for leadership and talent programs for around 1,000 leaders. He holds a PhD in business and advises and coaches leaders at all levels. That is why, in keynotes and workshops, he speaks the language of leadership teams and not only that of sport.
His keynotes and workshops focus on decision quality under uncertainty and on what technology means for decisions. He deepened his knowledge of the role of AI at Stanford University. His view: data and tools alone do not make a team capable of deciding; what matters is how leadership works with them. Audiences take away a clear approach to setting priorities, testing assumptions and changing standards when the old ones are no longer enough, and they learn to apply it in everyday leadership.
His keynote lasts 60 minutes and opens with a ten-minute film about Nazaré, which he shows exclusively at events. A Q&A follows or, on request, a fireside chat. The content is aligned with the client on industry and audience. Alex Wippel delivers keynotes and leads workshops for leaders in Europe, the USA and Asia, in German and English.