Karola Sakotnik

Future Storyteller, Speaker, & Executive Advisor

Karola Sakotnik, MBA, MAS, is an international speaker, Future Storyteller, Executive Advisor, and founder of Future Skills Farming. Her work explores a question that challenges conventional leadership thinking: What if it goes well?

Combining strategic storytelling, business leadership, and the performing arts, she helps executives and organisations navigate uncertainty, imagine desirable futures, and turn bold visions into responsible decisions.

Her career has taken her across industries, cultures, and continents. She led large international teams and multimillion-euro budgets in the cruise industry, including artistic leadership of the award-winning MS Europa and entertainment management for AIDA Cruises. As International Program and Artistic Director for RED NOSES International's Emergency Smile, she later brought creative psychosocial support to thousands of refugees.

These experiences shaped her conviction that leadership begins with humanity—and that imagination, courage, and connection are essential strategic capabilities.

Holding an MBA in International Culture Management and an MAS in Culture & Media Management, Karola is also a certified systemic business coach and trained performing artist. Her internationally recognised experience designs bridge creativity, strategy, and human transformation.

Today, she advises executives, delivers keynotes, and facilitates leadership experiences in German, English, and Italian, with French as an additional language. Her approach, Responsible Future Making, invites leaders to move beyond fear and take ownership of what comes next.

And then there is Grandma: Karola's wise, witty alter ego from 2066, who occasionally interrupts her keynotes with uncomfortable truths, humour, and surprising perspectives on the future.

Through her speaking, writing, coaching, and Future Skills Farming ecosystem, Karola champions a simple yet powerful idea: The future is not merely something to predict. It is something we take responsibility for creating.