Yesterday, I had the pleasure and honor to meet Nuptul Riponche, a Buddhist Teacher and spiritual leader from Nepal, who has become a friend over the past years and provided my a lot of helpful advice when it comes to leadership. Together with his colleague Nukhia Gurung as well as Thomas Oehler (President of Human Care & Education, https://lnkd.in/dUthCzpn) he visited Merck in Darmstadt. It was a day full of engaging and inspirational discussion.
First, we met Walter Huber and Elisabeth Schmiedel from the Merck Family Foundation. The Merck Family Foundation supported the building of a school as well as a birth clinic in Bihi. It was a great exchange about the importance of education and healthcare in one of the poorest countries in the world.
Then, we had a live session broadcasted to a large audience with Caroline Sehn and Alessandro De Luca about compassion, inclusion and leadership in action. Nuptul gave valuable insights why compassion is so important and can be a competitive advantage, especially in times of constant changes and uncertainty. He explained the commonalities between Buddhist principles and inclusive leadership and gave recommendations how to integrate more compassion and empathy into today’s workplace culture.
At the end of the day, we met with a Merck project team who donated the money from their CFO Award to a good cause, a new ktichen and dining hall building for the school in Bihi. On behalf of the project team, Reena Nigale, Simone Ruckpaul and Jens Fischer-Bernard met Nuptul and learned about the school and life in Bihi.
