IngeniousPeoplesKnowledge was founded by Marc Steinlin in 2006. I-P-K is a sole proprietorship company under Swiss law. It is registered with the Commercial Registry Office of Zürich. As of 1 June 2009 IngeniousPeoplesKnowledge Consultants CC is also registered as a Closed Corporation under South African law. Marc Steinlin and Catherine Widrig Jenkins are the Managing Directors.

Marc Steinlin has been active in the development sector for almost ten years. He has been working with Helvetas, one of the major development NGOs in Switzerland for more than eight years. Initially with Helvetas he has been involved in the fields of education and decentralisation (mainly during his field work in Mali in 1999). From 2000 to 2006 he has been the Knowledge Manager of Helvetas, launching, designing, and implementing the Helvetas Knowledge Management Initiative, which has been rising much attention in the development community. He also was actively involved in other areas like ICT for development and project management. For the last two years, he has introduced the Human Rights based Approach to Development (HRBA) into Helvetas. He has been working with NGOs at the United Nations (UNHCHR) and the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), focussing in particular on indigenous peoples’ issues. He has conducted missions, training and knowledge sharing events in all parts of Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe. Marc Steinlin has a background in sociology, international relations and international law.

For more details, have a look at his Curriculum Vitae.

Catherine Widrig Jenkins joined I-P-K in October 2007 and is a founding partner and managing director of IngeniousPeoplesKnowledge Consultants CC as of June 2009. She is passionate about designing and facilitating change and knowledge management processes and multi-stakeholder conversation platforms for collectives of any nature. Catherine has vast experience in accompanying clients in their action-oriented strategic planning and project implementation endeavours. She has extensive expertise in applying large group intervention methods such as Real Time Strategic Change, Open Space Technology, World Cafe and other facilitation tools including Fish Bowls, Round Robin, Peer Assist, After Action Review, Appreciative Inquiry and Joint Mind Map. Catherine has conducted consultancy mandates and trainings for clients such as the International Labour Organisation, the World Bank, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

Catherine started her career specialising in (international) human rights law research and training in the field of development collaboration. She holds a law degree from the University of Bern and a Master in International Law from the University of Cape Town. She worked for South African policy applied human rights research NGOs (“Human Rights Committee” and “Lawyers for Human Rights”) and the International Research and Consulting Centre of the Institute of Federalism (University of Fribourg, Switzerland). Catherine also held positions in the industries of Tourism (Abercrombie & Kent and Kobo Safaris) and Arts and Culture (Swiss Arts Council and Cape Town Opera) covering the entire Southern African region. She has worked in international and multi-cultural set-ups throughout her career, which has enabled her to thoroughly develop her communication, facilitation and collaboration capacity “across borders”. Catherine has an ability to emphatise and sense needs and motivations of her counterparts; she is eager to have clearly defined terms of collaboration; pays attention to detail; and has natural and charismatic appearance in public. She is fluent in (Swiss) German, English, French, Spanish, Dutch and Afrikaans.

Catherine is married and a proud mother of two daughters. She lives on the Cape Peninsula and relaxes and re-energizes when outdoors or reading and spending time with family and friends.

For more details, have a look at her Curriculum Vitae.