Board Advisor & Executive Sparring Partner

Knowledge Management International

Safety, risk and knowledge governance for complex, regulated and safety-critical environments — turning knowledge into safer decisions.

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25+ years as CEO of KM Knowledge Management International

12 years Swissair operations across traffic, load control and crew dispatching

MBA Cranfield School of Management, with EFQM Certified Assessor 2025

Martin Kellerhals standing in an aviation operations control environment with flight dispatch screens

Martin Kellerhals, Chairman & CEO, Knowledge Management International.

Profile

Turning organisational knowledge into safer decisions.

Martin Kellerhals supports Boards of Directors and executive teams in complex, regulated and safety-critical environments in making better strategic decisions under uncertainty.

KMI supports boards, executives and project teams with knowledge strategies, learning architectures, operational-excellence methods and practical transformation support. The emphasis is not on tools alone, but on the living system of knowledge: what people know, how experience is shared, and how critical judgement reaches the right decision level.

His operational lens was shaped by twelve years at Swissair, including traffic and load control in Geneva and crew dispatching for cockpit and cabin staff in Zurich. That background still informs the way KMI connects compliance, lived expertise, safety and decision quality.

“Strong aviation without lived knowledge? An expensive illusion.”

Board Positioning Statement

A governance lens for risk, learning and resilience.

I contribute to Boards that operate in complex, regulated and risk-exposed environments, where strategic decisions must be made with incomplete information and long-term consequences.

My value lies in helping translate operational reality, experience and expertise into clear governance insight — so that safety, quality, sustainability and economic performance are consciously steered, not left to systems or assumptions.

Where do we take risk deliberately — and where unknowingly?
Which critical knowledge influences our strategic decisions, and what remains fragmented or invisible?
Do governance structures enable learning, or do they unintentionally suppress it?
Are safety, quality and sustainability actively governed — or implicitly delegated to functions and systems?

Expertise

Advisory work where safety, knowledge and performance intersect.

The common denominator is decision quality: clarifying what knowledge matters, how it flows, and how it supports governance, operational reliability and sustainable transformation.

Aviation safety and operational knowledge

Advisory support for aviation organisations dealing with OCC optimisation, crew management, fatigue risk, SMS, EFB implementation and the gap between compliance statements and lived safety culture.

Knowledge strategy

KM frameworks, knowledge strategies, Communities of Practice and learning architectures that make critical expertise visible and reusable.

Leadership and excellence

EFQM-based self-assessments, external reviews, leadership development and transformation programmes for quality and organisational excellence.

Strategic implementation

Roadmaps, performance frameworks and project support that turn strategy into practical change across international and cross-cultural settings.

Visual context

Operational reality belongs in strategic conversation.

The attached imagery is used as a visual thread: flight dispatch, operational control, aviation advisory work and the human perspective behind complex systems.

Martin Kellerhals seated in an operations control centre with aviation screens and maps — Operations control: multiple information streams, one shared decision picture.

Martin Kellerhals in an airport advisory setting with aircraft visible through the window — Aviation advisory: linking operational experience with strategic judgement.

Illustrated portrait of Martin Kellerhals with airport runway and aircraft line art — Knowledge leadership at the intersection of people, technology and safety.

Mandate interest

Independent sparring partner for Boards and Advisory Boards.

I am open to Board and Advisory Board mandates, particularly where safety, learning, knowledge and long-term sustainability are treated as strategic governance topics.

Aviation and mobility organisations with safety-critical or mission-critical operations.
Service- and knowledge-intensive organisations that depend on expertise, learning and decision quality.
Regulated or safety-critical sectors navigating complex trade-offs between risk, performance and compliance.
Boards looking for a respectful but constructively challenging systems thinker.

Credentials & networks

International practice, assessment and knowledge communities.

KMI’s perspective is shaped by long-running consulting practice, teaching, EFQM assessment work and international knowledge-management networks.

KMI

Chairman & CEO

Founder and CEO since 2000, helping organisations transform knowledge into performance across aviation, industry and international business.

Swissair

Operations foundation

Twelve years in traffic, load control and crew dispatching shaped a practical view of safety-critical knowledge work.

Education

Cranfield MBA & teaching

MBA with distinction for excellence and more than 10'000 documented lessons in management disciplines.

EFQM & networks

Assessor 2025

EFQM Certified Assessor 2025, Global MIKE jury member and active participant in aviation and KM communities.

Contact

For Boards, executives and aviation leaders facing complex decisions.

Reach out for board or advisory board mandates, knowledge strategy, aviation safety advisory work, EFQM assessments, leadership workshops or transformation projects.

Email Martin Kellerhals View LinkedIn profile

m.kellerhals@km-management.ch

Phone

+41 (0)79 203 73 79

Location

8400 Winterthur, Switzerland

Web

km-management.ch