Henry is looking back at just shy of 25 years of pharmaceutical research & development and cross-cultural experience through tenures at Biogen (Cambridge, MA, USA), Pfizer (Paris, France), Roche (Milan, Italy), and since 2008 at Merck KGaA (Darmstadt, Germany).
Henry’s expertise is spanning the entire pharmaceutical industry value chain ranging from R&D, to business development and marketing/commercial.
In 2015, Henry founded corporate innovation project ExoGold.
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He is founder of Kali Durga Yoga (founded in 2016), headquartered in Idar-Oberstein at Shala Kailash. Following several industry and academic senior leadership positions, in 2013, Henry has embarked on a transformative journey, gradually weaning off from corporate engagements and cultivating spiritual, metaphysical and metapsychological concepts. His intense educational adventure studying Indian philosophy and Yoga in particular, has culminated in the most recent completion of the Shala Kailash project under the auspice of Maa Durga Yoga, an international team of yoga teachers.
Henry is a graduate from the university of Mainz, Germany. He holds a Ph.D. in immunology and 1500+ hours of yoga teacher training. He teaches at various institutions in the Frankfurt area and at Shala Kailash in Idar-Oberstein, Germany.
The Story of Shala Kailash
The story of Shala Kailash started in 2015, enthralling - a journey without suitcase. Starting Yoga as a casual occupational therapy, attending various yoga classes in Germany, Henry decided to become a teacher. It was during his basic Vinyasa Yoga teacher training program that Henry realized his devotion, not only to practice Yoga, but more so to study Yoga’s philosophical roots.
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Concomitantly, a vocation to teach the discipline of yoga was ever growing.
While already teaching at various studios, Henry realized that being a teacher, accumulating knowledge and passing it on, was not the ultimate fulfillment. The journey of ‘unlearning’ continued. Henry went to Rishikesh for advanced Hatha Yoga training. Rishikesh is considered the yoga capital of the world.
Located at the banks of the Ganga river (‘Mother Ganga’) in Northern India, Rishikesh represents the heritage of the world’s largest and oldest ancient civilization, the Indus/Saraswati civilization.
On the third day in India, following a bath in the river, a transformation happened. This transformation was accompanied by the encounter with a small ailing and helpless dog. Henry named the dog Shiva, who shall have never left his side since. The name Shiva was derived from a prominent Hindu god, spiritually worshipped as a creator and destroyer of worlds —the supreme god over all.
Despite all efforts, Shiva never made it to Germany. On his journey, he transitioned on and his ashes are now in the vaults of what has become Shala Kailash. Hauptstrasse 108, the Kailash place in Idar-Oberstein became the foundation of the Shala Kailash Project.
It took many more excursions to India (Mysore, Goa, Rishikesh, Adhi, Agra) during the following years before the project has finally reached its conclusion in the summer of 2019. Meanwhile, the Shala Kailash Project involves international yoga teacher training in Idar-Oberstein Germany, Goa and Rishikesh, India, and guided excursions to India and hosts various types of yoga classes and retreats in Idar-Oberstein.
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May Shala Kailash be the symbol of remover – the Guru – for all that modern-day society thinks it can never achieve, and all that its people senselessly desire. May the spirt of Shala Kailash be nurtured by Shiva in eternity. Namaste.
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