Team

Backgrounds: investor relations, media, marketing, finance, risk management, acting, communications and technology.

About

Strong Executive Reputation is an economic trust lever: it reduces friction with investors, regulators and customers, strengthens talent attraction and retention, and protects enterprise value when pressure hits.

CEO Positions AG (est. 2006) is built around the idea that reputation is a strategic asset that can be measured, benchmarked and deliberately shaped rather than managed ad hoc. Its core product, C-Score.ai, translates public perception into a structured view by scoring CEOs across a 72–data-point framework, producing dimension scores, peer benchmarks and a risk-aware reputation profile.

The founder, Susanne Müller-Zantop, positions the company at the intersection of executive strategy, stakeholder communication and performance-ready visibility, turning analysis into actionable positioning. Clients are CEOs and their leadership teams in global or high-profile organizations who want board-ready clarity on what to protect, what to fix, and how to translate insight into a reputation-led roadmap across narrative, appearances, social media and video.

The firm was recognized as the Best Corporate Reputation Management Consultancy in Europe in both 2020 and 2021 by AI Magazine.

Watch: Founder’s Message on positioning

AI-led Reputation Intelligence

AI-led Reputation Intelligence, Visibility and Narratives: the use of AI to continuously collect and interpret reputation signals across media, digital channels and stakeholder discourse, then translate them into measurable benchmarks, early-risk alerts and prioritized actions that strengthen trust and enterprise value.

Our clients are CEOs and their leadership teams, servicing a powerful network of business leaders and academics.

Industry Focus: Technology, Finance, E-mobility, Carbon Capture.

Markets Served: U.S., Central Europe.

Founded: In 2006 by Susanne Mueller Zantop and Nadia Belatrache

References

Technology:

AGIGO AG | AMAG Group | Autoneum | Axpo Services | Avaloq | BT British Telecom | Cisco Systems | Climeworks | Dell/EMC | EMPA | Deutsche Messe | Deutsche Telekom | Lufthansa | Microsoft U.S.A. | Swisscom | Swissgrid | VDI Technologiezentrum | WorldQuant LLC | Vodafone UK

Finance:

Berner Kantonalbank | Cembra Money Bank | Deutsche Börse | Helvetia Group pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank |Raiffeisen Schweiz | Zürcher Kantonalbank

Other:

AOK Bayern | EY Ernst & Young | Lee Hecht Harrison | Lufthansa | Manor | PwC PricewaterhouseCoopers | UZH University of Zurich |

Individuals:

Abolhassan, Ferri | Agarwal, Rohit | Alder, Stefan | Al-Haij, Zeina | An de Meulen, Helmut | Arndt, Andreas | Apotheker, Léo | Asavathiratham, Chalee | Bagnoli, Philip | Bächli, Hansueli|Baltisberger, Stefan| Ban, Linda | Barbosa, Luis | Barrett, Craig | Beck, Thomas | Berg, Achim | Berger, Joel | Better, Manuela | Baumann, Otto | Biedermann, Dominique | Bieler, Dan | Biller, Sarah | Blum, Lenore | Boerries, Marco | Bohnet, Iris | Bonn, Heinz Paul | Book, Thomas | Brooks, Simon | Brown, Frank, J. | Brugger, Ernst  | Brunner, Benno | Bui, Crispin | Büttner, Armin | Carletti, Marc | Carr, Peter | Caselitz, Christoph | Cemerlic, Alma | Chilton, Bart | Clement, Wolfgang  | Cohen, Michelle | Crump, Blair | Duhoon, Prakarsh | Dunne, Dana | Danielsohn-Weil, Petra | Damodaran, Ramu | Danuser, Hanspeter | Decyk, Roxanne | De Maeseneire, Patrick | De Wolff, Angela | Del Degan, Juliska | Diamond, Stuart | Dietl, Christian | Dirks, Thorsten | Drüner, Marc | Donchev, Veliko | Dupire, Bruno | Dutronc, Perrine | Durchslag, Scott A. | Dyson, Esther | Evenett, Simon J. | Farkas, Marton | Fernandez, Francisco | Fichtner, Johann | Flückiger, Reto | Fox, Michael | Fränkl, Charles | Frutig, Daniel | Gabler, Mathias | Gaillard, Daniel | Gangaputra, Sachin | Gebald, Christoph | Geldmacher, Jan | Gessinger, Rudolf | Gil, Ori | Gilbert, Andrew | Gosalvez, Julie | Graf, Dino | Graf, Pierre-Alain | Grande, Fabian | Grau, Sandra | Grauer, Bodo | Greweldinger, Martin |Griffin, Paul | Groth, Arndt | Gruchow, Andreas | Gross-Selbeck, Stefan | Hannesbo, Morten | Hansen, Wolf Rüdiger | Hartmann, Mathias | Hauck, Wilfried | Heer, Lorenz | Heij, Peter | Henseler-Unger, Iris | Hermann, Jürgen | Hermann, Sascha | Hickox, Winston | Hirshberg, Peter | Hoang, Cong | Hoffmann, Reid | Hopfgartner, Jürgen | Huber, Martin | Humm, Philipp | Hünziker, Jürg | Ingari, Frank | Jääma, Jukka | Jacquet-Lagreze, Thibaut | Jaeger, Franz | Jermann, Dieter | Jetter, Martin | Joga, Jesus | Johansson, Bjørn | Joussen, Friedrich | Kalter, Alan | Kagermann, Henning | Karius, Oliver | Kaspersky, Eugene | Kelly, George W. | Kempf, Dieter | Kesselmeyer, Bodo | Kielgas, Sven | Kinne, Martin | Kircher, Herbert | Kniehase, Martin | Knorren, Roland | Koentgen, Thomas | Koh, Geoffrey | Kohler, Markus |Koll, Thomas U. | Koller, Werner | Krumm, Torsten | Krümmer, Stephan| Kwon, Olivia | Lauprete, Geoffrey | Leitz, Christian | Lelicova, Lenka | Lereuth, Karsten | Loacker, Stefan | Lovell, Jim | Koppitz, Rainer | Maini, Nitish | Maradei, Brunno | Maricza, Istvan | Magda, Beverly | Marmolejo, Francisco | Mani, Nitish | Martin, Edward | Martin, Claude | McCabe, Kathy | McChrystal, Stan | McCue, Sarah | Meineke, Christoph | Melvin, Colin | Meyer, Christopher | Mueller, Nils | Noser, Ruedi | Oeberg, Stefan | Ochoa, Mel | Milani, Oliviero | Mora, Peter | Nägeli, Isabelle | Neff, Damien | Nenkov, Stelian | Neuhaus, Guido | Nocito, Carlos | Oosterom, Richard | Ortlepp, Michael | Pacey, Dean | Pahlke, Michael | Peltz, Michael | Pinna, Andrea | Prentice, Steve | Protopapa, Sergio | Poetzl, Georg | Patil, Sukanya | Peltz, Michael | Poettering, Hans-Gert | Poppinga, Hartmut | Powell, Colin | Pukall, Britta | Rabinowitz, Robert | Ramin, Kurt | Raschle, Lukas | Raue, Ernst | Rao, Suman | Reed, Zak | Reymond, Réne | Riecke, Markus | Ricks, Tom | Ringger, Reto | Rink, Anthony | Rose, Michael  | Rosenberger, Frank | Rossi, Adriano | Rousseaux, Clemence | Ruhl, Helmut | Rukshin, David | Runnals, David | Sasirajpornchai, Ramestr | Schädler, Karl | Scharrer, Otmar | Schäuble, Wolfgang | Scheer, August-Wilhelm | Schiessl, Johann-Christian | Schenk, Karl | Schlobohm, Bernd | Schmiegelow, Axel | Schoch, Matteo | Shrier, David | Shocair, Nadahl | Schmid, Peter | Schneider, Thomas | Schoder, Detlef | Schuppisser, Santiago | Schwager, Sandro | Seiz, Gabriela | Shkolnikova, Ekaterina | Shields, Mark | Sideco, Francis | Simmen, Patric | Smid, Volker  | Schindler, Richard |Spelman, Matt | Spreitzer, Thomas | Stavridis, James | Stern, Herman | Steiner, Achim | Soltermann, Bernhard | Steinemann, Juergen | Stippler, Irmgard | Streibich, Karl-Heinz | Struchen, Beat | Sullivan, JF | Swantee, Olaf | Szerdahelyi, Imre | Takai, Teri | Tanner, Ida | Tengler, Marcus | Tett, Gillian | Thomsen, Lars | Thanh, Binh | Thrun, Sebastian| Tulchinsky, Igor | Tydeman, Justin | Unger, Christian | Upton, Jordana | Vasella, Daniel | Verwaayen, Ben | Vesper, Martin | Viljak, Pekka | Vogels, Werner | Voncina, Libor | Von Zitzewitz, Friedrich | Wiandt, Axel | Walker, Oliver | Weber, Sarik | Weaver, Phil | Weinrauch, Günter | Wennemer, Manfred | West, Jeffrey | Wetzel, Philipp | Wolford, Susan | Wu, ChiaHsin | Wurzbacher, Jan | Zehnder, Alexander | Zimmermann, J.B. | Zollinger, Gery | Zuber, Andreas | Zwyssig, Martin

Press Coverage

NZZ am Sonntag

Hochrisikojob CEO – In Zeiten von Trump können CEOs über Nacht ihre Reputation verlieren

Forbes Business Council

How Can Small Companies Compete With Giants? The Secret Sauce Is Positioning

Scientific Background

Our work is based on four theoretical pillars:

1. Systems Theory

A computer scientist by training, Susanne was fascinated early-on with research in systems theory (system dynamics, industrial dynamics) by J.W. Forrester, Joseph Weizenbaum and Gerhard Niemeyer, her professor in Regensburg. Her first essay in 1979 was entitled: “The Manager as Regulator/Stabilizer” – It was about the difference between regulating and directing a system. She was impressed with simulation and object orientation. Times have passed, yet the love for all things digital remain.

2. Linguistics

Susanne’s second education was in linguistics. She learned about the importance of a single phrase or character, and also how context determines the interpretation of almost everything. Her diploma thesis was on automatic error correction – how to find errors without a dictionary – through logic only. Important theorists that have influenced her thinking: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Noam Chomsky, Benjamin Whorf and Gregory Bateson. Her writing was highly influenced by Wolf Schneider.

3. Systemic organizational theory

Apart from the business fundamentals from MBA classes, we have found the best approach to organizational dynamics in the works of Matthias Varga von Kibéd and Insa Sparrer. Their working model is called “Tetralemma”-work and we adopted it to to support top managers interacting with their stakeholders (see below). The “St.Galler Management model” was helpful to integrate these theories into our work too.

4. Body psychotherapy

Our fourth pillar is body psychotherapy. As a sports person Susanne always felt that we all bring our bodies into the work place. She is particularly happy to see that the video revolution and the transparency of the Internet has brought this into the foreground. Our education here is based on the work of Moshe Feldenkrais, Paul Watzlawick, Boudewijn Vermeulen and Joachim Baur. We owe a lot to actor Armin Berger.