Bernard S. Zen-Ruffinen, President, EMEA Zurich and London Korn/Ferry

Bernard Zen-Ruffinen is the President of Korn/Ferry International’s Europe, Middle East and Africa region, based in the Firm’s Zurich and London offices.

Mr. Zen-Ruffinen brings over fifteen years of line management and CEO experience in Europe and in the Americas to Korn/Ferry. Prior to joining the Firm, he was the Swiss managing partner for another global search firm, a leader of their global supply chain & transportation practice and European head of the board & CEO practice. Mr. Zen-Ruffinen was also a global account manager for some of the top corporations in the Swiss Market Index (SMI).

Previously, he served as president and chief executive officer of DHL/Danzas Latin America, a company belonging to Deutsche Post World Net group, the world’s largest third party logistics service provider. He started his career by spending ten years with Jacobs Suchard and the Klaus Jacobs Group, one of the largest coffee and confectionary companies in Europe in the 1980’s. His main leadership role was president and chief executive officer of Brach Van Houten International, based in Chicago and with distribution in Southeast Asia, Latin America, Canada and Europe. Prior to his move to the United States,
Mr. Zen-Ruffinen held the position of director of European purchasing for the Kraft Jacobs Suchard Group, acquired by Philip Morris (Altria). He began his career at Jacobs Suchard in their coffee, cocoa and sugar purchasing and commodity trading departments working extensively out of Central and South America.

Mr. Zen-Ruffinen earned a degree in international economics and contemporary history from the Graduate Institute of International Studies, University of Geneva, Switzerland. He has done extensive research and published strategy papers on energy supply security and nuclear deterrence for the Swiss National Research Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as for the Rand Corporation. In the nineties he was a founding member  of Precious Woods (PRWN.SW) and is today the non-executive chairman of Monarca Coffee Wood, two companies dedicated to counteract the effect of deforestation and global warming. He is also a member of the Swiss Foreign Policy Association and the Swiss American Chamber of Commerce.

He speaks English, Spanish, French and German fluently.