Why entrust a stranger with what you tell no one?
My name is Esteban Martinez-Querol. I founded KAIRNEXA and currently carry its engagements. Since 1996 I have worked with organisations on their transformations: first as an auditor/consultant at Arthur Andersen then PwC, then from the inside, as a manager at Mercedes-Benz and BMW Financial Services, and consultant expert at inspearit then as a director at Wemanity, where I ran the France and Luxembourg business. In 2022 I joined Praesta France as a sparring partner and executive mentor to leaders and C-level executives. Certified professional coach, trained on the Oxford Artificial Intelligence Programme at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.
KAIRNEXA is where that path leads.
I have been on both sides of the table. An auditor, first: my job was to watch executives justify their decisions, and to see what did not hold. Then inside, at two car manufacturers, where I carried projects I had to defend in committee myself. Then outside again, working with those who decide. That alternation taught me one thing: what blocks a decision is something other than what is written in the memo.
Nearly thirty years, three chapters
From industry to organisational transformation, and on to sparring partnership with executives. Some twenty countries, four continents, and the same observation everywhere: an executive’s difficulty in deciding depends on neither the country nor the sector.
1996 - 2013
Arthur Andersen · PwC · Mercedes-Benz · BMW Financial Services
Organisation consulting at Arthur Andersen then PwC, in Marseille, Paris, Prague, Washington and Singapore. Then ten years in the automotive industry: process improvement, internal audit and the roll-out of group strategies across Paris, Berlin, Stuttgart, Madrid, Munich and Rome. That is where I learned to read an organisation - and to see where decisions are actually made, which does not always match what the org chart suggests. I taught information systems auditing at IAE Aix-en-Provence, EISTI and Sciences Po.
2013 - 2020
inspearit · Wemanity
Lean and large-scale agile transformations in banking, automotive, telecoms and engineering. Then running Wemanity’s France and Luxembourg business, before leading its group transformation and working with startup founders. Hundreds of managers and executives trained and supported. That is where I understood why transformations fail despite sound methods: less for lack of competence than because of decisions no one makes.
2022 - today
Praesta France · KAIRNEXA
Three years as a sparring partner and executive mentor at Praesta France, working with leaders and executive committees. In parallel, leading international transformations - on perimeters of up to four hundred people across six countries - and supporting the executives carrying them. There I worked as close as it gets to what is really at stake: the posture, the trade-offs, and what an executive can tell no one. KAIRNEXA is the synthesis of those three vantage points.
Three convictions
What nearly thirty years of transformations have taught me.
A transformation is never better than the decisions that carry it
You can redraw the org chart, change the tools, rewrite the processes. If the decisions stay vague or deferred, nothing moves. That is precisely where I work.
What costs most is not the wrong decisions, it is the ones never made
The cost of a non-decision appears neither in the budget nor in the reporting. It shows up elsewhere: in your energy, in how solidly you hold your position, in the confidence you inspire. It stays bearable until the day it does not.
An executive does not need one more piece of advice. They need somewhere to think
You already have consultants, experts, a board, peers. What is missing is a place with no political stake, no stake in the option you choose and no indulgence, where you can put down what you can put down nowhere else.
The practice behind this page
This career is mine. The rules that govern an engagement do not depend on who you meet: strict confidentiality, no stake in the option you choose, and four requirements to practise here. See the practice →
That is also where I think out loud between engagements: follow me on LinkedIn →