Frank Basinski

Executive coach in Bucharest

I am an executive coach in Bucharest for senior leaders who are good at their job, and have reached the point where that is no longer enough.

Founder of Blue Horizon Training. Former Senior Director, Red Hat EMEA. Organizational member of the International Association of Coaching through CTG Group.

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The business experience

I spent more than twenty years in sales and marketing at international software companies: Informix, Ascential, SUSE, Novell and Red Hat. I have led people since 2002. At Red Hat I was Senior Director for partner programs in EMEA. I built those programs from zero and ran the teams behind them: technical partner enablement, partner business development and inside sales support, across the region. I was part of the leadership that grew the business from 100 million to one billion euros in revenue, and I have been through mergers and acquisitions from both sides, as the buyer and as the acquired.

That is the chair I sat in. I know what it is like to carry a number, run a region through a reorganization, and lead leaders who are themselves under pressure.

The coaching experience

I have worked as an executive coach since 2020 and have coached around a hundred leaders, from first-time managers to CEOs, under regular supervision by an EMCC Master Practitioner. During that time, I have designed and run leadership development programs. Before that, twenty years of developing leaders inside the business.

Organizations: The Walt Disney Company · Red Hat · Trend Micro · UiPath · International SOS · Apryse · Veracomp · London Borough of Havering
Diagnostics: DiSC · TILT · Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) · clients’ own proprietary models, debriefed one-to-one
Professional standing: Organizational member of the International Association of Coaching through CTG Group. Supervised practice since 2020.

Executive coaching in Bucharest

I am based in Bucharest, and I work in English or German with leaders here and in other countries. Many senior roles in this city sit inside international organizations: your team is here, your boss is in another country, and the strategy arrives from head office. I know that position from the inside, from running teams across the EMEA region at Red Hat.

How I work

My coaching is transformational, systemic and solution-focused. I look at how you see yourself and your role, not just at what you do. I take the system you lead in seriously (your boss, your peers, the politics, the incentives), because often, leadership problems are not solvable inside one person’s mind alone. And every session ends with something you will do differently this week, because change has to show up outside of our sessions, too.

Transformational

Identity, assumptions and habits that got you here and may now hold you back.

Systemic

Stakeholders, politics, culture and the expectations that come with your seat.

Solution-focused

Insight turned into different decisions, conversations and everyday behavior.

In the room

We meet as equals. I have sat where you sit, so I do not need to be impressed and I am not easily shocked. That lets me do the thing that matters most in coaching: give you my full attention, without judgment and without an agenda of my own, and stay with what you need in that moment. Some sessions are about a decision or a conflict and we work it through. Some are about something you have not said to anyone yet. You can bring either. What you say will be taken seriously, questioned where it needs to be, and turned into something you can act on.

I am the right coach for you when

You recognize at least one of these

You have been told to be “more strategic” or “more visible” and nobody can tell you what that really means in practical terms.

There is a conversation you know you need to have with a direct report, a peer or your boss, and you have been rehearsing it for months instead of having it.

Your team complies but does not commit. You get agreement in the meeting and quiet resistance afterwards.

You lead people who lead people, and your calendar is still filled with decisions that should not reach you.

You are stepping up (a bigger region, a merger, a seat at the executive table), and what worked at the last level is not working at this one.

You were promoted for being the best expert in the room, and expertise is no longer what the role asks for.

A note on fit

I am a sparring partner more than a sounding board, and I will tell you what I see rather than only ask what you think. Coaching works when you have something you want to change and are willing to do the work in between. It does not have to be fully formed. A nagging sense that something is off is enough to start. But it has to be yours.

What you can expect

Results you can see and feel, and that other people will notice

You make the decisions that have been sitting on your desk, and your team no longer escalates issues that don’t belong there to begin with.

Your team, your peers, and the person who sponsored this coaching see a different leader. The one you set out to become, not the one who was told to change.

You walk out of meetings with commitment, not nods. You know how to bring people behind a shared aspiration, so your team acts on its own and you spend less time chasing.

You move from executing strategy to co-creating it. You take your place at the table where direction is set, bring a deliberate point of view for your function, and nobody asks you to be “more strategic” again.

You face difficult conversations head on. You have the tools and the confidence, and the hesitation that cost you before is gone.

Between sessions

The coaching happens in our sessions. Your growth as a leader happens the next day, in the meeting where you try something different, and in the conversation you have been putting off. We agree what you take with you each time, and the next session starts with what happened when you tried it. Practice what we worked out, lead the way the best leaders lead, and the reality around you starts to change in your favor.

Client recommendations

In their words

“He can expertly balance leadership coaching: knowing exactly when to coach to help me unlock my own mind, when to add some suggestions to guide things forward, and when to pose difficult challenges I needed to really take time to consider. I’ve come out of the process grateful not only for new mental tools, but new ways of viewing leadership and even a better understanding of my own mind and approach.”
Robert McArdle
Director of Cybercrime Research, TrendAI

“Frank has a great ability to capture the essence of the challenge, provide both a broader perspective and a different context to seemingly difficult situations, helping me as a client to see the path to possible solutions.”
Marina Vyshegorodskikh
Advisory Board Member, ELEKS

“The collaboration with Frank was very intense, insightful and helpful, and I highly recommend him. Frank encouraged me to engage in more self-reflection to better understand myself, my leadership style, and my leadership skills.”
Thomas Rademacher
Marketing Director

“Frank not only helped me to see more, understand myself more but also he changed my perspective on coaching.”
Pawel Malak
Sales Director Eastern Europe, TrendAI

“His coaching helped me significantly enhance my communication skills and opened up new paths for career advancement.”
Jakub Balchanowski
Team Lead, Sales, Apryse

Before you decide

Choosing the best executive coach in Bucharest

There is no official ranking of executive coaches, so the best executive coach in Bucharest is the one who is best for you: someone who understands the seat you are in and will be honest about what they see. These are the questions I would ask any coach, and my own answers to them.

Have you done a job like mine?: I was Senior Director for partner programs at Red Hat EMEA and have led people since 2002. I know what it is like to carry a number and to lead leaders who are themselves under pressure.
Who checks the quality of your coaching?: An EMCC Master Practitioner has supervised my practice since 2020. I am also an organizational member of the International Association of Coaching through CTG Group.
Who have you coached?: Around a hundred leaders, from first-time managers to CEOs, in organizations such as Red Hat, Trend Micro, UiPath and Apryse. Several of them are quoted on this page, by name.
Will you tell me what you really think?: Yes. I will not tell you what to do, but I will tell you what I see. I am a sparring partner more than a sounding board.
How will I know it is working?: Other people notice. Decisions stop waiting on your desk, meetings end in commitment, and the difficult conversation finally happens. Every session starts with what happened when you tried something different.

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