Robert von Klot-Heydenfeldt joins Valence as General Manager of Northern Europe to Meet Growing Enterprise Demand for AI Coaching

Robert von Klot-Heydenfeldt has joined Valence as General Manager, Northern Europe to lead our growth across the DACH region, responding to accelerating demand from the region's largest enterprises for AI-powered workforce development.

German enterprises in particular, are navigating a defining strategic tension. Rising energy costs, intensifying global competition, and an AI-driven transformation are converging on economies whose greatest historical strength has been stability and structural continuity. Workforce agility is the deciding factor in the decade ahead, and developing tens of thousands of employees at the required pace exceeds what traditional learning and development programs can deliver.

AI coaching has emerged as a critical part of the answer, providing personalized development for every employee and manager, delivered in the flow of work, at a scale and speed previously impossible.

"In my first conversations with German enterprise leaders, the reaction is remarkably consistent: workforce transformation is essential, and AI is the only way to deliver it at scale,” said von Klot-Heydenfeldt. “I joined Valence because Nadia is the AI coach these leaders trust, proven by the world's largest enterprises and engineered for the standards Europe rightly demands: data protection, works council partnership, and responsible deployment.”

In the past three years, our AI coach Nadia has changed how work gets done across more than 100 enterprise deployments, supporting millions of coaching conversations spanning performance management, leadership development, organizational transformation, and frontline support. European enterprises including Sandoz, Schneider Electric, Experian, WPP, Costa Coffee rely on Nadia for workforce development at scale.

Nadia is the only AI coach certified to ISO 42001, the international standard for responsible AI management, alongside SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certifications. The platform is GDPR compliant, prepared for the EU AI Act, and offers EU data residency. We also recently announced an expanded integration with Microsoft 365, embedding Nadia alongside Copilot and Teams through deeper Microsoft Graph access and new Work IQ integrations, reflecting a shared conviction: coaching requires dedicated, purpose-built technology to unlock its full power as a new infrastructure for talent, learning, and performance.

Von Klot-Heydenfeldt brings nearly two decades of experience scaling B2B services companies across continental Europe, with deep expertise in learning and development, HR technology, and the enterprise landscape of the German-speaking markets. He has repeatedly served as the executive charged with establishing high-growth companies in the region, bringing close working relationships with enterprise buyers, regulators, and employee representative bodies.

"Europe's largest companies are asking the most sophisticated questions in the world about deploying AI for their people, and they deserve a partner who understands the region as deeply as the technology," said Parker Mitchell, CEO and founder of Valence. "Robert has spent his career helping enterprises in these markets transform, and his arrival marks a significant expansion of our commitment to Europe."

If you’re a company in those regions, let’s chat.