What does it take to keep a conversation going when everything is pulling it apart? For over twenty years, Tomas Baum has been working at the fault lines—where polarisation, conflict and complexity collide. Not to smooth things over, but to make them workable. Drawing on a background in philosophy, applied ethics and international politics, he helps organisations navigate tension without losing what makes the conversation matter in the first place. From governments and research institutions to businesses, civil society—and even professional football clubs—his work spans unlikely arenas, always with the same goal: finding common ground that holds.

Today, as General Director of Kazerne Dossin, a museum and research centre dedicated to the Holocaust and human rights, Tomas connects history to the urgent questions of now. Through Treffend and his collaboration with Inside Polarisation, he supports organisations ready to engage across divides—not by softening their stance, but by understanding the dynamics that make others hard to reach. Because real progress doesn’t come from avoiding friction. It comes from learning how to work with it.