Communication & leadership coaching · for scientific, medical & technical experts
Great science doesn't speak for itself.
Be heard. Be remembered. Be chosen.
Your work is excellent. The room still has to pick it over something else. I train researchers, startups and technical teams to get that done. Workshops and one-to-one coaching, in English, German or Italian.
The problem
Being good is not enough.
- The project was solid. The committee funded the one that presented better.
- You said it first, in a meeting. Someone louder said it second, and got the credit.
- Twenty minutes of real work, and the room checks out after two.
- You know the answer, and the questions still leave you flustered.
- The promotion went to a scientist you are better than, who explains worse than you.
- You present in your second language, and half of what you know never makes it out.
None of this is a knowledge problem. It is the part nobody teaches inside a PhD: making a room understand, remember and decide.
The cost is a project that dies, a grant that goes elsewhere, a career slower than the work deserves. Working in your second language? The gap doubles: most of my clients are expats and non-native speakers.
The approach
Start from the decision you need from the room.
Science communication teaches you to simplify. Public speaking teaches you to perform. Both start from the talk. I start from the end.
What do you need these people to do when you stop talking? Approve it. Fund it. Assign you the lead. Write that down, and the talk stops being a matter of taste: it becomes engineering, a language you already speak.
No theatre. What I teach comes from boardrooms and warehouse floors, where a briefing gets ninety seconds.
What I do
Three ways to work together.
Workshops for PhDs and postdocs
For the people who will spend a career defending their work in front of others, and were never taught how.
- In-house, at your university or institute
- Everyone speaks, more than once, on their own research
- Built around real upcoming talks, not exercises
- English, German or Italian
One, two or three days
Three lengths, because a team with one free day and a team with three need different things.
- One day — one talk, built and delivered
- Two days — stage time twice each, plus a one-to-one session per person
- Three days — adds leadership: running the room, defending a decision, handling pushback
One-to-one coaching
Leadership and communication, with a business lens. For the talk that matters, or the step up that is coming.
- A real talk, rehearsed until it stands
- The move from expert to group leader
- Visibility inside your organisation
- Expats & non-native speakers: be heard and valued in your second language
- Online, in your language
Proof
What the researchers said afterwards.
August 2026, BioMed X in Heidelberg. Team VPE builds AI models that predict how drugs will behave in virtual patient populations. Five of them filled in the feedback form. Every single one gave the workshop full marks.
«A fresh perspective on how to prepare my talk to make it as impactful as possible.»
Dr. Gurdeep Singh · Group Leader · Team VPE, BioMed X«The uplifting nature of it: it gives you a boost. And the exercises are genuinely fun.»
Dr. Charlie Barker · Postdoctoral researcher · Team VPE, BioMed X«Although I am an introvert, I learned that I am capable of delivering a good speech. I will keep in mind forever that I am the lighthouse for the audience, and that I am delivering the cake for them to enjoy. These analogies stick with me.»
Dr. Ahmad Wisnu Mulyadi · Algorithm Researcher · Team VPE, BioMed X«It helped me discover and better understand different aspects of my public speaking skills, especially tone, voice dynamics and delivery. I particularly appreciated the one-on-one session, where I received personalised feedback on the specific areas I wanted to improve.»
Sanjana Balaji Kuttae · Computational Biologist · Team VPE, BioMed X«The practical sessions. It was tiring to do so much public speaking in one day, but that is how you get the most out of it.»
Ansh Kumar · Research Assistant · Team VPE, BioMed XFive participants, five top marks, not one rating below the maximum.
Where this comes from
A scientist on loan to operations.
I did not arrive here from a stage. I arrived from a lab and then from ten years of running things.
Between the University of Bari and the Innovation Lab in Heidelberg. I know what it is to have results and no idea how to make a room care.
More than 500 people across six countries, at Decathlon, Bauhaus, IKEA and Essity. Briefings where you get ninety seconds. Boardrooms where the story has to hold.
Certified in Berlin in November 2025 to design and facilitate workshops for any team, in any company. It is why my sessions produce decisions, not notes.
I present in English and German, neither of them mine. I know precisely what a non-native speaker is fighting on stage, because I fight it too.
Official partner of Curious2027, the Curious Future Insight conference in Heidelberg on 7 and 8 July 2027, as Decision Lab, where I run a two-hour public speaking workshop. Speech and workshop at the Merck Innovation Cup 2026. Coach to the researchers of Team VPE at BioMed X.
A few words, the way I would say them
Hi. I'm Donato.
I'm a guy from Bari, a beautiful city in southern Italy, who has been living in Germany since 2014.
I have two kids, and one of them is an absolute nightmare, like Kevin from Home Alone.
I went to Germany to do a PhD in chemistry, after a degree in physics and a master's in engineering. What did I do after my PhD? I left the scientific world to push packages in a warehouse and start from scratch, after a burnout.
Pushing boxes, little by little, I built a career that now takes me beyond €100,000 a year, running multinational European logistics.
Now I'm about to throw it all away for my own business and start from scratch again, just like I did with the packages. Am I crazy? Maybe.
But believe me: when it comes to making decisions at a crossroads, I'm an expert. After making countless mistakes, and after working with hundreds of people and companies in difficult situations, I also built a method.
I talk about it in a book called «Resto o Vado?» (only in Italian, sorry: the English edition is on its way). Look it up on Amazon and, while you're there, once you've bought it, leave me a nice five-star review ;)
What do I do? You know when you know you're very good at something, when you have talent, but you just can't express it in public? You freeze every time you have to talk about yourself, and you feel like you're being a show-off.
I help scientists, technical professionals, engineers and anyone with technical expertise translate their skills into something with enough perceived value to make people choose you.
Investors, boards, conference halls or a room of five: the goal is the same. Be heard, be remembered, be chosen.
In recent years I have also helped several people build a business on a concrete method, not the usual set of little rules you find on Instagram.
If you have your own project, as a freelancer, a startup or a spin-off, it might be worth grabbing a coffee together.
I'm waiting for you. Get out of that damn comfort zone now, and send me a message. See you soon.
Before you ask
The questions I get most.
Do you work with expats and non-native speakers?
Yes, a large part of my practice. We work on communication and on making your value visible, so your career does not get stuck at the language barrier. I present in my second and third language myself.
Is this science communication or public speaking?
Neither, on its own. Science communication teaches you to simplify. Public speaking teaches you to perform. This work starts from the decision you need from the room: a project approved, a budget released, a role given. The talk is built backwards from that outcome.
We are not native English speakers. Is that a problem?
It is the norm, and neither am I. I present in my second and third language every week. We work in the language your people actually present in: English, German or Italian.
How long are the workshops?
One, two or three days. One day builds one talk. Two days add stage time and a one-to-one session for every participant. Three days add leadership communication: running a meeting, defending a decision, handling pushback.
Can you run this for a PhD programme or a graduate school?
Yes. Workshops for PhD students, postdocs and researchers are a core format, delivered in-house at your university or institute.
Do participants need stage experience?
No. Beginners lose the fear of the first minute. Experienced speakers lose the habits that flatten them.
How much theory is there?
As little as possible. If it cannot survive contact with a real talk, it is not in the programme.
Also by me
A book about deciding.
Before you can make a room decide, you have to be able to decide yourself. Resto o Vado? is my book on how to cross a crossroads with a method instead of with fear. In Italian, with the 5D Method and one tool per chapter.
Next step
Someone on your team has an important talk coming.
Make sure the person giving it walks in prepared. Thirty minutes, online, no pitch: tell me what your people have to get approved, and I will tell you straight whether I can help.