“The opportunity to step in as the Executive Director of the Dalberg Trust is both humbling and a positive challenge. As a collective of businesses, Dalberg is at an important inflection point. With our 20th anniversary in the rearview mirror, we need to create and maintain creative spaces and deploy new approaches and tools like ethical AI to build on the vast opportunities that exist. Though the impact space has become busier during the last few years, the power and impact potential that stems from Dalberg’s universe of collaborative and committed changemakers continues to keep us a step ahead.”

Stig Tackmann is the Executive Director of the Dalberg Trust, where he ensures that Dalberg’s businesses remain focused on driving sustainable and inclusive growth while fostering innovation. Stig joined Dalberg as a consultant in 2011 and later co-founded Dalberg Media in 2015, where he served as Co-founder, Co-owner, and Managing Director until May 2024. With expertise in strategic communications, advocacy, and creating global experiences, Stig has played a key role in building Dalberg Media’s corporate structure and driving major client engagements. Stig is a Fulbright scholar and holds a Master’s degree in Political Science and International Relations from Columbia University.

In this interview, Stig discusses his transition to Executive Director of the Dalberg Trust and reflects on the opportunities ahead as Dalberg continues to evolve, drive sustainable impact, and nurture global leaders.

Tell us about what drew you to Dalberg and how you got your start here.

My first encounter with Dalberg in 2008, sparked by a classmate’s recommendation, revealed a unique consultancy and platform model that intrigued me. Here was a firm dedicating its focus to tackling global challenges while simultaneously fostering the next generation of impact leaders. This very much caught my interest, even though consulting was not my initial career path.

Fast forward to 2011, I joined Dalberg’s Copenhagen office and gained diverse project experience. In 2015, we saw an opportunity to establish Dalberg Media, recognizing that very few consultancies in the space offered unique media, communication, and advocacy services at that point in time. I took it up as a challenge, structured a new pilot unit under the Dalberg brand, and was later joined by Kristian Kampmann and Morten Nyegaard, who are now partners and indispensable members of the Dalberg Media leadership. We started with a blank slate, knowing only that we wanted to provide media, experience, and communications services to the impact sector, but soon understood how to plug into the unique and quite differentiated demand in the market. Our ability to operate as an agency that offers both uniquely tailored communication strategy and comprehensive storytelling, alongside tactical implementation services, as well as our agility in supporting clients and partners in developing new and emerging global initiatives—whether through conferences, media, events, or experiences—uniquely sets us apart.

How did you identify the need for stronger storytelling within the sector, and what strategies did you employ to address this need?

It takes powerful narratives to raise awareness, attract resources, and inspire action towards solving complex social issues. We knew that with Dalberg Media, we could offer a dedicated service to empower social impact organizations to effectively communicate their work and maximize their impact, and we wanted to help them achieve that. At the same time, we knew that we were not only able to work as consultants, but also capable of structuring major impact initiatives on our own, where we could work with a wealth of partners to drive and create an even bigger impact across sectors.

Our initial success came with writing and launching “17 Big Bets for a Better World” (a publication in which some of the world’s most renowned thought leaders detail how to achieve the SDGs), and soon, we started to gain attention and recognition. Subsequently, we designed and launched UNLEASH—a major global youth innovation initiative, which we led from 2017 until we spun it out in early 2023. UNLEASH constituted a very clear impact story for us, helping foster an entire new generation of changemakers within the SDG framework. At the same time, the project—alongside an ever-growing list of new projects and clients—solidified our team’s skillset and matured our operational backbone, which over time enabled us to expand Dalberg Media’s presence and services across new geographies.

What prompted your decision to transition from your role as Co-founder and Managing Director of Dalberg Media to become the Executive Director of the Dalberg Trust?

Making fundamental changes never comes easy. After leading Dalberg Media for nine years, I decided it was time for a leadership change. We have built an amazing global team at Dalberg Media and have accomplished some remarkable things together. However, strong organizations need fresh perspectives, and it is very much in the Dalberg DNA to elevate the next generation of leadership and pass the torch at the right time.

This transition allows me to take on an exciting new role as Executive Director of the Dalberg Trust, where I can leverage my 13 years of experience at Dalberg. It’s a wonderful opportunity to contribute to the cohesion of our diverse businesses, amplify our impact, enhance our internal strengths, and champion our values globally.

This shift reflects the broader ethos at Dalberg, where my journey—and the journeys of many others—extends beyond a single role or team. The Dalberg platform is designed to cultivate collaboration and leadership across its global network, empowering individuals to grow and take on new challenges. It’s inspiring to witness how Dalberg consistently invests in developing its people and seeing them thrive in the sector, within Dalberg or elsewhere.

As the Executive Director, you are also the glue across Dalberg’s diverse capabilities across the firm’s global teams and businesses. How do you see your role there?

Dalberg is a truly global firm, operating across diverse sectors and geographies with a multicultural team. This diversity is key to our ability to tackle complex challenges, and it drives our continuous evolution as an organization. To inspire collaboration and innovation across our teams, we must constantly adapt and strengthen our platform.

Equally important is the evolution of our partnerships and collaborations. By bringing together the most credible and impactful individuals and organizations, we harness our strength as a recognizable and trusted brand to drive targeted campaigns and narratives. These efforts deliver solutions, ideas, and innovations to our partners, clients, and the broader sector. The Dalberg Trust plays a crucial role in this process, binding us together and ensuring we learn from our diverse capabilities and experiences across service lines and sectors, all while preparing for the future.

How do you see Dalberg evolving, and what adaptations do you anticipate being necessary to stay abreast of these changes?

The global landscape is ever shifting, and Dalberg is committed to evolve alongside it. Two things stand out to me. The first is that we must continue to lead in innovation. This is embedded in our approaches, recommendations, lenses, and in how we approach problem-solving. As pioneers in driving impact, our collective experience warrants a very clear promise to our clients and partners: We know what we are talking about, and we give world-class advice. Our partners and clients rely on us to push for the most optimal and promising solutions that will lead to better, impactful outcomes. This means continuously bringing new ideas and perspectives to the table, finding more open and inclusive ways to collaborate, and thinking holistically about how we can bring the most important stakeholders into the room to ensure community participation in problem-solving.

The second is how we hold ourselves to a high-quality bar in a time of AI. Consulting, research, data insights, design, media, and accelerating systems-level change are becoming increasingly commoditized. With the entry of AI and automated machine learning, the entire sector will be put under pressure to deliver faster results. However, if we think about it, the rise of AI underscores the importance of nurturing exceptional human talent. Consequently, an important differentiator will be our unique talent, our approach to building new development leaders, and our ability to think creatively and innovatively. This, combined with our stringent quality standards and goal to provide the best possible solutions to the world’s most pressing problems, will be key for us. There will be so much that machines can do down the line, but building partnerships, acting with care, integrity, and humility, forging new initiatives, and creating consistent, high-quality work are areas where I expect Dalberg will continue to excel because of the kind of people our organization attracts.

Dalberg has been an impact leader for over 20 years. How does Dalberg plan to maintain its competitive edge over the next 20 years?

Dalberg is known for being a leading impact brand for over 20 years and has always been a first mover here, but the space of “consulting for good” is becoming increasingly competitive. We are a unique organization whose focus goes beyond simply offering consulting services; it’s about driving positive change and we want to continue inspiring trust and confidence. This requires continuous innovation on our part and an increased focus on how we bring the right kind of thought leadership and perspectives into the market so that impact stays front and center.

Connect with Stig to know more about Dalberg’s work and vision: