Born and raised in the farmland of the Midwestern United States, Pepper became interested in leadership, human potential, and common sense at age seven. He became a senior advisor to the former President of the Czech Republic, Va´clav Havel, founding the Prague Leadership Institute, writing a syndicated column on leadership in the financial dailies of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and co-founding Aspen Institute Central Europe. He was voted Best Corporate Leadership Coach-Europe by London-based AI Media. Having had a somewhat unusual life experience-high school drop-out, barber, insurance salesman, magazine publisher, graduating university (finally!), becoming a partner in the world's respected executive search firm, advising leaders around the world, retiring at age 55, moving to Europe - Pepper has seen life, and people, from a number of different perspectives and learned first-hand the value of common sense (sometimes painfully). Today, Pepper lives in Prague.