Ralph Krueger is a former professional ice hockey player, and is now an ice hockey coach. He has also briefly coached in the English Premier League, and is known for his involvement in the World Economic Forum.
Originally from Canada, Krueger came to Germany in the 1970’s and joined second division ice hockey team Duisburger SC. He spent the majority of his career playing in Germany, with over 350 games in the German Bundesliga and 45 games playing for the West Germany national ice hockey team. After his retirement from the game, he became assistant coach for the EV Duisburg team, before going on to coach Austrian side VEU Feldkirch to become champions of the European Ice Hockey League. He had proved himself as a highly effective coach, and then took over as head coach of the Swiss national ice hockey team. He led the team to appear at the 2002, 2006 and the 2010 Olympic Games as well as several in World Championships. His experiences as a coach led him to write a book called Teamlife- Beyond Setbacks to Success, which applied much of his learning about team sports to other areas of life.
Krueger has become well known as a great motivator and communicator, joining the World Economic Forum as a member of the Global Agenda Council on New Models of Leadership in 2011. He also made a switch from ice hockey to coach football in 2014. He was chairman of Southampton FC for 5 years before returning to ice hockey as the head coach of the Buffalo Sabres.