About Sheppard Partners

The secret to our success is simple. We learn everything we can about you: your business, your culture, your issues, your goals. We help you clarify your business objectives, and identify and understand your performance gaps. Then we work with you to develop specialized solutions designed specifically to meet your needs. It is this total solutions-oriented, customized approach that creates extraordinary results. An incredibly simple concept, but you’ll notice the difference it makes.

With Sheppard Partners, you’ll see real results. Our processes will equip your team with the tools they need to create a high performance culture. And because we work with you to establish measurable goals, we’re able to help your organization analyze your results and identify and target areas that need improvement. This commitment to follow through ensures that you will successfully develop the methods you need to maximize your performance and keep on improving.

Charlie Sheppard

Charlie Sheppard is President of Sheppard Partners, Inc., a company on the forefront of next-generation behavioral assessment technologies. Sheppard Partners is an organizational development consulting company that focuses its efforts on helping organizations create high performance cultures. He brings experience in organizational development, specializing in the assessment, design, and delivery of development programs with an emphasis on strategic alignment, leadership development, team development, and negotiation skills. By developing innovative technologies and delivering creative solutions, Sheppard Partners is an active partner in the selection process, in the creation of effective teams, and in ongoing organizational development. Charlie coordinates the activities of Sheppard Partners consultants and serves the firm as the lead developer of assessment technologies and courseware.

Charlie is the developer of the S.A.R.G.E.™ Behavior-Based Interviewing model and the E.C.H.O.S.™ Performance Management model. He has authored various products and seminars including: “Selecting the Best” interactive CD-ROM, “Communicating with Style” interactive CD-ROM, “Legal and Effective Interviewing” interactive CD-ROM, Behavior Based Selling, and Principle-Based Negotiations. He is the co-developer of the Mastering Leadership Executive Development program offered through Rockhurst College. Recently he has released his “Asking the Right Questions” CD-ROM and “Personal Introduction Marketing” CD-ROM. He is also the developer of the Principled Negotiations course licensed to many corporations and other consulting companies. He is the author of the book, Essential Tasks to Negotiation Excellence, published in 2004.

Charlie Sheppard has delivered state-of-the-art sales and management strategies in his previous positions with both Burroughs Corporation and with Wang Laboratories. During that part of his career, he was known for turning around under-performing sales organizations.

As an Organizational Development consultant, Charlie has created and implemented a number of unique programs. Charlie specializes in facilitating long-term organizational development for corporate executives. His background in corporate sales, management, and start-up ventures gives him a depth of understanding and application in his consulting and speaking.

Charlie has been integrating leadership and negotiation skills within corporations at the senior level for the past sixteen years. His specialized work in negotiations with unions and management has produced breakthrough results for both parties. He has focused on designing innovative methods of accelerated learning and the use of transformational technologies.

Assignments for private and public sectors have been in the USA, Australia, United Kingdom, Spain, Canada, and Mexico. Principals have been telecommunications, pharmaceutics, computer, mining, energy, staffing, oil, healthcare, financial, and other consultancy/training firms.

Consulting and services have been delivered to Genentech, Logitech, Pacific Bell, Sprint, AT&T, Chevron, Ford, Florida Power and Light, Placer Dome, BHP, Stillwater Mining, TECK, Chase Manhattan Bank, Merrill Lynch, Diners Club, JP Morgan, Federated Investors, Jefferson Pilot Financial, Met Life Insurance, Management Recruiters, CDI, Bayer, Pharmacia, GSK, Roche, Park Davis, Sun Microsystems, Quantum, Blockbuster, Luxotica, Guardian Glass, Siemens, Rohm and Haas, Beck Manufacturing, MAC Tools, Holiday Retirement Corporation, Disney, The Executive Committee, California Highway Patrol, Restoration Hardware and many others.

Throughout his career he has been consistently exploring patterns of excellence in human behavior. Charlie makes his home in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Charlotte Bretto Milliner, M.S.

Charlotte has a distinguished career in individual and organizational development, where she has worked as a professor, consultant, trainer and government advisor.  She has delivered services in the USA, Europe and the Pacific Rim.

Charlotte has created a leadership development model that has been used successfully around the world.  This process has been used to train managers at all levels while also improving upward feedback and information flow to senior managers.  In Australia, Charlotte worked with an international mining and oil company to define a curriculum for the development of future senior corporate leaders using this model.

Over the last two decades, Charlotte has been a major force in shifting corporate cultures to being customer-focused.  For a computer hardware manufacturer she orchestrated a change from being technology-driven to customer driven.  She developed an integrated process that included strategy development, team building, change management and company-wide training to ensure ownership at all levels.

Focusing increasingly on customer partnerships, Charlotte worked with one of the leading pharmaceutical companies to build a partnership with the Food and Drug Administration that will allow them to bring drugs to market faster while maintaining safety.

Charlotte has a remarkable ability to put isolated issues into an organizational and systems perspective, and design interventions that handle immediate issues while moving the whole system forward at the same time.

Charlotte holds a Masters degree in Human Resource Development.  She recently has been a Board Member holding the position of Director of Programs for the Healthcare Business Women’s Association and is a member of the Women’s Presidents Organization.

Jim Peal

Powerful, a natural master communicator, dynamic, multi-talented, fun and inspiring are just a few of the words that people use to describe Jim Peal. Recognized internationally for his ability to inspire and motivate people, Jim continually leads people to higher levels of capability.

Jim’s mastery brings businesses and people to a higher level of competence, confidence and productivity. His corporate consulting focuses on optimizing corporate cultures to promote excellence. His leading edge executive coaching provides a unique synthesis that taps inner strengths and external resources resulting in higher performance and personal satisfaction. Jim has the unique ability to “read” complex situations, design, initiate and complete the appropriate interventions.

Jim’s completed his postgraduate work at Baylor Medical School and received his doctoral degree from the Union Institute clearly demonstrating his ongoing commitment to education, creativity and excellence.

Jim has been on the leading edge in creating and implementing programs in diversity. He served as the founding Chairman of the Diversity Committee at Pacifica Graduate Institute, and has served as a Commissioner on the Affirmative Action Commission for Santa Barbara County. In addition to being an international diversity lecturer and a trainer of diversity trainers, he has worked with several major corporations in the U.S. to raise awareness and facilitate the implementation of diversity initiatives.

People are immediately engaged. Not only is he a powerful role model for on-target communication, he infuses his authentic humor into his courses to create the optimum environment for learning and achievement. No matter what course Jim leads, participants learn on multiple levels and leave empowered with a set of skills and understanding of how to apply them.

Jim has been instrumental in empowering business to make quantum increases in their productivity. He expresses the depth of his understanding of human beings and systems in an elegant practical speaking and teaching style that enlightens and promotes long lasting changes.

Mary Boren, M.A.

Practical, realistic, insightful, fun … and relentless!

Mary Boren brings the benefit of deep internal and external experience to her consulting work.  She understands how work really gets done in complex corporate environments.

Mary has worked in the leadership and organization development field for fifteen years.  Her clients have included Fortune 500 companies in Europe, North and South America, in such industries as microelectronics, financial services, insurance, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and chemicals.

Mary has worked internally with Genentech, as Senior Director for Human Resources in Product Development, and at GlaxoSmithKline, as Director of Organization Effectiveness (HR) for Research Worldwide and as the Leadership Consultant in Worldwide Human Resources.  Her work included consulting with the global R&D executive teams, aligning HR strategy with the Business strategy, providing coaching to the top 115 leaders worldwide (Glaxo Wellcome) and working with leaders and teams to produce results that were beyond the realm of what was thought possible.

Mary has been acknowledged as bringing exceptional technical and strategic agility skills to every engagement.  Her strengths as a consultant come from her integrated understanding of business issues, her unusual perceptiveness and ability to provide challenging feedback, her relentless commitment to the growth of individuals and teams as well as the organizational system.

Over the last fifteen years, Mary has designed and delivered customized interventions as well as “TeamWorkAbility”™, Principled Negotiations and Compelling Partnerships, “Communication in a Changing Environment”, “Impact Presentations and Facilitation”, “New Team Start-Ups”, “New Manager Assimilation Programs”, as well as Executive Coaching.

Mary holds a Masters degree in Psychology and is certified to deliver all instrumentation from the Center for Creative Leadership.

Zemo Trevathan

Zemo began his career in 1994 serving community organizations, small businesses and individual clients by founding LifeWorks Coaching and Consulting.  The clients were diverse and passionate, including a cooperative grocery story, a community theater director and a PhD candidate just trying to “get that PhD” done.  Zemo says of those days, “I can remember, at the end of the day, smiling and saying to my wife: ‘I am so lucky to be doing this work!”

As his network of clients grew to include national and international organizations and corporations, the company was incorporated as Zemo Trevathan and Associates, Inc. and then later, in partnership with Jonathan Estes, transformed into Strategic Measures, Inc.  Zemo still works with many of those same early clients, and still ends the day with gratefulness for having found such a joyful, challenging path of service.

Combining his incisive thinking and strategic skills with a lifelong motivation to foster compassion and connection, Zemo’s personal mission is to help organizations, teams and individuals increase their effectiveness at accomplishing what matters to them – together.  Every engagement is unique, and Zemo delights in the process of getting to know each client and their current reality to help map out the simplest process for getting to where they want to go.  One key element of Zemo’s approach is helping people see into and beyond their own blind spots:  “Our most maddening challenges are often so difficult precisely because we are not seeing what the actual problem is – and it is often our own thinking and perceptions that masks it.”

Highlights among Zemo’s successful projects over the years include:  leading a $1.1M culture change process for a TransAtlantic IT group that was centralizing and improving its architecture and services; facilitating the integration of formerly siloed and competing quality and manufacturing managers of a pharmaceutical plant into a unified team; helping leadership and scientists at sites in Western Europe, Midwestern US and Northeastern US overcome their differences and resistance to forming a single global R and D organization.

“I thrive on making the impossible happen,” Zemo says.  “Especially when someone’s told me ‘Oh, you’ll never get them to work together’ – seeing people actually talking through what seemed unspeakable or hopeless…  That inspires me!”

Art Giser

Art Giser is a senior consultant at Sheppard Partners. For the past 29 years Art has developed unique and powerful approaches to executive and team development in the areas of leadership; collaboration; leading and managing change; sales and persuasion; merging and developing new corporate cultures; creating high performing teams; presentation skills; negotiation; decision-making; and executive coaching. Art doesn’t just teach clients new concepts and methods, but he enables them to actually put the concepts and methods to use at work in a way that drives the business’s needs, their career, and their personal satisfaction. He helps organizations create corporate cultures that facilitate and drive the new behaviors.

Art’s presentations are known for clarity, depth, and humor. He delivers skills and transformation in a fun and practical way. Participants take away many forms of learning, including marvelous stories and metaphors that become a source of inspiration in their lives.

Art has extensive experience working with executives and teams at global corporations including Intel, BHP Minerals, GlaxoSmithKline, Genentech, Anderson Consulting, Parke-Davis, Pfizer, Hoffman La Roche, Merrill Lynch, Bear-Sterns, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi Data Systems, Motorola, Sony Entertainment, and Proctor & Gamble.

Arthur Giser’s work enables people to create lives that are successful, meaningful and fulfilling.

Art has worked for these consulting firms:
• NLP Associates 1984-present
• Deep Woods Technologies 1993-1995
• Harvard Brown 1995-2004
• Center for Professional Development 1996-2008
• Sheppard Partners 2004-present

Expertise
• Executive coaching
• Changing organizational culture and behaviors
• Merging organizational cultures
• New team/new manager alignment
• Creating High performing teams
• Presentation Skills
• Negotiations
• Resolving difficult relationship issues
• Effective skills transference
• Collaboration and creative problem-solving strategies
• Organizational restructuring and roles/responsibility definition
• Training executive and life coaches

Education
University of California, Santa Cruz: Bachelors Degree in Biology
Trainer certification from the Center for Advanced Studies in California.

Partial List of Publications:
“Groupware and Reengineering: The Human Side of Change.”  Chapter, Groupware: Collaborative Strategies for Corporate LANs and Intranets, Prentice Hall
“TV or Not TV? Mental Calisthenics for the Phone.”  Sales and Marketing Management
“Phone Fitness” Registered Representative
“Executive Coaching” Inner Quest
“Rapport and Influence” SMB Special Report

Simon D’Arcy

With over 17 years of experience, Simon helps navigates his clients through the maze of their current business challenges using an approach that integrates sound assessment, expert facilitation and leadership coaching to produce a host of results including, increased trust and motivation, a better decision making process, and faster execution.

Some of Simon’s recent work includes:

Guiding a two thousand person IT organization of a global energy company over 3 years to design and cultivate a high-performing culture through a series of leadership summits, leadership team interventions and supervisor-led training modules.

Working with a new CIO to successfully transition into a new role, build effective relationships with his senior and extended leadership teams while increasing capacity in the face of mandated budget cuts.

Facilitating the faculty, administration, and board of a private school to heal a decade old rift and begin a transition to new level of cohesion within the organization and community.

Simon’s core values of authenticity, accountability, community and never-ending learning are the driving force in his passion to uncover the current realities and create the lasting changes so crucial to an organization’s long-term success. Energetic and inquisitive by nature, he considers the following ‘burning’ questions central to the work of Sheppard Partners:

What is the best way to help people in organizations broaden their perspective to be able to appreciate and synthesize multiple perspectives around the same issue?

How do we design and cultivate organizational cultures that reduce redundancies, increase discretionary effort and engagement and strengthen the adaptability of the organization?

What is the most effective way to help leaders see themselves as they really are?  What is the best way to expand their awareness of the impact they have on results and other people?

Simon has been exploring these questions with thousands of employees, managers, and executives at hundreds of companies, including ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, Transocean, DCP Midstream, IRI, Sun MicroSystems, Olam, Network Equipment Technologies, United States Gypsum Corporation, RVI Group, Merrill Lynch Canada, and Gold’s Gym.

Maggie Larkin

During her career Maggie Larkin has consulted with executives and business leaders in numerous Fortune 500 corporations and start-up companies. She has worked in diverse industries such as manufacturing, agriculture, mining, finance, technology, and insurance.

Maggie has over 25 years’ experience as a consultant and executive coach. Specializing in organizational consulting and executive development, she is known for her ability to assist people in attaining higher levels of performance and effectiveness.

A rigorous coach, Maggie is highly experienced and effective with groups of all sizes; people of diverse backgrounds and levels of seniority. An excellent listener and behavioral expert, she quickly identifies the limiting behaviors of individuals and team members. She provides invaluable input to enable people to move beyond their limiting behaviors to become high performance teams producing extraordinary results.

Maggie is highly skilled in clarifying what leaders want to say when faced with bringing a new organizational future into existence. Through her strong coaching relationships, people are able to recognize and move beyond their own limiting behavioral models and achieve leadership effectiveness beyond what they thought possible. Maggie’s keen insights, high energy, and humor are great assets in her ability to assist executives and business leaders in creating powerful results. She brings strong consulting and leadership skills to client engagements.

Maggie received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from California State University, Long Beach, CA. She has continued her education in strategic management, communication, productivity, and sales and has received her certification in GCI Certification (Global Competency Assessment), IES Certification (Intercultural Effectiveness Assessment) and MBTI Certification (Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator)

Danielle Conroy

With over 25 years as an organizational development consultant, working both internally for Novartis Pharmaceuticals in Switzerland, and co-founding and managing two successful consulting and training businesses in Australia, Danielle brings a significant breadth and depth to her consulting, teaching and coaching practice. These experiences have enabled her to develop a deep understanding of the complexity, challenges and rewards of working in medium, large and matrix organizations.

In all contexts, she teaches and supports leaders and change agents to unlock and accelerate powerful mental, emotional and relational capacities that support them in navigating the complexity of today’s world, generating greater impact in their organizations and industries.

Danielle’s past and present clients value her creativity, depth of integral thinking, warmth and emotional intelligence, coupled with a focus on business results and a partnership approach. She balances an intuitive understanding of people and deep listening skills, with her high-level analytical ability and strong support for individual and collective development and learning.

Through Danielle’s passionate commitment to sustainable transformation, she has designed and implemented numerous, successful, tailored, multi-tiered leadership development programs, strategic planning processes, change management initiatives, restructures, and individual & cultural assessments. Many of these have been 2-8 year projects, which have enabled individuals, teams and organizations to realize and measure significant outcomes over time. In addition, she has developed and trained HR professionals and consultants in consulting and advanced facilitation skills, and logged 3000 + hours of coaching for middle and senior executives.

Danielle has a graduate degree in Business and Leadership from Curtin University in Australia. She is certified in several assessment instruments including the Leadership Development Profile (LDP/LMP/GLP), Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI), Integral 360, DiSC, Birkman & MBTI (steps 1 & 2). She is a certified Holacracy practitioner and Lectica Consultant.

Through deliberate daily practices of yoga, meditation and exercise, Danielle maintains her strong personal commitment to transformation. She has lived and worked in USA, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, China, Japan, Malaysia, India and Australia, and recently married and moved to Marin, California with her daughter, Anji into a blended family situation.

Gregg Johnson, Ph.D.

Gregg Johnson is a senior organization and management resource. His background includes experience as a corporate officer, general management consultant, small business owner, as well as an academician. He has held the title of Senior Vice President at both the Forum Corporation and Drake Beam Morin… where he was responsible for selling, planning and leading strategic initiatives designed to improve organizational and individual performance. (At DBM he managed the Organization’s North American operations).

In these jobs, Dr. Johnson has worked with senior client executives in the areas of…
·Developing strategic initiative
·Managing large-scale change
·Coaching high-level executives in leadership and management
·Facilitating critical teamwork for senior execs and their teams
·Creating and implementing performance management systems
·Designing organizational structures and complementary systems

This work was performed globally for a variety of clients including; Leo Burnett (Can), Bane & Co (US, UK), National Westminster Bank (UK), CIBC, (Can), Johnson and Johnson, New York Life, Moore Corporation, Northern Telecom (CAN), Baxter, Merck, Forte Hotels (UK), General Foods, Xerox Corporation, Argos (UK), Microsoft, Shell Oil (Singapore, US and Dubai), M&M Mars, Schlumberger (US, Thailand, Canada, UAE, Indonesia, Brazil, Russia, Angola, Algeria, India, France, Italy, Qatar, Malaysia and China), BP (US, Canada, Columbia, Poland, England), Transocean (India, South Africa, Angola, UAE and Scotland), Guy Carpenter (UK) and the Departments of Interior and Homeland Security.

Before serving in the above-mentioned positions, Gregg worked as an advertising account manager with Leo Burnett (Chicago) and then Ogilvy & Mather (New York City). The brands on which he served came from the portfolios of Proctor & Gamble and General Foods. He then joined the MAC Group (Now Gemini Consulting), an international general management-consulting firm, located in Cambridge, MA.  In his role as a Senior Project Leader he worked with Fortune 100 clients to solve a wide range of strategic and organizational problems.

After leaving the MAC Group, Gregg owned and operated his own construction company in Chicago, IL.  His firm fabricated and erected structural steel in the industrial and commercial sector ($14M/annually).

Dr. Johnson was honorably discharged from the US Army after serving two years active duty during the Viet Nam conflict. He is a marathoner/ ultra-marathoner who believes friends are the key to happiness.

In summary, Gregg has worked successfully for two global advertising agencies, two international consulting firms, a global training firm… and owned and ran his own business. During this time he has lead a wide variety of successful and profitable projects…as well as managed and developed many bright and talented colleagues.

Simon Lovegrove

Simon Lovegrove’s consulting expertise encompasses strength in both people and strategy development.

His work with strategy development focuses on optimizing value-added through customer management and the customer interface. This results in a unique understanding of the business impact of integrating new technologies in customer relationships, and of the operational and human issues that are crucial to making these technologies work.

Simon brings a fresh eye and a sense of abundance to his work. One of his key skills is to enter a situation where there are no “maps”. He is able to navigate from uncertainty, make sense of the situation, and bring it to resolution. He focuses on achieving results through the development of the individuals, using the results to catalyze awareness and action. As a coach, Simon’s firm belief is that change can happen in an instant but usually takes time, consideration and support.

Simon has worked in many business sectors, including retail banking, credit card companies, all varieties of communications, insurance and utilities, and retail.

In organizational life, Simon feels it is as important to enjoy as it is to produce. As part of an MSc in Change Agent Skills and Strategies, he is researching teams and how to have team success with individual personal growth and happiness all at once.

Michael Banks

Over a long and distinguished career Michael has mastered all forms of coaching and facilitation. He has worked in Asia, Europe and the Americas with supervisors, managers and ‘C’ level executives in a variety of contexts – team development, strategy creation, and leadership and management skills workshops to name a few. From small to large groups, and in many different cultures and industries, Michael has had success even in the most challenging of circumstances. Through humor, story telling, and a dynamic and authentic delivery style, he creates a productive learning environment in which participants are encouraged to fully and actively participate and apply techniques and models to their everyday business lives.

Throughout his career Michael has specialized in all aspects of leadership and interpersonal communication skills. In the 1980s with Programmes Training Ltd in the UK he trained British Telecom supervisors, helped Lufthansa airport managers across Europe communicate more effectively with each other, and taught oil rig supervisors how to manage in the most difficult circumstances. In the 1990s Michael designed and rolled out a team membership program for American Express and, while a partner at KRW International, designed and led an Emerging Leadership Program for Amex’s global finance function. During this time he also introduced leadership skills training to the Operations, Technology and Finance functions of Goldman Sachs. More recently, with CDR International, Michael was a faculty member on large scale leadership development programs for global companies such as Time Warner and Novartis.

Michael gained his BA Hons in English Language and Literature from Reading University where he went on to successfully complete his post graduate MA in Education. He is a published author and enjoys captaining Marin Cricket Club, performing his spoken word pieces to live music, and concocting the most tasty dishes in the kitchen!

Juan Acevedo-Lucio

Juan Acevedo-Lucio is a bilingual organizational coach, educator and facilitator, working within the various cultures, communities and corporations to discover new possibilities, generate extraordinary actions and accomplish envisioned outcomes.

His previous 25 years of experience on the front line of managing design projects and leading innovative teams to move beyond their limits and improve their decision making process serves him well as a coach – he’s been there.

He was an integral part of launching Univision.com as the Creative Director of Univision Online (the online division of the Hispanic media giant), at the start of the 21st century. Here he created a team of over 25 digital artists from diverse backgrounds establishing design processes and standards. He also focused on the effective relationships of his team members and set the collaborative tone for the department within the company for years to come.

Early in his career, Juan worked as a Production Designer and Art Director for the South African Broadcasting Corporation, where he established himself as an innovative thinker and creative problem solver gifted with the facility to create unique environments within cultural, technical and financial parameters.

Juan holds a BFA from Parsons / The New School for Social Research, where he also served as the Director of Digital Design: Continuing Education; a division known for imbuing adults with traditional design based education using leading edge technologies.

As a member of New World Consulting he worked on various projects, most notably the cultural transformation of a quasi-government agency within Latin America. He also translated and converted English content to their Hispanic constituency.

Juan enjoyed serving on non-profit boards such as the The San Miguel Resource Center (Vice-Chair), The Rocky Mountain Round-up (Board President) moving them towards concrete goals and placing them solidly within their respective communities.

Juan’s commitment to impacting the people he collaborates with is to unleash the creative process within them – looking for the new possibilities where none had previously seemed to exist. This was true when he first started as a junior designer and has developed through the past 30 years as a leader creating other leaders, especially within the Latino community.

Oscar Ramirez

Oscar is a natural coach who enjoys supporting people to reach their full potential masterfully using his coaching experience. His Coaching is delivered in an atmosphere of warmth and dynamism to maximize learning. Oscar has had a private coaching practice for over 15 years.

In the private sector, Oscar has worked with Celestica, Core Composites, Motorola Mobility, Gates Mexico, Judiciary Power of the state of Hidalgo, Oxxo, Femsa, Littelfuse, Carrier Mexico, Roche Industries, Zanitas Hospital, Rockten and Cosma Mexico. His work in educational institutions includes projects as a teacher and Keynote speaker for renowned Universities in México including ITESM, UNAM, UANL, UVM, CMPNL and UAT. He holds a degree in Industrial Relationships with specialty in Organizational Development.

Oscar works as profesor at UNAM, the main public University in Mexico, teaching in the Masters degree of Alternative Means of Conflict Resolution. He is Credentialed as Professional Certified Coach by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). He has been a trainer and Coach for SEDESOL, Mexico´s Social Development Bureau. He has volunteered in the program “You can live without addictions” at the social rehabilitation center in Apodaca Nuevo Leon. He is a promoter of the Mexican Center of NLP (CMPNL) in the state of Nuevo León. He is the Founder and Director of Strategic Coaching, specializing in business and lifestyle coaching.

Joshua Magee

Over the past fifteen years, Josh Magee has led consulting projects for executives and industry leaders throughout the global energy, utility, transportation, building construction, and financial services industries.  He has worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies including GE, Siemens, Mitsubishi, Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, and Goldman Sachs.

Josh specializes in leadership and strategy consulting, focused on helping individuals and organizational teams to achieve their highest levels of performance.  He strives to help organizations to create cultures that reward collaboration, communication, and efficiency.  Josh focuses on enabling individuals to maximize their inherent skill sets, and to recognize and invest in their potential for sustained growth.

For the past four years, Josh has run Negawatt Research, the consulting firm that he created in 2010 to focus on leadership development and strategy in the global building construction industry.  Prior to creating Negawatt, Josh worked as the North American Director of Wind Energy Research at Emerging Energy Research (EER), in which role he completed numerous consulting projects with the senior management of companies across the global power generation market.  Prior to EER, Josh served as a utility-scale wind energy project developer for Horizon Wind Energy in Texas, New York, and Illinois.

Theresa Tavarez

Theresa’s extensive experience spans across Aerospace, Manufacturing, and Retail industries.   Her primary focus areas include: organizational change management, transformational leadership development, executive coaching, building high performing teams, conflict resolution, and continuous improvement.

Theresa’s career as a change agent and leadership developer includes being the site leader and an internal consultant for a large variety of leadership and organizational development projects across major Aerospace companies.  Serving as the Training & Development Manager at Meggitt Control Systems and as the Leadership and Organizational Development Site Leader at Lockheed Martin Skunks Works has given Theresa broad and deep experience working with a broad spectrum of people from executives to the floor operators.

She served as the President of the Lockheed Martin Women’s Networking Group ‘Wings’, Vice President of the Leadership Association of Professional Development, and as a Member of the Diversity and Hispanic Leadership Counsels. She is a master trainer at the Center for Leadership Excellence.

Theresa’s formal education includes degrees from the University of La Verne (MS, BA) and Fielding Graduate University (MA). She holds certifications as a Development Dimensions International Master Trainer and International Coaching Federation Professional Coach. She is driven and passionate about continuous education and excellence and is currently a Doctoral Candidate at the Fielding Graduate University.

Her reputation as a passionate inspirational speaker is the hallmark of her 30-plus year career. She has trained hundreds of leaders and individual contributors both domestically and internationally.  Theresa’s compassion for serving and developing people to their full potential aligns with her values and purpose in life.

Xavier Lee

Mr. Xavier Lee is an international business consultant, leadership trainer and executive coach specializing in high performance team building. He is certified as a Language and Behavior (LAB) Consultant, Limbic Coach® and in Transformational Business Coaching. Mr. Lee specializes in helping leaders build high performance culture in companies and organizations.

Mr. Lee draws from a rich global leadership experience, having served in senior marketing and strategic planning positions at Fortune 100 companies such as American Express and Cigna in US and international markets, as well as having started and operated his own businesses. As VP of Strategic Marketing at Cigna International, Mr. Lee led New Product Development, Internet Business, and Strategic Marketing business units, and was recognized for his ability to build and maintain high performance teams. Mr. Lee and his team achieved 300% increase in new product portfolio in less than 12 months. At American Express, Mr. Lee developed new market entry strategies for both US and international markets, adding more than $200 million dollars in new revenue opportunities.

Mr. Lee has led leadership and business trainings, and facilitated meetings in organizations such as Atotech, BMW, Boeringer Ingelheim, Project Management Institute, Shire Pharmaceuticals, Stanford Hospital, and Whole Foods Market. Mr. Lee also created and co-leads an innovative week-long leadership program for international C-level (CEOs) executives annually. Program participants unanimously rated the program as “one of the best leadership programs” in their post-program surveys.

Mr. Lee holds an MBA from Cornell University where he was awarded the prestigious Park Leadership Fellowship, and a BA in International Relations from University of California Davis where he was also awarded a Full Army ROTC scholarship.

Brad Britton

With over 25 years of organizational development experience Brad has worked with business, education, government and non-profit organizations.  He has facilitated strategic change efforts including vision development, rapid organizational improvement, process improvement, organizational redesign, and strategic planning.  His approach centers on working with organizational leaders to discover and act on the high leverage opportunities that will improve business results.  Using a systems view, he works with organizations to build on strengths and create lasting solutions for all stakeholders.  Brad has worked with Fortune 50 companies, many non-profits, the U.S. Federal Government, as well as mid-sized and small businesses.

At the team level, Brad specializes in achieving alignment on business goals and cultural values that drive the team’s decisions and behavior.  He assists teams in making strategic decisions and then coaches them through the implementation.  He works to build trust and communication within the team so that difficult issues can be raised and resolved.  Brad has coached a diverse range of teams including executive, mid-management, line, project, design, communication, and product/service development.

Brad has extensive experience coaching individuals at all levels of organizations and specializes in leadership development.  His coaching helps his clients pursue the goals and dreams that inspire adventurous action, authentic self-reflection and disciplined self-care.  Brad practices authenticity and joyous expression and uses his coaching to help his clients achieve worthy goals while living fully in the moment.

Brad holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Electrical Engineering from Ohio University as well as a Masters in Public Administration from San Jose State University.  He and his wife Jodi and sons Tate and Cyrus live in San Luis Obispo California where they love to play in the natural beauty of the area.

Jackie Eiting

Jackie Eiting creates breakthrough performance for large organizations by integrating senior executive development with business strategy implementation.  Jackie has over 30 years’ experience in transformational coaching, large-scale  culture change, executive meeting facilitation and executive development, and has worked with major corporations in the US , Canada, Europe and Latin America.

Prior to co-founding Alder Associates, Jackie held partnerships in Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) Transformation and Change Group and Charles Smith & Associates, a leading transformational consulting firm.  Jackie has also established her own consulting practice specializing in executive coaching, executive team development and leadership development.

Jackie’s passion is to consult, coach, and train visionary leaders.  She has developed programs, events, and cultural practices to ensure the implementation of her clients’ mission and vision.  Jackie has facilitated, designed, and implemented hundreds of programs, meetings and conversations bringing the art of leadership into the fabric of dozens of organization’s everyday practices.

Jackie has led engagements at Ingersoll-Rand, DuPont Legal, The Limited Corporation, General Growth Management Properties, The Rouse Company, EMCO Ltd. Canada, IBM Corporation, Cunnard-Ellerman Shipping, Marrion Merrill Dow, Inc., Campbell Soup Company Canada, Land Rover Corporation, US Air Force, Aeronautical Research, IBM , Procter & Gamble,  Trinity Wall Street, Catalent Pharmaceuticals,  Finning South America, Debswana (DeBeers Botswana)Shore Memorial Hospital System, St John’s Communities, Marble Collegiate Church , Delaware Community Foundation, Department of Energy/ EIA Administration  and  the Pan American Health Organization(WHO).

Jackie earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Northwestern University and a Masters of Psychiatric Social Work from The University of Hawaii.

Ted Carlson

“I believe if we take confident steps and make daily contributions… even small ones, it will add up to an extraordinary life” —Ted Carlson

Engaging, passionate, and relentless. That’s Ted Carlson according to his peers. Building on 16 years of success in the strength training industry, Ted brings a masterful and energetic presence to his training, coaching and consulting engagements. His flexible personality allows him to effortlessly connect with clients who consistently laud the motivation and empowerment they experience with Ted in their corner.

Ted is regarded as highly adaptable and an exceptional communicator in both English and Spanish with nearly two decades working throughout the Caribbean, Central & South America, the US, and Europe. His multi-talented background and unique personality bring a refreshing perspective that fosters results and strong relationships.

His enthusiasm, empathy and finely tuned communication skills combine for a commanding yet caring presence that encourages confidence, inspiration, and possibility wherever he goes.

Ted has trained, consulted and facilitated engagements for clientele in the following industries: health, education, mining, fitness, photography, food & beverage, hospitality and athletics.

He has also coached individuals over the last seven years in nutrition, stress management, wellness, lifestyle & optimal health. Over the years, Ted has trained a handful of young athletes who have risen to the professional stage in hockey and baseball.

He also served in the US armed forces with the California National Guard’s ARMY Corp of Engineers, and is currently studying for a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology with a concentration in Organizational Behavior at Colorado Technical University.

Ted lives with his wife Patricia and his youngest children Micah and Ethan in Chicago. In addition to family life he enjoys reading, craft mixology and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Heraldo Suero

Heraldo defines himself as a servant of humanity, philosopher and creator of spaces of consciousness.

He has twelve years of experience as an organizational development consultant, trainer, university professor, facilitator and executive coach; working with senior executives, middle managers, and high potential leaders/entrepreneurs.

Heraldo is a Professional Certified Coach, outstanding professional speaker in both, Spanish and English, with more than 35 master conferences and keynotes in all Latin America. He is the founder and director of a renowned international coaching academy (In Crescendo)

Heraldo developed his career with a solid international experience in more than 10 countries: US, Europe, Latin America. He has consulted and facilitated engagements in Fortune 100 Companies, Service Industry, Manufacturing, Finances, Education, Government and Nonprofits.  He is also a executive coach of Industries leaders organizations, including: CEMEX, COCA COLA, Popular Bank, 3M international, and WEF fellows, among others.

Sergio Hernández Ledward

My mission is to share and inspire life, abundance, joy and freedom. I profoundly believe that people and organizations are much more than our limitations and problems, I am certain that we are bigger than we think, that we can be more useful, creative, committed and happy. There is no doubt, the world needs our full presence – Sergio Hernández Ledward

Sergio is an engaging storyteller, a playful and profound trainer, an energetic speaker, an ever-learning parent, and a committed martial artist. He coaches people and organizations to dream higher dreams, live more fully, learn, do and enjoy more profoundly.

He is certified as an NLP coach and trainer by NLP of California and as a LEGO Serious Play facilitator by TRIVIUM. Sergio also holds a degree in Industrial Engineering by Tecnológico de Monterrey and a MD in Neurolinguistic Programming. He has published two books in Spanish on the art of metaphorical communication and is currently working on their translation to English.

During the last 15 years Sergio has been engaged in projects with Kurt Salmon Associates, Vanity Fair Intimates, Nestlé, GKN, Daimler, Volkswagen and ALSEA among others; he has also worked with Mexican governmental institutions such as the Federal Electricity Commission, National Water Commission, Guanajuato State Government and the Public Education Bureau. Sergio has been a keynote speaker in educational environments such as the Universities of Colima, Querétaro, Celaya, ITC and CMPNL.

Sergio focuses his professional practice on envisioning shared futures, developing communication skills, accompanying every client to trust their own seeds of creativity, generosity and power… and on gathering and sharing ancient and fresh stories.

Jorge Meléndez

Born in Hawaii, raised in Puerto Rico, Jorge Meléndez was a seasoned journalist and music critic long before becoming a Life & Business Coach in the early nineties.

For over twenty-five years Jorge worked for the two main dailies in San Juan. He also owned a self help newspaper called “La Era de Ahora” (The NOW Age) for over three years and also worked as a scriptwriter for a music television show.

1995 he become a Transformational Trainer in the Leadership field, a profession he continues to develop till this day. He has had the opportunity to work in over 18 countries, 80 cities and serve over 300,000 people.

In November of 2010 he published his first book called: “kNOw How: The Path To Unlearning”, which has sold in over 5,000 copies in 7 countries.

Jorge continues to serve the personal and professional coaching fields in over 7 countries. He is fully bilingual and lives in México City with his wife Rosaura.

Rosaura Yu

Born and raised in México city, Rosaura is a multitalented professional in many areas. Her Business preparation and experience has positioned her to work in fields that go from business assistant and image consultant to Business Owner and Life Coaching.

She has always been driven to growth, success and excellence in every possible way. Her skills go from being a gifted listener and patient observer who connects with clients and is very insightful when delivering powerful observations that could be very impactful to clients and people around her.

During the last fifteen years she has been driven to the personal growth arena. Her drive to grow and develop personal and professional skills have led her to participate in various projects in México, Argentina, Honduras, Panamá and Colombia, as a Consultant and as a Coach.

During her experience in the Personal Growth arena she has worked with over 10,000 people. She became a Certified Ontological Coach in 2012. She also is in the process of perfecting her English and being involved in large projects as a Consultant.

Rosaura is also a talented singer who is working on recording her first album in the Pop Ballad Arena. She lives in Mexico City with her husband Jorge.

Richard Uhuru

Richard is a well-rounded trainer, coach, speaker and consultant focusing on a holistic approach for the optimal performance of individuals and organization. “Humans have four pillars: Emotions, Believes, Physical and Spiritual. To generate a radical and sustainable change you need to address all four”.

He is certified as a Professional Coach, NLP Master Practitioner, Emotional Intelligence Coach and Professional Trainer. He is also a Meditation & Spiritual Coach, a Master Physical Trainer and has a degree in Electrical Engineering.

Richard earned the title of Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM), the highest that organization bestows. DTM recognizes a superior level of achievement in both communication and leadership. Toastmasters International is a non-profit organization, a world leader in communication and leadership development that is present in 135 countries.

Richard provides coaching and training in the areas of wellness, fitness, nutrition, stress management, work-life balance, leadership, team integration, public speaking, presentations skills, negotiation, conflict management, high performance, sales and customer services among others.

His clientele are from various industries including healthcare insurance, hotel chains, accounting firms, mining, government, universities, hospitals and non-profit organizations.

Richard is fully bilingual in English and Spanish, is a sports aficionado and lives in Puerto Rico with his beloved daughter Aneek.

Thomas Renault

For over 28 years Thomas has been at the forefront of change in the field of organizational development. His ability to create immediate rapport with clients helped launch him from a local service to an international consultant. His style is informal, warm, humorous and his commitment to each individual is without compromise. His methodology is considered “transformative.”

Over the years, requests and corporate mandates have refined his skills with individual executive coaching, teams (assessment, development, alignment) and the creation of organizational interventions to promote short-term international teams and satisfy long-term corporate objectives, results, and succession planning.

For the last 5 years he has concurrently designed and fully implemented a national leadership program that embeds easily and successfully into the workplace with immediate and continuous results. The depth of integration has informed and altered human resource, succession planning, executive management and cross-functional communication in those organizations.

He currently works with a diverse mixture of clients:
•    international semiconductors
•    software
•    financial institutions
•    federal agencies in US and Canada

Originally from Montréal, Canada, he has lived in Europe and the US. From 1999 to 2014 he was based out of San Francisco and now spends his time between the US and Canada.

Izabel Coutu

Creative, joyful, insightful and a committed team player, Izabel’s best contribution is to hold spaces for consciousness to arise. Engaged from a young age on a journey of personal and professional development, she has always been intrigued by what the conditions are that foster individuals to flourish and live meaningful lives.

As a curious and well-rounded generalist, Izabel is distinguished by her ability to build trusting relationships with her clients and partners. With excellent listening skills, creative mindset and a quality of presence, she creates the best conditions so that clients are adequately supported in their learning journey and in the establishment of what they value and aspire to.

Since 2006, she has served as a professional coach, consultant and facilitator in organizational and leadership development. Collaborating on a vast array of mandates from small to large corporations, she has gained solid experiences helping hundreds of professionals and managers to develop their competencies and achieve excellence. In the last few years, she developed an expertise in facilitating leadership development programs for world-class mining organizations. This has led her to acquire understanding, passion and respect for the high dedication of the people in this Industry.

Izabel holds an MA in Organizational Development, a Bachelor of Arts with specialization in facilitation, management, immigration and intercultural relationships, and a PCC certification in coaching. She skillfully masters French, Spanish and English and is truly passionate about leveraging and embracing diversity. She recently became a certified Points of You practitioner.

Some of the organizations she has worked with are: Rio Tinto Alcan, IAMGOLD, Cirque du Soleil, Datacratic, Group Analysis, Dairy Farmers of Canada, Bombardier Recreational Products, Fonds de Solidarité FTQ, Farm Credit Canada, Desjardins Sécurité Financière, CGI, Ministère des transports du Québec, Concordia University, Pfizer, Astra Zeneca.

She practices mindfulness meditation on a daily basis and is a proud and courageous long distance road cycling athlete. She lives in Brossard, Canada with her two beloved daughters and Eric, the love of her life.

Shelle Rose Charvet

Shelle is an expert on influencing and persuasion and known around the world for her first book, Words That Change Minds, now available in 13 languages. She is the subject-matter expert in below-conscious communication; what drives people to do (or not do) things, outside of their awareness. Since 1982, people and organizations in North America, Europe, Asia and the South Pacific seek her out for solutions to high-stakes marketing, sales, presentations, negotiation and team management challenges.

In the unionized auto parts industry, she helped negotiators avoid an expected strike and sign the first 5-year contract in the history of the company.  For an ERP company, she helped the marketing department increase direct advertising response rates by uncovering the hidden Motivation Triggers™ typical of their target market CIOs and CEOs, in the different phases of the buying cycle.  Another high-growth software company asked Shelle to help create and implement their international Customer Philosophy and Customer Transaction Processes based on identifying the Motivation Triggers for happy and unhappy end-users.

Shelle is also known for her practical developments in communication:

•   Presenting Ideas to Skeptical People
•   The Bad News Formula© for delivering bad news,
•   How to open a closed mind,
•   How to get someone to call you back, and
•   How to stop bullying when it happens

Her clients include: Siemens, Dynamic Funds, CIBC, RBC, Monsanto, CERN, PJM Interconnection, The Woodbridge
Group, TD Canada Trust, CP Rail, IBM, Microsoft, Astra-Zeneca, Nokia, Irish Ferries, CSC, Ontario Hydro, among
many others.

Shelle and her ideas have been seen on CNBC, CBC, CTV, Global, among others. She helps the public understand the
persuasion strategies of politicians and political parties during election campaigns.

Shelle is bilingual in English and French, has a working knowledge of Spanish and is learning German. Her husband lives in Berlin and she lives between Canada and Germany.