The Center for Respectful Leadership
Location: San Diego, California
Sweetspot: Leaders seeking to transition away from outdated leadership styles (command-and-control, carrot-and-stick) into respectful leadership
Style: Practical, upbeat, direct, supportive, respectful
Impact work: Supports leadership and organizational transformation through the positive power and measurable impact of respect; assists numerous organizations, including startups based in San Diego and elsewhere, to develop actively respectful cultures
Previous C-level experience: President/CEO of Orlando-Ward & Associates, producing artistic director of Plays for Living
Books: The Respectful Leader; Restoring Respect; Bad Behavior, People Problems, and Sticky Situations
Connect: collective@respectfulleadership.org
Challenge: “Understanding that today’s workplace requires a completely different leadership skill set than it did just a few years ago”
Fix: “Learn how to create actively respectful cultures.” —Gregg Ward
SUMMi7
Location: Dallas, Texas
Sweetspot: Strategy development, execution with team, employee engagement for scaling businesses
Style: Empowering — good listener, ideator with a growth mindset, dynamic presenter; engaging — focuses on execution and engaging teams, rolls up sleeves with you and your team, synthesizes the complex into plans, process- and solutions-based
Impact work: B Corp checklist is part of core programming to help companies build sustainability into their business model from the start
C-level experience: CEO of Molecular Testing Labs, previous president and CEO of Aviall, previous vice president of strategy and market development for Boeing Global Services
Books: The Frontline CEO, Business Scaling Method
Connect: eric@summi7.com, info@summi7.com
Challenge: “When leaders hit a plateau in their growth journey”
Fix: “Get comfortable letting go of what’s not working, and explore new ways to grow. Start by talking with your customers to see what’s working and what you could do to better meet their needs, and build that into your product roadmap.” —Eric Strafel
Marquis Leadership
Location: Bellevue, Washington
Sweetspot: C-suite executives across all sectors with a specialty in clinical and administrative healthcare leadership; impact company founders and social entrepreneurs
Style: Engaged listener, question asker, and master storyteller; guides from the side with humor, attention, and perspective; unlocks possibilities that can lead to positive change
Impact work: Worked with hundreds of impact leaders, investors, social entrepreneurs, and philanthropists; helps accelerate the things people and organizations are doing to make a positive difference in the world
Op-ed: Coaching as a Strategy to Reduce Burnout in Healthcare Workers
Connect: glen.stewart@marquisleadership.com
Challenge: “Creating and communicating a clear North Star, setting strategy, managing through change, and building high-performing teams to deliver results”
Fix: “Lead with awareness and intention, and include others along the way — ensure people feel heard.”
—Glen Stewart
The Courage of a Leader
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Sweetspot: Empowering others to have the courage to be authentic, say what’s needed, trust their legacy, and boldly create the extraordinary
Style: Acknowledging, strength-based, bias for action
Impact work: Believes everyone has ESG responsibility, not just those who have ESG in their title; coaches leaders about the impact they are having ethically, socially, fiscally on their organization, their communities, their stakeholders, and their teams; coached C-level leaders and facilitated strategic planning sessions in purpose-driven organizations
C-level experience: Shoop Consulting Group Inc.
Book and podcast: The Courage of a Leader
Connect: courageofaleader.com, linkedin.com/in/amyshoopriley
Challenge: “Making progress on desired priorities when unexpected circumstances — such as supply chain issues, changing legislation, key position turnover — become priorities”
Fix: “Encourage critical thinking and articulate solutions, which creates a sense of ownership and gets more problems addressed.” —Amy L. Riley
Eric Partaker & Company
Location: London, England
Sweetspot: Mentoring and helping CEOs scale their companies and leadership while unlocking their full potential
Style: Direct, empathetic, practical
C-level experience: Advised Fortune 50 CEOs while with McKinsey & Company; was a CEO for most of career, creating and growing a restaurant chain for 13 years.
Book: The 3 Alarms
Connect: ericpartaker.com
Challenge: “Scaling successfully. CEOs fail to: sequence, focus properly, zero-in on their zone of genius, and build high performers focused on results.
Fix: “Answer this question: ‘If everything were to stay as it is today, where would change have the greatest impact?’” —Eric Partaker
Boss In Heels LLC
Location: Miami, Florida
Sweetspot: Revenue generation, leadership, keynote speaking
Style: Supportive, encouraging, visionary
Impact work: Sat on the board of City Year Miami for nine years, works with various charities throughout the country to give back through keynote speaking
C-level experience: HealthLynked Corporation board member, previous Beasley Media Chief Revenue Officer
Books: Confidence Creator, Overcome Your Villains
Podcast: Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Connect: heathermonahan.com/one-on-one-coaching-sessions
Challenge: “Fear — fear of jumping into an environment where they feel they aren’t qualified, intimidated by AI, feeling as though they aren’t savvy enough in social media, or that their time has simply passed. All of these are not true.”
Fix: “Take messy action, but action nonetheless. Surround yourself with people who have done the things you want to do. Enlist an accountability partner to push you through the low moments. Realize that at other points in your life, you were a beginner, but you didn’t stop there. Leverage past beginner-to-expert experiences as insight into what can happen next in this environment and opportunity.” —Heather Monahan
Less Doing
Location: Princeton, New Jersey
Sweetspot: Productivity, automation, delegation, time management, work/life integration
Style: Pragmatic, tailored; focuses on optimization, automation, and outsourcing techniques to free up time and mental space
Impact work: Engaged with purpose-driven companies; has extensive experience in sustainable development and community-focused initiatives, notably through work
with Meisel Development focusing on sustainable properties
C-level experience: Liontex, TEK, Menus-To-Go.com, Arise Development, Leverage; previously with Princeton Kaizen, Meisel Development
Books: Less Doing, More Living; The Art of Less Doing; Idea to Execution; The Replaceable Founder; On Productivity
Podcast: The Less Doing Podcast
Connect: voxwithari.com
Challenge: “Managing overwhelming workloads effectively”
Fix: “Implement a system to automate and delegate non-core tasks to focus more on strategic decisions.” —Ari Meisel
Enterprise Growth Structures
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Sweetspot: Growth advising for $10M+ companies, improving profitability and EBITDA, establishing predictable and scalable revenue models, and embedding purpose at their core; vast experience in building and exiting businesses
Style: Results-driven, intentional
Impact work: Integrates net-positive best practices to simultaneously drive profit and purpose; champions business as a force for good, guiding companies toward rapid growth with significant impact, aligning closely with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
C-level experience: Concertina Team; previously with Beusail Academy
Podcast: Brunch with Billionaires
Book: Balance is B.S.: How to Have a Work. Life. Blend.
Learning Event Series: If You’re Not AGILE, You’re FRAGILE
Connect: concertina.team/book-assessment
Challenge: “Responding to AI and market uncertainties with agility and growth; help with execution and implementation”
Fix: “Strategically transform your workforce to be global with the inclusion of ethical offshoring. This provides the flexibility and affordability to be agile. Prioritize the creation of teams that are not only trained in AI but are high-performing and sustainable.” —Tamara Loehr
Numina
Location: San Francisco, California
Sweetspot: Self-realization for CEOs
Style: Deep, personal work
Impact work: Many clients are involved in high-social-impact companies; previous executive director of nonprofits; founded EvokeFlow
Previous C-level experience: CEO of Lesser Group of Companies, executive director of Emissary Foundation
Published media: Numina Blog
Connect: david@numina.team
Challenge: “Inspiring people to bring their best”
Fix: “Once a week, practice thinking about your people’s unique gifts.” —David Lesser
Samantha Kris & Co.
Location: Montreal, Canada
Sweetspot: TEDx and keynote speaking
Style: Approachable and friendly, but not afraid to tell it like it is
Impact work: Featured on the Ones to Watch list for the 2023 Real Leaders Top Keynote Speakers; worked for Goalcast as the head of people and culture for the three years it was recognized as a Real Leaders Top Impact Company
C-level experience: Previously head of people and culture at Goalcast
Book: Bossing Up
Connect: samantha@samanthakris.com
Challenge: “Leaders’ teams, family, and friends are typically unwilling to give them constructive criticism or are untrained to assess their blind spots. The feedback they’re receiving is biased at worst, incomplete at best.”
Fix: “Engage someone whose sole purpose is to find holes in your speech, fill you with value, and empower you to amplify your impact.”
—Samantha Kris
