Leadership Development News

Irena O'Brien is a cognitive neuroscientist with over 30 years of experience in psychology and neuroscience. Initially a chartered accountant, she found the work unfulfilling and returned to university. Her passion for neuroscience was ignited during her first neurobiology course at Concordia University.

Irena earned her PhD at Université du Quebec à Montréal (UQAM), where she carried out brain imaging and electrophysiological studies, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at McGill University's Centre for Language, Mind, and Brain.

In 2017, she founded The Neuroscience School, offering a Certificate Programme in Applied Neuroscience. This program equips coaches and helping professionals with practical, evidence-based neuroscience tools. Her latest program, Next Level Coaching with Neuroscience, helps students embody their neuroscience knowledge to achieve coaching flow. Students who have completed both programs receive a Certificate of Completion in Brain-Based Coaching.

Dr. Carla Fowler is an MD PhD and elite executive coach. For more than a decade, she has been a secret weapon for scores of CEOs, entrepreneurs, and other senior leaders. Carla's unique approach combines the latest research from performance science with timeless best practices to help top performers level up and achieve their goals.

Carla graduated from Brown University magna cum laude, earned her MD and PhD at the University of Washington, and completed her internship in general surgery at Stanford University. Dr. Carla Fowler, an MD PhD and executive coach, shares her background and journey into executive coaching. She discusses her interest in performance and achievement from a young age and how it led her to start her own coaching practice.

Dr. Fowler defines performance science as the collection of ideas and research that help individuals achieve their goals. She highlights two key principles of performance science: brutal focus and cultivating power. Brutal focus involves translating dreams into actionable goals and identifying the most important tasks to drive progress. Cultivating power involves developing the ability to start and sustain efforts towards a goal, as well as continuously improving and iterating on one's approach.

Dr. Carla Fowler is an MD PhD and elite executive coach. For more than a decade, she has been a secret weapon for scores of CEOs, entrepreneurs, and other senior leaders. Carla's unique approach combines the latest research from performance science with timeless best practices to help top performers level up and achieve their goals. Carla graduated from Brown University magna cum laude, earned her MD and PhD at the University of Washington, and completed her internship in general surgery at Stanford University. Dr. Carla Fowler, an MD PhD and executive coach, shares her background and journey into executive coaching. She discusses her interest in performance and achievement from a young age and how it led her to start her own coaching practice. Dr. Fowler defines performance science as the collection of ideas and research that help individuals achieve their goals. She highlights two key principles of performance science: brutal focus and cultivating power. Brutal focus involves translating dreams into actionable goals and identifying the most important tasks to drive progress. Cultivating power involves developing the ability to start and sustain efforts towards a goal, as well as continuously improving and iterating on one's approach.

Jen Ziegner is a co-founder and lead coach of Mountains and Marathons, a transformative coaching organization that works with entrepreneurs and executives to create deeper alignment in their lives. The ALIGN Leadership Program takes leaders on a six-month journey that culminates with running a marathon or climbing a mountain in an epic place in the world, from Patagonia to Nepal and the Australian Outback. It also includes coaching the leaders.

ALIGN Leadership Programs are for executives, entrepreneurs, and leaders who are committed to making a difference in the world and living their most authentic and fulfilled lives. Having worked with leaders from Fortune 500 companies to national non-profit organizations and 25,000 clients across the US, Europe, Australia, and the Middle East, Jen champions the idea that leadership needs to start with authentically leading ourselves first, in all areas of life.

Website: www.mountainsandmarathons.world/australia23

Be the Unicorn: 12 Data-Driven Habits that Separate the Best Leaders from the Rest. William Vanderbloemen has been leading the Vanderbloemen Search Group for 15 years, where they are regularly retained to identify the best talent for teams, manage succession planning, and consult on all issues regarding teams. This year, Vanderbloemen will complete their 3,000th executive search. Prior to founding Vanderbloemen Search Group, William studied executive search under a mentor with 25+ years of executive search at the highest level. His learning taught him the very best corporate practices, including the search strategies used by the internationally known firm Russell Reynolds. Prior to that, William served as a Senior Pastor at one of the largest Presbyterian Churches in the United States.

Be the Unicorn: 12 Data-Driven Habits that Separate the Best Leaders from the Rest.

William Vanderbloemen has been leading the Vanderbloemen Search Group for 15 years, where they are regularly retained to identify the best talent for teams, manage succession planning, and consult on all issues regarding teams. This year, Vanderbloemen will complete their 3,000th executive search.

Prior to founding Vanderbloemen Search Group, William studied executive search under a mentor with 25+ years of executive search at the highest level. His learning taught him the very best corporate practices, including the search strategies used by the internationally known firm Russell Reynolds.

Prior to that, William served as a Senior Pastor at one of the largest Presbyterian Churches in the United States.

Scott Mautz is CEO/Founder of Profound Performance™, a keynote, workshop, and training company that helps business leaders become even better, more inspired versions of themselves. He's a former senior executive of Procter & Gamble, where he successfully ran several of the company's largest multi-billion-dollar businesses. He's an award-winning, bestselling author, popular course instructor on LinkedIn Learning, and faculty at Indiana University's School of Business for Executive Education. His latest book is The Mentally Strong Leader: Build the Habits to Productively Regulate Your Emotions, Thoughts, and Behaviors. Scott is a speaker and trainer commonly described as "riveting" (despite his daughter's utter disbelief of that description). His one-of-a-kind blend of business experience, research, storytelling, tools, sprinkles of humor, and hi-octane delivery opens hearts & minds. He applies his thunderous passion to help others become mentally stronger and achieve more (even in the face of challenges) - at work and in life. He prides himself on his "No-Diva" policy (being easy to work with), on coming across as authentic and as down-to-earth as he really is, and on being the absolute highest-value podcast guest he can be. He wants to understand your brand too, so he can help reinforce it as a guest on your show. Invite Scott on for an interesting conversation that will intrigue your listeners, not the canned spewing of book-selling points.

Find out why over 1M people view his TED Talks. Join us, especially if you're in Public Safety for a rare look at how extraordinary experiences shape us, our happiness, wellbeing and performance. Paul J. Zak is a professor at Claremont Graduate University and is ranked in the top 0.3% of most cited scientists with over 180 published papers and more than 19,000 citations to his research. Zak's two decades of research have taken him from the Pentagon to Fortune 50 boardrooms to the rainforest of Papua New Guinea. Along the way he helped start a number of interdisciplinary fields including neuroeconomics, neuromanagement, and neuromarketing. He has written three general audience books and is a regular TED speaker. His latest book, Immersion: The Science of the Extraordinary and Source of Happiness (2022), identifies the neurologic basis for extraordinary experiences and uses 50,000 brain measurements to show readers how to create high-impact training among other benefits.

Find out why over 1M people view his TED Talks. Join us, especially if you're in Public Safety for a rare look at how extraordinary experiences shape us, our happiness, wellbeing and performance. Paul J. Zak is a professor at Claremont Graduate University and is ranked in the top 0.3% of most cited scientists with over 180 published papers and more than 19,000 citations to his research. Zak’s two decades of research have taken him from the Pentagon to Fortune 50 boardrooms to the rainforest of Papua New Guinea. Along the way he helped start a number of interdisciplinary fields including neuroeconomics, neuromanagement, and neuromarketing. He has written three general audience books and is a regular TED speaker. His latest book, Immersion: The Science of the Extraordinary and Source of Happiness (2022), identifies the neurologic basis for extraordinary experiences and uses 50,000 brain measurements to show readers how to create high-impact training among other benefits.

Grace is an open and honest expert, helping leaders simplify their communication and eliminate the divides that exist within organizations. As co-founder of Know Honesty, she guides people toward becoming masterful communicators day in and day out. Having experienced the transformative power of openness and honesty, Grace is on a mission to help others create that same freedom in their own lives. Grace brings her heartfelt approach to every event, workshop, and interaction. She believes deeply that every human being brings a unique perspective to the world and that we all deserve to be heard and respected. With humble roots growing up on a dairy farm to now working with all levels of leadership, Grace has a special ability to ask the right questions to help audiences go deeper and uncover what's blocking them from creating real communication.