HIGHER GROUND - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Managing Partner
- Co - Founder / Co - Managing Partner
Chris is a Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner of The Higher Ground Group. She brings 25+ years of experience driving innovation, revenue growth and operational transformation in technology, professional services and non-profit environments.
As the former President of The Sage Group, Chris co-led Sage's growth strategy for more than a decade with the Founder & CEO. The Sage Group was acquired in 2019 by 24 Seven, a Morgan Stanley Private Equity portfolio company.
In the non-profit world, Chris was the CEO of the International Museum of Women, where she created the first digital media museum of its kind in the world. The award-winning museum fostered women's empowerment through digital media exhibitions, a dynamic online community and local programs.
Chris also held various executive positions at Lucent Technologies including Vice President/General Manager, Japan, where she led the subsidiary to become the highest performing region worldwide. She also developed Octel's Latin American region and ran worldwide sales operations for the $700M organization.
Horses were Chris' fondest memory growing up, particularly the summers she spent on her friend's 600-acre ranch. A chance meeting with a 2-week-old filly at a Colorado dude ranch re-awakened her passion, and her life's purpose. This encounter ignited her and her husband's vision to make the transformational experience of working with horses available to business executives and their teams.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Managing Partner
- Co - Founder / Co - Managing Partner
Doug is Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner of The Higher Ground Group with over 30 years of experience in business management as both a business leader and management consultant.
Doug's past leadership roles include executive positions leading organizations in the consumer products and professional services sectors. His management consulting experience spans team and leadership development, organizational strategy, business planning and execution, and general/financial management.
One day, while amongst a herd of 30 rescue horses roaming freely in a pasture, Doug realized the power of partnering with horses as co-teachers. After several years of experiencing the powerfully effective dynamics of horses and their authentic behavior, these firsthand observations ignited his interest in how organizations, leaders and teams can realize their full potential.
By integrating business planning and organizational development practices with team based visual collaborations and equine guided experiences, Doug guides clients through a unique approach of integrated business planning and team/leadership development. The process is customized for each client and results in high impact execution.
When not engaged in client work or managing ranch operations, he spends time with our herd members, especially his equine co-partner Sir Galloway. Doug's also served on several non-profit boards and held numerous business advisory positions, appeared in The Wall Street Journal, and played a contributing role in the research and interviews that were used for writing The Art of Happiness at Work, by Howard Cutler, in partnership with The 14th Dalai Lama.
Katie was born and raised locally in Sonoma County. She grew up in an outdoorsy family, camping often and spending time on her grandparents' ranch. Katie has loved animals of all kinds from a very young age; then was taught by her grandmother to ride and care for horses. Katie purchased her first forever horse when she was just 18 and enjoyed the challenge of working with a young, high-spirited mare.
Since early teens, she has been sharing her love of animals while mentoring others. After Katie graduated high school, she continued to follow her passion for horses. She sought out jobs in the equine industry: as a groom, trail guide, and as a stable hand working her way up to a barn manager. Katie is also currently working as an equine veterinary assistant with a local equine veterinary specialist. Always being interested in veterinary science, she began attending Santa Rosa Junior College with the intent to obtain her certification as a Registered Veterinary Technician. She has enjoyed equine studies such as equine nutrition, farrier science, equine acupressure and massage.
In Katie's spare time she continues to enjoy studies in the equine field and spending time outdoors, especially with her horses and dogs.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- SVP of Operations & Strategy at Blackstone Consulting Inc
Liz has been leading people and organizations through change for over 18 years. Her experience spans the healthcare, security, education, financial and non-profit industries. As a management consultant Liz helped dozens of Fortune 500 organizations shape their visions and realize results through projects, change initiatives, and operating model re-designs.
Most recently, as SVP of Operations & Strategy at Blackstone Consulting Inc., Liz has been working in the Healthcare Security Industry to help organizations build and execute strategies to ensure safe care environments. Leading change for her team of 3,000 frontline healthcare workers during the pandemic era has been one of the more complex but rewarding experiences of her career.
Liz holds a Master in Business Administration and Master of Educational Leadership from Mills College, and a BA in Global & International Studies from UC Santa Barbara.
Liz has been riding horses for 35 years and credits much of her leadership success to the skills she has learned in her equestrian practice. In her free time you will find Liz riding her horse "Party Girl" on mountain or coastal trails, hiking with her energetic Border Collie Jax, or enjoying adventures with her friends and family.
Marcie has been guiding and mentoring people in organizations for over 24 years. Her background extends from investment banking as a Vice President to senior roles in the design industry.
Marcie is a transformational life and executive coach, utilizing her skillsets and experience to help others navigate personally and professionally. She comes from a philosophy of coaching the whole person. Marcie is passionate about uncovering truth and moving individuals forward in their lives.
Marcie has been riding and connected to horses for 37 years. Beginning at a young age, she deeply identified with equine wisdom. She credits many lessons from horses in how she works with developing leaders in organizations, teams, and entrepreneurs today.
In her down time, you may find Marcie hiking and traveling with her family, car-gazing with her teenage son, connecting as an equine bonus mom to "Apollo", enjoying laughter with loved ones, or learning new farm life in Healdsburg.
Marcie holds a double major in English and Business from California State University, Chico, and a CPCC and ACC from Co-Active Training Institute. She is also a member of the International Coaching Federation and co-facilitates a grief group through The Center of Attitudinal Healing.
Margie McDonald is a horse trainer and riding instructor who has worked in the horse industry for over 35 years.
She strives to teach people a deeper understanding of the equine personality including increasing the awareness of how horses are continuously "talking" to us. She explains that they use their bodies, eyes, ears, and tails, to communicate how they are feeling and what they are thinking.
Horses are authentic in their response to their environment and react organically to the world around them. Margie teaches that horses are in a constant conversation with us, and she enjoys showing people how to connect to them by learning to see the world as they do. She coaches people on how to slow down and pay attention to the conversation and signals that the horses are giving them.
Over all the years that she has been working with horses, she finds it a pleasure and a privilege to be able to teach people how generous, authentic, and kind horses can be. Margie believes that her relationship with horses is based on doing her best to understand what they are saying, and then teaching others how to interpret and understand the language of horses and learn their world.
Margie is also the author of Notes from the Barn, My Life with Horses.
Marv brings a unique combination of skills and experience to his work as an executive coach. Starting in high school, he spent 20 years in the technology industry, initially in R&D and then in Sales & Marketing, at such companies as Apple. He then spent 14 years in private practice as a licensed psychotherapist and executive coach. Hearing the call to work on hunger in his community, Marv switched careers again, founding and leading ExtraFood: a county-wide, 7/365 food recovery organization that in his 8 years of leadership rescued and delivered 5 million pounds of excess fresh food from businesses and schools, and reached 8,000 vulnerable people per week. Having returned to executive coaching, Marv is a careful listener, empathic, collaborative, pragmatic, and action-oriented in his work with individuals, pairs, and groups of coaching clients. And, he's never far from his sense of humor. Marv holds an M.S. in Counseling Psychology from Dominican University of California, an M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University, and is a Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude graduate of UC Berkeley's undergraduate program in Computer Science. Marv is the 2022 winner of Dominican's Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award, is one of 5 Bay Area leaders who received the 2018 Silver Jefferson Award for Public Service, and was awarded the Pacific Sun's 2014-15 Hero of Marin Award for Innovation. He is the proud father of two wonderful daughters, and in his spare time is a passionate songleader, singer, cyclist, and poet.