ARIEL - Key Persons
Dr. Shaffer is a business executive and an industrial organizational psychology consultant with over 20 years of international experience working with individuals, teams, and organizations to unlock employee engagement, manage change, build leadership, high-performing teams, resilience, and create cultures of innovation, adaptability, and results orientation.
He is highly skilled at working with executives and top talent at all levels, from boards and CEOs to functional heads, technical leaders, and line staff. His highly practical and results-driven approach allows him to quickly assess business challenges and opportunities and organizational culture and dynamics to help clients navigate challenges and develop effective action plans. Adept at challenging current thinking to innovate, motivate, and drive for competitive advantage, Aaron is widely respected as a trusted advisor and key influencer. Clients know he brings creativity, candor, and an unwavering commitment to the individuals and organizations he serves.
Before joining ECC, Dr. Shaffer held senior leadership roles at Motorola (a Google company), ITT Industries, and Network Appliance. He has had P&L responsibility, led global HR, built organizations from the ground up, and managed through crises and significant business and technological disruption. He teaches organizational and leadership development at the University of California and Webster University.
On the personal side, Aaron enjoys hiking, camping, family time, adventure travel, and competitive road cycling. He is a dedicated husband, father, and competitive athlete, bringing that same focus, drive, teamwork, and energy to his coaching and consulting practice.
Job Titles:
- Organizational Psychologist
Adi Forman is an Organizational Psychologist with over 18 years of experience as a consultant in leadership, development, and change. She has partnered with a range of organizations and their leaders to facilitate new insights and development by bringing a deeper understanding of the motivations and behaviors of individuals, groups, teams, and organizations working across cultures and differences.
Adi is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist (also known as I/O or Business Psychologist) with broad and international consulting experience in the private and public sectors. She has a real passion for developing people and is an experienced facilitator of individual and group learning.
Drawing on a range of knowledge from psychology and business, she is able to work pragmatically with all levels of the organization to engage and enable change and development. Her work includes senior management team facilitation, leadership development programs, OD consultancy, and executive coaching. She enjoys working with people from diverse backgrounds and nationalities, and her multinational upbringing and languages have added to her ability to do this and add value. She has consulted on projects in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Russia, and Asia.
Her early career began in the automotive industry where she worked as an internal Organization Development consultant supporting the implementation of strategic change initiatives. These years gave her the founding insight that change is lived and felt through the people, and it is when working with this deeper level that conversations and relationships shift in the organization.
She is an Adjunct Faculty member at Ashridge Executive Education, Hult International Business School.
Adi is based in London and coaches in English, French, and Hebrew.
Adrienne's experience as a leadership communications consultant includes
Agnes Mura, MA, is a global Master Certified Coach (MCC) to senior executives, boards, owners of closely held firms, and emerging leaders.
Agnes has special expertise in coaching leaders towards a global mindset and guiding them to masterful communication with complex sets of stakeholders, adapting their leadership practices to rapid change in the workforce, in the market, or in job scope. Multi-generational executives (and their teams) turn to her to strengthen their strategic perspective, their sustainable and authentic executive presence, and their learning agility.
A hands-on business leader, Agnes was voted in 2013 to the Board of Directors of Aircastle LLC, a public multi-billion-dollar global company, where she served until its premium sale in 2020.
For 20 years, Agnes has coached across many industries (technology, finance, healthcare, manufacturing, pharma, consumer goods, etc.), designed/delivered leadership development programs in English and Spanish in the Americas, and worked with public Boards and senior teams on their efficacy. She serves as adjunct faculty in the University of Miami's Certified Professional Coach program. In addition to having founded and led several coaching organizations, she has certified professional coaches (PCC, MCC) as an Assessor for the International Coach Federation (ICF). Her seminal book on organizational coaching strategies and practices, "Coachbook", (with Dr. William Bergquist) was released in 2011. "The Ark of Leadership" is forthcoming.
Originally from Romania and educated in the UK, Agnes had an academic career in Germany and a prominent role in international relations for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee. For over ten years, Agnes was a global banking executive and investment advisor who counseled international VIP clients and managed teams in Los Angeles, New York, and Mexico City, last at Bankers Trust Corporation.
Agnes has experience supporting leaders in a variety of industries. Client companies have included: Abbott, Abbvie, Adtalem, Allstate, Charter Steel, Kraft, Shell, Lovelace Health System, Hollister Inc., Hologic, IDEX, LivCor, KPMG, Mead Johnson, McKesson, Wesco, Amita Health, Jackson Memorial Hospital, TD Synnex, US Foods, Wesco and others.
Agnes coaches in English, French, German, and Spanish.
Agni Kitsios is an accomplished change leader with over 26 years of professional experience. With expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness, she has collaborated with many organizations to facilitate change and achieve sustained performance improvement. Using innovative services and proven techniques, she has helped individuals, teams and organizations improve their performance.
Aldert Oomkens is an experienced executive coach specializing in leadership development, change management, organization development, and training. His drive is to stimulate high-performance cultures by unlocking the full potential of leaders, teams, and organizations.
For ten years, he worked at Atos as a project manager and consultant in complex Business Intelligence and Business Process Improvement projects. He has successfully managed numerous complex projects in different organizations and industries globally. Frequently, he leads change efforts as a member of a Management Team to keep his practical experience up-to-date.
He has over 15 years of experience in providing Leadership Development Programs at all leadership levels in global organizations, including Shell, RWE, Landis+Gyr, Osram, Ledvance, Henkel, Philips, Unilever, DNV-GL, GCO, CGI, and Exact. His experience spans multiple industry sectors, including Energy, Technology, Engineering, FMCG, Industry, Aviation, Insurance, and Event Management.
As a team coach, Aldert supports leadership teams as they discover their vision and transform into High Performing Teams.
Aldert sees coaching as a creative partnership with his client, exploring the different elements that drive behavior and focusing both on the individual aspects and the organizational context. He has a positive and human approach to motivating people to experiment with new behavior, evoke transformation, and strengthen self-confidence. He serves as adjunct faculty at Business School TIAS from Tilburg University, where he coaches international executive MBA students on personal and leadership development.
Aldert coaches in both Dutch and English.
Job Titles:
- Coach
- Professional Medical Coach
Amanda White is an experienced coach and seasoned HR senior executive with over 20 years of experience gained mainly in the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare industries (GSK, Abbott Laboratories, and AbbVie). She has international experience across Europe and Asia, as well as the US, Latin America, and the Middle East. Her HR career included local, regional, and international director-level roles, with a strong focus on supporting businesses and individuals through change, including creating/changing company cultures, working across diverse geographical regions/cultures, and handling the human aspects of acquisitions and divestments.
Amanda is passionate about supporting people through change, building resilience, developing successful international careers, and promoting cultural adaptability. This includes onboarding leaders to achieve success, supporting speedy assimilation and building successful teams in environments that may be foreign to them, coaching leaders of multicultural teams, and motivating and inspiring people whose perspectives may vary from their own.
Colleagues have described Amanda as calm in a crisis, resourceful, consultative, and supportive, seeking practical solutions and avoiding unnecessary politics. Teams she has led see her as approachable, engaging, and keen to champion the team while developing their skills and empowering them to achieve their potential.
Amanda is also a Professional Medical Coach accredited by MCI. As such, she is part of a global network of PMCs that focus on providing emotional support for people with acute or chronic medical issues, helping them build resilience, exercise choices, and make the most of their lives in challenging circumstances.
Andrea Gallien assists her clients in achieving the professional and personal goals that are most important to them. She brings over 32 years of experience, eight of which were as a Partner at Arthur Andersen, and strong business knowledge in the energy, professional services, and consumer products industries.
Focusing on working with leaders who want to make sustainable, lasting changes in how they work with others, Andrea has positively impacted the organizations she works with and has been responsible for executive, group, and team coaching engagements. Some previous coaching clients include Amoco, British Gas, ExxonMobil, PwC, SYSCO Foodservice, and Texas Children's Hospital.
Recently, Andrea coached an energy industry CEO during a time of high growth and organizational change. The CEO owned multiple business units, and one business unit required more time than he could afford to give. Conducting a 360 feedback assessment helped Andrea provide insight that supported the client to create an organization that was less dependent on him for day-to-day operations. As a result, she was asked to work with several of the CEO's direct reports.
Andrea is currently based near Houston, Texas.
Andrew McMasters is an actor, director, and entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience in the arts. Prior to joining Ariel, he spent 25 years running a non-profit theater company that he founded, and worked for multiple Fortune 500 companies to provide presentation support, messaging, and team-building and communication training. Andrew is dedicated to experiential learning, providing opportunities for self-discovery, and driving innovation in our everyday lives.
Anja has been a facilitator and executive coach with Ariel since 1996, and began her own coaching and training business in 2004 in Germany where she is based. She conducts ongoing research focusing on the impact of theatre arts on the development of presence, self-esteem, and personal growth. Her academic pursuits have led to teaching positions at the University of San Francisco, the University of Vancouver, Lesley College, the University of Hamburg, and the State Academy for Cultural Education.
Ann Fisher coaches C-Suite executives called to lead in their organizations, who want to draw upon their greatest, most authentic abilities to significantly impact their companies and their communities. She thrives on working with clients who are creating change, driving innovation, and navigating transitions.
As a coach, Ann serves her clients in multiple roles: as a partner, standing shoulder to shoulder as they break new ground; as a sounding board, supporting them as an objective listener; as a scout, who sees the larger context, their possibilities, and potential; and, as a catalyst, helping to spark their commitment and action.
She has worked with clients from PepsiCo, Wrigley, Disney, Yahoo!, Leo Burnett, Estee Lauder, Avon, PNC Bank, Discover, Ford, Nokia, and Hewlett Packard.
After 24 years of corporate business experience, twelve of which were in international and senior managerial roles, Ann chose to become a coach to truly effect change one-on-one with leaders. While Ann's direct experience is in advertising and publishing, her work exposed her to a wide variety of business climates.
In her last executive position as General Manager, Pacific for Newsweek International, based in Hong Kong, Ann managed multi-culturally and virtually throughout the Asia region. Prior to that, she held management positions in advertising and publishing in Asia and the U.S. with Backer Spielvogel Bates, J. Walter Thompson, and Time Inc.
Ann is based in Chicago and Northern Michigan. She coaches both in the United States and internationally.
Annabel has worked extensively in the corporate and government sectors as a facilitator, coach, and actor facilitator for over 15 years and as an actor and director for 25 years in both the UK and US. She has facilitated and led company wide programs on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Culture Change and Inclusive Leadership. Annabel was a Lead Facilitator in a 6-month pilot program with the MTA in New York City, with the aim to coach every single transport worker in customer service skills. She has coached leaders at all levels and stages of their careers. Annabel works with individuals and groups to develop skills in challenging conversations, managing feedback, leading with impact, enhancing communication skills, embodying presence, stakeholder presentations, negotiation and influence. A lifelong curiosity of human behavior and seeking to help others understand their own thoughts and behaviors inspires Annabel in all her work as a facilitator and coach. She loves to create a safe and dynamic space for people to challenge themselves, make discoveries and learn powerful skills to create profound impact in their working lives and beyond.
Anne Mason-Powell is a seasoned Leadership Coach and Organisation Development and Change Consultant. She has extensive experience, gained over two decades, of coaching leaders and executive teams, in the public and private sectors. She has lived and worked in Europe, America, Africa, and Asia. Her focus is on supporting leaders to optimize their contribution to delivering organizational goals, both at the individual leadership level and at the level of participating in multiple global leadership teams, across boundaries, cultures, and geographies. She does this by supporting them to create high-performance cultures, build on their strengths, and develop strategies to minimize factors that can derail senior individuals and teams. Anne uses an eclectic approach that draws on her background in applied psychology and in-depth understanding and experience of human dynamics with her passion for impactful, innovative, and transparent leadership as the route to building alignment and commitment to shared goals across organizations.
Alongside her role in leadership development, Anne has held senior roles in HR and Organisation Development and Change, and eight years of experience as Chair of a community organization, and Board Trustee of a not-for-profit organization - all of which have built her capacity for collaborative leadership, commitment to the participation of all key stakeholders and elimination of turf battles, a focus on operational excellence, and the critical role of governance and mutual accountability to drive sustainable success.
Anne has recently coached two top leadership teams as they seek to change the culture of leadership and make lasting improvements in the way that they work together. The first was a leadership team in the National Health Service; their challenge was to transform themselves from a group of high-performing individual operators to an effective executive team working collaboratively across functional and organizational boundaries to deliver their common vision during a time of significant organizational change and severe financial constraints. The second was a company that needs to make significant changes to its strategic approach and collaboratively shape its leadership culture in a way that can respond effectively to changes in its market and demand for services. In both teams, increasing awareness of individual behavioral dispositions and their impact on team dynamics has been both rewarding and challenging for individual leaders and a critical underpinning to drive real and meaningful change.
Anne's typical areas for executive coaching include building self-awareness and awareness of others, leveraging networks for mutual benefit, influencing skills with peers, adopting a range of leadership styles to match team and individual needs, building confidence and capability in delegation and coaching direct reports to build a pipeline of future talent.
Anne Miller is distinguished by her results-oriented approach that "it is far easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting". For over 35 years, she has worked globally with individual leaders and teams committed to going beyond past successes to create extraordinary futures for themselves and their organizations. She has been a Partner / Principal in major global consultancies in the US, UK, and Hong Kong. Anne began her career leading the development of IT solutions in several industries. She specializes in leadership development, action learning, rapid cycle-time innovation, and executive alignment.
Anne takes a pragmatic approach to working with individuals and multicultural teams. She created the Action Lab™ for C-level executives to accelerate the delivery of breakthrough results while developing their leaders and collaboration practices through a series of iterative accomplishments. Recent clients include Goldman Sachs, Toyota, Chevron, Humana, and Intel. Specifically, she works with executives to:
Articulate new futures, find ways to realize what is possible now, and develop new skills and sensibilities for the world that is changing.
Boost the power of their teams beyond a group of individual leaders.
Cultivate a global mindset and communication skills for dealing successfully with a complex set of stakeholder relationships.
Design and facilitate leadership education programs for academic institutions and companies that seek to raise the performance contribution and engagement of their leaders.
Articulate what matters to each as a leader, assess their strengths, and how they show up to others, and then implement practices that promote alignment.
Provoke new ways of assessing their worlds that open possibilities that were not available before.
Anne is based in Santa Fe, NM, and coaches throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
Anthony Clucas is one of the leading bi-lingual authorities on coaching in Asia & Japan. He has served as a Senior Executive Coach and Leadership Facilitator for organizations throughout Japan, Asia-Pac and Europe over the past 11 years. Anthony's involvement with Asia spans more than 25 years.
Before commencing professional coaching, Anthony fast tracked into Corporate Sales Management and then International Business consulting. His focus is one-on-one Coaching for Executives (C-Level, EVP, VP and MD Level), facilitating senior management teams, as well as running International Leadership and Intercultural programs. In 2007, Anthony completed formal coach training in the U.S. accredited by the International Coach Federation (ICF). He holds the Newfield Certified Coach credential and works as an Adjunct for Temple University & Master Coach for the Global Leadership Studies at ICU.
As Founding President of the ICF Tokyo Chapter, he continually strives to enhance "best of class" coach training and communications development in Asia Pacific. He is also active as a representative at Global Leadership level forums. Anthony has served as an ICF Global Mentor Coach for Emerging Leaders.
Anthony brings to any client engagement over 20 years of International Relations experience. He is best summed up as a Communicator and Creative Strategist. He currently serves as Principal Strategist and CEO of Peak Balance Japan. Anthony has over a decade of corporate experience based in Asia. Roles held in Japan include Sales Executive, Strategic Development Manager & International Consultant. He has completed projects for both Unisys and Avaya in South Korea & Malaysia. In Australia, he spent 6 years working in IT Sales and Management especially telecommunications and multimedia outsourcing for companies such as AAPT (Corporate & Government manager) & Connect Interactive (Asia Pacific Sales Director). For 2 years in France Anthony was Project Manager for an International Multimedia project for a European consortium.
He coaches in Japanese and English and currently works 60% in Tokyo, 25% in Asia and 15% in Europe.
Anuraag Rai has spent over 30 years serving organizations and their development needs. His sharp focus, when working with leaders and teams, helps them accomplish superior and sustained performance. Whether the client is a new hire or an existing contributor, Anuraag partners with leaders to maximize their performance and unleash their potential.
Improving team synergy is another of Anuraag's fields of expertise. By consciously leveraging team strengths and awareness of blind spots, teams can significantly impact collaboration, positivity, and bottom-line results.
Not only does Anuraag work with the c-suite, presidents, and VPs, but he also has implemented programs for young business managers. The programs have emphasized growth, building for the future, career advancement, role transitions, and expansions.
Previously, Anuraag has led the HR function at the company level with large enterprises for both domestic and international markets, along with supporting the company's top leadership - the Executive / Management Committee and its board members. He has worked in the following industries: Manufacturing (auto-components, cement, engineering products, specialized chemicals, steel, polyester, refractories), infrastructure (cross-country projects & real estate), IT (engineering/technology) and lifestyle, FMCG & service.
Audrey Schroder is a highly respected, multi-lingual leadership consultant and executive coach whose dedication to continuous learning, excellence, self-development, and adventure makes her sought after by clients throughout Asia and internationally. As one of China's most experienced certified coaches, Audrey is known for designing and delivering leadership development initiatives across a broad spectrum of industries in Asia. She is also the most accomplished Western Chinese speaker in China's consulting, training, and coaching space today. She works with multinational corporate executives to help them realize their full potential as leaders who, through their interactions, are consciously creating value in their systems. Audrey lives and coaches her with the personal maxim of "going beyond our own borders," delivering her work in Mandarin, Cantonese, and English.
Truly a citizen of the world, Audrey is an American who has lived in Shanghai since 2002 and has worked in Asia for two decades, developing Western and Chinese talent in MNCs by teaching principles and tools that enable executives to be more successful in communicating and collaborating with others. Audrey's international career includes a decade in Hong Kong with HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank, researching Chinese economic development and corporate communications as those banks rapidly expanded their Chinese businesses, and as a change management consultant with Accenture in the US. Since 2002, Audrey has established her reputation as an exceptional and trusted executive coach and facilitator with a committed client base, including Bayer, Cisco Systems, Coca-Cola, HP, IBM, Telstra, and the ClimateWorks Foundation. Audrey's has clients in Greater China, Asia, Australia, and the US.
Audrey utilizes a range of methodologies in her work with teams to identify and adopt breakthrough beliefs and behaviors. Her clients are leaders and teams at the mid to senior levels, working on everything from transformational change to communicating and messaging.
Her commitment to excellence and embracing challenge is seen in Audrey's professional and personal achievements, including winning the Hong Kong Foreigners Speaking Mandarin competition early in her career and her Chinese language success, both in her examinations and in her delivery of client engagements.
Job Titles:
- Coach
- Executive
- Head of HR With Bank Alfalah
Bakhtiar Khawaja is an ICF-credentialed Executive Coach, who has over 15 years of corporate mentoring and coaching experience as well as three decades of international experience and a training & development career that spans over 20 years. He is a hands-on HR & OD consultant who has facilitated a large number of training events for all levels of corporate staff, including CEOs.
With his coaching clients, Bakhtiar establishes a relationship of trust. He guides them toward establishing goals around their priorities, devising appropriate strategies and actions to move them closer to those goals. He helps them find viable solutions to their dilemmas and ways of removing impediments to their performance and growth. In one of his major assignments, Bakhtiar completed a 360-degree assessment-based coaching assignment for the MD and Divisional Heads of a multinational company operating in Pakistan.
In addition to coaching, Bakhtiar pioneered systematic mentoring in the corporate sector in Pakistan. He initiated a systematic mentoring program at all Bank Alfalah branches and established a ‘Mentor of the Year' award. He recently conducted a Mentoring Skills Workshop for senior leaders of a major Pakistani company operating globally.
Along with being the Head of HR with Bank Alfalah, Bakhtiar was a member of CMC, the highest decision-making body. His innovative approach led to the establishment of state-of-the-art HR systems and policies in major areas of HR management. He launched coaching, counseling, and mentoring initiatives and championed initiatives related to HRMS design & development through local IT developers.
His most recent full-time job assignment was as Group Head Learning with Bank Alfalah. During this assignment, he led in-house training & development initiatives for 20-plus batches of Management Trainees and organized 250-plus courses every year for in-service staff. He also led the design, development, and implementation of a comprehensive e-learning solution, complete with a learning portal and in-house development of e-learning content. Those who participate in his learning events, remember him as a knowledgeable and motivating facilitator who is focused on their long-term and sustainable development.
As a regular visiting guest speaker at various academic institutions in Lahore, Bakhtiar indulges in educational, philanthropic, sporting, and artistic pursuits. He speaks fluent English, Urdu, Punjabi, and Spanish. Bakhtiar resides in Lahore, Pakistan.
Barbara is a successful executive, consultant, and executive coach with over 20 years of experience across a wide range of industries and disciplines including operations, finance, HR, marketing, sales, training, and education.
A corporate consultant, coach, program developer, trainer, and specialist in the areas of transformational leadership, transformative education, social intelligence, emotional intelligence, and employee empowerment, Barbara has over 25 years of experience in a broad range of industries, including non-profit, healthcare, industrial supplies, association management, technology, financial services, and consumer goods.
Barbara brings her varied experiences in marketing, sales, operations, finances, and people to bear with executives at all levels from CEOs and other C-Suite executives to emerging leaders and their teams. Barbara is a dynamic leader who combines vision with pragmatism in fierce dedication and service to her clients, partners, and employees. Barbara delights in helping executives and organizations deliver better outcomes with less stress and more satisfaction. Barbara visions win/win outcomes in challenging situations with ease and grace.
Before launching her own consulting and coaching practice, Barbara was COO and Chief Vision Realization Officer for the Wright Foundation. She also served as Director of Internet Marketing for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Education
BA, University of Iowa, Major in French, Minor in Business
Practice Areas
360-Degree Feedback
Bernice helps senior leaders craft their executive BRAND & PRESENCE. 96% of clients rate their experience as exceptional.
Betina Rama is a consultant and coach in leadership development, change, and diversity for multinational companies and NGOs. She has worked in global and regional human resources for a multinational company in Europe and Latin America. Betina has lived in the U.S., Switzerland, France, and Chile. Currently, she lives in Argentina.
Her current executive and team coaching assignments include CXO-level executives of a multi-billion holding in Brazil and general Managers and Directors of two multinational pharmaceutical companies and banks.
During 2009, Betina planned and executed the merger/restructuring of the Female Beauty Businesses in Latin America (Olay, Pantene, Head & Shoulders, etc.) and completed the divestiture of the male deodorants (Gillette, Old Spice) to male grooming in record time. She also planned and executed the delocalization of the Female Beauty Business Unit headquarters from Santiago de Chile to Panama.
As the Integration Manager for the Wella- Procter and Gamble Europe merger (Wella haircare and Cosmopolitan Cosmetics [fragrances: Escada, Gucci, Puma, Madame Rochas, Montblanc, etc.]), Betina was responsible for change management, training, and integration programs, team and individual effectiveness improvement and leadership development programs, team and individual coaching.
Betina is the author of Feminine Leadership, Learnings from Latin Executives (in Spanish), with a prologue from Prof. Manfred Kets de Vries (2015) and co-author of the Harvard Business Review article: Coaching Ejecutivo en Latinoamérica, Latin American Edition, July 2011 and of the INCAE business review article: Capital Social y Éxito de la carrera, September-December edition, 2013.
Job Titles:
- Coach
- Consultant
- Leadership Trainer and Coach With the London Business School 's MBA Program and the Centre for Creative Leadership