Adam Aronovitz is a leadership coach, systems thinker, and experiential educator who helps teams and individuals align around shared purpose, navigate complexity, and lead with authenticity. He is the creator of frameworks like Culture Cartography, RAFT, and HARMONY, designed to help organizations build trust, bridge communication gaps, and move forward with clarity and connection.

He has spent two decades designing and facilitating transformational programs across 25 countries, with work ranging from polished boardrooms to remote Himalayan trails, whitewater leadership trainings, and immersive retreats in the jungles of Costa Rica and lava fields of Hawai’i. Adam has served as founder and director of multiple purpose-driven organizations, including The Cookbook Project, Global Routes, Carpe Diem Education, and Adobo Ace.

Today, his primary homebase is Ascentric.io, a coaching and consulting firm dedicated to transformational leadership and systems change.

With over a decade of coaching experience, Adam supports executives, cofounders, and mission-driven leaders at pivotal moments of growth and reinvention. His approach blends systems theory, rites of passage, mindfulness, ancestral wisdom, and cross-cultural fluency.

He holds a BA from Tulane and an MA from the University of Westminster (London). He is a certified executive coach through the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute.

Leadership Coach and Educator Alison B. Meyer helps organizations and leaders boost human performance across people, organizations, and cultures. She works at the intersection of business and the arts—helping business leaders leverage creativity and arts organizations strengthen strategic and operational excellence. Alison is a Continuing Lecturer in Leadership Communications at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, where she earned her MBA, and at UC San Diego’s Rady School of Management, teaching leadership, coaching, and storytelling. Through her practice, Unconditional Leadership, LLC, she designs learning programs in executive coaching, speaker coaching, and organizational strategy for clients such as Microsoft, Salesforce, Ubisoft, and start-ups, and serves as a Board Director with the San Diego Master Chorale. Previously, she worked at Apple/iTunes building the global digital content business and earlier ran an accounting and operations consultancy for SMEs. Once an award-winning but starving-artist actor/singer with a degree in Art History, she still makes art or music every day.

Don Borges is an alumnus of the first Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute in 2009 and has joined the faculty for several programs and courses since that time. He comes to us with a vast background and experience from varied sectors of the business world, along with his passions for the healing arts, singing, and community outreach. Combining these with his knowledge and grasp of this work, Don brings a unique and powerful presence to the coaching endeavor.

Jay is an alumnus of the BECI 10-day intensive program, and has served for more than 20 years as a senior executive in technology and non-profit organizations, most recently as General Counsel for the Lenovo Group and as interim CEO for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Jay is also an award winning songwriter, who rediscovered his own artistic creativity working with Rachel Efron and her Muzi creativity program. With a background that bridges the arts, business management, and personal development, Jay brings a distinctive perspective on how creativity can optimize leadership skills, resilience, and innovation. Rachel and Jay co-founded Muzi Inc. to help people cultivate and maintain creativity in their own lives.

Nathalie draws from her experience in strategy consulting, executive leadership roles, and coaching to help leaders discover their authentic inner drive, the vital energy that transforms good leadership into inspired leadership.
She began her career with McKinsey & Company, then founded and led her own consulting firm for over a decade, focusing on business transformation, change management, and organizational and leadership development. Her executive experience includes serving as Chief Human Resources Officer at both Centogene and Leo Pharma.
Across these roles, Nathalie observed a consistent pattern: the leaders who truly inspire engagement and transform organizations are not the most skilled at “performing leadership.” They are the ones connected to a unique intrinsic motivation, a deep personal drive that they cherish and nurture, something that is uniquely theirs and that they have made effort to discover.
Today, working with C-level executives and leadership teams across Europe and the US, Nathalie helps leaders excavate and channel the force that emerges when doing work that genuinely resonates with heart and meaning. She is passionate about helping coaches and leaders understand that inspiring leadership isn’t about becoming someone else’s version of a leader, but about leading from what is genuinely, profoundly true for them.

Andrew obsesses over building better managers, driving stronger culture, and ensuring teams have what they need to do great work. He brings 15+ years of coaching, adult learning, facilitation, and consulting experience.

Andrew has worn many hats: founder, COO, head of sales, fellowship designer, nonprofit manager, and special education teacher. He co-founded and served as COO and Chief Services Officer for oneTILT, an inclusive leadership organization with multi-million annual revenue. He now leads Studio Groovy, where he helps teams build the culture they want as they grow through coaching, consulting, and facilitation. Andrew’s clients span from global philanthropy and tech to nonprofits and startups; his portfolio includes: Google, Meta, the Chicago Blackhawks, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Global Designing Cities Initiative, Smithsonian, Education Pioneers, and American Ballet Theatre.

Andrew has an MPH from Johns Hopkins University, an MEd from George Mason University, and a BA from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. He is certified in executive coaching through the University of California - Berkeley. Andrew lives in Brooklyn, NY, and will gladly talk with you about Laura Dern, Viola Davis, tennis, queer fiction, travel deals, tea, his failed child acting days, or Amber Glenn’s triple axel.

Rachel Efron is an artist/producer and creativity coach. She is a sought-after songwriting coach for artists all over the world, has facilitated songwriter groups including Songwriting Salon for ten years, and has given talks/workshops at numerous organizations including West Coast Songwriters, The Berkeley Jazzschool, I Heart Songwriters, Songfarm, and Institute for Vocal Advancement. Recently she turned her approaches into the mobile app, Muzi, a personalized and interactive digital creativity coach.

Samantha Fackler helps entrepreneurs turn their expertise into visibility, clients, and growth—drawing on 13+ years in brand and marketing at LinkedIn, PayPal, and Adobe. She has advised more than 100 high-growth startups, bringing both Fortune 500 rigor and entrepreneurial grit to her work. Today, Samantha partners with business owners who are excellent at what they do but ready to be seen, known, and valued at the level they deserve. She is also the host of Confessions of a Spiritual Entrepreneur, a podcast where she explores the inner and outer work of building a business with integrity.

Allan Fair is a transformational coach, creative consultant, and co-founder of DICE (Data, Insights, Creative & Execution), a company that uses real-time data and uncommon insights to help brands and leaders stand out in saturated markets. He brings two decades of experience at the intersection of storytelling, behavior change, and brand transformation.

Allan is a certified BECI coach, an ICF PCC candidate, and the creator of “Idea Doula”—a framework for helping individuals and organizations birth the ideas the world is asking for next. His work is rooted in helping people navigate the second half of life with courage, creativity, and clarity.

From Fortune 500 boardrooms to fireside retreats in the forest, Allan blends data, ritual, and deep listening to help people reconnect with their true voice and calling.

He lives in New York City with his wife, kids, cats, plants, and a dog.

Lance Handy is a dynamic executive coach, trusted advisor, and creative entrepreneur with a rare blend of expertise in finance, technology, creative performance, and human development.

As Managing Partner and Executive Coach at The Troublemaker Lab, Lance coaches founders, executives, and innovators to challenge the status quo, scale their visions, and lead with clarity and intention. Known for his grounded yet visionary coaching style, he integrates strategic insight with mindfulness practices—drawing on his background as a meditation and yoga practitioner to help leaders cultivate focus, resilience, and presence.

Lance’s foundation in finance spans 20+ years of investment banking, including senior roles at Franklin Templeton, Argos Wealth Management, and Thomas Weisel Partners. There, he advised high-net-worth clients, managed billion-dollar portfolios, and led M&A, venture investments, and IPOs. He was also an early investor in transformative companies such as Current, OpenTable, PetSmart, and NVIDIA.

Beyond finance and coaching, Lance is a performer and creative catalyst, bringing presence and artistry from the stage to the boardroom. He leads BlockParty Productions, a San Francisco-based restaurant and event collective fostering culture and community.

A graduate of the University of San Francisco, Lance is also a Executive Coach through the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute, blending financial acumen, creativity, and human-centered vision in his work.

Cari Jacobs-Crovetto spent over 25 years in corporate roles from Fortune 100s to startups. In 2019, she was named in the Top 50 Chief Marketing Officers by Forbes Magazine. While Cari’s professional career soared, she felt more disillusioned and unfulfilled. She began to build a bridge to a more personal endeavor and became obsessed with personal growth and self-awareness. At 30 years old, she began an active and rigorous study of meditation and mindfulness – long before it was cool – and spent three months in silence while living in India. In 2005, Cari began teaching meditation at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in their family program and by 2010, Cari was teaching in Dharma Centers and companies as a side hustle.

In 2020, Cari retired from her corporate career and founded Brave Directions dedicated to organizational, personal and career transformation through executive & leadership coaching, buddhist meditation and leadership education. She is partnering with Holistika where he teaches Buddhist meditation and workshops focused on InnerTruth WorkTM - her approach to uncovering and integrating the harder parts of ourselves or experiences we don;t want to deal with addressing. Cari also teaches at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business where she facilitates their famed “touchy feely” course aka Interpersonal Dynamics, and coaches MBA students. She is also the creator of “Finding Treasures in the Trash,” a podcast dedicated to her work. Her mantra: Fierce Heart—where compassion meets bold, badass leadership.

Dr. Johnson academic background in communication, with an emphasis on culture, identity, and strategic communication, forms the bedrock of their coaching philosophy and allowing them to delve deep into the nuances of how humans connect, influence, and express their whole selves. In addition to coaching, they serve as the Assistant Vice Chancellor and Chief of Staff in the Division of Equity & Inclusion at UC Berkeley. They are also Founding Director of the Justice Fleet, a mobile social justice museum that fosters healing through art dialogue and play and co-founder of The Institute for Healing Justice and Equity, where they specialize in humanizing equity and exploring the relationship between healing justice and social change.

Genoveva "Geno" La Placa is an Executive Leadership and Life Coach, Speaker, and Retreat Facilitator who specializes in Emotional and Intuitive Leadership. She works with leaders who've mastered external success but find themselves operating from survival mode, exhausted by the endless pursuit of "enough" and disconnected from what matters to them and those around them. Geno guides them to become aware of the beliefs, emotions, and patterns keeping them stuck, and to access their emotional and intuitive intelligence to reclaim confidence and agency, enabling them to lead with clarity and purpose to create lasting impact in their lives, work, and the world.
A former hedge fund CFO and due diligence expert who oversaw multiple funds and family offices, audited billion-dollar investment managers worldwide, and advised leading U.S. institutional investors, Geno brings a powerful mix of analytical curiosity, strategic thinking, and consciousness-based approaches to her work. This unique foundation allows her to bridge high-stakes C-level experience with transformational coaching.
With certifications from the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute, Dr. Shefali's Conscious Parenting Method™, and Dr. Gabor Maté's Compassionate Inquiry, and advanced training in neuroscience, NLP, somatic psychology, and Intuitive Intelligence, Geno masterfully blends intellect, Emotional Intelligence, and intuition, empowering mission-driven leaders to redefine what it means to lead with both strategic precision and soulful purpose.

Anja Lee has been building data and analytical products since 1999 — for everyone from neuroscientists to marketers — and somehow ended up becoming a coach along the way. What started as a manager’s curiosity about how to take care of people (not just projects) turned into a coaching practice that blends data-driven insight with real human messiness.

She teaches data and AI at Stanford, serves on the board of She Is AI, and works with executives and teams on communication, decisions, and finding clarity in complexity. Colleagues like to say her “data modeling brain” became a coaching brain in disguise — which she takes as a compliment.

Her session about lessons from being a coach on a coaching platform, shares what it’s really like to coach inside a digital ecosystem: the good, the awkward, and the unexpectedly human. Expect honesty, a little math, and maybe a laugh at her expense.

Dr. Ruth Mathis is a seasoned educator with over 20 years of experience in independent, public, charter schools, and college. She earned a B.A. in Anthropology from UC Santa Cruz and went on to receive both an M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, with a specialization in African American archaeology. She is a published researcher on the African Burial Ground in New York and previously worked as a researcher for Howard University.
Inspired by a lifelong passion for education—fostered by her parents, both teachers—Dr. Mathis returned to the classroom to teach high school. She later earned an M.A. in Educational Leadership from UC Berkeley.
Dr. Mathis brings a unique lens to education through her anthropological background, using it to coach educators to promote inclusive, equitable educational practices. Her leadership has included facilitating workshops and training sessions on diversity, equity, and inclusion, social justice, affinity/identity work, and the implementation and design of restorative practices in schools at both local and national levels. She has consulted for a range of Bay Area schools and cultural institutions, including the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco.

Marcy Moriconi is a leadership coach and author with a unique background as a senior marketing executive. Over the course of three decades, she held top roles at global advertising agencies and Fortune 500 companies including GAP, Intel, Kellogg’s, Kaiser Permanente, and Champion U.S.A., where she led award-winning ad campaigns and built high-performing creative and brand teams.
Drawing on her unique blend of creative vision and strategic leadership, Marcy now focuses her practice on helping professionals at every career stage build radical self-confidence. Her work empowers individuals to transform how they lead, communicate, and thrive—both in business and in life.

Shane O’Neil-Hart, LCSW, is an expert in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and other evidence based behavior change approaches, who provides training and consultation for clinicians and coaches. He serves as the Clinical Director of Lyra Care Coaching at Lyra Health where he oversees several global coaching programs focused on mental health, parenting, and performance. Shane is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco and former president of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science.

Oli Raison is the co-founder of Safarini Leadership, an organization that takes senior executives and entrepreneurs on immersive leadership journeys with Samburu elders in northern Kenya. Through wilderness expeditions and cultural exchange, Oli helps leaders explore how indigenous wisdom and intercultural understanding can inform modern leadership challenges.

With a career spanning start-ups, large corporates, and social ventures, Oli has held leadership roles across diverse organizational contexts. He has built teams in fast-growth environments, navigated the complexities of global business, and led initiatives that demanded both entrepreneurial agility and corporate discipline.

At Safarini Leadership, Oli’s work emphasizes cross-cultural competence as a foundation for effective leadership in a globalized world. Drawing on tools such as the Intercultural Development Inventory and GlobeSmart, alongside the lived wisdom of pastoralist communities, he challenges leaders to see beyond their own cultural lenses and develop practices that foster resilience, accountability, and human flourishing.

Oli is passionate about creating spaces where leaders can re-imagine their role in organizations and society, guided by lessons from both indigenous traditions and modern organizational science.

Lisa manifests possibilities at the intersection of leadership, conflict resolution, and wellbeing. She graduated from UC Berkeley (BA, Psychology), UCLA Law, the UC Law Mediation Certification Program, and the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute (Haas School of Business) executive coaching and leadership bootcamp and High Impact Leadership course (BECI certification pending). She created the Bramble and Rose Method—an innovative, narrative-based framework for conflict resolution, coaching, and couples work.
Lisa brings three decades of experience as an attorney and leader in the federal government, focused on consumer policy and financial services. She led high-stakes litigation, returning millions in redress; represented the U.S. Government at international forums; negotiated multilateral international agreements; facilitated numerous workshops and trainings; and served as a consumer expert on tv. She also has taught at the UC Berkeley Law school.
Bringing a special blend of warmth, humor, and intellectual rigor to her coaching, Lisa helps clients transform maladaptive narratives into empowering realities. She guides leaders, individuals, and couples through high-stakes decisions, emotional impasses, challenging transitions, and reinvention. Lisa also specializes in facilitating impactful trainings and developing emotionally intelligent leadership. Her presentation style reflects years of training in theater, dance, and mindfulness.

AJ Thomas is the Founder and Chief Troublemaker at The Troublemaker Lab and Founding General Partner of Good Trouble Ventures, an early-stage venture firm backing iconic creatives and innovative technologists shaping the future of entertainment, culture, and technology.

Her unconventional journey as a first-generation immigrant fuels her belief in resilience and reinvention. She went on to become a tech executive, leading Global Talent and Human Experience Design at X, the Moonshot Factory (formerly Google X), where she shaped culture and teams behind breakthrough innovations.

Through The Troublemaker Lab, AJ coaches founders and executives to elevate leadership at the intersection of self, health, and wealth. With Good Trouble Ventures, she invests in bold leaders reimagining creativity’s digital transformation. AJ is also an Executive Coach with the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute (BECI), where she serves on the faculty. She serves on the boards of several AI, tech, and impact-driven companies, including Jobs For the Future, Dream Machine Lab, A.Team, and other future-of-work centered startups. In addition, AJ is a Forbes Contributor, where she writes on leadership, culture, and careers.

An award-winning author (A Kids Book About Teams, Courage Takes Flight), musician, mom of three, and certified private pilot, AJ embodies the idea that braver leaders create braver futures—no matter where they begin.

Benjamin Wanzo is a serial entrepreneur, business educator, and native of Oakland, CA, dedicated to a single purpose: equipping people with the consciousness, confidence, and connections needed to progress in their lives.
With two decades of experience, Ben has built this mission into impact across multiple ventures. He is the founder of TeachBar, Inc., an organization that successfully guided thousands of individuals toward achieving their academic and career goals. He also co-founded ESO Ventures, a firm focused on providing the resources and infrastructure necessary for individuals to create wealth through entrepreneurship.
Ben's foundational expertise was developed in Tech and Management Consulting at McKinsey & Company. He now shares his knowledge as a Professor of Business, teaching courses on entrepreneurship, e-commerce, small business management, and personal wealth.
He holds a BA in Applied Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. When he is not working or teaching, Ben enjoys his time as a father, friend, and avid endurance athlete.