On a Thursday afternoon in April of 2019, as the facility crews disassembled and packed up the rooms that had held the Annual Conference, 17 people gathered in person and via zoom to begin the year-long formidable crucible of the Conscious Capitalism Consultant Certification program. The discussion that afternoon focused on the Conscious Capitalist Credo, the power of business to elevate humanity, and the need for a community of capable guides to help companies find their way on the Conscious Capitalism journey.
By the end of that summer, the group had completed its study of the four pillars of Conscious Capitalism, each candidate for certification enriching the discussions with her or his own experience and wisdom. As the weather cooled and the year drew to a close, the candidates read and studied, discussed and debated a wide range of complimentary consulting disciplines while taking the best of what they found directly into practice in a real-world client engagement.
As the new year began, candidates were working hard to demonstrate that their interventions had measurably advanced the practice of Conscious Capitalism in their client companies. By March 20th, six candidates had submitted formal case studies indicating their readiness to be considered for certification. In addition to their case study, candidates must pass an oral examination including winning over a panel of sceptics, and they must receive an enthusiastic endorsement from their case study client.
Today, we are honored to announce that six incredible candidates have satisfied all the program requirements and are now the world’s first officially Certified Conscious Capitalism Consultants. You can read about each of these remarkable individuals below, and you can meet them in a special session of the Expanded Virtual Conference on Monday April 13 from 4:30 – 5:30 ET and see what it looks like for a company to measurably advance the practice of Conscious Capitalism.
Tara JenkinsPortland, MEIn late 2018, Tara couldn’t take it anymore. She had a masters degree in organizational development and leadership and a 20+ year career in HR, but her corporate job felt hypocritical and soulless. She didn’t have a strategy, she just knew she could not keep living out of alignment, so she gave her notice and struck out on her own. In a few short months she was pursuing a certification in Conscious Capitalism consulting, building a new community of Conscious Capitalists in Portland, ME, and landing a great client that would become her certification case study. Over the past several months, Tara has brought a new company squarely into the Conscious Capitalism fold, facilitating leadership growth and alignment in the organization and leveraging her deep expertise in HR to create a new hiring process and employee handbook codifying the systems of a highly conscious culture. Though it was not complete in time for her case study submission, with Tara’s excellent guidance, her client is also close to unveiling a powerful new Higher Purpose. Tara is a natural and gifted presenter on Conscious Capitalism and she is among the best out there for bringing skeptics onto the journey.
Tim KelleyBerkeley, CALearning leadership as a commanding officer in the Navy, Tim Kelley has spent his career as one of the leading consultants in a wide swath of the conscious business movement. He is one of the premier global experts in non-hierarchical organizational structures and leadership, including Holocracy and the Collaborative Operating System (COS). But Tim’s true specialty is Higher Purpose. Tim’s refined methodology for helping individuals and companies uncover powerful purpose statements is studied literally all over the world. Tim has even worked with political leaders on the purpose of entire nations. That’s why when a company in the Netherlands began to transition to a for-purpose enterprise, Tim was the only person they approached about helping to define their Higher Purpose. His case study shows his masterful guidance at work, and the glowing review from his client, complete with evidence of the positive ripple effects that come with an energized Higher Purpose, sealed his certification.
Kris SchaefferSan Francisco, CASome call Kris Schaeffer the Yoda of consulting. She’s a walking encyclopedia of every aspect of culture change, change management and organizational development while she continues her personal development with study in Transformative Action, Non-Violent Communication, and Intergenerational Mentoring. Her page-turner of a case study shows how her clients benefit from her tremendous experience and her ability to boil it all into a specific narrow scope, like redesigning an employee review process which provides a system that will sustain and support their new feedback culture. During her career of advising companies from startups to the Fortune 100, Kris has maintained her certification in talent management where she won the first lifetime achievement award. She believes that Conscious Capitalism integrates her commitment to being a force for good in the world with her MBA. She is passionate about bringing more leaders into the movement and helping all of us to be more effective as we advance the practice of Conscious Capitalism.
Ed QuinnPhoenix, AZ / Philadelphia, PABoquete, PanamaA master of the leadership retreat, Ed Quinn has designed and led more than 1,000 programs that have trained over 150,000 corporate leaders since 1990. Ed specializes in comprehensive conscious organizational change projects,leadership development, and developing high-performance teams; and has an uncanny ability to design retreat environments. Ed’s case study shows exactly how he works his magic. An executive team from a high-growth company walked into a beautiful conference room in Leesburg, VA nervous that they would have to actually face their deep dysfunction that threatened the continued growth of the company, and when Ed finished with them three days later, trust, communication and camaraderie were at an all-time high. This is impressive to be sure, but it was the report months later that, following his time-tested recommendations, the team had sustained the change and was really working differently now that earned Ed his certification.
Ravi RaiEpsom, Surrey, EnglandJoining the program from London, we’ve still not met Ravi in person, but his charisma and enthusiasm for elevating humanity through business come through on Zoom very well. After years in blue-chip companies such as GE, Zurich Financial and CHEP, Ravi’s love of strategic change led him to join his wife’s consulting company and in the past 12 years they have built an impressive firm with clients including Amazon, Santander, CoOp, EBAY and G4S. Ravi works with clients all over Europe to help them build and communicate clear and savvy strategies, drilling down to operating plans and working practices. For his case study, Ravi chose his work supporting an incredible 30-organization collaborative effort to end homelessness in the UK and beyond. Ravi designed and executed a dramatic improvement in stakeholder engagement during the strategy-setting process and while the results are already impressive, Ravi is just getting started.
Bob ScovilleBoston, MAThe death of a friend prompted Bob, a 13-year Vistage chair to strike out on his own to better fulfill his purpose and his potential. An experienced coach, facilitator, and trainer, Bob is relatively new to consulting, but not to Conscious Capitalism. Bob co-founded and currently leads the Boston Chapter of Conscious Capitalism. Bob brought the four pillars to his Vistage CEOs frequently and even helped to build an international for-purpose business network within Vistage. That’s why when the CEO of a medical device company wanted to see what Conscious Capitalism could do for his company, Bob was the obvious choice as a guide. As his case study shows, Bob adeptly balanced the competing time demands to design a program for the leadership team and has started the Conscious Capitalism journey at yet another company. While Bob’s client is less than a year in, the effects of the more caring culture that Bob helped to create are already being felt by hourly workers on the factory floor, many of whom do not speak English and who, until recently, wondered if company leaders knew them as anything beyond a daily output number.
The processes that advance the integration of Conscious Capitalism into a company are unique to each company, and progress is measured in years, not quarters. In time, modest gains become substantial wins that build enduring legacies. These six people have shown the ability to help companies find their next steps on their Conscious Capitalism journey. In time they will be joined by others, many others, who together will play an essential role in expanding this movement and accelerating the pace at which business can elevate humanity.
