James N. Mustacchia
Jim is Co-founder and CEO of Mountain Lakes International. He has over 18 years of executive level and strategic consulting experience with firms ranging from start-ups to $100 billion global corporations. Jim’s commitment to developing in others, and into the culture of organizations, such leadership qualities as caring, courage and discernment and his unique skill in exploratory coaching consistently receives high praise from executives around the world. In the high-trust environment he creates, executive leaders can more effectively discover pathways to break-through problem solving leading to break-through results.
Prior to co-founding Mountain Lakes International, Jim created and directed the Capability Development Alliance (CDA). CDA was an international consulting firm providing executive coaching, leadership training, and strategic and organizational development consultative services to top-tier consulting firms, large and small corporations, and individual executives. He has extensive experience contributing to the design of corporate capability development programs and has taught executive courses on strategy and leadership development in the Americas, Europe and Asia.
Jim has enjoyed a diverse career in all three sectors of the economy: public, private, and not-for-profit. Since his days at Rice University, his passion has been for building the capacities of not-for-profit organizations dedicated to delivering needed educational and social services to inner city youth and adults. He has created and/or directed several such service organizations since the 1980’s.
Jim is enthusiastically married to Ann – and together the two of them are ridiculously proud parents of their little girl, Tibbie. When not involved in business or non-profit concerns, Jim enjoys mountain climbing and cycling near his home in Northern Italy. He plays the piano and acoustic guitar and, when nobody is listening, any of various brass instruments.
He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an interdisciplinary degree in Psychology and Legal Studies from Rice University.
Bill Hoogterp
Bill is Co-Founder of Mountain Lakes. Known as a Speaking Coach to top executives around the world, he is also an executive coach and advisor to senior business leaders and government officials in the United States for more than 15 years. He has international experience providing leadership training and executive coaching primarily in Europe, Asia and North America.
Bill is an American entrepreneur who co-founded CMI Marketing in 1999 in New York City with Michael Sanchez and Andrew Shue. As co-founder he helped raise $60 mm in start-up capital and business alliances. CMI later launched the largest social networking site on the web for moms: www.CafeMom.com which currently has more than a hundred million page views a month.
Bill has also served as a motivational speaker to college and university students, inspiring young adults to leadership and community service. Sharing with Jim a mutual passion for the work of non-profit organizations to empower youth and adults, Bill has helped create several national service organizations including Do Something (working with Michael and Andrew) which was featured on MTV and in Rolling Stone. In 1997, Bill helped plan the President’s Summit for America’s Future with former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and living U.S. Presidents. He has also played a role in helping create a number of award winning national and youth student service organizations including Into the Streets, The Hunger Clean-up and Break Away and currently focuses his contributions as CEO of The LEAGUE (www.theleague.org and www.learningtogive.org).
Bill holds an undergraduate degree in International Studies and French from Aquinas College in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He and his wife, Maria, formerly a chemist with Schering Plough, have two young children, Peter and Anna. Together they enjoy basketball, golf, swimming, travel and reside in New Jersey.
David Agran
David Agran M.Ed has had significant experience in the high tech, manufacturing and engineering sectors, as well as in educational systems and non-profit organizations. He has worked delivered multiple Interpersonal Leadership Skills programs for the last 4 years with premier consulting, engineering and banking clients.
David’s passion is in facilitating action-oriented groups with a focus on enhancing leadership and team effectiveness that generates faster results and rapid change. A specialty of David’s is the assessment, design, and facilitation of Leadership and management development programs and leadership team retreats
He has broad and varied experiences internationally and in both internal and external consulting roles that enhance his effectiveness at working with and coaching others. David has a Masters degree in Leadership from University of San Diego, a BA in Economics from the University of New Hampshire. He is also certified in numerous feedback & assessment instruments and training programs. David lives in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, a small beach community of Southern California with his two children, where he also serves on the Governing Board of Trustees of the Cardiff Elementary School District.
Tony Barton
Tony began working with Mountain Lakes International two years ago. He is a highly qualified professional coach and has been described as insightful, provocative, supportive, brave and truly innovative. A deep fascination with people and ideas have underpinned Tony’s successful career as a marketer, agency principal and leadership coach and trainer.
In his former career as a marketer, Tony enjoyed a classical brands marketing route to director level with the blue chip brewing company ‘Bass’ (1980 – 1990) before opting for a new career with a small marketing agency called The Marketing Store (TMS). Between 1990 and 2001, Tony was instrumental in growing TMS from a small regional UK agency to a worldwide presence working with top companies in multiple industries.
In 2001, Tony decided it was time to leave his ‘velvet rut’ and find pastures new. It was this brave move that he describes as the best decision of his life. It led to a new career in the world of coaching and personal development, a world which quickly embraced Tony for his courage, sense of fun and natural affinity for tapping into the ‘seams of gold’ in everyone he coaches and leads in programs.
As well as being qualified through prestigious Coaches Training Institute as a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) he is also a Professional Credentialed Coach (PCC) through the International Coach federation (ICF), an authorized Team Diagnostic Facilitator, MBTI assessor and a graduate of the Co-Active Space Leadership program. Tony is also the Founder of ‘Red Kite World’ – a playground for inspiring leader.
When he’s not working, Tony loves being at home with his wife Tricia and spending time catching up with their three grown up children and taking Jack their adorable Labradoodle for long walks in the countryside.
He’s a firm believer that leadership starts with your family and for that reason he is most proud of his 3 children and the way they have turned out, ‘we must have done something right’ he says!
Andy Denne
Andy is one of the originators of co-active coaching in Europe. Since 1997, he has been coaching teams and executives to help enhance their business performance. He has delivered coaching and leadership skills courses for many managers of blue chip companies around the world.
Andy is a specialist in team coaching, helping teams create the environment where everybody supports each other to grow, stretch and achieve. He knows that everything we do in life is affected by the quality and vitality of our relationships – with ourselves, with those around us, and just as importantly as leaders, our relationship with the natural world. Andy’s unique skill in team coaching helps management teams both (a) develop as a team and (b) simultaneously move their business agenda forward. He helps teams get the foundations right so that the relationships in the “team” consistently help each other achieve greater results than anticipated.
Along side his coaching work with organizations, Andy is the President of a small 25 children kindergarten. Ecole Maternelle “Arc en Ciel” is a French early childhood school that specializes in building self belief, creativity and confidence in children under 7 years old, and in helping parents become even better at their job, too. Getting people to work well together is at the heart of Andy’s success, it is here he “practices what he preaches”!
Prior to coaching, Andy was the manager in the UK of a small retreat centre and supported his wife in building an award winning organic restaurant. Through the 1980’s and into the mid ‘90’s he earned his corporate medals working in sales and international marketing for 13 years with Reuters, the international news and financial information supplier.
Andy, his wife, Isabelle and two daughters Amelia and Angelike now live in the foothills of the Pyrenees, south-west France. Their favorite family pastime is to pack up a couple of donkeys with supplies and simply walk off into the wilderness for a week’s holiday. Something truly magical happens when we simply walk in the mountains, leaving our crazy worlds behind us just for a few days. Somehow we remember who we truly are. He has a secret desire to do these simple powerful trips with management teams, too.
Marcia Ellis
Marcia has 25 years experience working in the field of organizational effectiveness. She has extensive experience in Leadership and Team Development, Interpersonal Communication, Change Management, Meeting Facilitation and Strategic Planning. Marcia has traveled nationally and internationally coaching leaders and teams through organizational change initiatives and organizational alignment. Her desire is to assist leaders and teams in creating environments that foster trust-based relationships, open communication and exceptional results.
Marcia has experience in all industry sectors, non-profits and educational institutions. She started her career in higher education at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte as Assistant Dean of Students and taught in The Department of Human Development and Learning. She also held the position of Manager of Personnel Training at the former NationsBank before becoming a consultant in the field of Organizational Effectiveness.
Marcia loves to write and create productivity tools. She has authored The Executive Coach/Team Leader Toolkit, The Meeting Architect™, and WORDSTART™, resources that provide team leaders with knowledge and know-how for building high-performing teams.
Marcia is proud of her 2 grown daughters and is a music and sports enthusiast. She occasionally performs in community theatre productions and works at playing a respectable game of tennis and golf.
Marcia holds a Master’s Degree in Counseling and Student Personnel from The State University of New York at Albany.
Mimi Frenette
Mimi Frenette is a skilled leader with over two decades of experience in the field of individual and organizational development. She has coached hundreds of executives and designed and delivered programs and retreats that support leadership development, Emotional Intelligence, improving group dynamics, and personal and professional renewal.
A pioneer in the coaching profession, Mimi teaches coaching skills to managers around the world, helps to design internal coaching programs, and mentors many coaches both internal and external to organizations.
Mimi’s unique area of expertise lies at the interface between Emotional Intelligence and performance. Her natural curiosity and ability to give insightful feedback is coupled with a direct interactive approach that helps individuals better understand themselves and the impact of their behaviors and attitudes not only on themselves but on everyone around them. Recognized for her trust-building style, her programs are designed and delivered with a focus on self-awareness and increased interpersonal skills.
Years of international competition as a skier and former member of the U.S. Canoe and Kayak Team have given Mimi a unique perspective on teamwork, discipline, and how to succeed under pressure; a perspective that has helped raise performance with a very broad range of premier clients in both the public and private sectors in the U.S. and abroad.
In addition to her own business and working with Mountain Lakes International, Mimi is on the faculty of CD Alliance and Incite Learning, both international executive development firms, and Six Seconds Consulting, a leader in the field of emotional intelligence. Mimi is the author of five leadership publications.
Mimi has a master’s degree in Community Leadership with a concentration in Adult Education and has earned the Master Certified Coach (MCC) designation through the International Coach Federation.
Stuart Ludwig
Stuart is a man if not for all seasons, a man of many seasons. Age has its virtues. He lives life in search of magic mystery, adventure and of course romance and finds it everywhere. . . more often than not in the eyes of the people he meets, coaches and helps uncover the truth that “the only thing we ever truly own is our story.” As a Senior Adviser to a prominent international management consultancy firm, he has assisted in designing and providing leadership training, change management programs, and coaching, to executives of top-tier professional service firms and corporations worldwide. He has created and delivered a unique program that goes beyond traditional approaches to leadership and successfully develops Inspirational Leaders.
Stuart’s experience as a Clinical Psychologist in hospital and private practice, his administrative experience as a corporation executive and Assistant Dean of a University Law School, his teaching / lecturing at universities in the United States, Asia and Europe, together with twenty years consulting to businesses around the world, give Stuart a unique perspective on individual and organizational development. He believes that individuals and organizations embody more than enough knowledge to succeed. As he states it, “success is less dependent on what we know then on what we understand;” therefore his goal working with individuals, teams or entire organizations is to transform knowledge, the facts and data of work and life into “understanding”.
In addition to Leadership and Capability Development, Stuart’s focus is: Organizational Change, M&A Alignment, Executive Mentoring and Coaching, and Inspirational Value Based Leadership.
Stuart lives in Shanghai China and Europe, and is a former member of both the Professional Ski Instructors of America, and California Mountain Rescue Team. He holds a Doctorate in Psychology and an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters, as well as Bachelor Degree in Philosophy and Psychology, (Suma Cum laude)
David Marvin
David is known for his ability to create safe, fun, learning environments in which clients rapidly develop intimate connections with each other and gain important insights about themselves and their capacity to lead others. David’s work over the last 15 years has focused on developing leaders and teams through coaching and the design and implementation of learning events. His recent work is focused on enhancing cross-cultural communication within work teams of global organizations.
David is also the founder of Confluence Consulting and, previously, he served as a partner with The Exetor Group, a faculty member for Incite Learning Inc., and the Lore International Institute.
David served as an adjunct faculty member in the University of Denver’s Daniels school of Business and School of Human Communication. His first career was as a High School social studies teacher. As an educator, David has focused part of his practice on developing educational leaders in the classroom and administration.
David is a regular presenter at the Denver Community Leadership Forum. He has worked with numerous, top-tier private sector clients in the public sector with federal agencies, and state and local government offices. Prior to consulting work, David served in a managerial role in hospital-based Health Care and Outward Bound.
David received a Masters degree in Communication from the University of Denver where he has completed his course work for a Ph.D. His undergraduate studies in History, Political Science and Education were completed at the University of Vermont. David lives in Durango, Colorado with his wife Judith and two sons, Ben and Seth. His interests include spending time hiking, boating and skiing in the nearby Rocky Mountains with his family and friends, foreign affairs, playing mandolin, climbing, cycling and reading.
Margo C. McClimans
Margo is an executive coach specializing in leadership development and intercultural communication. Since 2004, she has worked with individuals and firms ranging from start-ups to $100 billion global corporations. She works in the US, Europe and Asia developing leaders through coaching, group facilitation work and contributing to program design. She receives consistent feedback about her ability to build a high level of trust in a short amount of time and about her skill of asking questions that provoke deep insight in her clients.
Margo is an American living in Italy and has also lived in Saudi Arabia, England, Switzerland and Thailand. Her overseas experience has given her a passion for intercultural communication and uses to help today’s global managers be more successful in their multi-national work environments. Margo helped develop a leadership program at the CIMBA MBA program in Asolo, Italy. She also conducts seminars on communication and successfully working in intercultural teams for executives at various firms in northeast Italy. She has had the honor to be a guest speaker at International Coaching Federation (ICF) chapter meetings. Margo is fluent in Italian, has a good grasp of French and dabbles in several other languages including Spanish, Arabic, Thai and German. Her coaching training was completed through the Coaches Training Institute (CTI), she is a member of the ICF and is MBTI certified.
Margo’s background is in the import-export business. She has an International MBA and a BA in International Relations. After having worked for Bank One in Columbus, Ohio for two years after graduation, she found a way to mix her passion for natural stone and her language skills when she became Purchasing Manager for a prestigious stone import company in the San Francisco Bay Area. Margo moved to Italy in 2002, and soon founded a consultancy business for the import and export of marble and granite from Italy to the rest of the world called International Stone Consultancy, which she still runs on a part-time basis.
Margo resides in Asolo, Italy where she enjoys exploring the Prosecco wine region by bike and foot and also enjoys a good game of tennis.
Frode Svensen
Frode believes in the power of great stories and when working with Frode, his clients – individually and as teams – get to find the stories that inspire them to become high performing and to deliver outstanding results.
Frode ‘grew up professionally’ in the biggest oil & gas company in the world where he held various positions in IT and HR departments for 12 years. Then he worked for 10 years for one of the top 5 Management Consulting companies – for 5 years he managed their office in his home town Stavanger, Norway. This gave him opportunities to have various managerial positions, to manage challenging projects, and it certainly filled up his storage of ‘Frode-isms’, like: “everybody wants the change, nobody wants to change”.
All his professional (and private) life, Frode has worked in the field of developing people – to get people to find their potential and to go for it. As a manager he was demanding and successful and created trust-based organizations where people grew. As a coach and trainer he extends his “tough love” to his clients and help them go to places they didn’t think was possible. He is constantly in search for great tools to help his client solve the challenges of the 21st century.
“You know”, Frode says, “the word coach originally meant “a large kind of carriage”, to take you from where you are to somewhere else.” I do that.
Currently, Frode is dividing his time between Stavanger and the rest of the world. He is a proud father of 4 children – all of them great leaders in their own worlds. “The stories of my children inspire me and they frequently become part of my work”.
Wendy Webb
Wendy Webb has over fifteen years of experience in the field of consulting, training, and coaching. She brings to her work a life-long curiosity of people and what drives and motivates them, as well as a desire to support, teach and challenge. In addition, her love of travel, her desire to better understand cultural differences and her ability to create inclusive environments helps facilitate and engage those she works with throughout the world. She has worked with a wide range of organizations that vary in size and focus; recognizing that the human dynamics which emerge are universal. Wendy has an MA in Psychology and is a certified Professional Coach.
Shelly Withrow
Shelly is an executive coach, currently with Mountain Lakes International and, for the previous 8 years, with CDAlliance. She works with clients around the world from energy, healthcare, manufacturing, finance, consulting and transportation. Teaching courses in leadership, strategy and communication, she coaches diverse teams drawn from Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. These clients bring diversity and range of experience, raw talent and drive to learn, continually inspiring her with their humor and the stories.
Known for being both gentle and demanding, she builds an atmosphere of openness and trust, creating dynamic opportunities for discovery and growth. Clients appreciate her powers of observation, her critical eye and artistry, and, most of all, her ability to awaken deeper self-knowledge and wider capacities for empathy. Touching the inner dimension that grounds us in a mutual humanity and propels us to excellence, she fosters leadership that inspires a shared purpose and provides extraordinary results.
While teaching at the University of Houston, Shelly launched their first service learning courses, collaborating with community and research organizations such as NASA, the Nature Conservancy, Cockrell Butterfly Center, and Project Row Houses. As a professor of Creative Writing at the University of Oregon, she directed the Walter Kidd Tutorials, a unique and liberating educational experience for undergraduate students.
Her degree in Philosophy from Rice University included interdisciplinary work in medical ethics at the Baylor College of Medicine and the UT Health Science Center. She holds an MFA from the University of Oregon and now resides in Oregon with her husband, writer Garrett Hongo, and their young daughter Annalena. Together they enjoy travel, good food, and art of all kinds.
Zeke Zeliff
Zeke Zeliff’s career has been in experiential learning beginning with holding leadership positions for Outward Bound for over twenty years and now engaged as a consultant, trainer and coach by privately held companies, governmental agencies, and global corporations. He especially enjoys working with executive teams to identify outcomes that produce lasting individual and organizational change and improved results. Zeke received his MBA from Emory University and brings a keen business intellect as well as years of program design and coaching experience to his work.