Advanced Executive Lab

Lab Outcomes

By the end of this lab, you will be able to:

• Leverage your personal strengths to effectively lead your organization.​
• Work & collaborate successfully with your board.​
• Apply tools to develop, articulate, & implement your strategic vision.​
• Establish frameworks to ensure legal & financial accountability & manage risk.​
• Explore techniques for developing a desired work culture.​
• Support & foster diversity amongst your team & board.​
• Enhance team performance at your organization.​
• Apply a coaching lens.​
• Build stronger relationships amongst your team, board, & community.

Meet Our Facilitators

Erin Leckie

Erin joins us with 20 years of experience facilitating environmental education and inclusivity work, often in non-profits. Erin has worked on educational program development and delivery through various non-profit leadership roles for the last 13 years, focusing on environmental behaviour change; project ideation and management; waste, climate action, and communication; team, leadership, and culture building; and relationship to land and stewardship practices.

Learn more about Erin on our team page.

Gretchen Ferguson

Gretchen is a dynamic leader with over 20 years of experience in the non-profit and higher education sectors in Canada and internationally. She specializes in program and curriculum development, strategic planning, and impact evaluation, with a strong focus on fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to drive systemic change. She has led impactful initiatives, including the development of a DEI assessment tool for Canadian financial institutions and an innovative training program to foster community-led economic development in Bolivia.

Learn more about Gretchen on our team page.

Heather Johnson

Heather is a semi-retired human resources consultant who also actively participates on Boards, and volunteers to build capacity in the not-for-profit sector. She helps organizations develop the right strategy, culture, programs and people to build their organization and achieve their purpose. 

Heather has a knack for looking at the big picture, asking the right questions, and applying over 30 years of experience to create practical solutions. She values resourcefulness and will engage with Boards and management teams to develop strategies and bring them to life.

Jerome Dickey

Jerome brings more than 20 years of leadership and management practice to partnering with clients to improve performance. He helps turn challenges into opportunities by successfully leveraging learned experience and thought leadership for complex situations.

Business Coaching/Leadership Development/Alternative Dispute Resolution

Maria Montenegro

Maria completed a Masters in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Alberta. She is a Credentialed Evaluator with over 7 years of experience conducting evaluation and research for non-profit and public sector organizations. Maria draws from experience working in several social policy areas including education, immigration and settlement, health and gender.

Maria holds a manager position at Fraser Health Authority and is the Chair of a network of young and emerging evaluators across North America. She draws from her training in coaching, leadership, and facilitation to guide and support her teams to achieve their goals.

Hassan Pardawalla

Hassan’s progressive cross-functional career path has been non-linear and divergent; a path that has been driven by curiosity, broad-mindedness, adaptability, grit, and diversity. He enjoys taking on herculean challenges outside of his comfort zone and constantly learning new skills.

Success in different ecosystems and job roles, has always been possible by continuously creating a wonderful organizational culture, developing and nourishing talent through servant and authentic leadership, open communication, and honesty, implementing appropriate business processes, leveraging new technologies, growing relationships based on trust and integrity, and being a boundary-spanning connector leader.

With this varied experience, Hassan now looks to assist organizations in scaling up their businesses to ensure sustainable and socially responsible growth and provide an awesome place to work.

As a project of love, Hassan enjoys supporting professionals in their career development through coaching and mentoring. This allows him to constantly grow and interact with a variety of people.

Nancy More

Nancy More had a long career focused on supply and general management in the global brewing industry. During her career Nancy worked in progressively more senior management positions across Canada for Labatt Brewing Company before moving into the global business with the parent company Interbrew SA. Her interest in international business development led her to join Diageo (Guinness) headquartered in London. While beer was the business focus, her attention was on development of local leadership and businesses.

Nancy’s experience in developing countries and living and working in different cultures has encouraged a passion about the challenges of creating sustainable change through leadership particularly in cross-cultural circumstances.

After she returned to Canada, she wanted to use her skills to contribute to the not-for-profit sector. She has been serving as a Vantage Point Knowledge Philanthropist for over a decade.

Her experience as a board director has included the Sea Kayak Association of BC, the Vancouver Fringe Theatre Society, the Nuxalk Nation Economic Development Corporation, Academics without Borders, and Vantage Point. She served as Board Chair for Academics without Borders and Vantage Point.

Isabel Budke

Isabel Budke (CPCC, MRM, MA) is a highly respected, engaging and results-focussed Leadership Coach and Strategist, Facilitator and Trainer. She brings over a decade of leadership and senior management experience with not-for-profit, government and corporate organizations in the areas of health, sustainability, aboriginal and intergovernmental relations, and education. Isabel has led teams, advised leaders and trained professionals as an executive advisor, director, program manager and faculty.

In her work as a Certified Professional Co-Active® Coach (CPCC), Isabel also draws on her expertise in strategic planning, conflict transformation and outdoor leadership. She helps leaders, professionals and teams seize periods of change as opportunities to take their leadership and well-being to new heights—and thrive! She regularly takes clients “outside”— of limiting perspectives, and into the outdoors.

In addition to two graduate degrees (Education and Resource Management), Isabel holds certificates in Leadership and Conflict Resolution as well as Search and Rescue operations. She is a professional member of the International Coach Federation (ICF) and has been a Search and Rescue volunteer for thirteen years. She spends her spare time climbing mountains, running, back-country skiing and practicing yoga and meditation. She is grateful for having been able to explore some of the world’s most beautiful and remote areas.