Coaching to Ignite Social Impact

Trained in coaching at New York University, I initiated ICF’s Global Chapter Connect - an important new step to connect ICF-chapters across borders. Active on the ICF-NYC Membership Committee since 2019, I have served as Membership Ambassador engaging new coaches with service to local communities, education and serve as a DEI Coach Mentor. I also lead the ICF-NYC Creative Coach Cafe which brings coaches from the Americas, EMEA and Asia together to explore the art of coaching. I also have served on the ICF Thought Leadership Institute Taskforce on Education.A research scholar on coaching at Columbia University, I am examining how coaching can create creative and inclusive spaces for growth in education.

Motivation for Ignite coaching: As an ICF coach I offer my services pro bono to nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and support organizations enhance their impact on society. Particularly, I seek to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing on areas in education and equality.

An Asia specialist I am in contact with three organizations in South Asia and seek to offer my coaching services at no cost to recipients in one-on-one coaching, group coaching, and leadership development sessions. As a Fulbright Scholar in South Asia I am developing a coaching initiative in India, and seek to initiate another for Bhutan and a third in Sri Lanka. Trained in research (PhD) I also can evaluate the impact of coaching provided through the Ignite Initiative exploring success metrics used to improve organizational performance, enhanced leadership skills, and progress towards specific SDGs.

Finally, as a coach, I seek to partner with organizations, particularly at the grass-roots level and to support and empower underrepresented individuals and their teams in building better learning environments and inclusive society and more resilient communities.

I initiated coaching to culture professional at Yale, future leaders at California State University, PhDs at University of Melbourne, Australia, and as an Entrepreneurship Coach at Columbia University’s Start Up Lab, Almaworks. I have served as Visiting Professor of Cultural Entrepreneurship at Peking University and serves as an Impact Entrepreneurship Coach at Parsons School of Design in New York and GoldAward Mentor at University of London.

Fieldwork: I have led Fulbright-Hays US Public Diplomacy Projects Mongolia and China and is recipient of the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award and served as Fulbright Senior Scholar in India. I am currently creating coaching initiatives with three organizations in Asia:

• The Highland Institute, Kohima, India - to engage inclusive coaching in a tribal youth empowerment program to support underserved tribal communities.

• In Colombo, Sri Lanka I am creating a creative industries leadership coaching initiating to support women in arts and culture.

• And, I will be leading a special coaching initiative in Bhutan for cultural entrepreneurs.

About Les: Les brings thirty years of global experience across the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific. As a Fulbright Senior Scholar in India in 2022, Les pioneered an initiative to bring coaching to India’s underserved tribal communities. Les also initiated coaching to PhDs at University of Melbourne in Australia. As a trained management consultant, Les brings experience supporting global organizations since 1989, and has served global clients 3M, Du Pont, GE, GM, Dow and Bayer. As a Columbia Entrepreneurship Coach, Les is working with innovative leaders now shaping the future of work. Les is recipient of Fulbright US Public Diplomacy Awards for China and Mongolia, and the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award for India. In 2016, Les was awarded the US Department of State sponsored ACMS Fellowship and led the first research on US-Mongolian cooperation in arts, culture and education.

Trained in coaching at New York University, Les holds advanced degrees in international management and is specialized in strategy and global technology cooperation. Les has published with Organizational Behavior specialist, Dr. Abraham Rami Shani on parallel learning models instrumental in technology transfer across borders. As an ICF Coach he seeks to support the mission of accelerating and amplifying social system change through coaching.

Certifications: ICF Certified Coach. ICF-NYC DEI Coach Mentor; ICF-certified GCHQ Group Coach; University of London trained GoldAward Mentor. BA Fine Art from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design; BA (cum laude) from Boston University; M.Sc in international management from Boston University and the Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB) Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences; MBA from California State University; MA University of London; Masters in Fine Art from Musashino Art University, Tokyo; PhD from the Faculty of Art, Environment and Technology, Leeds Beckett University, UK; and Post-Doctorate in Fine Art from the School of Art and Communications at University of São Paulo, Brazil. Language training programs: French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese.