Dr. Laura Belsten works with intelligent, high-achieving, over-worked executives, managers and leaders to navigate the whitewater conditions and rocky shoals of life in the world of business today. With her background in communication, management and leadership, Laura helps executives with their influencing and negotiating skills, conflict management, team-building, political and organizational savvy, emotional and social intelligence, decision-making and problem-solving skills, as well as their strategic, critical and visionary thinking - all aspects of what makes up today's successful executive. Laura holds the highest coaching credential awarded by the International Coach Federation, the Master Certified Coach (MCC) and is a professionally trained mediator. On the faculty at the University of Denver since 1990, her popular courses in leadership, communication, coaching, emotional intelligence and conflict management have sold out for over 17 years. She is the author of the best-selling Coaching Emotional Intelligence and has developed one of the nation's leading emotional intelligence tests, the Emotional Intelligence Profile.

Dana Bryson provides both visionary leadership and reality-tested experience for our work. She brings 20 years of experience in creating breakthrough results helping a variety of organizations (public, private and nonprofit) to achieve bold change. She has designed, led and implemented results from, numerous strategic planning and public engagement initiatives in a variety of communities across a multitude of issue areas. She has developed innovative community re-investment strategies involving large-scale civic infrastructure projects.

For the past 10 years, she has worked as a Chief of Staff or Senior Advisor to US Mayors or CEO’s.  From 2005-2007, she served as Chief of Staff to the Washington, D.C. City Administrator, managing day-to-day operations and overseeing the $7.5 billion budget. In this role, she restructured governmental agencies to become more consumer-driven and sustainable by identifying new models for revenue generation. Ms. Bryson also served in the Cabinet of Denver, Colorado-Mayor Hickenlooper. Tasked with improving the operations of city government, she increased government transparency by working with the Administration to create clear goals for the City and performance contracts for all Cabinet members. She designed and led “Denver Listens,” an initiative to incorporate public input into the development and structure citywide goals and budget priorities. From 2003 to 2005, Ms. Bryson was Chief of Staff to the City Manager of Oakland, California, and to then-Mayor Jerry Brown. Ms. Bryson spearheaded an initiative to streamline the efficacy of city services, and helped negotiate urban redevelopment projects, and represented local governments at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Ms. Bryson has also worked with various nonprofits as an advocate, activist, founder, funder, board member, chair and advisor. Dana Bryson holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor’s Degree in both Foreign Affairs and French Literature from the University of Virginia. She is an avid urban gardener and a certified Yoga teacher.  She lives in Denver with her husband and child.

Chris is a senior partner & co-owner of Alchemy. She is a skilled consultant and strategist who uses a variety of methodologies, best practice, graphics and deep listening to elicit ideas, solutions and innovation from people and their organizations.  Her approach and insights result in a dynamic environment where high energy, best-practice and system practicalities create opportunities that both clients and stakeholders are enthused to deploy.

With over 18 years of business planning, consulting, public participation and stakeholder engagement, and systems background, Chris’ clients include multi-national Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, municipalities, county governments, trade associations and school systems.  She has designed processes for and with multiple industries including finance, technology, pharmaceutical, consumer products, large consulting businesses, petrochemicals, agriculture, publishing and education industry as well as oil and gas, aerospace and hotel industries.  With a specialty in large group facilitation (150+) and cultural integration Chris enjoys the challenge of large systems and small teams in diverse, multi-cultural and international settings. 

One key differentiator for Chris is the incorporation of strategic illustration to mobilize those she works with.  While including art and pictures into her projects, she adeptly weaves expert design principles, story and story telling, play, empathy and symphony as a way to focus in on what matters most to the client in the context of their immediate business needs. 

Prior to her leadership role at Alchemy, Chris served as the Vice President for Development at Earth Force, and Executive Director of Keystone Science School, a division of The Keystone Center located in Keystone, Colorado.  She has served as a key note speaker and guest faculty at several business schools across the United States.  She serves as the Chairman of the Board for Earth Force, a national youth, environment and service learning organization, as well as Paragon Theatre, the World Café Community Foundation, and The Association of College Counselors in Independent Schools.  Chris has an M.B.A from the Executive and Professional Education program at the Daniels College of Business, University of Denver, and is a graduate of the 50 for Colorado executive education program at the LEEDS Business School at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  

Clive is a versatile Management Consultant with extensive experience designing and implementing creative solutions for both people issues and business opportunities. He has excellent organisational skills and can think and communicate simply and clearly. He is a skilled facilitator, executive coach and thinking partner. Clive has worked in the UK, the Middle East, Africa and the USA and has extensive multi-cultural operational experience. Most recently he has worked as a business strategy consultant and coach in the USA, Europe and the UK. Clive’s work has been with a diverse set of businesses and individuals and includes small and medium enterprises as well as teams from large organisations. His passion is to help others realise the potential of their organisations and of themselves, both in business and in the complimentary areas that affect our ability to make a sustained impact on the world. He is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in the UK and lives to the South West of London.

Kelley’s goal as a coach is to help leaders communicate, motivate and influence more effectively. She does this by bringing a dual focus to her work. First, she utilizes a brain-based coaching model designed to improve the thinking of senior leaders. Second, she illuminates the importance of leading with heart as the way executives can bring out the best in themselves and those with whom they work. Having worked inside of large corporations for many years, Kelley understands that sustainable performance is only possible when people are motivated and inspired to reach their full potential. Kelley combines clarity and humor to guide clients toward understanding both the art and science of their success.

Jeraldene has been a facilitator, coach, teacher and strategist for the past thirty years working with leaders in business, industry, government and NGO’s.  In the past three years, Jeraldene has added strategic illustration to her repertoire of skills.  This is an arena where she visually inspires her clients while accelerating their intent, purpose and ultimately, their performance.

Jeraldene’s business acumen is grounded in the intuitive process and reflective listening.  Her extensive background and research in cognitive brain development and her artistic talent have enabled her to bring left and right brain modalities together for and with her clients.  Combining chaos with creativity and solutions architecture to support high performance, Jeraldene’s clients find themselves committed, clear and inspired to achieve the visions and plans they create with her. 

Jeraldene studied at Holistic Life University in San Francisco where she became a certified counselor and Holistic Educator. She studied with Dick Olney and completed the Self Acceptance Training Programme for Therapists. She is also certified in Voice Dialogue.

Jeraldene’s experience includes working with many leaders from all areas of society, to accelerate their personal and professional performance through intuitive coaching, listening and reflection.  Jeraldene has lived in the UK for 12 years. She loves painting, photography and walking in the countryside.

Scott is the Operations Director & Social Media mastermind here at Alchemy. Graduating from the University of Colorado @ Boulder in 2009, he has interned with the Colorado Rapids Soccer Club in the Team Operations department, and worked in various positions at Porter Hospital. During his free time he enjoys watching Queens Park Rangers or any soccer game on the tele from across the pond, discovering new music, scouting for his dream vacation home in London, and planning his next vacation destination!

Raj is a professional management consultant dedicated to helping international development organizations to achieve substantial performance improvements. He brings almost 15 years of experience in international development and humanitarian action, evaluating organizations and facilitating initiatives to enhance their strategies, structures, processes, partnerships, and culture. He is a Certified Professional Facilitator (CPF) and an Accredited Auditor/SGS NGO Benchmarking Certification System. 

Barry partners with executives to revolutionize the way they lead and develop their people. To this end, he delivers brutally honest, data-based feedback in a respectful and motivating way, which immediately improves their performance and their relationships.  In group settings, Barry works with executives to improve the outcome of town hall meetings, board of director presentations, keynote speeches, team sessions and investor calls. For the past 15 years, Barry has successfully improved the effectiveness of leaders and their organizations throughout Fortune 500 companies across the US, Europe and Asia.

Barry graduated with honors from Northeastern University with a Bachelors of Arts degree and earned his Masters degree from the University of Northern Colorado.  He is a member of the American Society for Training and Development and is affiliated with the Colorado Speakers Association. Barry is the author of the new book, Casting Call in the Theatre of Corporate America, which teaches innovative ways to engage audiences and improve organizational impact.

Nearly 20 years ago, Chris Trani parlayed a career in one of the most difficult jobs in human interaction - that of an oncology nurse - into a career as an internal and independent consultant on hundreds of change and transition projects for finance, healthcare and technology companies. Her obvious skill in working with and coaching individuals going through personal and professional changes has served her enormously when consulting with teams and larger organizations. Combined with her excellent presentation and facilitation skills, Chris' relentless focus on designing conversations inevitably leads to accountability and positive actions and results. 

Beginning as an art director and then illustrator, Alece Birnbach has spent more than a decade creating award-winning campaigns based on targeted, strategic planning and branding. As she has expanded the creative services she offers to include graphic recording, she brings this wealth of marketing acumen, drawing, and problem solving skills with her. The combination of Alece's ability to listen to her clients' needs, along with her drawing ability, make her an ideal visual partner.

When she's not doing strategic illustration for Alchemy, Alece creates her own character-based collections, which have been licensed by manufacturers for a wide variety of products including posters, cocktail napkins, fabric, and stationery products.

Nikki is a seasoned executive coach and facilitator who helps leaders and teams to clarify, communicate and achieve results that truly matter. She believes that leadership is a powerful opportunity to embrace challenge and change as paths to personal and organizational excellence and achievement. Nikki helps pave the way for leaders to speak more confidently, give more effective feedback, and create stronger, more dynamic teams that realize their desired results while creating a healthy, creative workplace. Her own curiosity, knowledge and professional background enable her to meet others where they are nonjudgmentally and support them to reach their best possible future.

Sarah is a skilled consultant, facilitator and trainer, supporting teams and individuals in thinking and communicating clearly about what matters and in working together effectively. Drawing on experience with diverse organizations and cultures, she helps clients to create strategy, address complex challenges, learn together and raise team performance. She is passionate about the power of visual thinking and mountain landscapes — both real and metaphorical — to connect people and create space for insight and inspiration. Sarah started her career as a bioscientist, moving into consultancy after gaining management and policy experience in the United Nations system and completing a prize-winning MBA. She is a Member of the Chartered Management Institute, an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and a Belbin Team Role accredited consultant.

Tom Curren is trained as a coach and senior “thinking partner” and has worked with dozens of CEOs and other top-level executives. In addition to advising based on his own experiences, he helps executives discover their own answers through the use of powerful questions, reflective listening, challenging of assumptions, and holding executives accountable for delivering on what they say they want and need. Tom’s resume includes: MBA Wharton Graduate Division, 1967. Finance and Marketing, with honors. Also a B.A. from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Compton Advertising, for Procter & Gamble, 1971-73. McKinsey & Company, 1973-77. Senior Engagement Manager. Marriott Corporation, SVP Strategy Development, 1977-90. Helped the Company grow from $1 billion to $7 billion. Member of the Finance Committee.

Martha has dedicated more than 25 years to understanding how people interact with others, and with the products that they purchase.  Her expertise in customer lifecycle management (customer loyalty) spans a variety of industries including child care, telecommunications, and higher education; and encompasses a wide range of disciplines including sales and marketing, operations, corporate change and business analytics. 

In business, Martha believes that magic is an outcome, not an input.  Improvement, and outstanding results come as a result of the things that we DO, and being purposeful and thoughtful about our interactions and the processes that impact our staff, faculty and customers/students, will ultimately create experiences that make magic happen.

Today, Martha is honored to work with individuals to improve their teaching and speaking skills; and with companies of all sizes on projects that range from culture and change management, to innovation, to strategy and growth initiatives.  She lives in Boulder, Colorado, with her family, some fish, and a labradoodle.

Doug McGhee embodies leadership from the new paradigm of a modern man. An ongoing student of self improvement and personal growth he is quickly becoming a visionary on the path to wholeness for the 21st century man. Doug’s coaching, facilitation and leadership style is genuine, clear and accessible.

Adriano Pianesi is an online and off-site facilitator, an educator and an expert in helping people, teams, and organizations develop actionable competencies for leadership, team work, and change through dialogue and technology. His distinctive work focuses on improving the quality of collaboration – online and face-to-face - as people engage difficult, complex, adaptive challenges. His formal education in Group Dynamics (University of Rome, Italy) and Organizational Communication (University of Milan, Italy), combined with his extensive consulting experience with a broad range of clients and contexts over the last 20 years, results in a unique and powerful approach to helping people build community in circumstances where they're inclined to pull apart by leveraging the power of dialogue and of online tools.

Prior of his current work, Adriano was Lead Training Consultant at Serco North America, where he provided business training services in support of a large scale Oracle CRM implementation. He directed training operations for 800+ users in numerous locations across the country.  Drawing from this experience and from other work in communications, he began experimenting with the use of alternative methods of building learning communities during IT systems implementation projects and other change management initiatives.

Some of the organizations Adriano has worked with include -among others - NASA, The International Monetary Fund, the U.S. Marine Corps, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the YMCA of Greater Omaha. Adriano is a member of the E-learning Guild and of the Society of Organizational Learning, a regular contributor to The Systems Thinker and serves as an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University, MBA program.

A proud, recent American Citizen and an avid tennis player, Adriano lives in Alexandria with his wife Cara and their two children, Dylan and Gemma.

Ulric Rudebeck may be the definition of the ground-up consultant. Ulric's early proficiencies include economics, systems theory and statistics — he even trained as a mechanical engineer. Over his 30 years in management, Ulric has seen the inside and outside of public and private sector organizations up close and personal. These days, Ulric focuses on executive teams, strategic visionary work, business planning, organizational development and change processes for clients on four continents.

Sabine has more than 17 years of experience as architect and lighting designer. With her professional background she is has the ability to transform ideas, visions and strategies into simple, clear images. Through pictures we can comprehend the sense of words in a “sustainable” way. How can we find a common language behind the words, behind different languages? Graphic Recording is for her like being a catalyst, making spoken processes visible.

Lois is a senior partner & co-owner of Alchemy. She blends masterful facilitation skills, executive coaching and 27 years of high-level business acumen to accelerate results for teams and individuals. She is known for creating high trust environments where her warm, direct style elicits what matters most. Her ability to launch any business process from a foundation of openness and candor results in outcomes that are coherent and structured for success.

Lois is engaged by clients who are looking to become even more exceptional at what they do. While keeping CEO’s greatest concerns in the foreground (sustained and steady top line profitable growth, consistent execution of strategy, client/customer/patient satisfaction and retention, speed, flexibility and adaptability to change) Lois works in the background to ensure that noble purpose, vision and strategy are clearly formed and articulated throughout the organization.  She also ensures that sound principles and efficient processes are put in to place and that the talent in the organization has the tools and resources to thrive in their respective performance areas – always putting their strengths to work!

Lois' toolkit includes master level certification in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) a unique communications technology that uncovers barriers in thinking and behaviors, allowing groups and individuals to move toward their goals at a surprising speed. She is also a master certified executive coach and heads up Alchemy's coaching business. Her music degree saw her spend 15 years in the broadcasting industry where she ended up managing and leading teams. Lois has also been recognized repeatedly in the Colorado women's community for leadership, including "Woman Leader of Excellence" in 2002 from the Colorado Women's Leadership Coalition, "Woman of Achievement" in 2000 from Women in Communications and 2005 as a finalist for "Outstanding Woman in Business" from the Denver Business Journal. 

Kathy Workman has more than 20 years of business experience in a wide array of disciplines. Her skills and knowledge include corporate development and training, large scale program management of multidisciplinary teams, product development and systems development. She has walked in the shoes of most every business professional as a trainer/facilitator, marketer, salesperson, quality/process improvement specialist, product development manager (NPDP certified), systems development program manager and consultant. Kathy honed her skills by working in Fortune 500 companies in key industry segments of Transportation (AST&L certified), Telecommunications and Financial Services as well as one of the Big Four consulting firms. Her most recent experience includes working with clients within governmental agencies and non-profit organizations. 

Kathy is passionate about providing clients valuable insight and skilled facilitation in any business setting. Kathy received her MBA from Creighton University and continues to feed her insatiable appetite for learning. She recently finished a certificate program in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business. She is also a graduate of the 50 for Colorado executive education program at the LEEDS Business School at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Denver Chamber of Commerce Impact Denver leadership program.