About Us

Brian is passionate about creating leadership that fosters a safe and dynamic environment where people can learn, grow, and excel. His career spans a wide range of industries, sectors, and geographies, including the US, Canada, Central and South America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific. Brian is deeply committed to helping individuals, teams, and organizations uncover the root causes of success and identify barriers to achieving innovative and sustainable growth.

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His 25+ years of work have focused on building actionable strategies and partnering with senior leaders to create lasting, meaningful impact for people and organizations alike.  Supporting the building of organizations that excel in their demonstrated capabilities to be agile, innovative and creating impact for their employees and all the stakeholder feeds Brian’s energy and soul.    His experience as a master facilitator and coach has allowed him to work with and help develop emerging and senior leaders in over 200 organizations.

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Brian’s professional journey includes roles such as Senior Vice President of the Americas at Symmetra, Managing Director and Principal at L+C Learning, VP of Client Solutions at Braidio, and Senior Managing Consultant Practice Lead at Capital H Group. He has also held leadership positions at Marakon Consulting, The Kaleidoscope Group, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy.

Outside of work, Brian loves spending time outdoors being based in Bozeman, Montana with family and friends, whether hiking, camping, or skiing. He’s an avid cook, a dog and horse lover and enjoys traveling to favorite and new places around the world.

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Brian’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science in both Sociology and Psychology at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and graduate work in organizational and clinical psychology with additional program participation and certifications at the University of the Andes, in Merida, Venezuela and South Dakota State University.

Judy is a human performance scientist. She holds a doctorate in education, specializing in learning and performance technologies. Judy develops evidence-based strategies, plans, and interventions to evaluate and optimize workforce performance. Judy’s most notable experiences includes senior leadership positions at Booz Allen Hamilton – where she created testable analytic methods and developed and implemented a new firm-wide capability, and the RAND corporation – where she provided inputs for government intelligence policies and served as the Special Advisor to the Chief Learning Officer at the Central Intelligence Agency.  As president of Johnston Analytics Judy has led research efforts for the Laboratory for Analytic Sciences, an innovation lab made up of business, government, and academic collaborators, that were designed to identify ways to help streamline the work of intelligence analysts, giving them back time to spend on higher order tasks.  She is currently involved in a collaborative effort with two universities for the Department of Defense that developed and is implementing a new way of collecting and interpreting observational data for international study.

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Judy has written about the complexity of intelligence analysis and the Intelligence production cycle, and its impact on government performance.  Her publications include “Analytic Culture in the US Intelligence Community:  An Ethnographic Study” (Center for the Studies of Intelligence) in “National Intelligence University’s Role in Interagency Research: Recommendations from the Intelligence Community (RAND.org), and “The Impact of US Intelligence Community Strategic Culture on Intelligence Analysis (Routledge Handbook of Strategic Culture).

Rob is a computational social scientist specializing in business process optimization, innovation strategy, and high-risk decision-making.  Rob is the chief scientist at Johnston Analytics, he’s a lecturer in artificial intelligence, national security, and research methods at Johns Hopkins University.  Rob is a distinguished visiting scholar at North Carolina State University (NCSU) and a senior advisor to Pryon Inc., as well as several risk management, intelligence, and supply-chain organizations.

Rob’s work focuses on the intersection of technology, social science, business processes to improve group performance in high-risk decision-making. At the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Rob was the deputy director of globalization and modernization, chief of the business process improvement group, founder and chief of the lessons learned program, the director of the lessons learned office at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), a research scientist in the office of the chief scientist at CIA, and the recipient of CIA’s Sherman Kent Award. 

Rob’s doctorate is in applied anthropology from the University of Houston, and he has conducted fieldwork throughout the Americas, Europe, East Asia, and Africa.  He has published over 50 articles, book chapters, and books, and has been a guest speaker at over 200 national and international conferences and special events.

Elise Madrick is dedicated to growing and developing executives from around the globe through the design, development and facilitation of cutting-edge learning experiences. From leading Executive Education Programs at the Kellogg School of Management to being the Founder and CEO of Cerené, a personal transformation company, to facilitating leadership and sales programs with Habits at Work, her expertise in leadership development has made her a sought-after strategist, empowering organizations to achieve their full potential in an ever-evolving business landscape.

Maria is a passionate leadership consultant, coach, facilitator, and trainer with a decade of experience which she brings to the Symmetra team working across international organizations, government, and private sectors. She is dedicated to spearheading impactful learning initiatives that empower leaders to cultivate inclusive cultures and drive organizational success at the intersection of cultural awareness and people management.
 
With a focus on designing and facilitating blended learning labs and trainings, Maria leverages adult experiential and transformational learning techniques to equip senior executives with the skills needed to navigate diverse stakeholder demands, recognize underrepresented talent, and foster cultures of curiosity and inclusion.
 
Maria is adept at analyzing surveys and assessments to customize learning programs for executives, focused on leadership development, team building, strategic planning, and cultural competency. Her data-driven approach enables her to develop targeted curriculums aligned with organizational objectives, driving effective culture change efforts.
 
Fluent in both English and Spanish, and with a deep understanding of cultural nuances. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Affairs from George Mason University.

Mike Mears retired as the CIA’s Chief of Human Capital and founded and headed the CIA Leadership Academy.

Prior to CIA, Mike was a senior vice president at GE Investments and a Six Sigma Black Belt. And before that, he launched multiple small business start-ups.

He earned his undergraduate degree at West Point and his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Mike has lectured on leadership at the Department of Defense, Georgetown University, the University of Salzburg, the University of Maryland, and the National Intelligence University.

He has delivered keynote speeches at a wide variety of business, government and academic conferences

Susan has dedicated over twenty-five years to leading and shaping enablement, culture, and learning initiatives that align with core business objectives. She loves facilitating learning and change initiatives that bring both understanding and greater performance in the workplace.

Currently, she serves as head of business development for the Bridger Leadership Institute and also is an Executive Recruiter and Career Consultant with Boyden Executive Search, where she assists leaders with key hiring and career decisions.

Previously, Susan spent ten years with Dell Technologies, where she served as the Chief of Staff and People Strategy for a $1B business unit. She also later served as a member of the Global Enablement Leadership Team, providing support and guidance to 12,000 IT and Project Management professionals across eighty countries. Susan has also served as the Director of Job Training & Placement for Women Helping Women, an award-winning Houston-based 501(3)(c) recognized by the President of the United States.

She is a sought-after facilitator and speaker, having spoken at various events and participated in panels and workshops at educational institutions such as Harvard Law, The University of Houston, and Tulane Law School.

Susan's educational background includes studying History at the University of Seville, Spain, and obtaining her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She is fluent in Spanish and holds a certificate in Design Thinking from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) and a certificate in Employee Relations from Cornell University. 

Hanlie is a behavioral change expert, systems strategist, author, and Ph.D. candidate for Hate Crime Studies. My fascination with human behavior started while growing up in South Africa. From working to prevent hate crime to humanizing the workplace, my career spans three decades and four continents, researching and applying behavioral change strategies to some of the most challenging behavioral problems.

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Hanlie helps leaders solve complex human problems, design human ecocultures, create the conditions for scaling change, and navigate thorny issues. Her passion for teams and cross-cultural collaboration started in South Africa and took me to the UK, Singapore, and the USA, where I now work to promote working across lines of difference. Hanlie is a social scientist, author, and scholar pursuing my PhD in Psychology with a transnational approach with her research focusing on intercultural competence, inclusion, and conflict scenarios.

She has worked with American Express, AMN Healthcare, Argenx, Circana, Delta Faucet (DFC), Experian, Genetics Society of America, Gift of Hope, Glanbia, Hollister, IEEE, IO Glass, Jones Lang La Salle, Kalsec, M Booth, Maersk, MASCO, Massachusetts Information Technology, Moet Hennessy, PepsiCo, Resolution Life, Sodexo, and Watkins Wellness.