Our Talent

Cassandra Gierden

Cassandra Gierden, PCC, CUCG, founded Prophet Coaching in 1997 and her team of coaches focus on career and life coaching both delivered one to one and in workshop formats. In 2005 she founded Distinct Planning Division which creates distinct leadership and business planning programs to groom organizations future leaders. With one of their clients, Sysco Food Services, they were the winners for the 2007 Prism Award of Excellence in Toronto. She is regularly approached to speak about the ongoing benefits of executive onboarding where her work continues to be recognized in the media, including Canadian HR Reporter, 680 News, Business Network News, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun, Calgary Sun and in Canadian Living magazine as a life makeover coach. She is a leader in her own coaching community as past-president of the International Coach Federation Chapter in Toronto and holds one of their Professional Certified Coach credentials.

You can find her most days, when not traveling, in her new home on the Sunshine Coast in B.C. She gives back to her communities through donations to the Toronto Humane Society, Art Gallery of Ontario, SPCA in BC, Jazz FM and now joins the Board of Directors for Habitat for Humanity on the Sunshine Coast.

Colin Holbrow

Colin Holbrow, PCC, Toronto, ON, provides individual and group coaching in the areas of leadership,presentation skills, career change and transition, personal development, andwork - life balance. He is particularly adapted to challenging and supportingmanagers and leaders seeking to maximize their performance and achievetheir gold medal in excellence.

Included in Colin's cadre of clients are senior executives and partners employedby national banks and law firms as well as international accounting, consultingand insurance firms. Colin also supports a diverse range of individual clients fromthe biotech, healthcare and education communities.

Dan Tisch

Dan Tisch, M.S., CPCC, ACC is a certified life coach and principal of Midlife Crisis Coaching. He works with people dealing with transitions, especially in the second third of their lives, who are lacking clarity, creativity, or enthusiasm; are feeling ineffective and discontent; or are looking for more meaning in their lives.

Before taking up coaching full-time, Dan had a successful 23-year career as a communications and marketing manager for science and public health issues.

Peri Clark

Peri, Sunshine Coast, BC, has cross cultural training and experience in working with people of all ages, and specializes in Emotional Intelligence Assessment, Coaching and Development. Peri spent over 20 years of her life living in South East Asia, where she developed a number of training programs for the tourism and export industries. Her clients range from the unemployed to Government Officials.

Peri's approach to her work is to listen to her client's needs and work with them to decide on a realistic approach with attainable results. She understands the importance of the individual experience, and the need to be heard and understood.

Garry Schleifer

Garry Schleifer, Toronto, ON, is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) through the Coaches Training institute. With 17 years background as a visionary entrepreneur and executive, he has participated in successes and failures alike.

Garry combines his corporate and business experience with his coaching training and experience to cause great strides in clarity, performance, and satisfaction in achieving business and personal goals and objectives.

Margaret Miller

A dynamic speaker and author, Margaret Miller, Hamilton, ON, combines over 30 years business experience, 12 years at the senior management level, with a wide range of professional accreditations.

"Never stop learning and never stop growing." These words reflect both Margaret's personal philosophy and her sage advice to clients. It's also the philosophy behind her unceasing desire to learn new skills and embrace new opportunities.

Mary Lou Di Paolo

Mary Lou, ON, is an Organizational Development Consultant, certified coach and trained mediator. She has worked for 20 years with organizations in different industries in Canada, the U.S. and Italy, in the public, private and non-profit sectors. She specializes in partnering with individuals, teams and organizations to create pragmatic, sustainable change in the areas of team building, strategic planning, leadership development and coaching.

Mary Lou is a Mentor Faculty Member with the Adler School of Professional Coaching Inc. Her forté is organizational coaching at the individual and team level. She is a certified Master NLP Practitioner who incorporates NLP principles with coaching and corporate leadership work.

Maureen Ford

Maureen, Toronto, ON, is a professional, personal and executive coach. She is a graduate of the Coaches Training Institute (CTI) and certified as a Dream Coach^™and a Personality Dimensions^™ facilitator. Maureen is also co-founder and editor-in-chief of choice: The Magazine of Professional Coaching.

She has over 17 years of business and senior executive management experience in the information technology industry gained in the corporate environments of the financial and out-sourcing services sectors. She has served as President and Executive Committee member of the Board of Directors for several community-based organizations.

Milton Almeida

For the past 20 years, Milton Almeida, (bilingual: Spanish and English) BC, BA, CUG, MA, has been helping individuals and organizations come to grips with a transforming world. His expertise lies in taking dysfunctional, non-performing groups of people and turning them into creative, productive, and effective teams.

Milton brings insight, energy, and humour to leading highly effective teams from 10 to 200 people. In his years of international hotel experience, his career has taken him all across Canada and into Europe.

Patrick Rhein

Patrick, Toronto, ON, (bilingual: English and French) has been providing high impact training and coaching for organizations internationally both in the private and public sector for the past 13 years. His areas of expertise are management and leadership training, sales, business development, emotional intelligence, executive coaching/mentoring and communication. He is a certified Emotional Intelligence Instructor and qualified CTI coach.

Patrick's previous experience as a career counselor was in recruitment and in managing and evaluating personality assessment tests. His international experience has given him a great understanding of the dynamics of today's changing global business environment and the role of an individual within worldwide business dealings.

Robert J. Strassburg

Robert J. Strassburg, Buffalo, NY, P.E., P.M.P., has over 28 years of professional experience in personal and organizational development, leadership training, personal and executive coaching, project engineering, and project management. He has demonstrated success in training development and delivery, coaching for effectiveness, and leading technical teams on challenging and diverse projects. Working one on one with international clients at all professional levels, he coaches individuals in peak performance principles.

Scott Richardson

Scott Richardson, BC, P.Eng, MA (Leadership), MCC is an executive coach, leadership consultant and facilitator. On the strength of his 15 years of experience in senior leadership positions in the Public, Private and Not for Profit sectors, Scott has developed the capacity to understand and speak the language of leadership across a diverse spectrum of applications.

Scott specializes in supporting new leaders (especially those making the transition from the role of a subject matter expert); experienced leaders that aspire to increase their personal and organizational effectiveness; and senior executives that are seeking to high-grade their leadership practice, possibly by engaging an objective 'thinking partner'.

Terrill Welch

Terrill Welch's, Victoria, BC, life-long learning objective is to facilitate social change through action-oriented opportunities. Her work is designed and delivered specifically to meet the needs of women with leadership responsibilities locally, nationally and internationally. She provides leadership and coaching services that attract women leaders and organizations seeking a holistic and integrated approach to achieving success.

Terrill has many years' experience in using a coach approach with employees, peers, clients, and in organizational team development. This is combined with almost as many years' experience in various leadership positions, including Director of the Stopping the Violence and Regional Programs Branch, for the former British Columbia Ministry of Women's Equality.

Tony Jennings

Tony Jennings, Orangeville, ON, has held a broad range of executive level responsibilities leading change projects to improve business processes, organization effectiveness and customer service. He has held Line, Communications, Marketing, IT, HR, CAO, CFO, and Social Service responsibilities and taken on a range of change focused, special assignments including organization launch, building, redesign, and downsizing.

Working with a wide range of clients, Tony offers particular knowledge of Not-for-Profit service activities, regulatory environments, governments, infrastructure industries and of adult learning business.

Bruce Harrott

Bruce Harrott, Toronto, ON, is a highly creative, intuitive and effective Professional Coach who helps organizations become more successful by helping their leaders perform at maximum potential. He believes in coaching the whole person and asking powerful questions that move clients through transformational experiences.

Bruce is a graduate of the Adler School of Professional Coaching and a member of the International Coach Federation which has granted him the designation of Associate Certified Coach. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from York University.

Bruce has been a business owner for over 20 years. As a writer and communications specialist, he combined strategic left-brain thinking with insightful right-brain creativity to help senior executives communicate more effectively and reach their goals more quickly. Clients included American Express, Timex and Glaxo.

Michael Lobraico

Michael Lobraico, Toronto, ON, brings 25+ years of experience in business to his role as an executive coach and has worked with senior executives, business families and groups in the area of leadership development.

Michael learned and developed his skills in the trenches, operating running and managing many areas of a third generation business family. As a trained facilitator, mediator and public speaker, Michael is sought after for his ability to understand the corporate world as well as his unique understanding of the family dynamic.

As the past national chair of the Canadian Association of Family Enterprises (CAFE), the largest organization of its kind in the world, Michael brings a unique combination of talents, a well rounded approach and an open minded perspective to his clients.

Samy Chong

Samy Chong, Toronto, ON, joins the Distinct Planning Leadership Team and is Corporate Philosopher Inc.'s Chief Inspirational Officer. After immigrating to Canada and putting himself through university he began a wildly successful career as a caterer and restaurant owner. Within his profession, Samy managed to maintain an annual staff turnover of 7%, in an industry where the average exceeds 250%. Sales per seat ranked in the top 6% of the national average and year to year revenue growth averaged 26%.

In 2001 he had an awakening that began when he received a letter from his, then, 13 year old daughter asking why he wasn't pursuing his passion. That letter was the catalyst for Samy selling his business and taking the leap of faith to pursue his highest purpose and passion as an inspirational speaker and certified coach. Today he specializes in coaching leaders who have exhausted traditional methods of solving challenges and inspires them to align their passions and their purpose in life. He believes in the 'Inspired Workplace' - one that honours the heart and soul of each team member while still honouring the bottom line. Integrity in thought, word and action is the cornerstone of Samy's coaching philosophy.

Today Samy enjoys a thriving coaching practice focused on business leaders. He is certified by the International Coaching Federation, and is an executive member of the ICF Toronto Chapter - Board of Directors. He has appeared on radio and CITY TV's CP24, written articles for the National Post, and most recently helped introduce coaching as a formal course at the University of Western Ontario, in London, Ontario. His proudest achievement continues to be his two children.

Jean-Pierre Fortin

Professional coach, trainer and facilitator, Jean-Pierre Fortin,MCC, CEC, CRHA, CA, MA, is a specialist in the coaching since 1997. Considering his experience in management for more than 25 years, acquired in the private and public sectors, he defines itself as an executive and a leader.

His clientele is recruited among the leaders who want to bring their organization in the head of the market, executives who wish to play a leading role within their organization, professionals who aspire to a stimulating practice as well as people interested in developping their potential in leadership. He cumulates several thousands hours in coaching practice.

Jean-Pierre Fortin is the author of the programs of this coaching school, of which one is accredited by the International Coach Federation. He participated actively to train several hundreds of professional coaches and several thousands of managers both in Canada and abroad. He actually acts as Chairman of the board of the company and Program director.

Before1997, he successively was Secretary-general of the University of Quebec, Director of administration in an institute of scientific research, then of Deputy auditor general at the National Assembly of Quebec. He also was an administrator of several companies. His career began like financial auditor and adviser in management for leaders.

His academic background is in administration (HEC Montreal) and political sciences (Laval University). He has been trained in the Executive Program of Queen's University, Coach University and Corporate Coach University. He has the following professional recognitions: CRHA (Order of Consultants in Human Resources), CA (Order of the Chartered Accountants), MCC (Master Certified Coach) of the International Coach Federation (ICF) and CEC (Certified Executive Coach) of Worldwide Association of Business Coaches (WABC).