Mega Catalysts

ICF Global 2012 welcomes Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW, David Whyte, and Camila Batmanghelidjh!

Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW 

Brené is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. She has spent the past 10 years studying vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame. Brené spent the first five years of her decade-long study focusing on shame and empathy, and is now using that work to explore a concept that she calls Wholeheartedness.

Her reputation as a nationally renowned speaker is built on her ability to explore difficult topics with tremendous honesty, warmth, and humor. She is a thought-leader, researcher, and storyteller with the rare ability to both inspire audiences and leave them with actionable change strategies. Brené has won numerous teaching awards, including the College's Outstanding Faculty Award. Her groundbreaking work has been featured on PBS, NPR, and CNN.

Brené is a distinguished author of multiple publications, including The Gifts of Imperfection: Letting Go of Who We Think We Should Be and Embracing Who We Are (Hazelden, 2010) and I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn't): Telling the Truth About Perfectionism, Inadequacy, and Power (Penguin/Gotham, 2007). She is also the author of Connections, a psychoeducational shame resilience curriculum that is being facilitated across the nation by mental health and addiction professionals.

Her current research focuses on Wholeheartedness in families, schools, and organizations. Her newest book on vulnerability will be available on September 13, 2012.

Coaches will enjoy how she encourages people to embrace their vulnerabilities and imperfections so they can engage in their lives from a place of authenticity and worthiness.  

David Whyte

David has fueled discussions over the past 20 years about such challenges as fostering creativity, engagement, and social responsibility. His approach has inspired leaders around the world, pushing them to take a deep look into the necessity for self knowledge and a courageous self-examination. David's poetic exploration delivers inspirational ideas to cultivate leadership, creativity, and learning within ourselves and with our clients to optimize human potential.

As the author of six books of poetry and three books of prose, David holds a degree in Marine Zoology and has traveled extensively, including living and working as a naturalist guide in the Galapagos Islands and leading anthropological and natural history expeditions in the Andes, the Amazon, and the Himalaya. He brings this wealth of experience to his poetry, lectures, and workshops.

David's life as a poet has created a readership and listenership in three normally mutually exclusive areas: the literate world of readings that most poets inhabit, the psychological and theological worlds of philosophical enquiry, and the world of vocation, work, and organizational leadership.

An Associate Fellow at Templeton College and Said Business School at the University of Oxford, he is one of the few poets to take his perspectives on creativity into the field of organizational development, where he works with many European, American, and international companies. In 2008, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Neumann College, Pennsylvania, USA. His seventh volume of poetry, Pilgrim, will be published this year.

In organizational settings, using poetry and thoughtful commentary, David illustrates how we can foster qualities of courage and engagement; qualities needed if we are to respond to today's call for increased creativity and adaptability in the workplace. David brings a unique and important contribution to our understanding of the nature of individual and organizational change particularly through his perspectives on conversational leadership.

Coaches will enjoy David's powerful reflexive energy, ability to build rapport and communicate with an audience, as well as guide participants to connect with their own deep truths as he talks about the journeys of life, covering all the big and small milestones we all come across. 

Camila Batmanghelidjh

Camila is an inspirational businesswoman, charity leader, author, founder of two non-profits, and a psychotherapist for more than 20 years. She has created a unique and pioneering approach in delivering services to vulnerable children. 

After starting her first charitable organization in her early 20s that reached thousands of children, she decided a decade later to create her second non-profit, Kids Company, of which she is currently the director. On two occasions she has re-mortgaged her home to see Kids Company through its lack of funding, however, as the organization proved vital to the community, the team has raised over £50 million since 1996. Since the organizations conception, Kids Company has reached out to over 17,000 vulnerable children every year, many of whom have been neglected or abused. In addition the organization provides hot nutritious meals for 2,000 children each week. Camila has always focused the organization on the needs of the most vulnerable client group without making compromises in order to hit current trends or government priorities.

In 2009, she was named Business Woman of the Year for the Dods and Scottish Widows Public Life Awards. Camila has also been awarded Social Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young, and Coutts and the Most Admired Chief Executive by Third Sector Magazine. She won the lifetime achievement award from the Centre of Social Justice. Kids Company has been awarded the Human Rights Awards by Liberty & JUSTICE and has been awarded Child Poverty Champion Status by the End Child Poverty Action Group. In 2010, Camila and Kids Company were given the Award for Innovative Excellence by Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Now.

Kids Company currently has a partnership with the University of Cambridge and UCL involving research into neurodevelopmental trauma. Camila speaks regularly at conferences and has contributed to numerous publications. Her book, Shattered Lives: Children living with Courage and Dignity was published in May 2006.

Coaches will enjoy Camila's positivism, exuberance, and basic belief in the goodness of humanity. She challenges people deeply enabling profound transformation and demonstrates how one person can bring about change.