The Collective

Joel F. Wright is a leadership architect, social entrepreneur, and organizational learning strategist dedicated to expanding access to leadership development for people everywhere. His work is grounded in a core question: What would the world look like if everyone had access to leadership development? That question began taking shape during his work with the Sri Lanka YMCA, where he witnessed how leadership training empowered communities responding to the Indian Ocean Tsunami. Since then, Joel has spent over twenty years designing and scaling leadership development initiatives across nonprofit, corporate, academic, and global development sectors, always with a focus on equity, resilience, and conscious leadership.

Joel has held senior leadership and innovation roles at the Center for Creative Leadership, Block, Inc., and as President of the Leadership Forum Community, where he is working to transform a century-old YMCA leadership conference into a thriving 501(c)(3) organization with global reach. He is known for pioneering scalable frameworks, digital tools, and experiential learning approaches that move individuals, teams, and entire systems forward—from boardrooms to retreat centers and camp classrooms. Joel holds a Master’s degree in Educational Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship from UNC-Chapel Hill and is the author of multiple publications on leadership development.

Neerja Bhatia is a seasoned leadership strategist and the architect of Living Intelligence—a framework that helps leaders navigate high-pressure environments without losing their human signal. With over two decades of experience facilitating breakthrough performance for executives and organizations, Neerja specializes in the “human operating system” behind sustainable success.

She is an author and a contributor to the Forbes Coaches Council. Bridging ancient wisdom with modern leadership mechanics, she advises visionaries on how to scale their impact by mastering their own internal rhythm.

Matthew Mullens, MBA, is a Certified Supplier Diversity Professional (CSDP) with 5years of experience advancing equitable procurement practices at IBM. He has served as a BPO Consultant, Supplier Diversity Manager for North America, and currently as a Small Business Liaison Officer (SBLO), leading federal subcontracting compliance and small business inclusion initiatives. Beyond IBM, Matthew can relate to some challenges small businesses face from his time as an entrepreneur who developed an award-winning plant-based food product recognized for its sustainability and market innovation. He is passionate about advocating for small businesses, sustainability, and emerging sectors such as fintech to drive lasting business and community impact.

Current and Recent Coaching Experience: Levels, Industries, Issues addressed. Kathy’s principles and beliefs as a consultant lie in her ability to carefully integrate assessment data to foster a new awareness in leaders that assists them in making well-crafted specific behavioral changes. Her focus is to coach executives for increased effectiveness to be stronger leaders after identifying specifically what and how to change their behaviors in order to achieve their business goals. She has worked extensively with clients in technology, financial services, healthcare/sciences, pharmaceuticals, CPG’s, University Development, chemicals and international oil, telecommunications, utilities, manufacturing, construction, food service, and not-for-profit environments. She has served in a worldwide coaching program in the areas of performance management and career development for two Fortune 50 financial service organizations. For more than 20 years, she has served as one of a national network of assessors for a Fortune 50 insurance organization.

Career and Organization History: Kathy worked with Valtera in the Selection & Assessment Group for 2 years and she has more than 40 years of internal and external global consulting experience. A sampling of assessment and coaching clients include Allstate, Apria, Arlon, AT&T, Avery Dennison, Bank of New York/Mellon, Baylor Health Care Systems, Catalent, CIBA Specialty Chemicals, The City of Reading, Danbury Hospital, Exelon, Federal Reserve Bank of NY, The GAP, GE Transportation, Goldman Sachs, The Hartford, Hatch Mott McDonald, Henkel, The Hershey Company, J&J companies (Janssen, Janssen Biotech, Ortho McNeil, Ethicon, Cordis, and Centocor/Ortho Biotech), KidsPeace, KION, Lucent Technologies, Merck, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Novartis, P&G, Patterson Dental, Peco Energy, Pfizer, Philadelphia Electric Company, Philips, PPL, Pressley Ridge, Quadrant, Regeneron, SunMicrosystems, Syngenta, The Pennsylvania State University, United Technologies Corporation, Vanguard, and Western Connecticut Health Network.

Lyndon Rego focuses at the intersection of leadership, innovation, and transformation. He has worked in two dozen countries — across Asia, the Americas, and Africa — on individual, organizational, and community efforts.

Lyndon founded CoMetta, an initiative to build cross-community networks and collaboration. Earlier, as the founding head of the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the African Leadership University (ALU), he focused on shaping an integrated approach to development across faculty, staff, and students. Prior to ALU, Lyndon was a senior leader for 14 years at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), where he led innovation efforts and the transformative Leadership Beyond Boundaries practice which focused on increasing access to leadership development in the world. This included designing and facilitating leadership, innovation, and strategy efforts in 24 countries with a wide range of nonprofit, education, community, government, and business entities.

The recipient of several global awards for excellence and impact, including the OD Network award for global work, Lyndon speaks and has published on human, organization, and societal transformation. He is the author of a number of papers, including Beyond Ubuntu, Stepping into the Void (Navigating Crisis Leadership), and Building the Collective Capacity for Conscious Leadership. Lyndon has an MBA and a Masters degree in Communication.