Team
President – Barbara Morris-Blake, APCC
A sought-after organizational development consultant, coach and speaker, Barbara Morris-Blake believes the best companies function like thriving communities where individuals – and teams – are equipped and inspired to work to their full potential. Helping clients accelerate their performance, achieve their leadership potential, and identify and overcome organizational barriers to success are areas in which she excels.
Using a holistic approach, Barbara tailors and integrates the most advanced tools and techniques to activate the success of her clients. She draws on more than 15 years of experience working with leaders in diverse organizations – from C-suite executives of multinational corporations, to entrepreneurs, to managers in non-profits. Having established and led her own successful consulting company specializing in leadership development, she deeply understands workplace dynamics and the role of effective communication in the success of individuals, teams and the bottom line.
With an exceptional ability to engage and motivate people, Barbara is also a popular speaker. Business and professional groups frequently call upon Barbara to share her insights on developing proficient leaders and inspiring a workplace culture of performance.
Barbara is also a Certified Professional Coach and a member of the International Coach Federation. She is a coach for the Canadian Women’s Foundation, which empowers women and girls to move out of violence, out of poverty and into confidence. She is also a founding member and Program Director for Up With Women, a non-profit organization that partners previously homeless women with business coaches to help them develop in their careers.
A trusted advisor and a skilled communicator, Barbara guides people with energy, creativity and a collaborative style. Executives and team leaders value her support as an insightful problem solver who can steer the change process and lead companies and individuals to higher ground.
Consultant – Drew Jones
Andrew (Drew) Jones, Ph.D., is an organizational consultant, management professor, and author. Over the past fifteen years he has consulted with companies in multiple industries: software, food and beverage, construction, education, sports management, marketing, architecture. At Elevate, he applies his expertise in culture, innovation, and leadership to consulting and turning organizations into communities through co-working. An early adopter of coworking, he has run coworking spaces for the past seven years and co-authored the first book on coworking- I’m outta here: How coworking is making the office obsolete (2009). He has also written two books about design thinking and corporate innovation: The Innovation Acid Test: Growth Through Design and Differentiation (2008), and The Fifth Age of Work: How Companies Can Re-Design Work to be More Innovative in a Cloud Economy (2013). Drew teaches in the management department in the McCoy College of Business Administration at Texas State University (San Marcos), and is co-founder and partner at OpenWork.
Consultant – David Walker
Having launched and led Conjunctured, the first coworking space in Austin and one of first co-working communities in the world, David is a recognized expert in this fast-emerging field. Through his work at Conjunctured, David has earned global acclaim, not just for pioneering an innovative workspace alternative but for being on the vanguard of a unique, community-first approach to work. At Elevate, David applies his experience and thought leadership to creating environments where different talents and leadership styles can thrive together. Helping companies evolve from the inside-out, David transforms outdated work models into thriving community hubs, places of collaboration and innovation where people desire to be. A millennial who understands the challenges and rewards of organizations where multiple generations work together, David holds a degree in Marketing with a concentration in Sociology from The McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas. He is also a Partner at OpenWork, a consultancy dedicated to delivering the Co-working Model into society at large.
