Lawrence brings 25+ years experience as an executive and leadership coach across sectors.
He is passionate about supporting clients to access their full presence, develop their highest visions, navigate challenges skillfully, and produce extraordinary results.
Lawrence has served in several leadership, consulting and coaching roles across sectors. He was as a director with one of the oldest change-leadership consulting firms in the US, Interaction Associates; served as Co-Lead of Thought Leadership for Health Equity for Accenture, the world’s largest digital and tech consulting company; has led large-scale movement-building campaigns; and is a producer of films and global tele-summits on sustainability.
Lawrence is especially focused on supporting everyone to lead, in any and every way possible, to avert climate catastrophe, understanding that we have until 2025 at the latest to peak global greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid the 1.50 C point-of-no-return. He is fiercely committed to creating a sustainable, just, thriving world for all humans, all species, and all ecosystems. He serves as a)plan’s Lead Sustainability Advisor.
He also serves as Senior Faculty with the Fellows Program of the prestigious American Leadership Forum – Silicon Valley Chapter, teaching mindfulness, transformative leadership, and sustainability to a network of 800 of the region’s top leaders, across all sectors.
Lawrence is descended from several Southern and Western African peoples (non-citizen/non-initiated), African Americans who journeyed from Virginia and Georgia to New Jersey and New York in The Great Migration, and Cherokee and Munsee nations (non-citizen/non-enrolled). He lives in Lisjan (Ohlone) Territory (encompassing Oakland, CA). His partner Mike, and his niece, Marikit Suki, and nephew, Danta Kai, whom he co-parented for several years, and to whom he remains a primary alloparent, are daily sources of infinite joy, wonder, and love.
Education & Credentials
- BA, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, on the Morehead-Cain Scholarship
- MA, Oxford University, on the Rhodes Scholarship
- Center for Creative Leadership Executive Coaching certification
- Interaction Associates Coach certification
- Certified mindfulness meditation teacher
- 15 years of Somatics training (Somatic Experiencing, Generative Somatics, Peer Counseling)
Clients that have benefited from Lawrence’s support, across sectors, include AAA, American Hospital Association, American Red Cross, CH2M, Charles Schwab, Conservation Fund, eBay, Genentech, Kaiser Permanente, National Co+op Grocers, National Geographic, National Patient Safety Foundation, Navajo Nation, Oakland Museum of California, Packard Foundation, PG&E, Princeton University, Sematech, Solar Richmond, Stupski Foundation, Urban Sustainability Directors Network, VMware, Washington State Hospital Association.
Client Testimonial
“Lawrence Ellis is a caring, strategic coach who will help you discover and own your power. Lawrence builds on your strengths and helps you address the barriers that stand in your way. He stands as one of the top coaches with whom I have worked. I wholeheartedly recommend him to leaders interested in making successful leaps to new heights.”
Dr. Musimbi Kanyoro,three-term former World Secretary General and CEO of the World YWCA; President and CEO of The Global Fund for Women
Client Testimonial
“Lawrence was the primary coach for the core filmmakers. We were able to turn to him at almost every critical juncture: challenges with funders, political dynamics with luminaries, uncertainties about the creative arc of sections of the film, navigating mazes of the film world, and more. He modified his approach to fit our needs – from facilitating our problem-solving, to serving as a sounding board, from engaging as a wise thought-partner, to being appropriately directive at times, from giving us moral support with setbacks, to celebrating our successes. With his coaching, we became enormously more clear, skillful, and effective – and we rose to a new level of vision and creative execution that we had not known was possible. We credit Lawrence with having helped give us new insights and breakthrough successes that ultimately made our film profoundly more accomplished than it would have been had we not met him.”
Guy Reid,Director of “Overview” (winner of 2013 Environmental Media Award), “Planetary,” and a documentary about the International Space Station scheduled for release in 2024