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 across 750,000 people at 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 cataclysm and reverse catastrophic biodiversity loss, understanding that we have until 2025 at the latest to peak global greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid the 1.5 degrees C point-of-no-return. He is fiercely committed to creating a sustainable & regenerative, just, thriving world for all humans, all species, and all ecosystems. To support this passion and vision, he serves as a)plan’s Lead Sustainability Advisor; as Founder of One Thriving Planet (OTP), an international network for sustainability, regeneration, and A Just Transition; and 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 amplifies the best of his agrarian, Indigenous, justice, and other traditions that seek to bring humanity back into balance with the Earth as a living system. 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)
Client Testimonials
“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; Retired President and CEO of The Global Fund for Women
Lawrence was a co-designer, consulting lead, and executive coach for a significant, multi-year, U.S. national anti-pollution initiative. The initiative brought together major players from every sector of American society: governors and other elected officials, heads of major environmental organizations, CEOs of major corporations, leading activists, scientists, educators, and others – and, of course, everyday citizens. It generated over twenty-five demonstration projects, many of which became mainstream cultural norms. Also, the language of a major environmental protection regulation came, almost to a word, from the initiative.
The chief executive leading the initiative’s consulting and coaching team shares the following testimonial:
“Without a doubt, I’d give Lawrence an A+ for his work.
We advised the client to structure the project with a high-level Blue Ribbon Panel and Working Groups comprised of internationally respected experts in key areas. Month after month, one Working Group stood out. Everyone wanted to know why this one group was SO high-performing. It became clear that much of this Working Group’s success was the result of Lawrence’s leadership. Through (Lawrence’s leadership), this diverse group of individuals from various organizations and geographic locations became an extremely cohesive, synergistic team. He led them through highly effective group processes and provided impeccable consulting, such that time after time, they produced outstanding results. In between group sessions, he was a consummate coach and project manager, inspiring individual members to greater heights of excellence and keeping the whole team connected and accountable to the larger mission.
Their ongoing stellar performance became ‘the buzz’ of plenary meetings with the Blue Ribbon Panel. At one point, on behalf of the Panel, the leader of the entire initiative publicly praised Lawrence for his work and the success of his group in setting an incredibly high bar for the rest of the initiative.
Beyond his working group, Lawrence contributed skillfully as our consulting team designed and executed key strategies to keep the entire initiative — including the Blue Ribbon Panel and Working Groups — engaged, coordinated, and highly productive.”
Thomas Rice, CEO Emeritus of Interaction Associates, the consulting and coaching firm hired to support the initiative
“Switzerland is facing big challenges: climate change, digitization, pension provision, energy security, relations with the EU, and more. Especially in times of increasing polarization, constructive cooperation between political forces is needed. My NGO brings together decision-makers and key stakeholders in a collaborative process on major challenges, accelerating the development of catchy solutions, and to gain majority support in parliament. We’ve initiated notable progress on climate-neutral national transport, a climate-positive national financial center, and others.
As a leader, I have to develop my team and my organization and deal with parliamentarians, leaders in every sector of society, as well as our board and funding partners. The issues we’re tackling are major. The stakes are high. I need to bring my best, consistently. Lawrence Ellis’s coaching helps me keep an overview of the challenges I am facing in this context and gives me space to deepen and find the best approach to tackle them.
I wholeheartedly recommend Lawrence and a)plan coaching to leaders for doing their best and improving their leadership, thanks to the support of a highly skilled and experienced coach who brings in his mind and heart.”
(In May 2023, the Innovation in Politics Institute awarded Expedition Future their Innovation in Politics Award 2023, together with parliamentarians from five different parties, for innovative political work across Europe. An international jury of 1045 citizens selected them from 337 submitted political projects from 26 countries.)
Paolo Marioni, Co-Founder, Expedition Zukunft (Expedition Future)
“Lawrence was the primary coach for the core filmmakers (on the sustainability documentary Planetary). 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, and 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 the documentaries Overview (winner of the renowned Environmental Media Award), Planetary, and Orbital
“Lawrence functioned as a coach to several executives. As my coach, he foresaw the possibility of certain scenarios and — more than a year in advance — convinced me of the need to prepare for those scenarios. This wasn’t easy, since my plate was more than full. Taking on extra work to prepare for a future scenario that wasn’t guaranteed to happen was far from attractive. However, I saw the wisdom in his advice, and agreed to the work, which we built into our goal-setting and action-planning sessions. This particular piece of coaching turned out to be one of the best in my entire career. One of the scenarios he envisioned did occur, and I was more prepared for it than anyone — myself included — could have imagined.”
Jocelyn Scarborough, former Vice President of Human Resources at AAA-NCNU; retired Vice President of Human Resources at SanDisk
Clients that have benefited from Lawrence’s support, across sectors, include AAA, American Hospital Association, American Red Cross, CH2M, Charles Schwab, Conservation Fund, eBay, Expedition Zukunft, 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.