CEO and Executive Coach
Natalie Spiro is South African & American and has a Masters Degree in Industrial Psychology and an MBA in Corporate Strategy and Marketing. Her life in San Diego is seeded by her upbringing in Johannesburg where she was inspired by the spirit of Ubuntu – “I am who I am because of those around me”.
After holding key positions in Fortune 500 global firms, Natalie returned to her African roots and her true passion for community and collaboration. She co-founded the world-wide Drum Cafe organization in 2002 where Natalie has personally facilitated interactive drumming programs for more than 300,000 participants, with up to 3,500 people in a room, each with their own drum. Her friends call her the Madonna of drumming, complete with an earpiece.
In 2012, Natalie founded Blue Fire Leadership which incorporates experiential learning and cutting edge approaches to development. Her clients come from every industry sector—high-tech, health, government, transportation, hospitality, education, finance, media, and telecommunications. Her clients are some of the most powerful brands in the world and include Google, Starbucks, Microsoft, Intel, WL Gore, and many more. She is a certified integrative life coach and a Strozzi Institute Embodied Leadership Practitioner which proves foundational in her approach to facilitation.
Natalie loves everything adventurous, gastronomic and wine related. She has travelled the world exploring new cultures, foods and experiences. Her two greatest achievements and joys were climbing Machu Picchu in 4 days and riding 550 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles raising money for AIDS research.
Her superpower is an Inspiring Energy Shifter and a Curator of Experiences. Her professional passion is unlocking client’s abilities to step into the best humans they can possibly be. Her motto is, “if you want to run fast, run alone, if you want to run far, run together”.
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Learning, Development and Instructional Design:
Nettie Nitzberg
Nettie is a passionate results-driven, talent development consultant focused on optimizing ROI for small to large global organizations. Clients embrace her strategic approach to employee and organizational growth and development, and her innovative and outside the box thinking has helped companies create and launch important people, team, and organization-wide programs and initiatives focused on engaging, developing, and retaining talent.
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Executive Coach and Head of Leadership Development:
Josh Saterman
Josh has held several key leadership positions within Macy’s, Inc. with P and L responsibility amplifying both engagement and talent accountability. Assignments include the head of Diversity and Inclusion – Engagement with Macy’s, Inc. Corporate Services running all large-scale engagement events as well as the full breadth of the Employee Resources Groups (over 50 individual chapters, 5000+ members). Previously, he was a Vice President for Macy’s, Inc. (all Private Brand areas & the women’s apparel merchant division) as part of the leadership team managing multi-billion-dollar brands and businesses; directly managing and influencing teams up to 1250 employees.
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Communication and Culture Strategist:
Michael Saterman
Michael is a strategic marketing professional focused on defining and building marketing and communication strategies tailored to an organizations’ business needs and challenges. He is a master at creating integrated communication and marketing plans, developing key messages, branding, focus group facilitation, as well as conducting workshops on strategic marketing topics.
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Strategic Partner:
Clifford Watkin
Clifford Watkin has an unbroken record of success helping organizations implement human resources strategies that help companies grow, attract and retain talent, and embrace diversity.
Clifford has created comprehensive employee acquisition and retention strategies for private sector employers, professional services firms and nonprofit organizations. His work covers the gamut of HR issues including legal compliance, performance management, on-boarding and creating effective corporate cultures. His personal experience drives his passion for helping corporate organizations and minority-owned businesses succeed, assisting companies develop and manage a diverse workforce.
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Strategic Partner:
SOLOMON MASALA
An author, inventor and musician, Solomon was born in Jamaica but has lived and worked throughout the US. A current resident of Austin, Texas, Solomon has more than two decades of experience as a corporate facilitator, national educator trainer and performer. He founded the powerful Interactive Theatrical Experience Za Boom Ba and is the inventor/designer of the Twister Drum, the world’s only truly ‘collapsible’ and compactable djembe drum. Solomon has authored two books on using rhythm for learning and team development, (Rhythm Play!™ ; 1, 2, Let’s All Groove), and has released three albums as a recording artist. He has been designing and delivering numerous immersive and kinesthetic summits for a variety of clients including Dell, Premera Blue Cross, FLUOR, The University of Texas, REI and many more.
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Strategic Partner:
DEBORAH PARDES
For more than three decades, Deborah Pardes has thrived as a writer, facilitator and producer. She uses art and technology to enliven the experience of collaborative learning and story shaping and has worked with McKesson, Warner Brothers, Sony, AMD, Apple and Hyland’s Homeopathic -just to name a few. As the founder of Artists for Literacy, an educational non-profit, Deborah has produced literary events, concerts and multinational art competitions. She works directly with universities and community groups to teach Arresting Knowledge, a media and news literacy workshop for adults. Deborah is also an expert in adult learning styles, a designer, a facilitator for bias and diversity training and a published author and composer.
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