Gregg Ward, the Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Respectful Leadership (CRL), was recently selected as Top Executive Director for 2024 by the International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP) for his outstanding leadership, dedication, and commitment to making a significant difference in the world through the positive power of respect. Mr. Ward is on a mission to transform lives through leadership coaching, consulting and interactive, experiential learning and development programs that create and support respectful organizational cultures.
Inclusion with the International Association of Top Professionals is an honor in itself; only a few members in each discipline are chosen for this distinction. These special honorees are distinguished based on their professional accomplishments, academic achievements, leadership abilities, longevity in the field, other affiliations, and contributions to their communities. All Honorees are invited to attend the IAOTP annual award gala at the end of this year for a night to honor their achievements.
With more than two and a half decades of experience in leadership and organizational development, Mr. Ward has certainly proven himself an expert in his field. He and his team and network partners at CRL have more than 25 years of professional experience serving global industry and government using best-practice tools, techniques, and concepts. They focus on complex issues including Leadership, Change, Conflict, and Employee Engagement. They are best known for CRL’s flagship training program, The Respectful Leader Workshop which features the use of experiential learning, guided interactive facilitation and professional theater and improvisation as training tools.
Known by his peers, clients and colleagues for his candor and relentless pursuit of leadership excellence, Mr. Ward is especially adept at driving cultural change initiatives. An Executive Coach before it was trendy, he has led programs and worked with leaders at many Fortune 100 & 500 organizations including Booz Allen Hamilton, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Ericsson, Ford, Kaiser Permanente, Intel, IHG, Leonardo DRS, Qualcomm, The US Navy, Department of Labor, and Warner Bros. Studios.
Starting with the New York City Police Department, Mr. Ward was one of the first to start using the innovative techniques of live, professional theater and improvisation in training program delivery back in the mid-1980’s. Since then, he has developed and delivered more than 2,750 training events (in person and virtual), keynotes, seminars and workshops in Europe, North America and the Middle East. He focuses on supporting leaders and organizations who are moving away from the command-and-control/carrot-and-stick styles and into respectful and inclusive cultures that maintain the highest standards, employee engagement, and performance.
Mr. Ward is the author of the Bestselling, Award-Winning business fable, The Respectful Leader: seven ways to influence without intimidation which was published by John Wiley & Sons in 2016.On the first day of it’s release the editors at Amazon named it a Best-Book-of-the-Month and it went on to become a bestseller within a matter of weeks. In 2018 it received a Gold Medal for Best Business Fable in the prestigious Axiom Business Book Awards competition. More recently, Mr. Ward has publishedRestoring Respect: a how-to guide for supporting the repair of broken work relationships which Marshall Goldsmith, arguably the world’s foremost executive coach called, “a powerful process that restores respect and gets folks back working well together again.”
Mr. Ward is also the developer of the Coaching for RespectTM process which is specifically designed to support the restoration of respect in workplace relationships. He also recently developed the Center’s ARC AssessmentTM, which allows organizations to anonymously and securely assess their progress in developing Actively Respectful Cultures.
Mr. Ward also serves on the executive coaching faculty of the Center for Creative Leadership and holds the Master Corporate Executive Coach (MCEC) and Board-Certified Executive Coach (BCC) credentials, and is Certified Management Consultant (CMC), emeritus.
Before embarking on his career path, Mr. Ward received his B.F.A from Boston University College of Fine Arts in 1982 and served in Europe for five years as a professional journalist for BBC Radio, Scotland on Sunday, the Independent, Time Out, and the Times of London. He was the founder of the American Connexion Theater Company, a winner of a prestigious Fringe First at the Edinburgh International Festival Fringe, and the co-Founder of the Arts Connexion School for Performing Arts. He was also a Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, where he served as a guest lecturer to graduate and undergraduate students of theater, introducing them to American-style acting and performance techniques.
In 2002, he received Certification as an Expert Executive Coach from San Diego State University. In 2014 he received a Certificate in Benchmark 360 Assessment, Workplace Big 5, and DISC. In 2016 he received his certification in the Hogan Assessment.
Throughout his illustrious career, Mr. Ward has received many awards and accolades and has been recognized worldwide for his accomplishments. This year he will be considered for a feature in TIP (Top Industry Professionals) Magazine. He will be honored at IAOTP’s annual awards gala at Nashville’s Opry Resort next December for his selection as Top Executive Director of the Year.
In addition to his successful career, Mr. Ward has been a Volunteer Umpire for Little League International for over 25 years. He was a Member of the Dean’s Advisory Board for Boston University’s College of Fine Arts for almost 20 years where his responsibilities include strategic planning and fundraising. Mr. Ward is also a Member of the Advisory Board of Palaver Strings, a unique art ensemble in New England, bringing classical music to the community.
The President of the International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP), Stephanie Cirami, stated: “Choosing Mr. Ward for this honor was an easy decision for our panel to make. He is inspirational, influential, and a true visionary and thought leader. We cannot wait to meet him and celebrate his accomplishments at next year’s gala.”
Looking back, Mr. Ward attributes his success to his perseverance, work ethic, and the mentors he has had along the way. When not working, he enjoys traveling, spending time with his family and playing as much tennis as he can. In the future, he hopes to inspire and influence those getting into the field.
About IAOTP
The International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP) is an international boutique networking organization that handpicks the world’s finest, most prestigious top professionals from different industries. These top professionals are given an opportunity to collaborate, share their ideas, be keynote speakers, and to help influence others in their fields. This organization is not a membership that anyone can join. You have to be asked by the President or be nominated by a distinguished honorary member after a brief interview.
IAOTP’s experts have given thousands of top prestigious professionals around the world, the recognition and credibility that they deserve and have helped in building their branding empires. IAOTP prides itself to be a one-of-a-kind boutique networking organization that hand picks only the best of the best and creates a networking platform that connects and brings these top professionals to one place.
For More information on IAOTP please visit: www.iaotp.com
