Mark Rovner, JD, ACC, PBC
Executive Coach, Consultant
Mark brings vast experience working with nonprofit EDs and C-level leaders, with a particular focus on fundraising, communications and marketing.
Mark holds an ACC accreditation from the International Coach Federation and is a certified Presence-Based Coach. He is also an experienced meditation instructor.
Presence-Based coaching integrates leadership theory, developmental psychology, mindfulness, somatics, and interpersonal neurobiology, among other disciplines.
This coaching approach focuses on developing the inner mastery and lifetime competencies that enable you to declare and fulfill on significant and meaningful commitments. Along the way, you build your leadership presence, resilience, and aliveness. Through practices and exercises designed specifically for you, you will learn to see with new eyes, and to become self-generative: able to engage your world as a resourceful learner, and to choose effective and purposeful responses to what life offers.
In his best-selling book Tribes, Seth Godin calls Mark a “fundraising heretic” and a leader in the field of non-profit communications.
Over the course of his 35-year career, Mark has advanced and helped to reinvent cause-based communications and public engagement.
- At the Roosevelt Center for American Policy Studies, Mark designed role-playing simulations to engage the public and elected officials on burning issues of the day.
- As Vice President for Communications at World Wildlife Fund, Mark dramatically expanded awareness of WWF and the urgent conservation causes it works on.
- As an Internet communications guru since 1999, Mark has helped shape pioneering strategies and tactics for Environmental Defense Fund, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Sierra Club, Southern Poverty Law Center; Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation; the Nature Conservancy; Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union; and many others.
- A frequent blogger and speaker, Mark is in high demand for this creativity, his quick wit, his strategic insight, and his generosity.
Mark has a law degree from Georgetown and a certificate in feature film screenwriting from University of California, Los Angeles (extension program).
He is a passionate diver, is in love with sharks, loves snuggling with groupers and is especially committed to marine conservation issues.
The Science Behind Our Practice
Our work is grounded in established methodologies and models of human and organizational behavior, including, but not limited to the following:
Emotional Intelligence
The competencies of emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management) account for an individual’s ability to understand their own and others’ emotions and use that information to guide decision-making and action. Research has shown that leaders who master the competencies of emotional intelligence have a distinct advantage.
Positivity & Resilience
The incredible developments in neuroscience research over the last several decades have enabled a greater understanding of how practices that promote positivity and resilience—both individually and organizationally—have a significant and lasting impact on our capacity for creative thinking, productivity, efficiency, empathy, focus and more.
Intentional Change
Developed by Richard Boyatzis, the Intentional Change Model underpins successful leadership development programs by supporting an individual or group in intentionally moving through five stages of change that close the gap between a current “real” self and a clearly articulated “ideal” self.
Appreciative Inquiry
Appreciative Inquiry, developed by David Cooper Rider, is a strengths-based model of analysis, decision-making and strategic change that clarifies the assets and motivations that are an organization’s strengths in order to build or rebuild an organization based on what is working rather than trying to fix what doesn’t.
Resistance and Cycle of Change
People are at their most creative in their resistance. The Gestalt cycle of change maps the critical stages of change that all members of a group must experience in order to optimize success and minimize resistance. Disruption of the cycle manifests in very specific levels of resistance that can be effectively mitigated through intentional responses.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the awareness that one develops through paying attention to the present moment through your five senses without judgment. In addition to relieving stress and building resilience, even a simple mindfulness practice can significantly expand your range of options in any given moment. Incorporating mindfulness into any process of change or development supports an individual or group by rewiring the brain for more intentional responses and behaviors.
Dynamic Inquiry
Dynamic Inquiry, developed by Annie McKee and the Teleos Leadership Institute, is a method of discovery that uncovers an organization’s emotional reality–what people care about, what is working well, and what’s getting in the way. The purpose of the inquiry is twofold: 1) to identify underlying issues related to culture and leadership that are helping or hindering implementation of a strategy; and 2) to build ownership and commitment to the mission, vision, strategy, ideal culture and leadership framework among key stakeholders.