Merom Klein, PhD is Director of The Courage Institute’s Program Design Centre in Israel’s Western Galilee and is the thought-leader behind the 5 Courage Factors, which is the foundation of our approach to team mobilization and lifting business performance in times of adversity and ambiguity.

As a consultant with 20+ years of experience, Merom has led a number of large-scale team mobilization and change initiatives mobilizing organizations to achieve breakthrough gains in R&D productivity, customer service, sales and risk management. He has coached top executives and middle managers to lift the courage level in the teams they lead and has led Courage to Act™ team mobilization workshops across the globe. He is most experienced in the pharmaceutical and biotech, financial services, aerospace, managed services, retail, heavy manufacturing, chemical and consumer products industries, as well as with civilian and military government agencies.

Merom is best known as a provocative and engaging speaker to executive groups who have to mobilize their organizations and to conferences of professionals are called upon to exhibit greater thought-leadership and influence. Merom is also known as a simulation designer who has developed dozens of action-learning exercises and training modules, many of which have been featured in corporate university and executive development programs across the globe.

Merom’s groundbreaking book, The Courage to Act, was co-authored with Prof Rod Napier and was published in 2003 by Davies-Black in the USA, featuring his discoveries about the 5 Courage Factors. Merom earned his PhD at Temple University, Philadelphia USA in Organizational Psychology, where he started his research on the courage to lift performance and “make things happen” in times of adversity.

Louise (Yochee) Klein, PsyD is co-founder of The Courage Institute, Western Galilee, Israel and Director of the Courage Mentor™ executive coaching practice for The Courage Institute International in Elkins Park USA and Val-des-Monts, QC Canada.

Louise has a decade of experience as a Courage Mentor™ executive coach and as a Diversity Dialogues™ mediator. Louise has counseled diverse multi-national teams and executives who are enlarging their roles to include leadership responsibilities outside of their areas of technical expertise and outside of their native cultures. She is most experienced in the pharmaceutical and biotech, managed services, retail, safety and civil engineering, risk management, computer and software sectors, as well as with healthcare and higher education institutions.

Louise is best known for breakthrough work with senior leaders who are brilliant technically and now find themselves in leadership positions where they have to mobilize others rather than relying strictly on themselves to master new technologies, invent new best practices and achieve aggressive financial targets. She has equipped senior executives, engineers and scientists to become more inspiring, to use humor in a more engaging way, and to use their impatience and intolerance more constructively.

Louise has authored articles for a number of self-help websites and web-based counseling services, as well as lecturing on ethical issues in the practice of psychology for universities and nursing colleges in the USA. She earned her PsyD in Clinical Psychology at Widener University in Pennsylvania USA.

Professor Rodney Napier, PhD is a senior fellow of The Courage Institute International in Philadelphia USA and a contributor to The Courage Institute’s Program Design Centre in Israel’s Western Galilee.

Rod is known as one of the original pioneers in the field of organization development. He originated the concept of 360-feedback and has over 35 years of experience advising executives on the human factors that affect sustainable team and organizational success. Rod was founder of the Philadelphia-based Athyn Group and Professor of group dynamics and organization development at Temple University. He served on the faculty of NTL Institute and is President of The Napier Group, co-founder of the Temagami Institute and is a teaching fellow at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Rod’s clients are a who’s who of corporate America, and include companies in the pharmaceuticals, energy, broadcasting, consumer products and high-tech electronics industries as well as non-profit social change and democratic advocacy organizations, heathcare institutions and universities.

Rod is co-author of the groundbreaking book, The Courage to Act, as well as Groups: Theory and Experience, which is regarded as the seminal work on teams and group dynamics in organizations, and High Impact Tools for Strategic Planning.

Rod earned his PhD at University of Chicago and served in the United States Marine Corps.

Professor Robert Atkinson II, PhD is a senior fellow of The Courage Institute International and serves as a Courage Mentor™ and lead facilitator of Primary Purpose™ strategic planning and goal-setting workshops.

Bob is known for systems thinking and for the positive use of power, politics, data-based decision-making rigors, logic and reason in asserting thought-leadership and championing change in large complex organizations. Bob served as Director of Academic Programs at Florida A&M’s School of Business and Industry, which is renowned as one of the premier and innovative MBA programs in the USA. Bob also served as Professor of Marketing at University and Illinois and Director of Planning for Supply Chain Management at Merck, and is an adjunct faculty member at Carnegie-Mellon University and a certified Malcolm Baldridge Award examiner. Bob’s consulting experience, both with The Courage Institute and as President of Atkinson & Associates, focuses on the pharmaceutical and biotech, aerospace, communications, financial services, heavy industry, consumer and food products sectors and advising educational institutions at the secondary and university levels.

Bob earned his PhD at Carnegie-Mellon University and is a Vietnam veteran, where he was awarded a Bronze Star as an officer in the signal corps of the US Army.

Joel Katz is a senior fellow of The Courage Institute International. He serves as a Courage Mentor™, customizes and facilitates Courage to Act™ workshops and is Dean of leadership development programs using our Team Mobilization™ methodology.

Joel is a leadership/management development professional with over 30 years of experience building pragmatic corporate university and leadership development programs that make a direct and immediate impact on business/technical success. Joel is known for action-learning methodologies to develop leadership acumen and a style of group facilitation that is highly interactive and provides hands-on practice and skill building, with systems that transfer learning from the workshop to the workplace. As a coach, Joel is known for pragmatic solutions that strengthen accountability and employee engagement.

Joel served as Chief Learning Officer at ARAMARK Corporation, with overall responsibility for a wide range of programs that built the leadership skills needed to ensure bench-strength and support aggressive business growth and to execute new business strategies. Joel's consulting experience, both with The Courage Institute and as Principal of Leadership Acumen, focuses on executive effectiveness building and mobilizing high-performance project teams, mentoring technical specialists to embrace new challenges, instilling accountability for aggressive and mission-critical goals, ensuring client partnerships and success in business development, and integrating operations after mergers and reorganization. Joel has a personable, engaging, down-to-earth style — and leaves a group with practical actionable take-aways, not just theories or principles.

Joel earned his MS in Education from Brooklyn College and did his doctoral work in Instructional Design at New York University, where he earned his CAGS.