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Creating balance in life and the workplace is critical to happiness and success.
We help develop leadership skills that drive collaboration not division.
Guiding you to find belief in your own worth and value. Ultimately, helping you find meaning and joy.
Villa Leadership is built on the principles of balance. We recognize that conditions are changing fast—in the workforce, in the landscape of our economies, and in the rapid-fire technology that both serves and shapes us.
Villa Leadership Group grew from the need to take a broader, deeper approach to developing women. Expanding into the environments that support and nurture them while educating the people they engage with.
Our training, coaching, and programs have grow to support a whole range of people, companies, and needs.
As part of our mission, to impower women and expand thier leadership skills, we have developed a full-service solution that has expanded into personal coaching platform, therapy solutions, and development retreats. Our programs started as solutions created by women for women, but have grown to support all walks of life and personal development needs. Our programs are built to enhance everyone’s aspirational thinking, capabilities for leadership, while helping them find ways to balance their career and life priorities.
Our complementary styles working together create “collective intelligence,” and when we tap into the power of this force, we can be unstoppable. Having gender equality in your businesses culture is imperative to driving success. The greatest opportunity we have now is to establish gender balance at our leadership tables.
We work with forward-thinking leaders who:
Understand that diversity is the cornerstone of a company’s financial, social, and creative health.
Recognize that women are a valuable, yet often under-utilized and under-developed
Believe that being at the forefront in their industry or field often means breaking the status quo.
Crave balance not just around the boardroom table, but in the way we all live and work.
Care about both work performance and employee well-being.
Are willing to look at the numbers and make changes that put them at the leading edge.
With a dual background in organizational development and behavioral health, Merrilee brings years of experience and perspective to Villa Leadership to help companies open the next chapter to their success. She has worked with large and small companies from a wide range of industries, designing and delivering leadership development programs that have real impact in both the lives of individuals and bottom-line results for business. She believes that when people clarify their personal and professional visions and take charge of their own career and life paths, they are happier, more productive, and successful contributors to the organizations for which they work.
Merrilee, and her team, have traveled all over the world in just a few short years, delivering programs for women in the U.S., Canada, Europe, China, Thailand, and South Africa. Working with women from different cultures and backgrounds, she recognizes that we all share similar challenges, and find strength in joining a broader community of women to share our successes in breaking down barriers and confronting norms that no longer serve our businesses or our economies.
Micheal is well known for his stellar teaching abilities and for co-founding the revered iLEAD Professional Development Program (PDP). He was an Accounting Professor and Improve Expert. He created iLEAD PDP for first-year, second-year, third-year, transfer and graduate students that employ improvisational theatre and experiential learning activities.
Micheal joined University of Illinois Chicago in the late 80’s in the Accounting department and eventually went on to pursue various roles in improvisational theatre. His expertise in tax accounting helped him land features on NBC and Fox News. He also won the Educator of the Year Award from the Illinois CPA Society in 2020.
Nate has designed and built almost every consumer product out there. Working with brands like Browning, Ogio, Adidas, Walmart, Jaybird’s, and Costco has help to support a continued love of creativity and adventure. He’s build multiple companies in many spaces and now spends most of his time applying Design Thinking to people problems and operational issues. He has a firm foundational belief in “Making or Building” as a tool for change, learning, and growth. Building something drives faster learning, and facilitates massive retention. I love helping people build systems that build their dreams.
People and businesses thrive when their goals and actions are aligned to achieve their dreams. When we are clear and centered, we have access to all of our best talent and energy.
It’s critical for us to have a comfortable and friendly culture. Making this experience fun and productive is essential to HOW we work with you.
-Eliza Burmingham