Meet the VDI Team

  • Alis is the founder of the Vertical Development Institute and a research fellow at the University of the Sunshine Coast. She is a leadership development facilitator, executive coach, and researcher with over 15 years of experience working with senior leaders across industries, sectors and countries. She has dedicated her professional pursuits to supporting the development of leaders towards later stages of psychological complexity. Such mature leaders have been shown to thrive amidst disruption, operate with wisdom, build adaptive cultures and balance the inherent polarities of profit, people, and sustainability within their businesses and beyond. 

    Alis is certified by the International Coaching Federation at the PCC (Professional Certified Coach) level. She has been training leaders as professional coaches for close to a decade, with over 250 alumni graduating from her ICF-accredited programs. These leaders went on to create communities of practice inside their own organisations and beyond, bridging across industries and sectors and creating ripple effects of positive change.

    Alis has a Masters degree in Positive Leadership and Strategy from IE University Spain and a PhD from UniSC Australia, studying leaders’ consciousness transformation and the developmental impact of leadership programs in one of the largest executive programs in Australia and NZ.

    As a researcher-practitioner, her main interest is in studying leaders at later (post-conventional) stages of development, given the global need for mental complexity at the highest levels of leadership and the dearth of existing research focusing on these mature (and still relatively rare) stages of adult development. 

    Alis’ highest hope is to continue to walk the fine line between rigorous research and the practice of leadership development. She aspires to creatively cross-pollinate between these two spheres of knowledge and help generate new insights that can inform ever more effective learning interventions for the leaders of tomorrow. 

  • Carmen is a coach, a trainer, a facilitator of transformative experiences, both at individual and at team and organization level. Her mission is to create safe spaces where people can get to know themselves better, find their inner strength, access the resources they need, and take the necessary steps to turn their objectives and intentions into reality, in a natural and stress-free way.

    Carmen has 13 years of experience in leadership positions, out of which 6 years of leading large teams (over 150 employees). Since 2015, Carmen has been designing and implementing leadership development and coaching programs and has over 4000 coaching hours of coaching experience supporting leaders at all levels, from over 10 countries.

    Carmen has Bachelor’s Degrees in Sociology and Psychology (with a dissertation focused on Vertical development). She holds certifications as a Professional Certified Coach (ICF) Neuro-Linguistic Programming Master, Evolutionary Coach, and Culture Transformation Consultant.

    Carmen is an experienced ICF coach trainer and mentor, having supported tens of coaches on their path to ICF certification. She is a core member of the VDI team and a lead facilitator for all our programs in Romanian.

    Carmen’s dream is to bring her contribution to expanding perspectives and fostering the vertical development of more people, as a way to contribute towards a more mature and conscious society. She is fuelled by her passion for science and adult development, her relentless curiosity and drive for self-transformation, her long experience of supporting people’s growth and, most importantly, her unconditional positive regard for her clients and her unwavering belief in the potential of every person she works with.

  • Allison is an experienced Business & Finance Professional who has a passion for working with businesses and entrepreneurs that are changing the world. Her expertise spans financial management, business operations, reporting & insights, workflow systems, accounting, compliance & risk management. Throughout her career, working with small businesses, to large professional service firms, to tech startups, Allison has seen many different business models and leadership styles and knows there has to be a better way.

    Allison has 20 years’ experience in a variety of consulting and in-house roles across diverse industries including leadership development, SaaS, tech start-ups, event management, architectural hardware, and aged care. This breadth of knowledge underpins her capacity for insights-driven innovation and optimising business practices. She holds a Bachelor degree in Commerce, Post Graduate Diploma in Chartered Accounting and is a registered Chartered Accountant.

    Allison is not your typical accountant. She is heart centered & people focused. Her intuition, instincts and transformational thinking define her approach to business. In addition to managing financial & commercial processes, she focuses on relationships with clients, partners and the team while generally bringing humanity and fun into work.

    Allison's dream is to see a global shift in the way we work. Focused on bringing out the best in people. She is inspired to transform and develop new ways of working. Ways that allow people to thrive, be inspired to create, and truly balance work with life. Ways that include balanced energy exchange, freedom of time, and spaces that value each person's unique skills, talents and contribution.