Women and Leadership
Leaders face a variety of unique challenges that require practical strategies to navigate the professional landscape. The Women and Leadership workshop provides an opportunity to learn different approaches for effectively handling common obstacles, demonstrating professional presence to bolster credibility, strengthening emotional intelligence, and developing competencies necessary to stand out as a leader among both men and women in the natural gas industry.The April 7th Women & Leadership Workshop features renown industry experts who will develop your competency in:Developing Your Executive Presence and Leadership BrandEmotional intelligence: Self-Awareness and Self-ManagementInfluencing OthersWHO SHOULD ATTENDA business person at various points in their career seeking career-enhancing and advancing skills, as well as those considering a new career path.Designed for industry leaders and aspiring leaders, including:Senior leadersMid-level leadersEmerging leadersInstructor Information:Cari Haught Coats, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Accendo Leadership Advisory GroupCari H. Coats is a business advisor, leadership strategist, executive coach and speaker, leveraging her extensive executive and C-suite experience. Coats is co-founder & managing partner of Accendo Leadership Advisory Group. Accendo is a leadership strategy firm offering advisory services for the full spectrum of leadership development, including executive and transitional leadership coaching, high performance executive team development, professional development for high potential women leaders, and next generation succession coaching for family business leaders. Coats is a certified executive coach in the Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered methodology and works primarily with executive-level leaders and teams, and a member of the Forbes Coaches Council. Coats is also president of C2 Advisors, providing advisory services that leverage her wide-ranging professional network and expertise in strategy, marketing, entrepreneurship, family enterprise, social innovation and the capital markets. Coats is a key advisor to CEOs and executives of numerous innovative and high-growth companies.Most recently, Coats was executive-in-residence at the nationally ranked Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL, focused on leadership and innovation, and is currently an adjunct member of the leadership faculty. Coats has worked broadly with financial securities and consumer products companies, sports organizations, entrepreneurial and social ventures, family-held enterprises, as well as alternative investment, venture capital, private equity and venture philanthropy funds. She is a former director on the boards of venVelo and StarterStudio, two early stage venture investment funds focused on Florida and the southeastern U.S. Her community, civic and social innovation leadership are longstanding and far-reaching.Coats is a graduate of the Global Executive MBA program at Duke University. She formerly served on the Board of Visitors and chaired the alumni council for the top-ranked Fuqua School of Business at Duke. Her undergraduate alma mater is the University of Central Florida where she received her B.A. in Communications Radio/TV. Coats was instrumental in the development and start-up of the nationally-ranked Devos Sport Business Management graduate program at her undergraduate alma mater, served on its adjunct faculty for a four-year term and continues to serve as a guest lecturer and advisory board member. She was named the Distinguished Alumnus of the Year at UCF and served on the UCF Foundation board for more than a decade.Dr. William L. Sparks, Chair of Leadership at the McColl School of Business at Queens University of CharlotteWill Sparks is the Dennis Thompson Chair & Professor of Leadership at the McColl School of Business at Queens University of Charlotte, where he also serves as the Director of the Office of Leadership Initiatives. He is a Visiting Professor of International Management with Franklin University in Lugano, Switzerland. In 2008, he founded the McColl School’s M.S. in Organization Development (MSOD) Program and served as Director until 2013. He received the Fuqua Distinguished Educator Award for excellence in teaching at Queens in 2003 and 2005 and was awarded the inaugural McColl School Leadership in Teaching Award in 2009.Will serves as the Managing Director for William L. Sparks & Associates, LLC, a professional services firm founded in 1997 focused on leader and team development, personal transformation and change management. He also serves as a Partner with Peter Browning Partners, LLC, a consulting firm providing board governance and executive coaching services to a variety of boards and senior executives. His TEDx Talk “The Power of Self Awareness” was released in 2018. He is the author of “Actualized Leadership: Meeting Your Shadow & Maximizing Your Potential” (2019, SHRM Publishing), which debuted as an Amazon #1 Best Seller and is based on the “Actualized Leader Profile,” a leadership assessment that he designed and validated and that has been translated into nine languages. He is the co-author (with Peter Browning) of the book “The Director’s Manual: A Framework for Board Governance” (2016, Wiley).He completed his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Development under the direction of Dr. Jerry B. Harvey from The George Washington University’s School of Business and Public Management, where his research focused on group dynamics, organizational culture, and leadership. He resides in Charlotte, North Carolina with his wife Erin and Alaskan Malamute Thor and Cavapoo Shelby.“Will’s approach and framework will provide you with immediate insight and the self-awareness necessary to become a more effective and resilient leader.”— Steve Clifford, Head Coach, Orlando Magic