The Team

Washington DC-based Howard Ross is a lifelong social justice advocate and the Founding Partner of Cook Ross, a leading global Diversity consultancy.  He is considered one of the world’s seminal thought leaders on identifying and addressing Unconscious Bias.  Howard has delivered programs in 47 states and over 40 other countries carrying out the work of Cook Ross and facilitating the Inner Journey transformation programs.

Leslie Traub offers Cook Ross clients exceptional facilitation and training, inspiring and evidentiary instructional designs, meaningful organizational change, and transformative personal development. With more than 30 years of experience leading diversity, inclusion, and change management initiatives, Leslie creates sustainable systems of change that yield greater social belonging, organizational performance, and possibility.  Since joining Cook Ross in 1994, Leslie has developed an international reputation for leading systems based change in shifting organizations’ lenses and practices on diverse talent, particularly for women. She has substantial experience leading engagements on gender inclusion, inclusive leadership, and mitigating bias in talent management and decision making, with many of her clients representing Fortune 100 companies.  Leslie has been participating in and leading personal and spiritual development work for many years, and was recently initiated into the Shamanic tradition of the High Andes in Peru. Leslie has worked and lived in numerous cultures and countries, bringing her personal experience and sensibility to her work in cultural competence and communication. Leslie spent the first 10 years of her career providing consulting services to national primary healthcare programs in West Africa and conducting operations research on service delivery and national program evaluations. Throughout her career, she has served as a guest lecturer at numerous U.S. academic institutions including Georgetown University, University of Southern California, and Johns Hopkins University.Leslie is a Fellow in change management from Johns Hopkins University, holds a Master of Science in biostatistics and epidemiology from Tulane University, and a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Wheaton College in Massachusetts.

Chris Traub has been a pioneer in Executive Search and Human Capital Advisory for the past 30 years.  Born and raised in Connecticut, Chris was awarded a Rotary Exchange scholarship to spend a year in Zamboanga, Southern Mindanao, Philippines, in 1979-1980, which was a game-changer for him. He received his degree East Asian Studies and Cultural Anthropology at Oberlin College in Ohio, and in 1983-1984, spent a year studying Mandarin and fine arts in Taiwan, while delivering 40' sloops between Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Philippines -  and trekking in the Everest Himalaya for a month.   Chris returned to Oberlin and in the summer of 1985, spent 3 months in the Alaskan wilderness with the National Outdoor Leadership School Semester in Alaska. It was from this experience at Vortex eventually arose. Chris graduated and returned to Taiwan in 1986, and in 1988 founded Strategic Executive Search, the Global Asian Executive Search firm, which has been a leader in Asia Pacific executive search for the past 30 years through the present.   While building this practice, Chris became a regular member of global leadership communities including Forbes Global CEO, World Economic Forum, TED, Summit, as well as technology, family office, private equity gatherings, amongst others. That led to Chris to develop an extraordinarily rich and broad network of trusted relationships with diverse leaders globally; as well as his mentoring many younger high achievers. It was through this activity that the idea of Vortex was born.   Chris is a accomplished musician, adventure athlete, yoga teacher, meditator, and transformation facilitator.

An entrepreneur, business leader and educator, Dr. Shubhro Sen is the Director of the School of Management and Entrepreneurship, Shiv Nadar University. He is the Director and Vision Custodian of the Entrepreneurship Incubator and Venture accelerator@SNU - one of the very few in the country to be recognized and co-funded by the Niti Ayog and Atal Innovation Mission of the Indian government.Dr. Sen was previously the Director of the Tata Management Training Centre, the corporate university responsible for global executive education and leadership development for the Tata group of companies. In addition to providing executive learning for companies in multiple geographies, Dr. Sen initiated programs for the Indian Civil Services [IAS, IPS and IFS] and was nominated by the Government of India to serve on the Agarwal committee to revamp the training curricula for the elite civil services. He is a Co-founder of the Conscious Capitalism Institute and served as a trustee of the non-profit Conscious Capitalism Inc. As an entrepreneur, Dr. Sen has led multiple entities in the US and India from startup to commercial success and market exits via IPO and/or acquisition. He has been an adviser to over 50 global corporations including Apple Computer, Citibank, State Street Bank, Experian, Safeway, Nomura Securities and Boston Financial as well as development agencies from several countries. He enjoyed a 14 year academic career at multiple universities in the US including the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, Northeastern University, Boston College and Bentley University. He received his Ph.D. in Marketing & Strategic Management from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, an MS in Finance from the University of Illinois, Urbana, an MA in International Studies from JNU and a BA [Hons] in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. He began his professional journey as a “Tea Taster” and had his own talk shows on Indian national television and radio for a number of years. He is a hiking, golf and cricket enthusiast

A Bali based transformational coach for high performers who have a track record of success who don’t ‘need’ a coach. Her clients include serial entrepreneurs, innovators, and those pushing the boundaries around the globe who are mission based, and are non-negotiable about living meaningful and adventurous lives.   She has been personally trained and certified as a Life Success Consultant by Bob Proctor, is a Divine Living Certified Coach, an author and the owner and co-developer of L’Amandier, a hotel and retreat space in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. She challenges all her clients to focus on what it takes for them to be happy, healthy, be in meaningful relationships and to grow and develop, whilst being mindful of the legacy they are creating.

Dr Shalika Shetty brings her integrative healthcare approach to the Vortex group.  She is a paediatrician based in Sydney, Australia who has a long-standing interest in person-centred care, and alternative & integrative health.  This has led her to explore and train in nutritional medicine, yoga, mindfulness, breath-work, and kundalini meditation.  She has a deep understanding and awareness of the power of nutritional and lifestyle medicine to create supercharged wellness states.  Through her front-line healthcare experience both in the UK and Australia, she has also witnessed first-hand the importance of empowering individuals in their relationship to their personal health, as well as that of their families, to optimise long-term wellbeing.    She firmly believes that taking a holistic approach to the body & mind, combined with conventional medical therapies, is the path to optimised health. 

With over 23 years of experience in higher education and constituent relations, Dr. Gretchen Dobson is a global alumni expert who leads institutions, governments, and member-based organizations towards sustainable international alumni engagement strategies and solutions. Her specialties include international alumni relations strategy, international alumni and academic partnerships, international student-alumni programmes, and volunteer management for groups of all sizes and backgrounds. Dobson also provides professional coaching for international alumni relations, development, admissions, and academic officers new to global engagement practices. In her current position as head of Academic Assembly’s International Alumni & Graduate Services, she delivers these services as part of the company’s broad-reaching portfolio of services.

Nestor L. Perez, Jr. is a meditation teacher, Chi Nei Tsang, Shiatsu, Holistic Health Practitioner, and Coach of Fortune 500 CEO's. Nestor is well known for his deep healing techniques and insightful guidance. He had previously practiced in the United States and India before plunging full-time into handling stress management programs for individuals and corporations. Two weeks after his college graduation in 1992, Nestor relocated to Dharamsala, India where he treated meditation masters, doctors, other healers, and clients from around the world and studied meditation during the five years with his two main meditation teacher, Venerable Geshe Sonam Rinchen and Dr. Alex Berzin, former translator for His Holiness The Dalai Lama for four years. Nestor treated, coached, and worked with distinguished meditation masters and health practitioners such as His Holiness The 17th Karmapa, Dr. Tsetan Dorji Sadutshang, personal physician of His Holiness The Fourteenth Dalai Lama and his former physician, Dr. Yeshi Dhonden, and Cindy McCullagh, the Public Affairs Director to President Obama and former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton, Walter Shorenstein, Founder, Shorenstein Properties LLC, and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome; Chris Thomas the Chief Strategist of Intel Corporation. Nestor’s academic credit’s include a B.A. in Clinical Psychology and a Minor in Holistic Health from San Francisco State University. Nestor for 7 years trained in Chinese Medical Theory and Practice, Alternative and Taoist healing techniques and meditations with his Acupuncture teacher, Herbalist, Acupressurist, Dr. Angela Wu, (OMD) and Shiatsu teacher, Charles Aronson, (Lic. Acupuncturist). Nestor travels around the world to teach and clarify misconceptions about meditation and healing. Nestor practiced different meditation techniques such as analytical meditation, “one-pointed concentration,” meditation on the mind, tantric practices, mantras, visualizations and Vipassana.

Ricardo Sookdeo is a teacher of mindfulness practice, energy management and a coach to leaders around the world. He helps leaders to improve their effectiveness by training their attention and mind to have more focus and clarity, and supports them to bring more selflessness and compassion into their leadership practice.
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Most recently Ricardo worked as Head of HR for Nordea Wholesale Bank, based in Stockholm, where he helped to lead the cultural and leadership transformation of Nordea to be a more purpose-driven organization. Prior to Nordea, Ricardo was the Global Head of Talent, Leadership and Culture at A.P. Moller Maersk, based in Copenhagen. He has also worked at ING Group, in the Strategy and M&A team and in leadership development, talent management, organization development, and culture transformation in multiple locations around the world, including the US, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, and Australia. Ricardo has also worked as a reporter for Fortune Magazine, a consultant, and in private banking. A native of Guyana, Ricard previously lived in Brazil and currently splits his time between Stockholm, Sweden, and Ft. Myers, Florida.

Jake Ross is a Berkeley-based researcher and student in the fields of wellbeing, community engagement, and interpersonal connection.  Specializing in the economics of corporate wellbeing, he has done research work with industry leaders such as Google, in addition to serving as a research and writing assistant at the Greater Good Science Center. Jake also has experience in developing and instating curriculum, training and developing teams, and intensive one-on-one coaching with gifted students. Through Inner Journey Seminars, he has spent more than 10 years staffing and assisting in over 50 transformational workshops and playing a key support role in personal development work. An avid meditator, cyclist, musician, community builder, and adventurer, Jake’s interest in the blending of psychology and neuroscience with holistic practice and spirituality has led him to be on the cutting edge of personal and corporate transformational research.

Multilingual in expression, multicultural by design, with a strong background in event operations, logistics management, and stage show hosting. A curator who believes that creativity thrives within boundaries. A team player who chooses to explore all angles so that the most suitable approach is chosen. Motivation and drive come from social and collaborative interaction.