At Vortex, we build resilient companies and embodied leaders for the Age of AI.

Through private advisory, curated masterminds and mentorship programs, and selective retreats and expeditions.

The Vortex Path

The Personal Transformation Journey

Vortex™ creates a shared transformational space where game-changing leaders cultivate presence, joy, and nervous-system resilience - so they can meet the accelerating age of AI with clarity, humanity, and alivenes, while forming a deeply connected, high impact community.
This is why we have created Vortex: a global personal transformation collective for extraordinary people who want to stay deeply human, fully alive, and meaningfully connected - while shaping the future rather than reacting to it.
We work at the intersection of inner mastery, human connection, and intelligent technology - supporting leaders to stay present, playful, regulated, creative, and grounded in a rapidly accelerating world. Through embodied practices, deep dialogue, and carefully designed experiences, we create conditions for clarity, creativity, and genuine aliveness to emerge.
Every Vortex journey is intentionally curated and deeply personal. Small groups, extraordinary settings, and thoughtful design allow leaders to slow down, reconnect with themselves and one another, and realign with what truly matters. Nature, culture, and shared inquiry become catalysts for insight and renewal.
We understand that every attendee is within one’s own right a vortex — a person who creates energy as a visionary, thought-leader, and multi-level game-changer in one’s own field.
Allow us to serve you so that you can serve the planet.

The Joy Protocol

The Joy Protocol™ describes the movement from swimming in pain shaped by the past to
dancing in joy anchored in the present.

Find your breath
Return from trigger and anxiety to presence

Come back into your body.
This is where everything begins.

Find your voice
Speak your truth

Find your Witness
The Director of your own Movie

Find Forgiveness
‍Of yourself and all others

Release the Story
All past pains become prayer flags that no longer trigger

Release the past
When story dissolves, past dissolves with it

Experience true Presence
and others will experience it in you too

Move into Sacred Self
You as complete  and perfect,
in your shadow and your light

Find Sacred Union
Complete souls in an adaptive, supportive, nonjudgemental,
and unconditional journey through life, and walking each other home.

Move into Sacred Play
In aligned and resonant community

An ethos of Active Gratitude, Active Compassion, and Active Presence.
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Sacred
Self
Sacred
Union
Sacred
Play
Active
Gratitude
Active
Compassion
Active
Presence

Sacred Self

Honouring and accepting ourselves and our journey with complete self-forgiveness and acceptance, deep compassion, non-judgement and love

Sacred Union

Honouring and accepting our connectedness to the world and the people around us

Sacred Play

Rediscovering the unfettered magic of play, and its infusion into our daily lives

Active Gratitude

Cultivating proactive thankfulness for every aspect of our lives

Active Compassion

Cultivating proactive understanding, empathy and kindness, toward ourselves and those around us

Active Presence

Feeling the abundance of the present moment, stepping out of past & future focus

the COLLECTIVE

We are educators, social entrepreneurs, investors, enterprise leaders, athletes, artists, scientists, healers - and global change agents - building a more conscious, connected world.

TESTIMONIALS

The Vortex Ignite experience is personal for all who take the plunge.
These are the reflections of some of our collective

Ben Bowden

Global Corporate Services Founder/CEO
I would recommend this to anyone — anyone looking for insight into themselves, their career, their personal life. People carry different things they want to work on, and those people walk out of here a significantly improved version of the person that walked in. It’s been fantastic.

Helena Houdova

Global Transformation Facilitator
When I came to Vortex I thought that my heart was pretty open, but I had no idea how much more open I could be. I have received so many gifts, and I was able to share mine as well. What stood out most for me is definitely sisterhood. I really deeply desire co-creation and cooperation to come from the feminine side of me, and I totally found it here. I found such a deep relationship with the women who attended Vortex with me - my sisters. I think that these are lifetime friendships, lifetime nourishing hands and minds and hearts. For that I’m absolutely grateful.

John Lin

Global Fintech CEO
The real crux of what I took away is what it means to be a better person, and what the template is for me to be a better person. Not just a better person, but to be a better person in a community. It’s about surrounding yourself with people of good intent, of similar values. And that’s not a narrow set of values, that’s actually a very wide set of values across a diverse set of people.

The Story

Chris Traub

38years
Executive Search, Venture Advisory and Leadership Transformation
experience

VORTEX

Search * Build * Transform


For nearly four decades, this work has evolved at the intersection of executive search, venture building, and embodied leadership.

The original seed was planted in 1985 during a three-month wilderness leadership expedition in Alaska.

What began as wilderness-based leadership development matured into executive search (SES), venture advisory (Vortex), and Surfing the Tsunami — an embodied leadership methodology for the age of AI.
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The original seed was planted in 1985 during a three-month wilderness leadership expedition in Alaska.

Removed from hierarchy, comfort, and certainty, one insight became clear:
Transformation does not come from strategy alone.

It comes from shifts in state, nervous-system regulation, relational intelligence, and the ability to remain coherent under pressure.

Over time, that insight evolved beyond the wilderness — into executive search, venture building, and global advisory work. Across boardrooms and backcountry terrain alike, the same principle held true:

Adaptive, resilient leadership begins in the body — and scales through aligned teams and enduring enterprises.
The whole story
Vortex has been 33 years in the making.  The initial concept was conceived in 1988, when Chris Traub participated in a 3-month leadership training and wilderness expedition in Alaska with a 15-member team. It occurred to him that most of the key learnings and growth derived from the experience were connected to individual team members’ states of mind, personal relationships, and abilities to fully release and play.
See the rest of the tribe
More about us

Chris Traub

33years

This is what Vortex looks like in the real world.

Experience Vortex in Action: Vortex Ignite Riviera Maya

February, 2020
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A glimpse into one of our immersive leadership journeys.
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Watch our video showcasing our  Vortex Ignite retreat in Costa Rica to get a sense of the upcoming Vortex Adventures experiences.
More about Riviera Maya

IGNITE ALUMNI

The Personal Transformation Journey

We often get asked what kind of people attend Vortex Ignite retreats. The answer is: leaders and impact makers of every stripe. When you attend Vortex Ignite, you’ll be surrounded by accomplished, hungry, compassionate people who you’ll connect with, motivate and be motivated by. You belong here.
Hong Kong– & Paris-based former Head of Logistics and Supply Chain Industries, World Economic Forum
New York– & Bay Area–based major family philanthropy and social impact advisory firm Founder
London- & Sao Paolo–based Global Business Development Head, leading global transportation start-up
Hong Kong–based global executive search firm CEO
New York–based Documentary Filmmaker
Stockholm-based Venture Catalyst and Adventure Athlete
Former national champion female Athlete turned Costa-Rica-based wellness retreat Entrepreneur
Austin- & New York–based Co-Founders, leading global blockchain venture advisor and accelerator
Lisbon- & Bay Area-based Impact Business Strategist, Industry Researcher, Author, Speaker
Delhi-based Dean, Business School and Co-Founder, Conscious Capital Institute
New York–based Stem Cell Physician/Biotech Entrepreneur and Software Strategist