Our Team

Elsie Maio (Founder)

"Her unique combination of rigorous business modeling and passion for the social role of business makes her a pioneering reformer with immediate business value."

-- John Elkington, founder of SustainAbility and Humanity, Inc SoulBranding client

Elsie Maio is on a mission – to empower high performing businesses to profitably align with the well being of humanity. Since 1983, she has been touted as a practical visionary in the field of brand strategy – helping clients get ahead of emerging global trends in business and society, long before it became fashionable. Since the late 1990s, Maio pioneered SoulBranding^SM - a multifunctional approach to merging The Golden Rule with high performance business practices. Today, Elsie publishes and speaks frequently on the practical benefits and applications of the emerging business paradigm she defines as, Humanity, Inc.SM, in broadcast and published media and as keynote at global conferences, foras, and other events. She participates in all client engagements.

+ Download bio of Elsie Maio (PDF file l 69K)

Nancy Birnbaum

Nancy is a seasoned agent of fruitful change – as a market strategist and as a business leader for the past twenty years. On a day to day basis, her laser-like facility to cut to the heart of the issue with incisive humor sparks team creativity and quick client understanding. She has been an essential part of the Humanity, Inc team since 1997. Prior to that, Nancy ran Young&Rubicam Canada.

Ravi Chaudry

Chair of four of the TATA companies, cited as one of the 10 Most Recommended Management Advisors, and a mechanical engineer by training, Ravi Chaudry is a practical strategy consultant to corporations, governments and civil society. Ravi also mentors CEOs and corporate boards, and is an author and public intellectual. A recipient of Ambassador of Knowledge Award, he is often referred to as a leadership guru. Ravi's wisdom and practical guidance to peers at the meta-level of strategy and leadership inform their collaboration in the ecosystem of global change as well as their individual progress through each of the five stages of the Humanity, Inc whole-system change process.

Sybille Klotz

Sybille grew up in product design and new media and employs both quite naturally as tools for strategic consulting from her office in Berlin. She builds the brand as a system empowered by the vibrancy of its connections -- through product, communications and other resonant experience points. Some of Europe's best known companies live the branding systems she designed: Audi, BP, RWE/Thames Water, Schering, Siemens Mobile, Bluewin, Europcar and VivaCell and T-Systems MMS. We are lucky to be counted among them: Sybille counseled Humanity, Inc on its own values-led positioning.

Ruth Otte

A hands-on megabrand-builder, Ruth has ignited and orchestrated the growth of some of the most consistently vibrant brands in the world – including the Discovery Channel and MTV – as well as brands in children’s media, health care, environmental services and other sectors. The Discovery brand became a leading media brand and innovator of 'edutainment' during Ruth’s nine year tenure as its president. She attributes much of Discovery’s success to its values-based culture of trust, integrity and mutual respect.

Doug Smith

Douglas K. Smith is a management guru who insists on practical results. He is described as one of the world's "most effective management consultants” in the book “High Impact Consulting”. But most important to us, Doug is a strong advocate for aligning organizations with the human interests of their members. He is the author most recently of the book, On Value and Values: Thinking Differently About We In the Age of Me, as well as numerous best-selling, definitive books on high-performing teams, innovation and managing for results.

Danielle Seville

Danielle is a marketing communications expert who specializes in focusing client resources on key customers. Her special talent is helping clients understand what motivates customers and how to engage them around the key drivers of their preference. Danielle is a practical generalist who has produced multimedia strategies and solutions for dozens of companies across a range of industries over the past decade.

Dave Laveman

Dave Laveman partners with clients in closing the gap between current business performance and breakthrough results in revenue that support the social-impact model of Humanity, Inc. Dave’s background and his knowledge of cutting-edge research inform his down-to-earth approach to optimizing executive performance and driving bottom-line results.

Dave’s thinking on culture, strategy, and paradigms have been cited by Forbes and Harvard Business Review.

Dave has been an officer, senior executive, or partner at CSC Index, Accenture, and The Concours Group. He co-founded the Praemia Group and The Pharmaceutical Performance Institute.