ABOUT OUR
MASTER FACILITATORS

Luis brings more than 25 years experience in helping improve business outcomes for global organizations via training and coaching.

Prior to joining Fierce, Luis developed and facilitated training workshops for Microsoft’s global effectiveness, intercultural communication, and other targeted training sessions to improve customer satisfaction, intercultural competency, and communications of customer support engineers working with premier Microsoft accounts in the U.S.

With more than 15 years of experience with Marriott International and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, Luis brings extensive hospitality leadership experience and a keen sense of customer service. At the Ritz-Carlton, he directed the implementation of Total Quality Management strategies, helping to win the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award twice as a result.

A native English speaker, Luis also speaks Spanish fluently and is conversant in Portuguese. His passions include music of all kinds, world travel, yoga, and surfing.

Ellen has been a researcher and practitioner of Organizational Psychology over the past 16 years focused on elevating the employee experience throughout the hiring, onboarding, performance management, and professional development lifecycles.  

Prior to joining Fierce, Ellen has worked in various roles to champion employee engagement initiatives focused on providing leaders the tools and training to successfully develop high performance teams and improve employee engagement and retention. She has worked in the public and private sector for organizations such as the California Public Utilities Commission, Allstate Research and Planning, Great Place to Work Institute, and the San Francisco Human Services Agency. 

Most recently, Ellen was the Performance Excellence Manager at Colorado College where she brought the Fierce Conversations training series to their in-house professional development program for staff and faculty members.  

Ellen attained her Bachelors of Science in Global Business and Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Redlands. She studied Chinese, International Business, and Applied Psychology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She has a Master’s of Science from San Francisco State University in Industrial Organizational Psychology and she is a Gallup trained Strengths Coach.  

Outside of the world of employee engagement, Ellen spends her free time playing badminton, tennis, and pickleball. She lives in Colorado Springs with her husband, 3 children, and 2 dogs. 

As our Vice President of Learning Development & Delivery, it would be fair to say that Joe embodies what it means to be Fierce. He and his team of highly skilled professionals are responsible for ensuring that our Fierce Conversation models and all content are fully accessible and meaningful for our clients.

Joe has invested his 30+ year professional career in organizational and individual development aimed at advancing strategic initiatives and key business goals. His diverse leadership background in operations, organizational effectiveness, learning systems & design, and talent acquisition has provided him with keen insight into key aspects of businesses – large and small – including retail, health care, and finance.

One constant in Joe’s experience is achieving objectives by developing great talent. He has been a colleague, coach, and trusted confidante to co-workers from the front lines to the board room. Joe serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for the school district in his community.

Born and raised in Maine where he takes full advantage of the terrain to run, hike, and kayak, he spent 3 years living in exile pursuing his undergraduate degree in Arizona before graduating from the University of Southern Maine. He and his wife live in Poland Spring, Maine.

Kari Loken has vast expertise in leadership and talent development, people and culture strategy, and organizational effectiveness. As a consultant, coach, and workshop facilitator, she helps leaders thrive in their careers, navigate change, lead diverse teams, and build healthy, effective organizations. Kari has over 15 years of internal and external learning and organizational development experience and has traveled extensively across the globe to deliver high impact leadership and strategy programs across Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America.

Throughout her career, Kari has provided training and consulting services to develop people’s leadership skills, improve employee engagement, and achieve strategic organizational goals. She creates learning experiences that provide rich insights and accelerate individual, team, and company development.

Before joining Fierce, as an internal learning and OD consultant at a high-tech company, Kari partnered with business stakeholders to identify, design, and implement solutions to ensure that leaders were skilled to meet current and future business needs. She conducted and facilitated workshops for client teams to enhance manager and team collaboration, efficiency, and performance. Furthermore, she created, implemented, and led several global enterprise[1]wide programs, including the corporate new hire orientation and strategic leadership programs, driving employee engagement and overall organizational performance. She has also consulted for companies such as Great Places to Work, where she identified organizational cultures that defined ‘best in class,’ and Korn Ferry, where she conducted in[1]depth simulation-based assessments for the development and selection of key business unit leaders.

Kari’s mission is to spark people’s curiosity and ignite their intrinsic motivations to achieve bold things. She is a lifelong learner who is passionate about improving the way people relate to one another, develop their leadership capabilities, and thrive in their careers. She strives to help others discover who they truly are and how they want to show up in work, life, and beyond.

Kari holds a Master of Science in Industrial Organizational Psychology from San Francisco State University and a Bachelor of Arts in both Psychology and Family Studies from Saint Olaf College. A Minnesota native, Kari now resides in Berkeley, California, with her husband and daughter. She loves to play competitive tennis, hike along the coast, and sail on the bay.