Charles Holmes is a skilled facilitator and educator whose 18 years of experience has honed a passion for creating meaningful dialogue among groups whose diverse opinions would otherwise work against a common understanding of desired outcomes.
In the fall of 2006 Charles brought together a team (Peter Koestenbaum, Peter Senge and Peter Block) to work together to design and co-facilitate the inaugural Connecting for Change Dialogue with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Working with the Vancouver based Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education, Charles brought together 60 corporate executives and 60 social sector innovators from around the world, to explore approaches and projects for building connections across the apparent corporate – social divide. Following the event he was retained by the Dalai Lama Center to build future Connecting for Change programs for the Center.
Charles has facilitated projects with clients from health care to forestry and mining, software and pharmaceutical companies, educational institutions and utility firms, government and not-for-profit sectors. The meetings he has designed and facilitated have focused on innovation (e.g. a meeting with former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and 250 Western Canadian CEOs to focus on development and export of environmental technologies), conflict resolution (meeting of 200 home owners and property developers to develop a shared vision for future development), community engagement (meetings of mining firms and community groups), 100’s of strategic planning session and other team and group engagements.
Charles has taught negotiation, team effectiveness, facilitation and leadership in Executive Programs for Universities in Canada and Saudi Arabia. He was co-founder of the Learning Strategies Group in the Faculty of Business at Simon Fraser University where he led the establishment of the Executive Development Program, a biotech MBA and a Graduate Certificate Program in Applied Sustainability. He is a founder and currently a director of the “30 Days of Sustainability”, a founding director of the Legacy North Shore Society and an active Board member of Sante Fe based Training Resources for the Environmental Community.