A.J. Pape

A.J. Pape began coaching and facilitating in 1988 after graduating from Princeton University. During undergraduate research in Mumbai, Cairo, and New Jersey, he saw that technical solutions rarely impacted poverty or disease. Sometimes the exclusion of local stakeholders made 'expert' ideas impractical. In other cases successful neighborhood programs could not scale up because of politics, bureaucracy, and organizational inertia.

He became fascinated with how people work together to bring the best of their ideas to implementation and fruition. Evolving from training on to coaching and consulting approaches, his clients have included HSBC Bank, Amgen, Pfizer, Mars Foods, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He believes that team-building does not happen by taking time away from work, it is the byproduct of how work is done day to day.

Originally Canadian, A.J. has lived and worked in the U.S., U.K., and Brazil. He speaks fluent Portuguese and conversational French.

Client Projects

A.J.'s work has ranged from facilitating executive strategy and teambuilding retreats to leading teams of trainers to deliver management development programs spanning 4-6 months.

During the startup phase of a US $2B plant construction project in Ireland, A.J. worked with the senior executives and eighty staff to develop a common approach to high-performance leadership and management. One key outcome was resolving longstanding tensions between the construction and operating units of the organization through design and facilitation of a one-day retreat.

A premier UK credit card issuer engaged A.J. to work with the COO and his direct reports for a year, including facilitating their annual planning and team-building retreat and providing monthly individual coaching and group facilitation. The team reported a significant increase in their effectiveness and productivity as a result.

More recently A.J. was selected to facilitate a third nine-month action-learning program for high-potential managers at a leading international bank. Core competencies included cross-cultural working, team leadership, project management, and solving complex multi-stakeholder problems. His client feedback scores were the highest awarded by program participants and led to a request for follow-on work with local executive teams. He is now Head of Faculty for the progamme.