John Blake
Bio
John lead our Grip-Birkman leadership team, and has been a part of Grip-Birkman since 2007. He has worked in a variety of Christian organizations, serving in roles from Training and Development Director to Executive Director. He is currently a Sr. Organizational Transformation Consultant serving in Providence Health & Services. He is married and has 2 children, living in Vancouver, Washington.
Les Bon-Bernard
Bio
Les is a Certified Leadership Coach whose passion is to help individuals and teams thrive. Les is a Grip-Birkman Coach, Trainer and a Birkman Certified Professional. He has both marketplace and ministry experience and has served as a pastor in 4 C&MA churches over a 35 year span. Les is currently the Senior Associate Pastor at First Alliance Church in Calgary, Alberta where he has served since 2008. In addition to serving in the local church Les invests in leaders and teams both locally and internationally. Les is married to his high school sweetheart Dawn. Their three grown children are married and they have nine grandchildren that always ensure life is rich and fun!
Mark Brazle
Bio
Mark joined Mission Resource Network in July 2013 to work alongside the Missionary Care team. That is when he learned of the value of the Grip-Birkman for increasing self awareness and improving team dynamics. He soon pursued training in coaching. For Mark, a passion for global workers in the Mission of God found its root as he grew up in Montana, Oklahoma, and Saskatchewan, one of six children born to a church planter and evangelist. His parents read Scripture through the lens of real-life missionary stories at the dinner table.
He earned a BA in Bible and a BS Ed in Vocal Music at Oklahoma Christian University where he met his wife Jill. After two years in youth ministry in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, a team was formed that left for Flemish Belgium in 1977 where he and his family lived and served for 16 years.
In 1993, Mark and his family returned to the States, where he served for 20 years in ministry at a church in Cuyahoga Falls, OH. He worked closely with the missions committee of his church, encouraging the start of an annual “God Can Sunday” to raise funds for the church missions budget. In 2009, Mark completed an MRE in Missional Leadership at Rochester College.
Mark and Jill are both Grip-Birkman coaches who have have five children and 15 grandchildren who are serving all over the world.
Ken DeMaere
Bio
Ken has been a part of the Grip-Birkman community since 2012. As a part of the Leadership Team for a Denominational District Office, he was part of a group tasked with finding a better tool for working with pastors and leaders in the District he served. They went about searching and taking almost every profile and inventory they could find. They evaluated each on several key criteria. First, was the tool able to accurately identify the person taking it. Second, was the tool ‘fudgable’ in the sense that the person could easily skew the results to fit what they thought that the person or group seeing this might want. Third, did it take into account the spiritual side of the people we were dealing with as Church leaders. Early on the group found Birkman ®, and while it met the first two of the three requirements with excellence, it did not address the third non-negotiable requirement. When we expressed our concern about this third requirement, we were directed to Grip-Birkman. And the rest, as they say, is history. I was asked by our team to champion this tool to our district and it has become a standard part of the leadership and training path for all licenced workers and even lay-leadership teams. Ken was asked to join the Grip-Birkman Inc. leadership team in 2017 and took over the Grip-Birkman Support process – overseeing and streamlining the ordering and distribution process for Grip-Birkman.
Larry Gay
Bio
Dr. Larry Gay is a Birkman Master Certified Professional and Authorized Birkman Trainer. He and his wife, Susan, lead the Equipping Team for the Grip-Birkman Community. Both Larry and Susan have been Grip-Birkman trainers since 2005, and have used the tool throughout the world with individual leaders and teams. Larry’s Doctorate is in Educational Ministry with an emphasis on Strategic Leadership. After 35 years in cross-cultural leadership development, he now is an independent consultant and coach to business and ministry leaders in personnel development.
Susan Gay
Bio
Susan is a Birkman Master Certified Professional and Authorized Birkman Trainer. She also serves as a member of the Grip-Birkman Leadership Team and co-leader of the Equipping Team. Susan holds the Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Counseling. After 35 years of cross-cultural ministry, Susan now serves as counselor and consultant to assess emotional wellness for potential expatriate employees with IMB.
SusanGay@gripbirkman.com
Jay Jarboe
Bio
Jay is a leadership coach with a passion to enable others to find and fulfill their reason for existence. His passion is to empower others to live into their God designed true self.
Jay is a Grip-Birkman Coach, Trainer and is also a Birkman Advanced Certified Professional. He is an Associate Credentialed Coach (ACC) through the International Coach Federation (ICF). He has over 40 years of experience in mission work, training missionaries, preaching, teaching, mentoring and coaching. He is currently working with national leaders around the globe to co-create leadership development environments for the development of emerging servant leaders.
Jay.Jarboe@mrnet.org
Grady King
Bio
Grady serves as Vice President and Co-Leader of HOPE Network in mentoring leaders, guiding churches and interim ministry. He also serves as Director of Church Resources at Oklahoma Christian University. He served in congregational ministry for 42 years with 26 of those years in two congregations: Mansfield and Irving, TX. His passion is healthy leaders, healthy churches and coming alongside of church leaders in helpful ways.
Grady holds degrees from Oklahoma Christian and Abilene Christian University (Education, Bible/Theology, D. Min. He and his wife, Karen of 41 years have two married children: Josh/ Carolyn King; Christin/Chad Paradowski and two grandchildren: Madeline and Sawyer.
He enjoys reading widely in several disciplines, youth camp, retreats, conversations about leadership, philosophy and doing life well as a follower of Jesus Christ. He likes international travel, sports and walking in scenic places.
Grady’s writing includes blogs for HOPE Network, chapters in various books: HOPE for Weary Leaders; When Leaders Are Stuck: A Guide to Communal Discernment and A Bully on the Playground: Courageous Strategies for Dealing with Bullies in the Church and Leadership.