Peter M. Dickens

Peter brings together a unique combination of private and public sector experience, research, and academic success. He has served as the president of an international corporation and as vice president of three different organizations, including one major hospital. He has also proven to be a very successful entrepreneur and is currently President of the Iris Group, a boutique consulting group specializing in strategic change and leadership development in the health sector. He also has international experience, having worked or consulted in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, England and Central Asia.

As an academic, Peter is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Leadership and Change at Antioch University in Ohio. In addition to his private consulting practice, he is currently Adjunct Faculty at both Tyndale University College in Toronto and Trinity Western University in British Columbia, where he teaches leadership and strategic planning in the graduate school.

Peter served as the Vice President of Organization Development at Trillium Health Centre in Mississauga. He joined Trillium shortly after it resulted from the forced merger of the Mississauga Hospital and Queensway Hospital and had a unique mandate to forge a culture of patient-centered care, distributed leadership, and a commitment to excellence across the new organization. Trillium was named one of Canada’s top 100 employers four years in a row under Peter’s stewardship. He then established the Centre for Leadership Development at Trillium to expand the organization’s influence on the broader health sector. Peter continues to provide strategic planning and leadership development to a number of hospitals, LHINs, and community service providers.

Marion J. Howell

As an Adler trained executive coach, and certified Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and Emotional Intelligence facilitator as well as a CODI certified organization development practitioner, Marion leads the executive coaching work within Iris Group. Marion's intuitive capacity to see and draw out the very best in people has made her a much sought-after confidante, guide and mentor to leaders from all walks of life. She is a passionate advocate for the integration of objective data and feedback with a deepening sense of authentic self-awareness that enables people to transform their perspective so that they can see and pursue opportunities that may have been obscured by the misplaced emphasis on self-imposed constraints.

Marion has an extensive background in the high technology sector and understands the unique stresses and challenges that result from highly cyclical markets, constant organizational realignments, and dramatically shifting accountabilities and expectations. Having navigated these waters herself on many occasions, and having journeyed with others, she brings both empathy and deep truthfulness to relationships. As she would quote often, she tries always to 'speak the truth with love'. She also has extensive experience in the volunteer sector and has a tremendous heart for supporting and encouraging women who have experienced abuse, depression and deeply held issues of self-esteem. She has gently, lovingly and firmly guided many to find a renewed sense of value, purpose and passion.

Marion frequently works with strategic leadership teams, seeing coaching as the implementation and integration mechanism for transformational change. As one client said, "All the changes around me felt unfair, almost a personal attack, until Marion helped me to shake off my self-imposed constraints and see change for what it really could be: my opportunity to seize control of my life and ride the waves of change where I wanted to go. I will be forever grateful for a life changing relationship."