Advisory Council & Board

My Noble Goal is... To foster the building of places where everyone has the opportunity to improve themselves

My work is about... To support the growing of Italian network and to unblock the emotional efficacy inside organizations

Professional accomplishments include... I've been in Six Seconds since 2005 and looking back I'm proud to share my favorite milestones with you:
1. the Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Assessment started as my thesis. I was also in the developing and validating team of the Vital Signs for Organizational Performance and Brain Profiles assessments. Using these tools, I wrote 8 case studies and white papers, showing the relationship between emotional intelligence and performance

2. In 2013 I found and managed the first group of Preferred Partners in the history of Six Seconds. This step brought a lot of changes and in 2019 I founded a division focused on the corporate sector named EQ Biz, with the collaboration of all the Italian preferred partners. A collaborative network of partners ready to support and transform organizations through emotional intelligence!

One reason I’m personally passionate about emotional intelligence is…. it gives people more clarity about what's really important in their lives and the freedom to remain the same or do something to change their own world. Emotional intelligence, if we want, is the key a human being has to take a transformative and evolutive step forward. We can do it if our actions will be the result of a perfect alignment of what, how, and why. Really hard...and at the same time POSSIBLE.

Pronouns... he/him

Favorite... “Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” -Steve Jobs

I'd love to talk to you about ... past experiences, lessons learned, and future projects and goals. I love to live the present by doing sports and eating and joking with friends!

My Noble Goal is... co-create spaces abundant of care, wisdom and authenticity

My work is about... developing the EQ Network in the Greater China region

Professional accomplishments include... the team and I have grown the EQ network in China by 20x over the last 5 years, now with over 200 active certified coaches, assessors, educators and practitioners. We have an active, engaged group of volunteer Network Leaders providing free programs to 1000s of people, plus a large following on WeChat and our other online platforms.  I support the growth of the network by facilitating Six Seconds Certifications in Chinese and with our team provide a platform for all our certified to support others practice EQ.

I am the co-author of the EQ Gym workbook and co-created the EQ Gym Book Club, including the EQ Gym Book Club for Parents. I am also a co-author of the new Self Science curriculum. I am an EQ Coach (ACC) since 2018.

 A few past experiences... Before joining Six Seconds I worked in an HR consultancy firm in Beijing, training EQ Leaders and designing assessment centers for 500 Fortune companies and top 100 Chinese companies. I co-founded a French- Chinese Montessori Kindergarten.

One reason I’m personally passionate about emotional intelligence is…. I have seen how it can help individuals and organisations to transform themselves and create positive change

Background... I grew up in Argentina and Israel before moving to China for 13 years, and since 2017 I live in France, La Rochelle. My roots are in many different places and cultures.

Favorite... I love living close to the ocean and eating salty butter caramel crepes!

I'd love to talk to you about ... If you are interested in how EQ can help us to be better coaches and parents - I would love to connect!

My Noble Goal is... To support people to create their own positive growth in order to thrive

My work is about... Supporting the Six Seconds network members, certified practitioners and partners in Asia Pacific to thrive in order for them to support others to flourish

Professional accomplishments include...

... I've led the growth of a thriving Six Seconds network across Asia Pacific, being joined along the way by a wonderful team of partners, certified practitioners, volunteer network leaders and advocates.
.. I've delivered thousands of assessments, certification, consulting and integration programmes creating positive growth in individuals, corporate and educational organisations.
... My Doctoral research used the Six Seconds tools and methodologies to investigate the relationship between parent/child and teacher/student emotionally intelligent behaviours. The results of which showed that when significant adults in children's lives enhance their own emotional intelligence, so too do the children in their care.
... I advocate an evidence-based approach, blending the neuroscience of change and learning, strong data with practical processes to improve learning and the application of EQ Skills.

A few past experiences... Prior to joining Six Seconds, I have worked in many sectors, including; learning and development, consulting, education, hospitality, travel, marketing, sales and shipbuilding! Through these roles I have gained a wide range of experience supporting, individuals, leaders, teams and organisations to grow and thrive.
... During my time in Asia, in addition to leading the Six Seconds team, I was an Adjunct Associate Professor and Programme Lead of Soft Skills with the Institute for Engineering Leaders and a Consultant Advisor to the Centre for Future Ready Graduates at the National University of Singapore.
... I am a long standing Board Member and Chair of the Pastoral and Safeguarding Committee at Tanglin Trust School, Singapore.

One reason I’m personally passionate about emotional intelligence is….I have seen the positive difference practicing EQ brings to people of all ages and to those around them.

Background... I identify as a global citizen, growing up in the UK and having lived and worked in Spain, Austria, USA, Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore.

Favorite... My favourite thing to do is spending time with my family, particularly when combined with skiing!

I'd love to talk to you about ... How you can create your own positive growth, through utilising EQ, to thrive.

My Noble Goal is... To inspire compassionate wisdom.

My work is about... People! Coaching, storytelling, aligning, researching.

Professional accomplishments include...

... As a cofounder of Six Seconds, I've led emotional intelligence programs in 50+ countries, and supported the startup of dozens of team to grow EQ around the globe, and together we've built a thriving community that's engaged over 7 million people to learn & grow emotional intelligence.

... I've written five books, scores of articles and case studies, and six psychometric assessments supporting people to grow emotional intelligence by measuring what matters.

... Partnering with leaders, I've cocreated numerous EQ development programs for organizations such as FedEx, the US Navy, HSBC, Intel, Amazon, and the United Nations, all with measurable results in strengthening the people-side of performance - I hope you'll check out the case study library.

... Together with an incredibly heartful global team, I'm proud that we are partners with UNICEF World Children's Day to bring emotional intelligence insights to millions of young people for free. This joyful and creative program supports wellbeing and the UN Sustainable Development Goals: POP-UP Festival

A few past experiences... Before joining Six Seconds I started multiple businesses, including becoming a licensed building contractor. I first learned about emotional intelligence as a middle school teacher and administrator at Nueva School the same year Daniel Goleman came to visit (and then he wrote about the approach as one of two model programs in the world). I also worked as a stage manager and technical director in theater.

One reason I’m personally passionate about emotional intelligence is…. There's a moment when people realize their emotions matter... and they have choice about their own feelings, thoughts & actions... and I relish the spark that shines in those times. Freedom. Authenticity. Purpose.

Pronouns... he/him. Background... I grew up in Berkeley, California, and now live in a small rural town. For the last 10 years pre-pandemic, I was traveling internationally, 'on the road' for more than half of each year.

Favorite... I love cooking, and recently learned to make a great pizza.

I'd love to talk to you about ... Emotions, neuroscience, change, leadership, the SDGs... and coaching.

With over 30 years of pioneering work in emotional intelligence education, Anabel is an inspiring and caring speaker who helps people find the best in themselves and each other. Anabel says people pay attention to less than 30% of what you say, but 70% of what you do, so she models the lessons she teaches.

Anabel was the principal of Nueva School when Daniel Goleman came and wrote about the model emotional intelligence program there; under her guidance the school also won two Federal Blue Ribbon Awards for Excellence in Education. She’s started two schools, together with Karen McCown, founded the remarkable lab school educating future change makers: Synapse.

As the Founding President of Six Seconds EQ Network, Dr. Jensen has co-authored four books on teaching EQ, written numerous articles, and trained over 15,000 educators and leaders around the globe. She has taught the principles of emotional intelligence all over the country and beyond.

Anabel is the lead author of the SEI-YV, Six Seconds’ emotional intelligence assessment for children. She’s coauthor of Self-Science, the emotional intelligence curriculum, as well as numerous articles, books, an programs including  Trust or Doubt: Essential Strategies to Co-Create Thriving Teaching Teams, the Think Feel Act Cards, and A Teacher’s Daily Dose of Optimism: Your EQ Prescription for Thriving, as well a numerous articles offering practical inspiration to use emotional intelligence -- please see this archive of Anabel’s blog on staging.6seconds.org

In addition to her leadership at Six Seconds, she is Emeritus Professor of Education at Notre Dame de Namur University. Her background includes the teaching and supervising of instruction from preschool to the university level. Anabel received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Her interests include a passion for reading, the building and consuming of gourmet desserts, the construction of various hand-crafted projects, and surfing the net for new ideas. She is very active in a variety of church and community service projects. She has one son, Caleb.

My Noble Goal is... Ending discrimination and promoting diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

My work is about... Newly joining Board Member here to support shaping the impact and sustainability of the Six Seconds mission and vision.

Professional accomplishments include... I am very much in the nascent phase of my EQ journey and actively pursuing the EQ Coach Pathway. I'm looking forward to completing the EQ Assessor Certification this spring.

A few past experiences... Princess joins the Six Seconds Board with over 20 years of affirmative action, EEO compliance, diversity and inclusion, project management and strategic planning experience in legal and corporate environments. She has devoted her career to creating spaces that are inclusive through the strategic integration of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging into the culture and operations of various organizations including: Walgreens, Starbucks, Seattle Children's Hospital, Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI) and most recently, the Allen Institute.

One reason I’m personally passionate about emotional intelligence is…. My personal passion to deepen my engagement is driven by a desire to look at diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging through the lens of emotional intelligence. I'm honored and excited to be a part of the mission to increase the world's emotional intelligence as I continue to improve my own. I greatly appreciate the global approach and community.

Pronouns.. she/her

Favorite... My favorite place to be on the planet in the month of August is Seattle, Washington. The long days and natural beauty are incredible.

I'd love to talk with you about... If you're interested in exploring how being smarter with emotions can contribute to being a more inclusive leader, I'd love to discuss it. 

My Noble Goal is...To empower all kids with kindness and compassion

My work is about... Supporting the 6S leadership especially focusing on Social Impact & Equity

Professional accomplishments include... I founded Peppy Pals, the first company in the world to gamify EQ for children ages 2-5 without using text or language. I have trained over 500 kid industry employees in emotional intelligence through my consultancy company Peppy agency

 A few past experiences... I am a Play, Media & Social Emotional Learning Expert for Kids & Family. I’m the co-founder and CEO of Peppy agency, the world’s leading social-emotional learning agency based in Stockholm. Previously, I spent several years building Peppy Pals- an award-winning IP focused on cultivating EQ in kids that was sold in 2022.

One reason I'm personally passionate about emotional intelligence is... I'm personally passionate about emotional intelligence because I've seen the impact it can have on children across the globe. Emotions are universal and impact our lives. Regardless if you're a child growing up in a conflict zone or a child from a high income family, we all benefit from practicing emotional intelligence.

Pronouns/background... She/her

Favorite... My favorite flower is ranunculus

I'd love to talk to you about... I love talking with people about how to support kids so they can thrive in a digital environment and era

Dr. Charles is a member of the Board of Directors at Six Seconds, leads the MA program for aspiring school leaders at Notre Dame de Namur University, and served as an educator and educational leader for three decades. In 2009, Susan retired from K-12 after 12 years as principal of Ohlone School in Palo Alto, CA, where she led a robust implementation for social emotional learning to create a high performing school culture. She went on to train future principals at the School of Education and Counseling Psychology at Santa Clara University. Born in Antigua in the West Indies, Charles was educated at Santa Clara University and the University of California, Berkeley.

Deborah Lustig is the Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a cultural anthropologist whose research has focused on gender and education in the United States and Kenya, where she was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in 2004-5.

Dr. Lustig received her Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Michigan. Her articles about teenage mothers have been published in the journals  Anthropology and Education Quarterly and Childhood and in the new book Childhood, Youth, and Social Work in Transformation:  Implications for Policy and Practice(Columbia University Press, 2009). 

Selected articles: Baby Pictures – Family, consumerism and exchange among teen mothers in the USA | Of Kwanzaa, Cinco de Mayo, and Whispering – The Need for Intercultural Education

More: Dr. Lustig’s website

Peter Salovey and his colleague Jack Mayer defined and tested the concept of emotional intelligence; they wrote the seminal papers in the field in the early 1990s that launched the international scientific EQ movement.

Dr. Salovey is now President of Yale University, as well as Chris Argyris Professor of Psychology and former chair of the Psychology Department at Yale.

He has written or edited eight books and has authored more than 200 scientific publications – including The Wisdom in Feelings, The Emotionally Intelligent Manager, and Emotional Development and Emotional Intelligence.  Professor Salovey is a founding editor of the Review of General Psychology and an associate editor of the new APA journal, Emotion.  His course in Psychology and Law was the most popular course in Yale University history. He is a Justice of the Peace and a licensed psychologist in the State of Connecticut. In his leisure time, he plays stand-up bass with the Professors of Bluegrass.

More: Peter Salovey’s bio at Yale

Karen began her involvement with emotional intelligence when she founded the Nueva School (Hillsborough, California) in 1967. In planning the school she met with educators, political & business leaders and Nobel Laureates to consider the educational needs of our society. She saw that the central foundation of a school should be not simply giving students knowledge, but giving them the opportunity to develop wisdom. She created the nation’s first emotional intelligence curriculum, Self Science, a program she facilitated for nearly 3 decades. Karen is the Chairman of the Board for Synapse School, started by Six Seconds.

More: “The Cornerstone for Positive Change,” a speech from Karen

George E. McCown was chairman, co-founder, and managing director of McCown De Leeuw & Co. Inc. LLC (“MDC”) of Foster City, California and is a co-founder and operating director, American Infrastructure MLP Funds. He spent his early years with Boise Cascade Corporation, ultimately as senior VP, building materials group and president, Boise Cascade Home and Land Corp.

His current business affiliations include chairman of the board, Oxford Resource Partners, LP (NYSE: OXF), Tunnel Hill Partners, LLC, Gold Run Aviation LLC and Sequoia Corp. and a director of United Bridge Partners, LLC. Previously he has been a chairman, vice chairman, and/or a director of over 40 private and public companies.

He is a founding director of ChrysCap, a leading private equity firm in India; chairman emeritus of the World Business Academy; immediate past chair of Outward Bound USA and a director of the American Himalayan Foundation, the Bay Area Council, and Six Seconds, Inc.

He is a former trustee of Stanford University; overseer of the Hoover Institution; director of the Packard Children’s Hospital and president of the Stanford Alumni Association. He currently is a member of Stanford Associates, the World Presidents Organization (presiding member of WPO/NCC Investors LLC), the Chief Executives Organization, Explorers Club and the Bohemian Club.

He received a BS in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard University, where he worked as an assistant to Professor Georges F. Doriot, founder of American Research & Development Corp., following service as a captain in the U.S. Air Force, Strategic Air Command.

He is married to Karen Stone McCown, founder of the Nueva, Six Seconds and Synapse Schools. They have 8 children, 13 grandchildren and reside in Portola Valley, CA.

Mark Harrison, M.A., M.B.A, is an expert on business strategy & product innovation focused on consumer internet. After earning his MA in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis, then MBA with Distinction at Harvard, Mark served on a range of strategy, payments, and innovation projects at Boston Consulting Group and BCG Digital Ventures. He went on to run Corporate Strategy & New Ventures for PayPal and the Mobile business for eBay, N. America. 

Dr. Candace Pert was an internationally recognized pharmacologist who has published over 250 scientific articles on peptides and their receptors and the role of these neuropeptides in the immune system. Dr. Candace Pert received her Ph.D. in pharmacology from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, served as Chief of the Section on Brain Biochemistry of the Clinical Neuroscience Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), held a Research Professorship in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, DC, and then served as the Scientific Director of RAPID Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

In the mid-1980’s, while researching the function of classical immune cell receptors, such as CD4, in brain, Dr. Pert, with her collaborator Dr. Michael Ruff, developed the first of a new class of treatments for HIV/AIDS, the viral entry inhibitor Peptide T. This non-toxic experimental therapeutic blocks the virus from binding to its cellular chemokine receptor CCR5 and infecting the cell. Recent human studies show that Peptide T substantially reduces HIV in the blood and the treatment resistant, persistently infected cellular reservoirs which do not respond to current therapies.

Dr. Pert holds a number of patents for modified peptides in the treatment of psoriasis, Alzheimer’s disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, stroke and head trauma. One of these, peptide T, is currently undergoing research, in the United States, for the treatment of AIDS and neuroAIDS.

More: Interview with Dr Pert :: Dr Pert’s web site

Ayman Sawaf was one of Six Seconds' pioneering board members; he founded Feel.org which he merged with Six Seconds, and together we committed to bring emotional literacy and emotional intelligence to millions of children. For over thirty years, Ayman built foundations for new ways of thinking, working, and feeling to transform human potential. Ayman passed away in March 2022, and we join his wife, family and friends all around the globe in honoring his memory by staying awake, playfully engaging in learning, and connecting with heart.

Ayman's passion and vision sparked new maps to evolve our relationships with ourselves, our emotions, and the workplace. His book, Sacred Commerce: A Blueprint for a New Humanity, which he co-authored with his wife Rowan Gabrielle, puts focus on evolving the business world one person at a time. An international visionary entrepreneur, published musician, and best-selling author, Ayman Sawaf was one of the original creators of the discipline now known as Emotional Literacy and was an early pioneer in Emotional Intelligence. His book Executive EQ: Emotional Intelligence in Leadership and Organizations, which he co-authored with Dr. Robert Cooper, was the book that introduced Emotional Intelligence in the business world.