International Thought Leader Network

What International Thought Leader Network does

International Thought Leader Network (ITLN) is a privately held professional services firm headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, with a secondary office in San Francisco. Founded by Greg Ray (CEO) and Greg Kaiser (President), the firm designs and delivers leadership development, culture transformation, and well-being programs for organizations across business, education, healthcare, government, and nonprofit sectors. Its core offering is a portfolio of immersive workshops — most notably The Happiness Advantage (Orange Frog), built with Harvard positive-psychology researcher Shawn Achor, and How Stella Saved the Farm, built with Dartmouth Tuck professors Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble — along with Train-the-Trainer certification programs, content licensing, thought-leader development services, and strategic consulting engagements.

The company is not a technology platform; there is no software product, mobile app, or API. Its competitive basis is content licensing, program design, and direct facilitation rather than proprietary technology. ITLN monetizes through five streams: direct workshop delivery (in-person or virtual), train-the-trainer certifications enabling internal scaling, content licensing royalties, thought-leader go-to-market strategy and coaching, and strategic consulting for organizational transformation. Pricing is not publicly disclosed; engagements are scoped through direct enterprise conversation.

ITLN serves Fortune 500 enterprises, K-12 and higher education institutions, healthcare networks and FQHCs, U.S. military and public-service organizations, and nonprofits, with a vertical-led segmentation approach. The firm operates with a lean team of 1-10 employees and is founder-owned; no external private equity or institutional investment is disclosed. Its relationship strength with world-renowned thought leaders (Achor, Govindarajan, Kotter, Blanchard, Senge, Drucker, Covey, Peters, Hammer) and a cumulative training footprint of 250,000+ professionals underpin its brand position, though current annual revenue scale is modest and undisclosed.

Name

International Thought Leader Network

Legal name

International Thought Leader Network

Website

https://ithoughtleader.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1990

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

International Thought Leader Network is a Cary, NC-based professional services firm that designs and delivers leadership development, culture transformation, and well-being workshops (Happiness Advantage, How Stella Saved the Farm), train-the-trainer certifications, content licensing, and consulting for Fortune 500, education, healthcare, government, and nonprofit clients.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Leadership Development and Professional Training Services

NAICS

Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (54169)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Thought Leadership & Executive Visibility (BPAFADAG)

akta.pro secondary industries

Reputation Management & Executive Thought Leadership (MPAAADAK), Innovation Leadership & Leading Growth (EDABAAAO), Change Management & Transformation Leadership (EDABAAAD), Talent Management & Leadership Advisory (Succession, Performance, Culture) (BPACAJAH)

Keywords

• Leadership development
• Executive training programs
• Culture transformation consulting
• Train-the-trainer certification
• Workshop facilitation services

Headquarters

HQ city

Cary

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Workshop Delivery: Direct delivery of signature workshops including The Happiness Advantage and How Stella Saved the Farm to enterprise clients. These are immersive, high-impact learning events delivered in-person or virtually.
2. Train-the-Trainer Certification Programs: Certifying internal facilitators to deliver signature workshops, enabling organizations to sustain and scale culture change from within.
3. Content Licensing & Program Design: Transforming thought leaders' intellectual property into licensed programs, digital courses, and scalable toolkits. Extends thought leaders' impact across industries while protecting and enhancing brand value.
4. Thought Leader Development & Go-to-Market Strategy: Collaborating with leading authors and speakers to shape their message, build platforms, and take ideas to market—including book strategy, keynote development, workshops, branded content, and coaching programs.
5. Strategic Consulting: Partnering with organizations to implement evidence-based strategies, optimize leadership, and scale best practices across the organization.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

International Thought Leader Network is a professional services firm that designs, delivers, and licenses leadership development and culture transformation programs for organizations. Its offerings include flagship positive psychology workshops such as The Happiness Advantage / Orange Frog (with Shawn Achor) and the How Stella Saved the Farm innovation workshop (with Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble), alongside Train-the-Trainer certification, content licensing and program design, thought leader development coaching, and strategic consulting engagements delivered to enterprise clients in business, education, healthcare, and government sectors.

Product overview

International Thought Leader Network is a professional services company offering a portfolio of leadership development and training products centered around thought leadership. The core offerings include The Happiness Advantage Workshop (based on Shawn Achor's research), How Stella Saved the Farm Workshop (developed with Vijay Govindarajan), Train-the-Trainer Certification Programs, Content Licensing & Program Design, and Thought Leader Development & Coaching services. These products work together to deliver immersive workshops, consulting engagements, and certification programs that transform ideas into actionable organizational change.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• The Happiness Advantage | Orange Frog Workshop An award-winning, research-backed facilitated workshop anchored in Harvard positive psychology expert Shawn Achor's work that equips individuals and teams to apply principles of positive psychology to improve performance, resilience, and well-being. Delivered in-person or virtually to enterprise clients, school systems, and healthcare organizations as a flagship culture transformation experience.
• How Stella Saved the Farm Workshop An interactive facilitated workshop developed with Dartmouth Tuck professors Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble that brings to life the bestselling business fable 'How Stella Saved the Farm,' helping teams explore innovation, change leadership, agility, alignment, and creative problem-solving. Delivered in person or virtually to organizations across industries.
• Train-the-Trainer Certification Programs Certification programs that qualify internal facilitators inside client organizations to deliver ITLN signature workshops (such as The Happiness Advantage), enabling enterprises, school systems, and communities to sustain and scale culture change from within.
• Content Licensing and Program Design A service that transforms thought leaders' intellectual property into licensed programs, digital courses, and scalable toolkits for organizations, educators, students, and athletes, extending the impact of thought leader IP across industries while protecting brand value.
• Thought Leader Development, Coaching and Launch Strategy An advisory and coaching service for leading authors and speakers that shapes their message, builds platforms, and takes ideas to market—spanning book strategy, keynote development, workshop design, branded content, and coaching programs—to drive engagement, adoption, and long-term impact.

Quantifiable outcome

• 250,000+ professionals and educators trained directly
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

15 partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and supporting.

• Shawn AchorcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHarvard University lecturer, bestselling author, and leading researcher in positive psychology. Co-created The Happiness Advantage workshop and Orange Frog program — one of the most widely adopted positive psychology workshops in the world, trusted by Fortune 500 companies, school systems, and healthcare organizations.
• Vijay GovindarajancoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDartmouth College Tuck School of Business, Thinkers 50 Hall of Fame inductee, recipient of the Distinguished Innovation Award, and Coxe Distinguished Professor. Co-created How Stella Saved the Farm workshop. World authority on strategy and reverse innovation.
• Chris TrimblecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDartmouth College Tuck School of Business, expert in innovation and organizational change. Co-created the Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators and How Stella Saved the Farm workshop with Vijay Govindarajan.
• John KottermajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHarvard Business School professor, foremost authority on leadership and change management. Author of Leading Change.
• Stephen R. CoveymajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerBrighamton Young University professor, one of Time magazine's 25 most influential Americans. Author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
• Peter DruckermajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerFather of modern management, professor at Claremont Graduate University. Author of The Effective Executive.
• Peter SengemajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMIT Sloan School of Management senior lecturer, pioneer in systems thinking and organizational learning. Author of The Fifth Discipline.
• Tom PetersmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerStanford MBA, influential management thinker named by Fortune as the 'Ur-guru' of business. Author of In Search of Excellence.
• Ken BlanchardmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCornell University PhD, co-founder of The Ken Blanchard Companies, leadership legend. Author of The One Minute Manager.
• Joel BarkersupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerFuturist and University of Minnesota honorary fellow, pioneer in paradigm shift thinking. Author of Paradigms.
• Michael HammersupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerMIT professor, pioneer of business process reengineering. Author of Reengineering the Corporation.
• Marissa OrrsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerFormer Google and Facebook executive, bestselling author and leadership speaker. Author of Lean Out.
• Dr. Bob NelsonsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerEdD from San Diego State University, leading authority on employee motivation. Author of 1001 Ways to Reward Employees.
• Denis WaitleysupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerNaval Academy graduate, renowned performance coach and motivational speaker. Author of The Psychology of Winning.
• Michelle GielansupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerUniversity of Pennsylvania MAPP graduate, former CBS News anchor, positive psychology researcher. Author of Broadcasting Happiness.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• BTS Group: BTS is a strategy execution and leadership development consulting firm that delivers simulation-based workshops and custom programs to large enterprises, overlapping with ITLN's culture transformation and strategy execution workshops like How Stella Saved the Farm.
• BetterUp: BetterUp is an emerging player in employee well-being, resilience, and leadership coaching, addressing the same positive psychology and high-performance themes as ITLN's Happiness Advantage workshop but through a digital, AI-enabled coaching platform — a partial substitute and adjacent competitor.
• Positive Psychology LLC (Michelle Gielan / IPP): Michelle Gielan (an ITLN partner and Harvard-trained positive psychology researcher) and similar independent positive psychology practitioners run their own workshops and training businesses, representing the kind of adjacent solo-practitioner offering that ITLN both partners with and competes against for corporate well-being engagements.

Direct peers

• Crucial Learning: Crucial Learning (combining VitalSmarts, Crucial Conversations, and Top Grading) is a direct peer offering research-backed leadership and communication workshops with train-the-trainer certification, serving a similar enterprise and education buyer base as ITLN.
• FranklinCovey: FranklinCovey is a direct competitor in enterprise leadership development and training, commercializing Stephen R. Covey's content (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) globally through workshops, certification, and content licensing — a near-perfect parallel to ITLN's model of turning thought leader IP into scalable workshops.
• Development Dimensions International (DDI): DDI is a direct peer in leadership development and culture transformation, selling research-backed leadership programs, certification, and consulting to large enterprises — the same buyer profile ITLN serves with its flagship workshops.
• Center for Creative Leadership (CCL): CCL is a direct peer in leadership and organizational development research and training, working with Fortune 500 clients on leadership programs, executive education, and culture change initiatives that overlap directly with ITLN's enterprise offering.
• Dale Carnegie & Associates: Dale Carnegie is a direct peer in the enterprise training and professional development category, delivering globally scaled leadership, sales, and communication workshops through certified facilitators — overlapping heavily with ITLN's workshop and train-the-trainer model.
• The Ken Blanchard Companies: Blanchard directly competes with ITLN in leadership and management training built around Ken Blanchard's thought leadership (The One Minute Manager), and ITLN's co-founder Greg Kaiser began his career there. Both firms commercialize Blanchard-style content through workshops, certification, and enterprise consulting.

Broad incumbents

• Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning: Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning is a broad incumbent in enterprise leadership development, distributing Harvard-affiliated content and programs globally; it competes with ITLN for the same Fortune 500 leadership development budgets and has deeper institutional brand and budget.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/international-thought-leader-network
• Xx.com/ithoughtleader

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about International Thought Leader Network