Carlos Valdes-Dapena is a collaboration guru and author of the books, “Virtual Teams: Holding the Center When You Can’t Meet Face to Face” and “Lessons From Mars: How One Global Company Cracked the Code on High Performance Collaboration and Teamwork”. His articles have been published broadly, including in HBR.org and Fast Company, among others. Currently, Carlos is writing his third book on leading collaboration.
Carlos credits growing up as the middle child of 11 for his passionate interest helping groups work better together. He holds an MSOD from American University and an MFA in Theatre from Florida State University.
Carlos honed his expertise in collaboration at the highest organizational levels. For 17 years he was an internal consultant at Mars, Inc., and was directly involved with brands like M&M’s, Snickers, Uncle Ben’s Rice and Wrigley’s Gum. There he won the company’s prestigious Global Make the Difference Award for his work on the Mars Framework for High Performance Collaboration.
Before Mars, Carlos was at IBM as an executive coach and consultant to the top 35 global IBM leaders. Through DDI in 1993 Carlos’ other clients included AT&T, Pfizer, General Motors and Lockheed Martin.
Besides speaking, writing, podcasting and blogging, Carlos is Managing Principal of Corporate Collaboration Resources, LLC, an organization and group effectiveness consulting firm. His speaker credits include at the North American Organization Development Network, The Conference Board, the Organization Design Forum, the Midwest Technology Leadership Forum, some of which are on his YouTube channel with his Lessons From Mars Vlog or on his website, carlosvdapena.com.
