Leslie Yerkes

Leslie Yerkes is a Weatherhead Affiliate instructor and is president of Catalyst Consulting Group, Inc. an organizational development and change management consulting firm based in Cleveland, Ohio. Leslie’s business goal is to help people create sustainable organizations. Her life goal is to create a framework in which people can draw on their own resources to find creative solutions. Her clients have included Chrysler Corporation, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, United Church of Christ, International Steel Group, Mittal Steel USA-Cleveland, and NASA. A subspecialty of Leslie’s is making nonprofits healthy and sustainable.

Leslie is a recognized consultant, author, and speaker throughout the United States and Europe. She is considered an expert in her field and is frequently quoted in the media. She is the coauthor of the bestselling 301 Ways to Have Fun at Work, Beans: Four Principles for Running a Business in Good Times or Bad, and They Just Don’t Get It! Changing Resistance into Understanding. Being released in 2007 are Fun Works: Creating Places Where People Love to Work and Beyond Kicks and Carrots: Motivation in the 21st Century. Her works have been translated into more than a dozen languages selling hundreds of thousands of copies world wide.

A graduate of Wittenberg University and Case Western Reserve University, she has taught at John Carroll University and Baldwin Wallace College. She is on the faculty at the Weatherhead Dively Center of Executive Education and the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University.

Leslie’s speaking style is highly interactive and full of tangible application. Her energetic style, relatable stories, and real life experience ensure a presentation that will exceed your expectations every time. She shares her passion on the subjects of leadership, management, teamwork, communication, fun at work and self motivation.