We are a team of consultants, coaches, trainers, speakers, entrepreneurs, and creatives that come together to provide the most customized solutions to our global clientele.

Awaken Group collaborates with our Creative Collaborative partners and independent advisors and consultants with over 100 years of global experience collectively across over 30 countries to best serve our clients’ needs and goals.

We launched our Creative Collaborative as a way to live out our core beliefs of “integration” of diversity and “togetherness” to design creative new solutions for our clients.

So-Young Kang, Catalyst, Founder & CEO

So-Young is Catalyst, Founder & CEO of Awaken Group, a global leadership development and organizational experience design firm passionate about transforming the world through inspiring and developing “human, creative, adaptive” leaders. She has lived and worked throughout Asia deepening her expertise in managing diversity and intercultural issues. She is passionate about integrating East-West values and mindsets and has traveled around the world to observe, listen, experience, and be transformed so that she, in turn, can catalyze sustainable change.

So-Young has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA with honors from the University of Pennsylvania. She was previously with McKinsey & Company and Citigroup. In 2000, she founded The Young Professionals’ Group, a scholarship and advisor network to help students achieve their professional dreams. So-Young is a TED-ster and has been a TEDx speaker.

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Erwin Raphael McManus, Explorer and Advisor

Erwin is an author, speaker, activist, filmmaker and innovator who specializes in the field of developing and unleashing personal and organizational creativity, uniqueness, innovation and diversity. Engaging in such issues as culture, creativity, change, and leadership, Erwin is widely known as a thought-provoking communicator. His travels have taken him to over 30 countries and he has spoken to over a million people from a wide variety of audiences, including the NFL, Lionsgate, New Line Cinema, and ILOG. His work is featured in numerous films, articles, and magazines globally.

Erwin is a native of El Salvador, and is a graduate of the University of North Carolina and Southwestern Theological Seminary.

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Dave Gibbons, Zealot and Advisor

Dave loves chaos! He is a proven innovation strategist, author, culture specialist and creative communicator. Dave shares dynamic insights on leadership development both in North America and throughout strategic cities globally. He speaks throughout North America and Asia. Recently he spoke at a global leadership summit where over 125,000 people listened to his work on third culture and how it relates to organizations. He just published a book on adaptive leadership across cultures and regularly consults executives, artists and the next generation of international leaders. He loves perplexities and innovatively working through conundrums.

He founded Yangdang, a donor engagement platform that connects causes with people and resources, is Chief Visionary Officer (CVO) of Xealot, which connects resources (human, financial and knowledge) to leaders and serves on the World Vision US board.

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Brian D. Molitor, Mentor and Advisor

Brian D. Molitor is Chief Executive Officer of Molitor International, a consulting and training company with over twenty-seven years of experience serving clients in North America, Australia, Europe, the United Kingdom, the Caribbean and Africa.

Brian’s business books, The Power of Agreement and Win Win Win, have helped thousands of people identify their organization’s vision, mission, core values and operating principles, as well as optimize their human relations. Molitor’s training courses, Leadership that Lasts, Barriers to Bridges, and Team Problem Solving have helped hundreds of organizations reach their highest potential.

Brian has produced and hosted numerous television programs that have aired in Africa, the United Kingdom, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean, South America, Canada, and the United States. He has most recently been the executive producer of a youth-oriented reality television show called TheDRIVEtv which airs in 170 countries.

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Mark Wee, Creative Collaborative Partner

Mark Wee is the Director of OX:D, the Experience Design studio at ONG&ONG in Singapore, a firm that integrates urban planning, architecture, interior design, environmental branding, and landscape design in the creation of built environments. He is also the Co-Founder of UNION Experience, a design thinking school & innovation lab.

Mark regularly trains organizations on how design thinking can help innovate their products, services, and environments for a better future. He has coached and trained numerous public sector organizations and private sector clients on how to improve their user experiences. Mark holds a Bachelors of Architecture from Cornell University.

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Ken Yuktasevi, Creative Collaborative Partner

Ken Yuktasevi is a designer, artist and cultural entrepreneur specializing in the field of experiential design. He works across the fields of architecture, interior design, graphic design, film, organizational transformation, and branding. He is currently a Director at ONG&ONG Architects, building its new experimental arm, “Experience Design.”

Ken studied arts and design at Stowe College in the UK where he received the Roxburough prize for Architecture. He then took a BA in film and cinematography at Bond University on the Gold Coast.

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Shauna Barnes, Innovator and Consultant

Shauna is a career and performance coach and consultant. She has designed corporate strategy for organizations to maximize their ROI for new hires. Her extensive training through the renowned Coaches Training Institute has established her as a leading coach and consultant in her field. She has a passion for people and experiencing new cultures. She has traveled and worked in developing communities in both South America and Africa.

Shauna has a Masters in Science, Education, from D’Youville College and has participated in Graduate studies work at Harvard Graduate School of Education. She holds an Honors undergraduate degree in Media Information and Technoculture from the University of Western Ontario in Canada.

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Adam Edgerly, Interculturalist and Consultant

Adam is an intercultural specialist and gifted communicator who has led transformational workshops for thousands across five continents. He has over twenty-five years of experience in public speaking and a unique ability to distill complex concepts into memorable principle and actions. A Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), a powerful tool for assessing and developing intercultural competence, Adam draws upon the latest science in the field and twenty years of senior executive experience leading and training diverse teams. As a Certified Master Coach, Adam also helps leaders unleash their potential and soar.

Adam has an MBA from Emory University with an international exchange at the University of Manchester, a BA and MA in Intercultural Studies from Biola University, with field research in leadership and language in Mali, West Africa and a Certificat de Langue Français from Université Paris Sorbonne (Paris IV).

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Hwa-Young Yoo, Creative Collaborative Partner

Hwa-Young Yoo is the Art Director of Art Angel Company, a global art consulting firm. She believes that every individual has the potential to be creative and is passionate about helping people discover their inner feelings and thoughts, and express them freely into reality. She has taught at the Seoul Art Center in Seoul with her own curriculum called ‘Art in English.’

Hwa-Young holds an MFA from the Pratt Institute in New York. She has also taught art at Ducksung Woman’s University in Seoul, where she currently lives.

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Hanna Kim, Balancer and Manager

Hanna is Balancer and Project Manager at Awaken Group where she contributes to the firm’s research efforts and projects. She leads and manages various strategic initiatives at the firm including marketing and research strategy. She enjoys working with a diverse group of talented people in her team.

Hanna has a BA in International Relations from the University of Southern California. She was previously co-founder and editor of a lifestyle Web site.

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Luke Chua, Forerunner and Consultant

Luke is a consultant who scouts ahead and prepares a path for his team. He is constantly working with new ideas and information, making them relevant for his team. He has a background in finance and has done analytical work in the industry previously. Luke is absolutely crazy over new ventures and he co-founded a sports supplements retail business during university.

Luke was born in New York and grew up as a third culture kid, living in Toulouse, Singapore, Beijing, Xiamen and Melbourne. He has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne.

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Mervyn Khoo, Peacemaker and Consultant

Mervyn is Peacemaker and a Consultant with Awaken Group. He enjoys history and loves looking at the journeys that people and organisations take, helping to bring back stability, clarity and purpose in the original blueprints of intentions. Mervyn previously co-founded two successful F&B (food & beverage) companies that targeted schools and hospitals.

Mervyn was born and raised in Singapore. He has a Bachelor of Honours in Electrical Engineering from the National University of Singapore.

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