Team
UP QUOTES
“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.”
UP TEAM
James Norris
All his life, James has been searching for the best ways to change himself and change the world. He started as an entrepreneur at age 6 and since has co-founded or helped build 9 businesses and 16 organizations, including the global conference series for the effective altruism movement, the world’s first global lifehacking event series, Southeast Asia’s first social innovation hackathon series, and a university for today’s Leonardo da Vincis. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin as a triple major/quadruple minor. He’s spent 20+ years unsystematically upgrading himself.
UP TEAM
Thi Ho
Thi’s professional experience ranges from consulting for the world’s leading financial institutions to managing strategy, growth, and operations for early-stage startups in the US and HK. She is on a perpetual quest to acquire knowledge, better herself and implement her learnings to make an impact. Thi is deeply passionate about self-improvement, the healing arts, and serving the greater good. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Political Science.
Senior UP Coach
Paul Rhode
Paul is a senior coach with 6+ years of experience. His past educational and professional experiences center around management, economics, communication, data science, and psychology. He has worked with c-level managers, scientists, management consultants, venture capitalists, and many others. His coaching style leans toward directiveness, pragmatism, action bias, fast pace, data, experimentation, scientific evidence, thinking in systems, and growthful discomfort. Paul’s coaching mission is to empower bright minds to lead their fields and industries for the greatest good while taking care of themselves and their beloved ones.
UP Coach
Lee Mason
Lee’s mission in life is to help people lead optimally healthy, happy and meaningful lives. As a physical therapist, he worked in rehabilitation centers, a university hospital and a hospice for the terminally ill. As a teacher, he taught university courses about well-being and self-development. As a coach, Lee helps clients to achieve meaningful personal and professional goals, such as developing healthy exercise habits, increasing productivity and effectively managing stress. He created an online course about human flourishing, designed to help people optimize well-being and transform unproductive thoughts, emotions and beliefs into constructive behavior. He also wrote a book about sustainably achieving important goals. In addition, Lee hosts regular online self-development workshops for international audiences.
UP COACH
Dave Cortright
Dave helps clients discover their true life and supports them to live it. He is a certified professional coach drawing from several coaching approaches to craft a personalized program best-suited to each client. He previously spent 25 years at Silicon Valley tech companies (Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Venrock, etc.) as a designer, manager and IT director. He has been a serious philanthropist since 2004 and an effective altruist since 2017, supporting animal welfare, environmental and well-being causes. He is a member of the International Coaching Foundation (ICF). He also has extensive training and experience volunteering as a crisis counselor (Crisis Text Line) and is a top-rated compassionate listener (7 Cups). He has lived experience with anxiety, depression, procrastination, perfectionism, and imposter syndrome. Dave has a Masters in Computer Science from Stanford and a Bachelors in Engineering Physics from Michigan.
UP COACH
Michelle Raffanti
Michelle has built growth strategies for all manner of start-ups, nonprofits, and social enterprises across many different industries and locations. Throughout her career, she has focused on coaching, consulting for, and supporting women and indigenous populations. She holds a BA in International Relations from DePaul University in Chicago and an MA in Sustainable Development from The New School in New York. Originally from Chicago, she has lived in the UK, Colombia, China, and now resides in Mexico City.
Expert Network
UP EXPERT
UP Network
We build tailored UP Teams from our database of 300+ agencies, job boards, and specific experts and assistants, depending on the needs of the client. These UP Teams are generally composed of 2-15 people and may include a coach, executive assistant, psychotherapist, physician, exercise physiologist, registered dietitian, financial advisor, publicist, and personal stylist, among others. Some operate for short periods and some for longer.
