Barbara Grant is the Founder and CEO of Crux Consulting Consortium. She advises leaders and organizations on their most pressing issues related to mission, strategy, team development, and relationship to equity, inclusion and belonging. Barbara works with clients from various sectors – private, public, and social – and has gained perspective on all different levels of these systems.
This includes multi-national corporations and NGOs (Microsoft, PATH), social impact investors, foundations and social entrepreneurs, business and membership associations, public agencies and school districts, and local organizations of all sizes. Her perspective combined with her fundamental skills of being present, deeply listening, and being unusually useful, makes her an engaging and insightful thought partner.
Her own leadership experience prior to the last two decades of running an international consulting practice, ranges from building programs in prisons, to a decade at Microsoft, including directing Microsoft’s Leadership Development programs worldwide. Based in systems thinking, equity and data informed decision making, Barbara bridges differences to support clients at all levels to take meaningful, sustainable action, in support of their missions.
Barbara is hard-hitting, clear, direct, and strategic. She is skilled at discussing and strategizing toward dismantling systemic barriers to forward movement, and helping people re-understand the world without the distortion and privilege. Barbara partners with leaders in multiple roles to help transform and build internal strength to achieve their goals and advance mission impact. Clients regularly report that they value her practical, outcome-based orientation.
Barbara has a Masters in Organizational Leadership from Bastyr University and a BA in International Relations from the University of Notre Dame. She is culturally competent and has experience in a variety of countries and settings, is fluent in Spanish, and, being of Irish heritage, has a well-developed sense of humor. Barbara lives happily in Seattle, is an active community volunteer, and a parent of two very interesting teenagers.
