Title: Founder
Company: Mindful Leaders Group
Location: North Andover, Massachusetts, United States
David Sollars, Founder at Mindful Leaders Group, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Business Owners for dedication, achievements, and leadership in consulting and coaching.
With nearly 35 years of experience to his credit, Mr. Sollars has excelled as the founder of David Sollars Consulting since 2012 and the Mindful Leaders Group (MLG) since 2022. In these roles, he coaches and consults with chief executive officers and their senior business leaders, facilitates developmental workshops using innovative “lived experiences” for teams to become experts in their own awareness to action, especially during escalating complexity. “Where you notice confusion, conflict, paralysis and overwhelm, I see symptoms of commercial complexity. That’s what to lean into and get better at,” Mr. Sollars notes.
Mr. Sollars further describes his preferred business model as “walking beside leaders and their teams.” He makes a distinction, “My efforts strive to be useful in developing leaders with awareness of both their intent and their impact on the systems and people that they lead. The gap between the two is often a rich area of insights and exploration. For me, that’s how a leader’s vision not only lands, but is picked up by many others, transformed into their own and integrated into daily way of working. A leader led methodology has created evidence of a more sustainable way forward, especially over time during rising threat, increased pressure, especially at pace.”
Mr. Sollars has more recently been requested to extend his leader led developmental methodology on a lens into partnering with organizational talent development for succession planning with a focus on elevating leadership complexity capabilities. Mr. Sollars articulates this as “Building onto the well-developed business acumen and vast experience of the talent pipeline, while developing often less developed areas of complexity thinking, navigation and leading systems under pressure and threat.” His team harvests critical insights using a time-tested methodology of integrating deep inner workings from personal discovery conversations with a sample of the leadership, along with advanced team generated analysis. This collaborative combination has created satisfaction among clients for both being customized and scalable, especially in large global organizations.
Mr. Sollars has a devoted commitment to developing himself as a leader, which has created the success principles that now guide his life & career over the course of a diverse and satisfying path of professional experiences. He found success in designing & delivering high impact coaching and global consulting as a co-owner and director of Inuous Ltd. from 2013 to 2022 and as a senior consultant for the Authentic Leadership Institute from 2013 to 2014. He began his coaching career as the executive coach for the chief executive officer and senior leaders of Honda of America, when they first opened an injection molding facility in Ohio during the early 80’s. This experience of working within culturally diverse and innovative global environments, while navigating challenging business climates was the foundation for stimulating his intense interests in how leadership can guide organizations through tough times to new heights of success. He continued his studies as a certified coach, speaker and Founding Circle member with The John Maxwell Team. He has continued his chief executive officer and senior leader coaching career with numerous global commercial engagements as well as Harvard Business School Team coaching for AMP from 2014 to 2018 and MIT’s Sloan Executive Education as executive coach since 2014.
Combining his passions for innovative business development, meeting unmet needs of the community and cultural explorations, Mr. Sollars founded a series of unique and innovative medical clinics in the Boston metro area integrating familiar and traditional medical services with an emerging array of complimentary medical therapies designed to address a patient’s complex needs for many chronic maladies. He served as a clinic founder and the medical director for Mass Therapeutics of Brookline, Massachusetts and FirstHealth of Andover between 1986 and 2014. During this time, Mr. Sollars was a frequent lecturer in the accelerating commercial area of Integrative Medicine, with national audiences, hospital staffs, Harvard Medical faculty speaker, as well as publishing both “The Idiot’s Guide to Acupuncture & Acupressure” and “The Idiot’s Guide to Homeopathy.” He also served for 15 years as a senior editor for Natural Standard, an acclaimed medical research writing collaborative in cooperation with Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.
To support his various interests & ambitions, Mr. Sollars pursued an education at Wright State University, from which he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theatre in 1982. He continued his formal academic efforts at the New England School of Acupuncture in 1989, graduating with a master’s degree in Chinese and Herbal medicine. Following his formal studies, Mr. Sollars developmental journey as a commercial leader was accelerated through completing extensive programs and workshops with organizations that include JPA Global, Minds at Work, Gestalt International Study Center, Essential Partners and Coaching Constellations between 2015 and 2024.
Mr. Sollars embarked upon his professional path as a child and young actor, an experience that enabled him to obtain a scholarship to attend Wright State University, having been the first in his family to attend university. He later expanded his understanding of human conflict by connecting with audiences’ felt emotions as a fight choreographer, advancing to eventually become a “Recommended” or distinguished member of the Society of American Fight Directors before shifting his attention to integrative medicine. Soon after establishing a number of integrated medical clinics in the Boston Metro region, he accepted a number of opportunities within academia, including creating a nationally recognized innovative course as an adjunct professor in biology at Merrimack College, titled, “Integrative Approaches to Sport’s Medicine” from 2002 to 2008. Mr. Sollars applied his television performing and producing experiences to become the co-creator, co-starring chef, and co-producer of a web-based comedy cooking program titled “Shameless Chefs” from 2004 to 2009.
Beyond his primary responsibilities, Mr. Sollars has participated in numerous endeavors outside of his immediate circles. Between 2000 and 2007, he combined his passion for innovation with his expertise as an herbalist to become president of Catapult Coffee, a pioneering nationally distributed herbal-enhanced coffee product offered by Comfort Foods. His desire to create an impact in his community led him to embrace Rotary International with service in The Rotary Club of Andover from 1997 to 2013, serving as club president in 2000. He was deeply inspired by the heart-felt care provided to children with disabilities and veterans using the therapy of the horse, so began volunteering with later service culminating as Ironstone Farm chairman of the board from 2004 to 2014.
Mr. Sollars has provided his expertise to others through his published works as well, which began with “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Acupuncture and Acupressure” for The Penguin Group in 2000 and “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Homeopathy” for The Penguin Group in 2001. In the years that followed, he authored multiple publications for The American Institute of Stress, including “The Tangled Truth” in 2013, “Moving Beyond Bias: Minimize Non-Conscious Bias to Maximize Results” in 2015, and “Expert Tips to Tame Stress,” among many others. A topic close to his heart was American Institute of Stress: “Horses Bring Peace to a Soldier’s Heart,” co-authored by David Sollars and David Ferruolo; this article, which highlights the journey of Clint a military veteran diagnosed with PTSD, through the first U.S. study on Equine Facilitated Mental Health (EFMH) for PTSD and is regarded as a compelling look into the challenges and potential solutions for our Wounded Warriors in 2013.
Mr. Sollars has also been a contributing and senior editor to several texts and publications including multiple peer-reviewed articles in The Journal of Herbal Pharmacotherapy from 2002 to 2004, “Natural Standard Herb & Supplement Handbook – Evidence Based Clinical Review” in 2005, “Natural Standard Herb & Supplement Handbook – The Clinical Bottom Line” in 2005, “Coping with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury” in 1998, “The Root of Chinese Chi Kung” in 1989, and “The Eight Pieces of Brocade: A Wai Dan Chi Kung Exercise Set for Maintaining and Improving Health” in 1988. “Scarecrow Finds a Heart” is the latest publication co-authored by Mr. Sollars and his granddaughter, Sydney. A children’s book designed to stimulate a different dialogue between adults & children, community and business leaders, “Scarecrow Finds a Heart” follows the hurt and healing of the “community of the porch.”
Attributing his success to his insatiable curiosity and innovative business-minded nature, his dedication to know himself, Mr. Sollars has accrued several accolades throughout his career, including the 2013 Alumni Leadership Award from The New England School of Acupuncture, an Award for 10 Years of Service from Ironstone Farm, and recognition as the President during the Rotary District Club of the Year and Enterprise Bank’s Celebration of Excellence, as one of the communities Entrepreneurs of the Year. He recalls one of his most satisfying professional moments, is having facilitated heated discussions between two major multi-nationals, who found a way to move past their differences, develop new kinds of dialogue, culminating in signing the largest telecom deal of its time, known as the “Spirit of Milan,” which is still in place to this day. In the coming years, Mr. Sollars hopes to continue assisting the senior leaders of organizations to shape the world of work and beyond through an approach that is grounded self-awareness, compassionate action and strong business acumen.
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