Welcome! Let me tell you a little bit about myself.
My name is Brian Virtue and I’m currently on the faculty of the International Graduate School of Leadership in Manila, the Philippines. I teach in the fields of leadership and peacemaking, teaching courses such as Servant Leadership, Team Leadership, Leadership Negotiation, Coaching to Develop Leaders, Interpersonal Relationships, and Strategic Leadership.
I’m from Long Beach, California. I attended Long Beach Poly High School and went on to UCLA and graduated in ’97 with degrees in History and Political Science. After several years of ministering to students on campus at Stanford University, I earned my MA in Transformational Leadership and eventually MA in Divinity as well with an emphasis in Ministry Leadership. Most recently I completed my Ph.D. in Peace Studies where my research focus was on the factors that contribute to leadership negotiation between unequal parties resulting in flourishing outcomes.
I have contributed to the development of leaders in multi-ethnic and multi-national contexts for over twenty years, most recently in Manila and Asia at large as a graduate professor teaching leadership and peacemaking to leaders from over 30 countries. I have over a decade of human resource and executive leadership experience that has allowed me to be both a scholar and practitioner of cross-cultural and organizational leadership. We lived in the Philippines for 8 years and worked in Asian-American leadership development prior to that experience. The Covid-19 pandemic led to a sudden redirection of our family back to Long Beach, CA, but we continue to teach and mentor Asian leaders virtually.
Some of my specific passions and interests include the areas of leader and spiritual formation, negotiation, conflict coaching, leadership ethics and power dynamics, family and congregational systems, and emotional maturity in leadership.
My experience as a leader brings a variety of skills and abilities that can help develop teams, organizations, and leaders. Most significantly, my experience and personal journey have cultivated expertise in the development of leadership character in the context of diversity and organizational change.