Collaborent is a group of accomplished professional facilitators, mediators, coaches, and strategic consultants who support organizations and people in navigating important conversations and related conflicts.
Our Founding Partners
Jessica Williams is a founding Partner and CEO of Collaborent. Jessica began practicing conflict resolution in 2002, and she offers an array of consulting services targeted to navigate decision-making processes and enable clients to reach sustainable agreements. She specializes in the facilitation of multi-stakeholder consensus building, problem-solving, interest-based dispute resolution, analytical decision-making processes, and leadership coaching. Prior to her work with Collaborent, Jessica was a management consultant for nine years with a large, leading consultancy providing facilitation, business analysis, and project management for government and private-sector clients, as well as working for two years in a top commercial mediation firm where she helped resolve complex multi-stakeholder legal disputes. She also served as a mediator for the cities of San Francisco, California and Boulder, Colorado.
​
Jessica holds an MBA from the University of Denver with concentrations in Values-Based Leadership and Strategic Organizational Change, and a B.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles with dual degrees in Economics and Psychology. She holds a certificate in Conflict Resolution from the Justice Institute of British Columbia, Canada, and was certified as a Project Management Professional certified by the Project Management Institute. Jessica lives in the Greater Denver Area of Colorado with her family and enjoys an active lifestyle.
Jessica Williams
Michael Fogel is a founding Partner of Collaborent with 30 years of experience as a mediator and conflict resolution educator. From 1986 to the present, Michael’s career has focused primarily on conflict intervention, conflict management, negotiation, organizational transformation, and leadership initiatives. He specializes in mediating commercial and organizational disputes, multi-party and public policy conflict, family business disputes, major loss insurance claims, and healthcare issues. He works with community groups and leaders, law firms, judges, public and private sector organizations and multi-national corporations, and senior executives.
Michael has been presenting courses in the Justice Institute of British Columbia's conflict resolution program since 1986 and teaches post-graduate university programs in interest-based mediation and negotiation and advanced mediation seminars. He also has an EQ Coaching™ practice in which he coaches managing partners of law firms throughout North America, as well as judges in Canada, the U.S., and Israel.
Michael is a Chartered Mediator (Canada), and has a BBA, LLB, and JD from the University of Texas at Austin, as well as a Master’s degree in counseling psychology from the University of British Columbia. Prior to his move to British Columbia in 1985, he practiced law in Southern California for 16 years and served as a California municipal and superior court judge (by appointment). Michael lives in Vancouver, Canada.
Michael Fogel
Collaborent Roster & Strategic Alliances
​
When it makes sense and serves the needs of our clients, we partner with a diverse range of professionals to achieve the best outcomes. Collaborent has a core program management office team of associates and an established, fully-vetted, highly-qualified, and diverse roster of more than 200 professionals, who are located across North America. We use all of our best tools and, when necessary, tap into the expertise of others. We get the job done well, in the most cost-effective and efficient way possible.