Who We Are
The lead provocateur of Jazzthink is Brian Fraser. He is a professional speaker, author, coach, and consultant specializing in the fields of leadership and teamwork as they relate to organizational effectiveness. Clients appreciate his understanding of their needs and aspirations, the wisdom he brings to their situations, his inspiring presentations, and his effective facilitations. People leave his sessions energized to make a positive difference in their organizations.
Prior to launching Jazzthink in 2002, Brian served as Minister of Glebe Presbyterian Church in Toronto (1978-1985) and Dean of St. Andrew's Hall, the Presbyterian college at the University of British Columbia (1985-2001). During his tenure as Dean, he was also Professor of History at Vancouver School of Theology. In both situations, he left a strong legacy of organizational health and vitality for his successors.
Brian's interests, in his own work for organizations and in his research, have always focused on the ways great leadership serves great teamwork and organizational effectiveness. He is the author of 10 books and over 40 articles. He currently writes a book review column for Vantage Point, the newsletter of Volunteer Vancouver.
A keen jazz fan for most of his life, Brian began to explore seriously the lessons jazz had to offer organizations in 2002. Since then, he has continued to find in this intriguing art form profound insights into how healthy leadership and teamwork can thrive and change toxic environments. He believes that leaders do their work through conversations. The quality of leadership conversations determines the health of the organization. And conversation, in fact, is the most common form of jazz or improvisation. So, every leader is a jazz musician. Their instrument is their voice and the ways they use that voice to create optimism, mutual respect, and good will determine the legacy of their leadership.
Since the inception of Jazzthink, Brian has been privileged to work with a wide variety of organizations in the not-for-profit, governmental, and private sectors, such as Toyota Canada, the North Shore Credit Union, Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, the Fresh Outlook Foundation, Leadership Vancouver, Vancouver Island Health Authority, Fraser Health Authority, Vancouver Coastal Health, Coast Mental Health, ICBC, and BC Hydro.
The leader of the Jazzthink Trio is Cory Weeds, one of Canada's premier jazz musicians, producers, and club owners. He plays a wicked sax, produces the Cellar Live label that won 'Label of the Year' at the National Jazz Awards in 2008, and owns The Cellar Restaurant/Jazz Club in Vancouver, BC, one of Downbeat's 100 best jazz clubs in the world. "We weren't really sure about this stuff that Brian wanted to do when we started," Cory recalls, "but he was a good friend, so we decided to humour him. But then we got into it and it really started to make sense. Now we love to get in the groove of igniting the imagination and wisdom in the room with our music and help people discover their values and desires around leadership and teamwork. This really works!" To find out more about Cory and The Cellar, click here.
