Who We Are
Our Why
We believe that…
People should have access to the wisdom, knowledge, skills and experience that will allow them to be successful in their chosen work life.
Success shouldn’t have to come at the expense of your family, friends, community… life!
You can be successful and still have a life.
A Little About Us
Balanced WorkLife Company is the brain child of co-founders Jim and Lori Dryburgh. After a combined 35 years at IBM, they decided to start their own business, helping professionals get further in their careers. Over 15 years later, we’ve had the opportunity to work with senior executives at many companies – large and small – including Dell, CA Technologies, SAP, and many more. We’re helping reverse the trend of so many workers being unsatisfied in their jobs by helping them discover their “work personalities” and then giving them the tools to create a life they enjoy.
Meet the team that is helping to create the leaders of tomorrow
JIM DRYBURGH
Founder/ Co-Owner
Jim‘s passion is helping successful executives achieve their full potential while they enjoy their life’s journey. Jim has extensive experience in executive coaching and development, business strategy, communications, and change programs that produce lasting results in business expansion and transformation. He is the founder and president of The Balanced WorkLife Company. Jim is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst and a Certified Professional Values Analyst. His business acumen starts with 25 years at IBM in a variety of technical, marketing and senior management positions. When he left IBM he was the Practice Leader for the Business Transformation consulting practice. Jim is also the managing partner of JRD & Associates Ltd. with offices in Scottsdale, Arizona. Jim lives at The Retreat in Scottsdale, Arizona with his wife and business partner, Lori.
LORI DRYBURGH
Founder/ Co-Owner
Lori’s extensive background in corporate training and professional education makes her the perfect person to develop the tools and programs here at Balanced WorkLife. She loves helping clients discover their version of career success combined with a high quality of life. Since 2001 Lori has worked with her partner, Jim, building The Balanced WorkLife Company. While she can be very driven and project-focused, Lori also practices what she preaches. She regularly enjoys hiking, world travel, reading, entertaining, and taking care of Tegan (a Skye Terrier dog) and Tasha (a Siberian Forest cat).
STEVEN P. HILL
Senior Consultant & Executive Coach
Steven P. Hill is the founder of Focused Management Solutions Inc. and a Senior Consultant and Executive Coach with The Balanced WorkLife Company. He works with corporate and entrepreneurial executives to narrow their focus and invest in what they do best. Steven helps them work more “ON” and less “IN” their business. He strives to bring clarity to the executive’s career objectives, as well as their personal goals and develop exceptional teams to support them on their success journey. Steven also facilitates strategic planning sessions with executives, their sales teams and business partners. He uses structured facilitation techniques to drive teams to clarity and actionable ‘short paths’ to success. He frequently works with clients and their largest customers and partners to jointly develop or finalize large, complex, multi-year opportunities or partnerships. His international practice has included engagements in the United States, Canada, South Africa, England, South America, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, India and Russia.
RON COLLIER
Strategic Partner
Ron Collier is the Founder of Collander Consulting LLC and a Strategic Partner at The Balanced WorkLife Company. Ron sees coaching as a process to collaboratively explore where a client wants to go and how to get them there, while they enjoy the journey. Forward-looking enterprise leaders seek him out to accelerate themselves and their teams through times of dramatic change and significant growth. With over 30 years of leadership and management experience, top executives and their teams rely on Ron’s business mentoring, coaching and soft skills training, for individual advancement, team coaching, developing strategies and initiatives to drive business outcomes, and for deep personal insights through comprehensive personal talent assessments and debriefing. Ron is a TTI certified professional analyst in behavior, motivation, EQ, & ACI. He lives in Tampa Bay with his wife & two children and enjoys martial arts and brewing beer in his leisure time.
DEBORAH CAMERON
Executive Coach
Deborah is a former CHRO and CLO with more than 30 years’ experience as a senior manager and executive at IBM, Dell, and Pacific Dental in both Canada and the US. She is now sharing her experience and helping others as a Management Consultant at RGP, she’s the founder of Smart Insights Consulting and, an Executive Coach and partner at the Balanced Worklife Company. Deborah’s passion is working with executives to help them excel as successful leaders- helping bring them clarity to both their professional and personal goals and developing exceptional teams to support them. Deborah specializes in Executive coaching, Strategic Planning, Performance Consulting, Facilitation, Team Building, and People thought leadership. She is also certified in Assessment Based Talent Management Solutions.
SOMAYAJI “MANI” MANIKANTAN
Life Explorer and Executive Coach
Mani’s corporate background includes marquee Silicon Valley Tech and Internet companies. His work experience spans Fortune 50 to startups to rural development. Having demonstrated successful, result-orientation in delivering high-use, mission-critical products, he has shown transformational flexibility in growing social enterprises. He also founded a company in the health and mobile app space as well mentored founders on platform business. Mani’s perspective on life is an odyssey. As a life-long, committed explorer in it, he supports others in their business and life expeditions. Mani is an accredited ICF 1on1 and EMCC Team Coach with a passion to help others achieve their dreams and full potential. He holds an MBA (Innovation and Managing Technology) and bachelor’s in computer science. Mani is at home around the globe and across cultures. He currently lives in Ashburn, VA with his family and enjoys the mountains, hiking, parks, frisbee and trails.
WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY
BWL did a fantastic job of guiding us through the process of improving our day-to-day personal priorities as well as our business planning priorities across the team. In addition they helped all of us to see that thinking outside of the box can help us achieve our goals substantially more quickly.
KAI WILLIE
Working with BWL was fantastic. They had great expertise as well as a deep understanding of business solutions. Powerful, knowledgeable and responsible Executive Management.
JERRY MALDONADO
I was like many, a little skeptical of a coach. Boy, the last 18 months have converted me to a believer. BWL helped me understand myself, balance my home and work life, provide tools and techniques to manage that balance, and overall make me more effective at my role as a manager, employee and family man.
MATTHEW RICHARDS
I have worked with the BWL team many times over the years. They bring a creative approach unlike any I have ever seen yet find a way to customize it to the specific situation they are faced with.
BILL LIPSIN
BWL is an incredible resource to our team – they act as a coach, mentor and success driver. BWL spends the time to truly understand our business and then maps the right tools to help bring our teams closer together to achieve our corporate goals.
ADAM FAMULARO
In the 15 years that I have represented BWL’s services to my clients we have never once seen a negative reaction. They work their magic equally well with individual executives and leadership teams and have made a significant contribution to performance in every case. Their personality, their experience and their ability to get to the heart of the issue really do give his clients “a competitive edge in the game of life.”