Naftali Brawer - CEO of the Spiritual Capital Foundation

Mission

Naftali Brawer is the CEO of the Spiritual Capital Foundation; a non profit organisation devoted to instilling deeper meaning and purpose for doing business. He began his career as an Orthodox Rabbi who after being ordained at the age of twenty two, went on to serve as the spiritual leader of congregations in both the United States and Britain for close to twenty years. In his immediate past post he led one of the largest Jewish congregations in Europe with close to 1300 families. He also spent two years travelling and teaching throughout South America.

In addition to his Rabbinic Ordination and post-graduate degrees Naftali holds a PhD in Hebrew and Jewish Studies from University College London.

He teaches ethics and intellectual history to wide and diverse audiences and he is a much sought after public speaker. He is a fellow at the RSA and advisor to various inter-faith and human rights organisations.

Publications

Naftali is a published author, columnist and broadcaster who frequently broadcasts on BBC4 and regularly delivers the “Pause for Thought” on the BBC Radio 2 Chris Evans Breakfast Show.

Expertise

Naftali is a powerful communicator whose great strength is his ability to distil and simplify abstract concepts and to communicate them in a compelling, relevant and inspiring way.

He is an energetic and engaging speaker whose style alternates between presentation and facilitation. After presenting an idea he encourages and facilitates group conversation to explore the idea in greater depth through multiple perspectives. One of the techniques he uses to provoke lively conversation is to distribute short interesting and provocative texts for consideration and group discussion. He has addressed a wide range of audiences including business leaders, politicians, academics and students.

Lecture Topics

Profit & Purpose: How to Positively Transform your Business and the way you Live. Businesses can be one of the most powerful agents for positive change in society. This seminar explores how this is possible and how in the process of changing society, business itself can be positively transformed, leading to greater employee motivation, deep personal satisfaction and increased profit.

Life’s Journey: Living a purposeful life. To take charge of one’s life, being flexible enough to positively respond to life’s unexpected challenges and sometimes; disappointments and to use them to thrive.

Are you a fundamentalist? We hear a lot about fundamentalists in the news these days. We tend to think of fundamentalists as radical and sometimes violent proponents of a particular faith. The truth is far more complex and uncomfortable. Fundamentalism is a state of mind that many people find themselves in. It impairs one’s ability to make wise decisions and to maintain healthy and constructive relationships. The objective of this lecture is to shed light on our own fundamentalist tendencies so that we can learn to overcome them.

Servant Leadership: How to get the most out of the people you lead. To discover and learn how to apply an ancient model of leadership that sees the leader as a servant of those he/she leads. By serving the needs and nurturing the aspirations of others a true leader is able to unlock immense potential and energy.

What is your Story? A seminar on self-discovery. To regain a greater sense of self-awareness, integrity and wholeness, enabling one to bring the entire self to one’s work and life.

Change: Crisis or Opportunity? The Challenges and Opportunities of Change. For participants to gain a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the benefits that accrue to those who embrace change while at the same time recognising the importance of achieving a sensible balance between continuity and change.

Endorsements

Naftali inspired and challenged the group of CEO's and entrepreneurs around their "purpose" in business. His challenge to focus on profit with purpose resonated with the members and the morning quickly disappeared in an environment of engagement and debate.

Naftali has an inspiring and natural style that quickly creates an atmosphere of trust and inclusion. It was a brilliant morning and Naftali will be visiting other Footdown groups across the country.

Dr Naftali Brawer has been working with KPMG for over three years. He has compiled and led senior level discussions and monthly learning seminars for internal KPMG employees as well as external professionals in the City. His sessions are very well attended and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. We have yet to find a speaker, in such a capacity that can even compare with Dr Brawer.

In addition, he is our regular guest speaker at a major annual function that KPMG runs for senior clients. The most recent event was in December 2011 when over 150 people were present and the feedback was extremely positive. Dr Brawer has also leads more intimate discussions over lunches with very senior members of the firm and external clients (these include a captain of industry, senior partners from magic circle law firms, hedge fund managers and KPMG’s global head of transaction services). Such events have also been a tremendous success. KPMG has enjoyed a highly productive and beneficial relationship with Dr Brawer and we expect that to continue for many more years to come.