Dr. Vera Alves, DBA

A Bit About Vera

Dr. Vera Alves is the Chief Consulting Officer of Leader Essentials Group. She is an executive consultant with extensive leadership development and business management experience.  With 12 years as a C-suite executive, Vera is highly skilled in leadership, strategic planning, operations management, organizational behavior, and change management.  She possesses strong communication, training, and linguistic skills reflective of a very persuasive and charismatic leadership style.

With over 18 years of experience in operations management, Vera has occupied different leadership positions, including being a leader of leaders. She has led a team of senior executives and unit managers and has always focused on achieving results through people.  Vera has consistently focused on selecting leaders for key positions, focusing on individual mentorship to include coaching, development, engagement, and commitment to the proposed business results.  One of her strongest beliefs is that organizations need to strategically address leadership selection and development, from initial leadership roles to senior management level, to deliver superior results. She has been directly responsible for developing managers and senior management teams and demonstrates unique leadership development and growth abilities.  

The establishment of B2B partnerships is also one of Vera's areas of expertise.  As a new business director, she planned and implemented projects that affected many stakeholders, both in the private and public sectors, delivering substantial financial results to the organizations involved.  From the conceptualization stage, through the detailed planning of the business initiatives, to the implementation of the plan, Vera has demonstrated a unique ability to bring new ideas into reality.  Given her work and life ethics, strong interpersonal skills, operational background, and belief in the power of partnerships, she has built alliances based on the development of trust and the commitment to mutual success.  These abilities strongly contribute to her role as an executive consultant assisting organizations in developing new businesses and partnerships.  Vera's extensive experience in operations and new business development added to her robust academic background enable her to develop a systemic view of organizations.

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Her success in her various business roles is also a result of her continuous investment in professional education.  Vera earned a Doctorate in Business Administration from the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL.  Leadership is her primary area of interest.  She is currently researching drivers of promotion recommendations, taking into account the Millennial generation, gender bias, leader assertiveness, and perceptions of competence and likability.  As Millennials represent over 50% of the American workforce, this generation will occupy more leadership positions in the near future.  Understanding any changes in their perceptions and expectations in relation to leaders may impact women and men's future representation in leadership positions.

Dr. Vera Alves has also pursued graduate and professional development courses in Europe, Brazil, and the U.S.  She has an MBA in Business from COPPEAD, Brazil, an M.A. from the University of Leeds, UK, and a diploma in Marketing with an extension in Finance from IBMEC RJ, Brazil.  Additionally, Vera has taken part in various professional development programs, including the Advanced Leadership Program at INSEAD & Fundacao Dom Cabral, France & Brazil, and a Publishing Program at Yale University, U.S.  She is keen on proposing courses of action that are informed by theory and practice.  Vera is able to contribute to different businesses with strategic perspectives blended with a strong sense of operationalizability.