Who we are

About VeDA
We Are Unreservedly Ethical

Vertical Development Academy

VeDA is a global consulting, training, coaching, assessment, and research enterprise, facilitating vertical development in individuals, teams, and organizations. We apply our Leadership Maturity Framework in concert with our Harvard-tested Maturity Profile to support our clients in all phases of life-long development. We also train and certify leaders and coaches to work with their teams or clients, using a sophisticated and nuanced developmental coaching approach. VeDA has the largest global database of developmental assessments for leaders using the MAP instrument, administered by highly trained certified raters.

We Are Unreservedly Ethical

Vertical development models require extra sensitivity because hierarchical models are easily misunderstood and misused. At VeDA, we consciously adhere to the highest ethical standards in both our assessment and coaching services. We uphold strict confidentiality of client data. We are conscientious in how we hold and communicate our framework, and how we train the coaches who work with us. Our certified scorers and coaches have completed intensive training over time, and are required to engage with ongoing practice forums to hone their capabilities. As a company, we ensure the information revealed through the assessment profile is used ethically and with sensitivity, both at the individual level and the organizational level.

VeDA Stewardship

Beena Sharma

Beena Sharma is president of the Vertical
Development Academy and an international
consultant committed to serving leaders and
organizations grow and develop. As a certified
MAP scorer, a certified Leadership Maturity
Coach, and a lead facilitator of VeDA’s coach
certification program, Beena is an expert in
helping organizations design and implement
developmentally sophisticated systems. She is
also trained at the master level in Polarity
Thinking, and integrates this expertise into
her coaching and consulting practice. Beena
has worked for more than two decades in the
area of whole-system, large-scale change, and
has completed multiple certifications across a
variety of methodologies, such as Holacracy,
Clean Language, Action Learning.

Dr. Susanne Cook-Greuter

VeDA Partner, 2005 – 2022

Dr. Susanne Cook-Greuter is the creator of the MAP instrument and its assessment methodology. Dr. Cook-Greuter’s theoretical work forms the foundation for VeDA’s approach to enabling transformative leadership. Dr. Cook-Greuter is known worldwide for her seminal work in adult development theory and is a keynote speaker at conferences internationally. She has charted new territory in defining mature adult development. Since 1980, she has analyzed more than 11,000 MAP tests in more than 200 different academic and business contexts. An international authority on adult development, she has served as partnered with Beena as VeDA’s strategic advisor and research director from 2005 until 2022, safeguarding the standards of excellence in our assessment service. Susanne has led the creation of VeDA’s coach training, and our current programs are built squarely on Susanne’s scientific, ethical and philosophical stance of an integrated human development.

Certified Coach & Scorer Network

We are proud to have a network of exceptionally skilled and certified Leadership Maturity Coaches. To qualify for VeDA’s coach certification training, participants must have certification credentials from an established or recognized coach-training institution, along with several years of successful coaching experience. VeDA certification indicates an advanced coaching specialization, that takes up to a year to complete, and includes supervised practice to ensure our certified coaches have demonstrable expertise in how to coach with insights gleaned from the Leadership Maturity Framework and its measure, the MAP

Our Certified Scorers have undertaken rigorous training to gain expertise in scoring the MAP. We are the only institution we know of that offers an intensive two-year Scorer Training Certification using the proprietary Loevinger-Cook-Greuter manuals and assessment system. Each of our 14 trained Certified Scoring Associates is exceptionally competent at creating fine-tuned developmental profiles. Demonstrating a strong commitment to leading-edge learning, our scoring associates periodically engage in structured learning sessions and practice forums—ensuring the high inter-rater reliability we require from all our scorers