About Will

Will Marre is the co-founder and former president of the Covey Leadership Center where he translated the concepts of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” into powerful leadership courses taught to over one million executives worldwide. As CEO of the ReaLeadership Alliance, he helps leaders identify, communicate and implement new social-strategic models. These are meta strategies to grow by doing social or environmental good.

Through stakeholder retreats, brand charities, brand documentaries, and social websites, Will links sustainability to strategy to foster a platform for enduring growth.

In 2004, Will founded The American Dream Project to help leaders of the future find work/life balance and develop and find the ideas, tools and relationships they need to create the next chapter in American and world history. Will recently received an Emmy Award® for writing the learning documentary “Reclaiming Your American Dream” that continues to air on Public Television stations around the country. The program garnered three Emmy Awards in 2005.

Will is a pioneer in socially-strategic enterprise and corporate social responsibility. Working with New York Stock Exchange companies to combine charity and commerce, Will co-founded the not-for-profit Seacology Foundation, the only conservation organization in the world expressly dedicated to saving the fragile environments and cultures of islanders especially in the South Pacific. In a similar alliance, Will co-founded Redline Revolution, an innovative non-profit educational organization aimed at reducing teenage deaths and accidents from car crashes.

Will is passionate about helping organizations to improve the quality of our personal lives and accelerate economic and social improvement throughout the world. He’s currently launching “CitizenOne,” an education campaign to teach social entrepreneurship to high school and college students worldwide.

Will’s Biographical Milestones

•  At 25, Will bought his first business, Beachcomber Bills Beachwear, for $1.00 and built it into a multi-million dollar manufacturer, selling to retailers from Neiman Marcus to Nordstrom, and his 9 factory outlet stores in two years.
• From his first business success, Will was asked to consult with several west coast sportswear companies including Hang Ten, Lightning Bolt and Quiksilver.
• By 30, Will had started a strategic consulting practice specializing in refinancing and turn-arounds.
• In 1983, Will co-founded Covey Leadership Center with Stephen Covey with a vision to become the most influential leadership training organization in the world.  Will served as President of The Covey Leadership Center for 7 years.
• Created “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” audio and video training programs in 1984 which have been used to train over one million executives world wide.
• Planned, marketed and hosted the largest leadership training satellite broadcast to over 200 universities featuring Stephen Covey and Tom Peters in 1985.
• Started the Masters of Leadership Series for Senior Level Executives with faculty including Ken Blanchard, Tom Peters, Warren Bennis and Stephen Covey.
• Conceived and created Leadership Week for Senior Executives held monthly at Sundance Resort in Utah continuously since 1987.
• Packaged and sold “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” to Simon & Schuster, which has sold over 15 million copies, is still on the New York Times Business Bestseller List and has been named the most influential business book of the decade.
• In 1992 Will was recruited by the American Quality Foundation, an organization founded by ten large U.S. Companies including General Motors, AT&T and Disney to develop “The Stuff Americans Were Made Of,” a national quality initiative for knowledge workers and executives.
•  In 1993, co-founded Inside Out, an executive coaching and training firm designed to significantly improve leadership performance.
• Since 1995, Will has served as a personal leadership advisor and coach to several CEO’s of multi-billion dollar companies.
• Has also co-founded and is on the board of the Seacology Foundation, the only conservation organization in the world expressly dedicated to saving the fragile environments and cultures of islanders especially in the South Pacific.
• Founded the American Dream Project, a research initiative to discover what the American Dream is for the 21st Century. The project focused on the perceptions, values, and hopes of Gen21, the 126 million young Americans ages 15 to 40 who are the leaders of tomorrow.
• Will has authored the book, “Your Dreams on Fire,” and written and co-produced three popular DVD’s, including “America’s Coach,” as well as a personal development program titled “Lifeology.”
• Will was awarded an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for writing a learning documentary, “Reclaiming Your American Dream,” aired by PBS. (The show also won additional Emmy’s for the Director and Producer.)
• Founded The REALeadership Alliance with a vision to create an international community of the world’s most influential leaders with a mission to harness socially-strategic enterprise to unite us in a world-wide “One Legacy” campaign for a healthy planet with healthy people.