Better Leaders. Better Teams. Better World.

Meet the Cleaver Team

The Cleaver Team

Frank DuMar

Frank DuMar has worked professionally with over 500 companies, personally consulting with hundreds of CEOs, managers, and employees across a variety of industries, to align their human capital strategy with their business strategy. Frank has more than 15 years of leadership development experience as the CEO of Cleaver Company. Frank became a certified Cleaver Consultant in 1987 and joined Cleaver Company in 1994.  He became CEO of the company in 1996 and since then has worked to broaden the development program offerings and range of the original Cleaver tools to create highly effective methodologies.

Mike Borst

Mike Borst is a Resource Executive at Cleaver Company.  Mike's passion for helping individuals succeed on both the professional and personal levels has fueled his career as an executive coach and team developer. Over the last 15 years, Mike has helped companies and non-profits in a variety of functions - from sales to client management to team development - while advancing his own work in leadership and organizational development.  Mike has an Organizational Behavior degree from Miami University’s Farmer School of Business, a Master’s degree from Winebrenner Seminary.  He currently lives in Charlotte, NC with his wife and four boys.

Austin Smith

Austin Smith is a Business Development Specialist at Cleaver Company. Over the last decade, Austin has helped organizations and non-profits develop their sales and marketing strategies to achieve their growth goals. He owned and operated his own consulting firm specializing in organizational and business development, prior to joining Cleaver Company in 2019. Austin lives in Charlotte, NC with his wife and four children.

Scott Dust

Scott Dust, an Associate Professor and Kirk and Jacki Perry Professor in Leadership at the Lindner College of Business (University of Cincinnati), spearheads efforts to support and grow Lindner's suite of non-degree offerings. Dust is also the chief research officer at Cloverleaf, an HR-tech platform.

He joined the Cleaver Company as the Chief Research Officer in 2021 where he sits on the strategic development team ensuring that organizational best practices are backed by and on the cutting edge of scientific research in the field of organizational leadership.

www.scottdust.com

Graham Smith

Graham Smith is a Business Development Specialist at Cleaver Company. For more than a decade, Graham has been helping businesses and non-profit organizations achieve their goals by building strong teams. Joining Cleaver in 2022, he is a part of the product development and platform management team as well as the continued development of past clients in the ever-expanding Cleaver Development Community. Graham has a theology and philosophy degree from Indiana Wesleyan University and a Masters degree from Wesley Seminary. Graham lives in Charlotte, NC with his wife, son, and daughter.

Olivia Coker

Olivia Coker is a Development Support Specialist at Cleaver Company. She has experience as a personal consultant, professional curriculum and instructional design, and people analytics. Olivia has a Psychology degree from the University of Central Arkansas and a Masters degree in Industrial Organizational Psychology from Missouri University of Science and Technology. Olivia lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband and two cats.


Cleaver Coaches

Petra Holcomb

Petra Holcomb retired from Southwest Airlines after 28 years, where she held a variety of jobs.  From reservations sales agent to several leadership positions within Reservations, then into training and instructional design, and finally leading the high potential leadership program and talent practices. 

In 2020, Petra and her husband, Mike, packed up everything and moved to Kill Devil Hills, NC. After a few years of the retired beach life, Petra decided she wasn’t done working!  Since starting her own coaching business, she has worked with the following companies: Ingevity, supporting the redesign of their leadership program; Coastal Ferry providing leadership skills training, and lastly Cleaver as a Resource Executive and coach. Petra’s coaching and facilitation style is direct yet caring. She has a track record of helping leaders become the best version of themselves as professionals and people. She believes each of us has a special gift that will make those we lead, and the companies we serve, better for having us as a part of their circle. Petra feels her job as a coach is to ensure that her clients’ gifts are amplified and offered in productive ways.

Petra attended the University of Texas, as an art major.  Loves art, knitting, her dog Sky, and living on the water. 

Rick Shaum

Rick Shaum is a Resource Executive at Cleaver Company. His business experience, spanning several decades, has allowed him to build a reputation as a “results-oriented leader and manager” who accomplishes his objectives by recruiting and developing top talent. Rick’s diverse business background has resulted in a broad understanding of core corporate functional silos including sales, operations, marketing, advertising, human resources, and finance/accounting. Rick earned a Bachelor’s degree in Religion & Psychology from Vanguard University in southern California and his Master’s degree in Speech Communication from the University of New Mexico.

Valerie Monti Holland

Valerie Monti Holland is a Resource Executive at Cleaver Company and is a business coach and trained sociodramatist who has a background in strategic policy, management, and the British criminal justice system. After running her own business development coaching practice, Valerie spent four years as a transnational manager working with European partners to influence legislation regarding marginalized individuals. She is fluent in French and lives in the United Kingdom. Valerie joined the Cleaver Company Resource Executive staff in September of 2011. In addition to fieldwork, Valerie also works with Cleaver Development Services on program design. She currently sits on the Sociometry and Leadership task force.

Beth Newton

Beth is a Resource Executive at Cleaver Company and brings a very contemplative and curious approach to coaching and leading, formed by her 25 years of experience in top global firms in culture change, leadership development, and talent management. She believes that we never reach our full potential; our own capacity to change and grow is continuous and limitless as shown by her track record of facilitating individual and organizational transformations.​

Beth loves to travel the world, be in nature, immerse in different cultures, and explore untouched locations in her camper van with her sheepadoodle, Harley.

Elizabeth Gillagan

Elizabeth Gilligan is a Resource Executive at Cleaver Company and is an executive coach, consultant, and facilitator in the areas of leadership and management. She has worked extensively coaching clients one-on-one, and as well as specializing in how to create and foster high-performing teams. Ms. Gilligan began her career at Fidelity Investments, learning Fidelity’s core financial services business. Elizabeth ended her career at Fidelity as the Vice President of Global Training, responsible for customizing and delivering training programs across Fidelity’s thirteen international call centers.

Todd Stone

Prior to Joining Cleaver, Todd spent 22 years helping to grow a family business into one of the largest landscaping and snow removal services in the Kansas City Area.  As an enthusiastic student of business, he worked his way up from an account manager to COO before leaving in 2022.  While he operated as a high-level generalist, his passion was figuring out how to use culture and leadership development as a competitive advantage.  

After taking a year off, a chance encounter with our CEO, Frank DuMar, led to Todd joining the Cleaver team to work on developing our Life 2.0 curriculum and program and in the Summer of 2024 he joined the team full-time as a Resource Executive.  

When he’s not working, you can often find him focused on his favorite pastime, adventure motorcycling, which is cross-country touring via dirt and gravel backroads. Todd currently lives with his wife (and three dogs) in the KC metro area.

Strategic Partners

Arc-En-Ciel

Cleaver has partnered with Arc-En-Ciel to provide the DISC through The Method of Colors®. Arc-En-Ciel provides an analysis tool for single behavioral skills for human resources management.

Cloverleaf

Cleaver has partnered with Cloverleaf to bring you powerful business insights into your teaming reality through a robust technology and platform. Cloverleaf is an all-in-one, customizable platform where you can learn all about yourself and how to work better with those around you. You can gain tools to help you optimize performance, improve communication, and much more while you implement your assessment results daily.