Delivering meaningful results with zest, rigor & grit, Novos is led by our founder & comprised of a diverse, global network of experts unparalleled in their craft.
MEET OUR FOUNDER & FUTURES LAB MANAGING DIRECTOR
Frieda K. Edgette, MSc, CPCC, PCC
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Hi there! Take a seat. Get comfy.Frieda founded Novos (“anew”) with one purpose: to help leaders, teams, organizations and collectives harness the best of their potential to shape thriving futures. As a former public health operative and government affairs specialist turned strategy executive, foresight practitioner, behavioral scientist, commissioner and award-winning leadership coach, she has spent her career guiding transformation across industries, governments and communities worldwide.
Transformation is personal. Perhaps, just like you, Frieda's "why" is guided by lived experience. Having struggled with a vicious eating disorder for 15+ years, in early recovery, she was amazed how her brain, body and social bonds transformed from surviving to thriving with zestful purpose, rigorous data-driven practice and endurance-powered grit. This inspired a journey of continuous learning, creativity and mastery in guiding individual, organizational and social transformation at scale. Weaving her expertise across disciplines, Frieda has designed and led more than 250 large-scale transformation initiatives across five continents and advised 5K+ emerging to C-suite executives, senior government officials and parliamentarians to achieve strategic goals amid complexity and disruption. From energy to education, hospitality to healthcare, real estate to sports and recreation, finance to professional services, and technology to trade associations, Frieda's experience in the private sector is both expansive and extensive: She has crafted and scaled organizations, advised on AI adoption and digital transformation, led innovation sandboxes and sprints, jumpstarted culture change, designed agile governance processes and facilitated immersive development programs that enable leaders and teams to achieve measurable results -- whether that’s scaling, leadership transitions, mergers and acquisitions or global expansion. Zestful Service Within government, Frieda has led innovation workshops as a U.S. State Department Professional Fellow in Turkey and Southeast Asia. She spent three years as an innovation strategic leader and senior advisor, leading service delivery initiatives to accelerate digital transformation efforts at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Treasury's Internal Revenue Services. In academia, she was on the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management's adjunct faculty for courses in principled political leadership and neuropolitics. She also designed and instructed a course in resilient leadership at Stanford -- the first of its kind. In 2018, Frieda founded Courage to Run, the nation's first nonpartisan running series, leadership community and mobile app focused on being healthy to lead effectively in civic life. In 2020, she was named a Goldies All-Star for public affairs and political professional exceptionalism and the recipient of the prestigious Reed Award for Best Professional Development Initiative. Believing in everyone’s responsibility to give back, Frieda is an executive member of the San Mateo County Behavioral Health Commission, chairing its Youth Committee and co-founding its Youth Action Board to embed youth leadership at mental and behavioral health decision-making tables. She is also the Community Consortium Chair for allcove San Mateo, a youth wellness center that takes an innovative approach to holistic well-being. Academic Rigor & Endurance-Powered Grit Frieda is a credentialed International Coach Federation professional executive coach, in addition to being a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach. She holds Critical Thinking, and Diversity and Inclusion Certificates from Cornell University, AI x Design Thinking and Creative Problem Solving Certificates from IDEOU, a Development Award in Group Facilitation from the Institute of Leadership and Management, a Resource Development Award in the Science of Happiness from the University of California, Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center and is trained in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction from the University of California, San Francisco Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and compassion cultivation from Stanford. Frieda has a Master of Science in Organizational and Social Psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and minors in History and Women, Culture and Development from the University of California, Santa Barbara. |