Speaker | Author | Consultant | Corporate Culture Transformation Expert | Co-Founder & Managing Director at Excellent Cultures, Inc. | Nearly 5 Decades Building the World’s Best Cultures for the World’s Best Companies
With nearly fifty years of experience shaping high-performance leaders, teams and organizations Steve Gandara has made quite an impact.
As Co-Founder and Managing Director of Excellent Cultures, Inc., he and his team of professionals have partnered with global brands—including Toyota, Microsoft, Costco, Caterpillar, and Subway—to help build workplace cultures recognized for unity, excellence, and industry dominance.
A seasoned leadership coach and U.S. Army Reserve veteran, Steve’s disciplined, mission-driven approach is rooted in both real world experience and his academic journey: a BBA from the University of Oklahoma and postgraduate studies in management and leadership at Texas Christian University and General Motors University. His proprietary “Service-Over-Self Organizational DNA” model has empowered countless teams and leaders to unlock record-breaking ROI and achieve “Best Places to Work,” diversity, high-performance and excellence honors.
Beyond the boardroom, Steve’s legacy includes mentoring youth, championing unity that celebrates diversity, School Board Member, Licensed Foster Parent, Minority Scholarship Fundraiser, Church Board President, Social Service Charity Board Chair, College Board of Regent’s Chair and co-raising eleven children—two biological and nine adopted—with Denise, his bride of over five decades.
Through his nationally licensed IGNITE YOUNG LEADERS program, he continues to inspire future generations to lead with purpose, values, and impact.
Whether speaking in a boardroom, teaching in a classroom, or mentoring the next generation, Steve Gandara remains committed to impacting leaders to build cultures that ignite excellence, elevate others, and endure for generations. His life and work reflect a deep commitment to service, leadership, and building cultures that bring out the best in people, families, teams and organizations.
“Principles and practices that change your organization for the better. They are truly timeless as I’ve seen them work for over 25 years now.”
David Jaworski, Principal Program Manager, Microsoft Teams, former President of Microsoft University
“Our high 95 percent engagement scores on the Toyota Survey (including hourly workers) are a result of the hard work of our team along with great programs like Excellent Cultures.”
George Christoff, President, Toyota de Puerto Rico
