Meet Your
Transformational
Leadership Coach
Seni Penitani · Community Leadership Builders
I learned to coach in a classroom — but I learned more in crisis. What I discovered in twelve years inside a juvenile correctional facility, in the hospital rooms with my wife Agnes, and in raising a son with a rare genetic disorder is what I now bring into every boardroom I enter.
"Most leadership development programs give your people better information. Mine gives them transformation — and there is a significant difference between the two."
— Seni Penitani, Founder · Community Leadership Builders
Forged on the Frontlines.
Built for the Boardroom.
I have spent over two decades working in environments where the difference between information and transformation is not theoretical. As a leader within Cru for thirteen years, I coached college students and young professionals toward purpose and calling — grounded in an M.A. in Christian Ministry that gave me a deep understanding of human identity, community, and accountability.
Inside a juvenile correctional facility for twelve years, I sat with young men every system had written off and watched what happened when someone finally believed in them and held them accountable to grow. My first formal coaching training happened in those halls — Motivational Interviewing and Certified DBT Skills Instruction — tools forged not in a seminar room but in the hardest relational environments imaginable.
When David was born in 2011 — my very first year working inside the juvenile correctional facility — he was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder known as RERE, affecting only 12 known cases in the United States and the Netherlands at the time. From that first year, I was already learning to lead under a pressure no training program prepares you for.
Then in my final four years at the facility — from 2019 to 2023 — everything intensified. I was working full time in one of the most demanding environments a leader can face, caring for my son David, and walking alongside my wife Agnes Lomu through four years of stage four colon cancer. I became a widower when Agnes passed in 2023. Daniel, Katalina, and David are the three reasons this work has never been theoretical to me.
I did not survive that season by accident. I survived it — and built Community Leadership Builders in the margins of it — because the principles I was developing were not just professional. They were personal. They were tested under the kind of pressure most leadership programs never prepare you for.
What I learned in those rooms is what I now bring into boardrooms. Information alone never changes anyone. The missing ingredient is always the same — a coaching relationship built on accountability, honest feedback, and real-world application. That conviction is the foundation of the 7C Transformational Leadership Model™, with Coaching Growth as its hub and driving force.
Daniel · Katalina · David
"The three reasons this work is personal."
Four Disciplines.
One Practitioner.
My approach sits at the intersection of disciplines that rarely exist together — and that combination is what makes CLB genuinely different.
Philosophical
B.A. — Philosophy, Politics & Economics
Socratic dialogue as a coaching tool. How people reason, decide, and justify their beliefs under pressure.
Theological
M.A. — Christian Ministry
Human identity, purpose, and community-driven transformation. The deepest framework for why people do what they do.
Psychological
12 Years · Juvenile Corrections
Motivational Interviewing · Certified DBT Skills Instructor. Behavior change forged in the hardest relational environments that exist.
Organizational
Doctoral Study · Strategic Leadership & Executive Coaching
Theory meets practice across culture change, team development, and leadership transformation at the organizational level.
New to the Executive Market.
Not New to the Work.
I will be direct with you: I am new to the executive coaching space. I am not new to coaching. I have been doing this work for over two decades — in environments far more demanding than a boardroom.
"The same principles that helped a juvenile inmate rebuild his identity and calling will help your senior leader rediscover theirs. The same small group accountability structures that drove transformation in ministry — the model Wesley used to change England, that Jesus used with twelve — will drive transformation in your teams."
The 7C Transformational Leadership Model™ was not borrowed from a business school textbook. It was built under pressure, tested in crisis, and refined over 25 years of working with human beings in some of the most challenging environments a leader can face.
If you are tired of training that produces compliance but not change — let's talk.
Ready to Work With
Someone Who Has
Lived This?
Start with a no-pressure Discovery Call. Let's talk about your organization, your people, and whether CLB is the right fit.
Book a Discovery Call →Community Leadership Builders · The 7C Transformational Leadership Model™ · Aligned with Harvard's Human Flourishing Program