Originally from Chicago, Darren has lived in Japan for the last 30 years and has extensive sales and marketing experience in the APAC region. He is currently the Area Director for North Asia for Zscaler and prior held senior roles in Oracle NetSuite, Verizon, and Vodafone KK. Darren is currently Co-Chair of the Information, Communications and Technology Committee and Vice Chair of the Digital Transformation Committee at the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan.
The book is a powerful distillation of Darren McKellin’s journey to mindful leadership, which began 30 years ago when he moved to Japan and had to learn to navigate one of the world’s most challenging and opaque cultures, where team harmony and patience are strong virtues.
Darren was the co-founder of the Mindfulness Project at Oracle Japan, an organization of 2,000 employees, in 2017. Oracle Japan had more than 2,000 employees and, as a result, there was a full-time doctor on staff. That company doctor noticed that many employees were suffering from work-related stress, resulting in headaches, stomach pain, and other ailments. He would recommend aspirin and other medication, but more and more employees were asking for a remedy without taking any pills. The doctor contacted the HR department, which in turn decided to create a program based on Google’s “Search inside Yourself ” course.
The team set up a 5 week course including Meditation, Body Scan Meditation, Mindful Listening, Mindful Eating, Walking Meditation, Journaling and Reflection. The team interviewed the attendees and collected data and had a sizable improvement in Concentration, Productivity, Confidence, Energy & Relaxation. Because of his role in creating this course, he's led many employees down the route of mindful sales, and now has written Mind Over Sales so that anyone and everyone can become mindful in their careers at any time or place.
