“I have a personal passion to help individuals and organizations be more effective. Nowhere is this more important than in Kingdom work! We must first look to the Lord for His guidance and wisdom and then apply sound business principles to all our work.”

Dr. Beverly Upton, a 25-year veteran of organizational development, serves as Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of Haggai Institute International. She leads the Institute's global operations to ensure that the world’s highest-qualified, credentialed, Christian leaders are equipped for evangelism through the Haggai Institute training program.

Bev joined the Haggai Institute senior leadership team in 2008. A strategist and business leader committed to the Institute's evangelical focus, she has refined the selection process to increase the quality of leaders attending training, while aligning critical systems, structures, and processes to enable Haggai Institute to achieve its mission with excellence.

Prior to joining Haggai Institute, she was CEO of Upton & Associates, an organizational development consulting and executive coaching firm based in North Carolina. In that role, she partnered with leaders in corporations, community foundations, city governments, universities, and hospitals throughout the Southeast to support them in achieving organizational goals and objectives.

Bev also worked for the Covey Leadership Center as a senior consultant. Her clientele included leading companies such as Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, Ritz-Carlton Hotel Companies, and Westinghouse.

Involved in her church and community, Bev has served as an elder and adult Sunday school teacher in the Presbyterian Church; on the boards of a number of community and civic groups, including the Girl Scouts of America; as commissioner for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in the state of North Carolina; and as chair of a city-wide Teen Pregnancy Prevention Task Force. She has also volunteered her time and expertise in strategic planning with various non-profit organizations.

Bev earned her Doctorate of Organizational and Human Resource Development from Vanderbilt University, and she is a graduate of Duke University’s Business Coach Institute.