Our Story

2006 – An Idea

CTRI Founder Randy Grieser got the idea to develop his first training after he and his spouse, Heidi, moved from Morden, Manitoba, to Kaslo, BC. He had taken a counselling position with the Kaslo Community Society, and soon envisioned turning the material he produced for his graduate thesis into a workshop. He believed in the value of this material and wanted to share what he had learned with other counsellors and therapists.

Under the name, “Randy Grieser, Training and Consulting,” 3000 flyers were sent out to various schools and social services agencies. These flyers promoted two workshops: Crisis Response Planning and Suicide Intervention Skills. Although they’ve undergone many updates and revisions since then, we still teach these two workshops.

2007 – First Full-Time Employees, Private Training, and Big Decisions

2008 – Birth of ACHIEVE, International Expansion, and a New Office

While on vacation, Randy and Heidi conceived the idea for ACHIEVE Training Centre, focusing on leadership development and conflict resolution. In May 2008, CTRI conducted its first international private training. By August, they moved to their first official office at 154 Sherbrook Street in Winnipeg, with three full-time employees, and ACHIEVE became operational.

2009-2016 – Growth and Key Personnel

We continued to build a team that would help us in our long-term vision. Although she started as a trainer, Vicki Enns began her role as CTRI’s Clinical Director in 2010. Having worked as a trainer since 2008, Eric Stutzman (who is now our CEO) joined us as the full-time Managing Director of ACHIEVE in 2013. Our Managing Director for CTRI, Nathan Gerbrandt, joined us in 2015.

Long-term employees Cindy Rublee, Delayne Hogan, and Joyce Vincent have been instrumental to creating continuity in our workforce and stability in our office environment. Our training and development specialists during this time – Wendy Loewen (now the Managing Director of ACHIEVE), John Koop Harder, and Mike Labun – played an invaluable role in helping us create and maintain exceptional training material.

Throughout this time, we added various new resources including webinars and other online video trainings. We started to do more work in the USA, and we moved to a larger building just down the road at 62 Sherbrook Street.

During this time, our mission, vision, and beliefs were crystalized, and truly became a beacon for how we operate.

2017 – First Book, Launch of ACHIEVE Publishing and In-House Print Shop

With the publication of Randy’s first book, The Ordinary Leader, ACHIEVE Publishing was launched. By September 2017, CTRI began printing over 25,000 training manuals annually on-site and created the new role of Print Shop Supervisor.

2018 – Another Move

After outgrowing our space, we moved from a 2,400 square foot building to a 4,200 square foot office. We had plenty of space, with room to grow.

2020 – Big Changes

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we moved all our in-person workshops to a live virtual format. We quickly pivoted to using Zoom for all our live virtual workshops and webinars, and released a variety of free resources related to COVID-19.

Over the summer, Randy’s title changed to Founder & Chief Vision Officer; Eric Stutzman became the CEO; Wendy Loewen became ACHIEVE’s Managing Director; and Vicki Enns joined our staff as Clinical Director for CTRI. Wa Wa Tei Ike (Louise Mckay, Bear Clan) was brought on as our Traditional Elder, to guide CTRI in our relationships with Indigenous peoples, and on the path towards reconciliation.

We also updated our logos for both ACHIEVE and CTRI; ACHIEVE’s full name was shortened to ACHIEVE Centre for Leadership.

2021 – Expanding Team and New Publications

Key staff were added throughout the year, and we tested the waters for returning to public in-person trainings.

ACHIEVE Publishing released four new books: Counselling in Relationships, Once a Wizard, A Little Book About Trauma-Informed Workplaces, and the Counselling Activities Workbook.

2022 – Ownership Change and Another Move

After spending 16 years growing the company into what it is today, Randy and Heidi decided to sell the majority of their shares to CEO Eric Stutzman, and Managing Directors Wendy and Nathan. Randy still acts as an advisor to the team, and as a speaker, trainer, and consultant for the company.

We also moved around the corner to an office building at 710 Westminster Ave.

Today…

We offer 100+ different workshops to over 25,000 people each year, and we have published 10 books. We have a staff of 20+ employees and 100+ contract trainers.

We are as committed as ever to providing quality and accessible professional development training that inspires learning and improves lives.