Meet your partners in growth.
Our team
Schalk van Rensburg, LLB/BComm
PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT
CHAMPION OF OPERATIONS, PEOPLE, & CULTURE
A multi-talented individual with education and experience in both the legal and business sectors, Schalk has a proven track record of starting small and growing exponentially bigger. A visionary with a compassionate, charismatic, flexible, independent, and positive personality who seeks to fully comprehend all aspects and implications of an organization’s strategic vision, mission, and values. He employs an organized, practical, data-driven approach that results in the effective and efficient implementation and execution of strategic vision across all levels of an organization. As caring leader with high emotional intelligence and an innate understanding of the modern labor market, Schalk relies on coaching, knowledge transfer, and kindness as key leadership techniques to support highly collaborative, empowered teams.
Lauren Houck, MBA/BBA
MANAGING PARTNER
CHAMPION OF STRATEGY, ADMINISTRATION & IMPACT
A social impact professional with an MBA and a passion for businesses that exist to do good, Lauren has worked in a variety of industries and contexts, both within the private and non-profit sectors in the US and abroad. Lauren’s career spans strategic consulting, operations, and program management, where she has consistently delivered streamlined processes, optimized resources, and high-quality outcomes. Known for her analytical approach and collaborative style, she excels at identifying and addressing operational gaps to boost productivity and align processes with organizational goals. She is driven by the desire to help others and believes that we all should be granted the autonomy to live a life that we truly love. She is most passionate about empowering people to work together within business structures to achieve positive impact for societies and for the world.
Professional Bios
About Schalk
Schalk is a Co-founder, Managing Partner and the Principal Consultant of Schala Advisors. He was born and raised in South Africa, where he attended Stellenbosch University and obtained both a BComm (a more robust BBA) and an LLB (the predecessor to JD). Whilst qualifying as an attorney in his home country, Schalk developed diverse legal experience in both human rights and commercial law during his time at the Human Rights Commission of South Africa, a national institution established to support constitutional democracy, and ENSAfrica, Africa’s largest law firm.
Upon moving to Atlanta, GA in 2015, Schalk pivoted his focus from law to business. He became involved in an early stage start-up shortly after his arrival and was immediately drawn in by the excitement, unbridled potential, and creative energy found in this new environment. His formal education and unique background allowed him to thrive in the entrepreneurial domain, and for the better part of the last decade, Schalk has served on the executive team of the start-up where his business journey began.
Schalk draws inspiration from Joel Arthur Barker’s famous quote “Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.” and uses it as the foundation of his business philosophy. He is a firm believer that it is only when meticulous strategic planning and deliberate organizational architecture align with sound operational design and an empowered team that an organization can truly be impactful in the way that it desires.
Schalk has applied this philosophy to great success, managing the day-to-day operational activities of an emerging business to enable rapid sustainable revenue growth, from $700K to $10MM at an annual average increase of 64%. He grew the company’s labor force from 10 disparate employees to an empowered engaged team of over 120 while never compromising on service delivery and maintaining customer and corporate employee retention rates at well over 90%.
Called to expand his positive impact in the world and driven by the belief that businesses have unlimited potential to do good for their employees, communities, and the world at large, Schalk founded Schala to give back. He seeks to fulfill a critical skill and knowledge gap by providing high-quality consulting services at affordable rates to fuel small and medium businesses’ sustainable and impactful growth.
When not obsessing about strategic business planning and operational design and how best to empower individuals, Schalk loves nothing more than spending time with his lovely wife and daughter, whether it be cooking at home, hiking and camping in the great outdoors, or traveling the world.
About Lauren
Lauren is a Co-founder and Managing Partner at Schala Advisors. She was born in Louisiana and raised in Georgia where she obtained her BBA in Management at the University of Georgia. Following graduation, she enrolled as an Americorps VISTA in Chicago, Illinois, where she worked to alleviate poverty through economic development and educational support of the African refugee community.
With a subsequent non-profit, she supported children and families affected by HIV as a medical case manager, prior to returning to school and obtaining her MBA in Management at the University of Illinois at Chicago. It was through her post-graduate studies that she developed a special interest in the then-emerging field of social enterprise and began to focus on the application of business concepts as a means to drive sustainable social and environmental change.
Shortly after the completion of her postgraduate studies, Lauren was travelling solo through South America when she met her future husband in a hostel. Within the year, she had moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, where she lived as an expat for the next few years. While there, she served as a Chief Operations Officer for a diverse group of start-up companies, assisting in strategic planning, driving operational improvements and creating processes and procedures to ensure effectiveness within the organizations which she helped manage.
Since returning to the US, Lauren has fulfilled a variety of roles, within both her professional and private domains. Following the birth of her own daughter, she shifted course again to embrace the role of motherhood. This chapter enriched her perspective, developed her management skills, and fostered a deeper sense of empathy and felt need for positive societal change. Now, Lauren brings these qualities back to her work, along with a renewed commitment to purpose-driven projects. These days, she applies her expertise to strategic planning, systems and process design and general operational support, through which she empowers small-businesses and organizations to achieve sustainable, impactful operational growth.
When not contemplating how she can collaborate with others to save the world, Lauren is basking in the wisdom and joy of preschooler perspective, chasing fresh air and inspiring vistas, and leaning into the sense of curiosity and wonder that ties her little family together.