Meaning of Batho
Batho (Baah – toe) is a southern African word. In SeSotho, it means “people” and in Setswana, it means “humanity”. The image in the logo is a hat associated with a mountain and the people of Lesotho, the Mountain Kingdom. In 2005, an African ceremony was conducted by the tribes of southern Africa whereby Sir Bright was initiated into the BaSotho nation as an elder for his humanitarian work in southern Africa. Sir Bright was given the SeSotho name, “Teboho”, which means, “Thank you God for this person, this gift. Sir Bright lived and worked on the African continent for 20 years whereby this word has shaped his life of service. In finding a name for this business, Sir Bright also wanted to honor and continue to connect to this rich culture, people, and an important part of his personal journey. Moreover, Sir Bright wanted to infuse the philosophy of Batho into this business, as reflected in the core values of the Batho Group: people-centered, authenticity, excellence, professionalism, and compassion. To this endeavor, The Batho Group was created to offer a range of coaching, consulting, and community engagement services.
Our Mission:
The Batho Group’s mission is to develop individuals, organizations, and communities to realize success through coaching, consulting, connecting through development initiatives in order to build stronger leaders, managers, families, organizations, and communities
Our Vision:
The Batho Group is the first choice for individuals, organizations, and communities to develop their capacities to flourish.
Sir Jose Bright
Sir Jose Bright has over 30 years of global experience in leadership, management, and talent development with the public, private, and nonprofit sectors and communities. He specializes in coaching leaders, managers, teams, and individuals seeking to improve their performance and results. His expertise includes strategic planning and management, change management; people-centered community development; servant leadership and personal branding; management development; entrepreneurial development; diversity, equity and inclusion management; conflict resolution; project management; and human resource development and management. He also works with communities tackling huge social issues such as health equity, behavioral/mental health, environmental justice, workforce & economic development, education, housing affordability, and health.
Based in Atlanta for the last five years, Sir Bright has coached executives and entrepreneurs, facilitated strategic planning and board development processes, conducted racial equity workshops, and consulted on community initiatives in Cobb County and the South Fulton County region, both in Georgia. He has been a guest lecturer at Morehouse College on Poverty in the 21st Century, at Spelman College on Nonprofit Governance, and at Kennesaw State University on Design Thinking, Social Innovation and Social Enterprise.
During his time in South Africa and the African continent, Sir Bright provided coaching, consulting, and technical support to governments, nonprofits, and corporates across the African continent, including the Southern African Development Community, the Media Institute of Southern Africa, The African Capacity Building Foundation, the New Partnership for African Development, the Pan African Parliament, and African Lawyers Without Borders. He has also consulted for international development agencies such as USAID, CIDA, DFID, SIDA, DANIDA, GTZ, UNDP, and the World Bank. He is a frequent local and international speaker on authentic and strategic leadership, social entrepreneurship, people-centered community development, global education, and the democratization of Africa and its strategic participation in globalization.
Jose lectured at Wits University on management and business courses. He also lectured at the University of Johannesburg on community development and leadership, and co-authored business studies textbooks published by MacMillan Publishing for high school students.
He has given a TEDx Talk and was interviewed by ABC Nightline for his humanitarian efforts in South Africa. He was featured in the documentary, “Blacks Without Borders” and has been locally and internationally interviewed, including the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Georgia Tech WREL-FM Before moving to South Africa, he was licensed to practice law by both the Supreme Court of California and the Court of Appeals, Washington, D.C. He also served in senior appointed positions in the legislative and executive branches of government in Washington, D.C. as well as a government think tank and the private sector. He also was appointed to several public boards and commissions in Washington, D.C.
He received a Jesuit education – Bachelor of Arts in political science and Spanish literature from Loyola Marymount University, and a Juris Doctor in law from Loyola Law School, both in Los Angeles. Sir Bright is a Knight of Honor in the oldest Christian Order dating back to 1046 A.D. – the Orthodox Order of St. John Russian Grand Priory, which is under the spiritual protection of the Russian Orthodox Christian Church and the imperial protection of the Romanov Dynasty as well as affiliated with the United Nations, for his humanitarian work in southern Africa.
