Who’s Who in the Enneagram World?

Does the name Russ Hudson mean anything to you?  Or Beatrice Chestnut? Mario Sikora? 

A quick Google search for “Enneagram” yields millions of results. Even narrowing it to “Enneagram teachers” produces hundreds of thousands of hits. The Enneagram world is vast, filled with teachers, schools and approaches that can feel overwhelming to navigate. If you’ve ever wondered who’s who, or why two people teaching the “same” Enneagram can sound so different, this guide is for you.

This list isn’t a ranking, and it highlights living teachers. We could write a book if we tried to include all the people who have influenced this system since its early, ancient origins, so think of this listing as the tip of the iceberg of people who are shaping the modern Enneagram. I’ve trained with many of the people mentioned here, but this guide isn’t an endorsement; it’s meant to help you get your bearings and decide who you might want to explore next.

While many well-known teachers are based in the United States, the Enneagram is truly an international community. You’ll find rich, vibrant Enneagram networks in all corners of the globe from Egypt, Denmark, Singapore, South Africa, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Brazil and beyond. In recognition of this international reach, the International Enneagram Association just announced that for its 2027 global conference, the venue will be outside of the United States.  

Let’s have a look at who’s who in the world of the Enneagram to help you orient you in a field that’s as rich as it is complex.

The First Generation

First generation teachers were sharing their knowledge of the Enneagram in the 1980s and before. They studied directly with the early pioneers of the system including Oscar Ichazo and Claudio Naranjo. Notable first generation teachers include Don Riso, Russ Hudson, Helen Palmer and Bob Ochs.  

Russ Hudson

Co-founder of The Enneagram Institute, Hudson studied directly with early pioneers of the system, including his former teaching partner Don Riso (1946-2012). Hudson is one of the only first generation teachers still offering workshops and speaking regularly at Enneagram conferences. The depth and breadth of his knowledge of the Enneagram is almost unparalleled, and he truly embodies the knowledge of the system. He transmits understanding more than he teaches, and his workshops take you to a different level of insight. If you haven’t checked him out, you should.

Helen Palmer 

Another renowned early teacher, Palmer began sharing her knowledge of the Enneagram in the late 1970s after participating in some of the earliest U.S. Enneagram groups. Trained as an intuitive and psychic, Palmer brought an experience-based approach to the Enneagram, asking people to share their lived inner experience. She used narrative panels to show how personality patterns arise in real time. This approach became the foundation of the “Narrative” tradition and continues to influence how the Enneagram is taught today. Palmer’s discussion panels were unlike anyone else’s, creating an uncanny sense that she could peer inside of the mind of the speaker. She officially retired many years ago, but her legacy lives on in books and training material. You can find her Enneagram panel discussions available through video at the Narrative Enneagram.

Hudson and Palmer showcase some key differences between early teachers that resulted in different Enneagram “lineages.” 

Riso-Hudson developed the Enneagrams levels of development and offered a clear, structured map to talk about the system. Their teachings are known for their clarity and precision. 

Palmer drew on her experience as an intuitive and taught the Enneagram by inviting people to share their inner world, drawing on lived experience and storytelling. Both lineages emphasize personal growth through intense self-observation, but the methods are often very different.

Amplifying Voices for the Enneagram

Many of the next generation teachers have been teaching the Enneagram for decades and trained with the pioneers or first generation teachers.  

Beatrice Chestnut 

Bea Chestnut is a name to know if your focus is on the personal growth aspect of the Enneagram. She’s the “C” in CP Enneagram, an academy she founded along with Brazilian co-founder Uranio Paes which uses the tagline  “Setting the bar for quality in all things Enneagram.” I’ve been taking classes from Chestnut since the late 1990s and her clarity and depth are two things that set her voice apart from the crowd.  The author of several books including the seminal The Complete Enneagram, she draws on her training in the Narrative Tradition to offer depth-oriented, experiential training.

Uranio Paes 

Paes is the “P” in CP Enneagram and brings a fresh lens to training by using energy, movement and embodiment. Paes’ work reminds us that the Enneagram symbol is an integral part of the teachings, and that symbol is in constant motion. I affectionately call him the “Ennea-shaman” and if you are looking for an embodied experience using the sacred geometry of the Enneagram, his training is worth exploring.

Tom Condon 

Condon has been teaching the Enneagram for several decades and as he studied with Claudio Naranjo and Helen Palmer, his work is rooted in the Narrative Tradition. The author of The Enneagram Movie & Video Guide, he is known for using films and cultural examples as teaching tools.

Ginger Lapid-Bogda 

This is a name to follow if you are looking for applications of the Enneagram in the workplace. Lapid-Bogda is the founder of The Enneagram in Business network, and her work helped legitimize the Enneagram as a professional development tool in addition to a personal growth and spiritual one. I’ve participated in several of her trainings which extend to topics beyond the Enneagram. Her Enneagram teachings around team dynamics lean heavily into the centers of intelligence.

Mario Sikora

Another highly experienced Enneagram teacher, Sikora brings the Enneagram into professional settings. As co-founder of Awareness to Action International, Sikora’s global consulting and leadership development organization uses a modified version of the Enneagram called the ATA Enneagram. While Lapid-Bogda focuses on the three centers of intelligence, ATA Enneagram focuses on the three instincts. Sikora teaches his own version of the 27 subtypes and determining a team’s instinctual composition is an integral part of his training.

Lapid-Bogda and Sikora illustrate how two highly experienced Enneagram teachers can present the same material through radically different approaches. I’ve done training with both of them and find value in each of their approaches. Neither is right or wrong, but they emphasize different aspects of the system.

Ian Morgan Cron 

Cron is a bestselling author, Enneagram teacher, trained psychotherapist and Episcopal priest. Along with Suzanne Stabile, he co-authored The Road Back to You, a faith-based Enneagram book that blends narrative, humor and psychological insight to make the system approachable for a wider audience. Cron is one of the big amplifiers of the Enneagram. Since its publication in 2016, The Road Back to You has sold more than one million copies, making it one of the most widely read introductions to the Enneagram to date.

Dirk Cloete

The co-founder of the global organizational development provider  Integrative Enneagram Solutions, Cloete has been working with the Enneagram since 2005. His background in software development informed the core algorithms of the iEQ9 Enneagram assessment, one of the first adaptive decision tree psychometric tests. His work laid the foundation to bring the Enneagram into large-scale corporate and global environments where scalability, consistency and measurement matter.

Lucille Greeff

Former co-founder of Integrative Enneagram Solutions, Greeff is an Enneagram teacher, coach and organizational consultant who has been working with the Enneagram since the mid-2000s. Through the assessment tool Aephoria Identity Map (also called Aephoria Enneagram) she helped co-create, she brings a unique focus on the maturation process for individuals and for systems.

Milton Stewart 

Stewart represents a newer generation of Enneagram voices bringing the system into contemporary cultural conversations, particularly around identity, race and representation. The founder of Kaizen Careers, and the host for the podcast “Do It for the ’Gram,” Stewart uses storytelling and conversation to make the Enneagram accessible to audiences who may not engage with traditional Enneagram literature. I’ve been a podcast guest on Stewart’s show, and it was one of the most fun interviews I’ve ever done.

Deborah Egerton 

A self-described matriarch, mystic and mentor, Egerton has been teaching the Enneagram for decades and is another voice using the Enneagram to bridge historic divides. Her work focuses on dismantling marginalization and using the Enneagram to transcend “othering.” She’s the author of Know Justice Know Peace, as well as several other books.  

Marion Gilbert 

Gilbert is the founder of the Somatic Enneagram as well as being a registered physical therapist. She has been teaching the system for over 20 years and her work emphasizes presence, nervous system awareness and the lived, embodied experience of type. She does a great job of bringing Enneagram awareness into our physical body and her work resonates particularly with me as my work does the same but using different modalities. Getting out of your head and into your body as a path to personal growth is a growing field, and Gilbert’s work is a wonderful starting point.

In Closing

Yes, it’s a long list, and it’s only the tip of the iceberg! It could easily include teachers like Peter O’Hanrahan, Fleming Christensen, Jeanette van Stijn, Rosemary Cowan, John Luckovich, Jerry Wagner and many others, along with influential voices no longer with us, including David Daniels, Don Riso, Claudio Naranjo and Oscar Ichazo.

What becomes clear is not just how many voices exist but why. The Enneagram is a living system interpreted through psychology, spirituality, embodiment, leadership, justice and culture. Different teachers emphasize different facets, but at its highest and best use, the message is always the same.

The Enneagram is a tool for compassion. It offers a path toward inner clarity and outer understanding, and the reason the community continues to grow is because the path to compassion is ever extending.