My Story

 

The child of immigrants, I grew up in the Midwest with an understanding that education would be my route to success. My aspiration was to have a career working with people and I fulfilled that dream with a 20-year adventure in advertising. After ten years at Leo Burnett in Chicago, I took a risk and headed west to run a 5-person office at Young & Rubicam.

 

Over the next decade, the office grew to nearly 300 employees and we transformed from a field office to a full service creative agency. I developed new skills as the Managing Director, hiring talented people, creating a collaborative client-focused culture, and leading a team that exceeded high business hurdles. We profitably grew over 500% during this time.  

 

After 20 years, I decided to leverage my skills and business experience to become a certified executive coach focused on leadership development. This work is rewarding because I partner with people who want to grow and make the changes needed to be a better leader.

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Experience

 

My work is focused on developing more effective leaders through executive and team coaching.

 

Leveraging my business and leadership experience, I partner with clients to help them become more self-aware and build more effective relationships. Using curiosity and warmth combined with a sense of humor, I create trust-based client relationships. Together, we build a Coaching Plan that includes targeted goals and new behaviors to create needed change. Engagements include partnering with clients at all levels from high potential to C-suite executives.

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The scope of these engagements includes helping executives as they on-board into new positions, become members of executive or leadership teams, expand their scope of responsibility, as well as cultivate their personal brand of executive presence. Team facilitation on purpose, values, conflict management, and building resilience is also part of my offering. I have worked in a wide range of industries including energy, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, software, as well as social justice and not-for-profit organizations.

 

Prior to coaching, I had a 20-year career in advertising in a variety of leadership positions including Chief Operating Officer at Young & Rubicam/Irvine and Account Supervisor at Leo Burnett in Chicago. Clients recognize the value of my corporate experience and successful track record of driving revenue growth. With P+L responsibility, I led a team of 300+ employees that grew revenue over 500%. At The Leo Burnett Company, I led cross-functional teams in creating business building programs, consumer strategy, and advertising. Some advertising clients include McDonald’s, Kellogg’s, Kraft, Taco Bell, Ford, and United.

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My love for the outdoors led to becoming a trained leader in Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and participation in an Outward Bound program. Married with three children, I live in Southern California and the North Woods of Wisconsin.

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Education

 

MBA in marketing, Kellogg School, Northwestern University

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BS in finance, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania 

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Certifications

 

Hudson Institute of Coaching​, Coach Certification

 

Hogan Assessments – Leadership Forecast Series​

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International Coaching Federation (ICF), Professional Coaching Certification (PCC)

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Myers-Briggs Type Instrument (MBTI) Certification

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DiSC Personality Profile

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EQ in Action Profile (Learning in Action Technologies) Certification

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Systemic Team Coaching  (Peter Hawkins) Certification

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Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument