About me…
I’m a coach, mentor, workshop leader, speaker, and thought partner to leaders who sense there is more to who they are and how they lead than performance alone can explain.
For nearly two decades, I’ve worked with founders, executives, and emerging leaders across the country. Many are highly capable, successful by any external measure, and yet feel a quiet pull toward something deeper, more natural, and more true. My work exists to meet that moment.
At the center of my practice is Leadership Essence™, the culmination of almost twenty years of coaching and more than a decade of developing this work. In fact, when I first launched my coaching practice, I called it Essential Matters Coaching. I didn’t yet have the full framework or language I have now, but I was already pointing toward the same truth: that what is most essential in a person is often overlooked, unnamed, or misunderstood, even as it quietly shapes how they lead.
Leadership Essence™ names what I’ve been getting at all along. It is grounded in the belief that what we most naturally bring is often clearer to others than to ourselves, and that leadership is a process of learning to recognize, integrate, and return with those gifts consciously and with integrity.
I have a long-standing ability to see what is essential in people, often before they can see it themselves. Over the years, I’ve developed clear frameworks, language, and experiential programs that help leaders
recognize what is already true and natural about who they are, integrate it consciously, and lead from that place with clarity, confidence, and impact. The result is not a new persona, but a deeper alignment between who someone is and how they lead.
I’ve worked with leaders at organizations such as Levi Strauss, Gap Inc. (including The Gap and Banana Republic), and Stanford, as well as doctors, scientists, professors, executive directors, lawyers, artists, entrepreneurs, and creative leaders across many fields. While the contexts vary, the work is the same: helping people recognize, integrate, and lead from what is already true about them.
The Impact of the Work
The outcomes of this work take many forms. Some clients remain in their current roles but experience a profound internal shift, leading with greater steadiness, clarity, and authority. Others make significant transitions, launching new ventures, redefining their leadership, or stepping into roles that better reflect who they truly are.
In many cases, this integration gives rise to what I call a personal mission, a clearer sense of what someone is here to contribute and why it matters now. Across all of it, the common thread is alignment. People begin leading from a place that feels grounded, coherent, and trustworthy, because who they are and how they lead are no longer in conflict.
Background and Training
Before launching my coaching practice, I spent a decade as a campaign director for a national nonprofit advocacy organization, followed by another decade as a business analyst and web strategist for a multinational telecommunications company. Leaving that path to become a coach was a significant risk at the time, but one that proved essential.
I hold a B.A. in Geography from Clark University and completed my graduate studies in Organizational Development and Transformation at the California Institute of Integral Studies. I am a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) and an Emotional Resolution practitioner.
I am also a Licensed Speaker and Certified Coach with the Impostor Syndrome Institute, one of only a couple dozen practitioners globally trained and licensed to deliver this work. I was personally trained by Dr. Valerie Young, the world’s leading authority on Impostor Syndrome and creator of Rethinking Impostor Syndrome™.
A Bit More About Me
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area with my wife, and we’re adjusting to empty-nest life now that our daughter has graduated from college and moved far enough away to make visits feel precious. And yes, I’m one of those people who is completely obsessed with pickleball. You’ve been warned. :-)
