My early years were marked by two complementary impulses; on one hand, I was motivated to achieve – to move up and beyond into the world. On the other hand, I was motivated to find meaning – to go downward and inward to the depths of human experience.
My life in small-town Michigan reflected these impulses. During the day, I studied hard and graduated at the top of my class. I hustled to get into Yale and to see what was beyond the bounds of Port Huron. At night, on the other hand, I read Paramahansa Yogananda, the Bible, or Osho before bedtime. I journaled compulsively.
In my early career, I followed these separate but complementary threads. On one hand, I pursued a different form of depth, graduating from Yale with a degree in Religious Studies, finding my ashram home in the Poconos, and signing up for every meaningful weekend workshop. On the other hand, I excelled as a consultant and manager at Bain and Company and studied hard at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
As life unfolded, multiple personal events galvanized me into deeper examination of both sides of my life: my boyfriend passed away, I came out as queer, and I got happily married. Along the way, though, I realized that it didn’t make sense to keep my interpersonal side and my strategic side segregated. At this stage, I was lucky to find the work of leadership. In this work, I could focus on the things that mattered most to humans – and I could do that within the pragmatic, applied world of organizations.
And so, for more than a decade, I have brought together these two strands in myself and in my work. I built Bain and Company’s leadership program, accelerating the development of its partners and managers globally. I joined Bridgewater, working deeply on executive development and cultural continuity. I started my own business delivering executive work, running everything from high-level coaching calls to the day-to-day scheduling in service of the client’s transformation. And, in 2024, I joined Trium in order to do this work with a bigger platform and greater impact.
I am practical, pragmatic, and strategic. At the same time, I am deep, reflective, and existential. I work equally with reason and intuition, direction and emergence, intellect and spirit. More than anything, I love meeting executives where they are, investigating their underlying truth, and pushing them hard in pursuit of what they want for themselves, their teams, and their organizations.
Today, I live in Boulder, Colorado with my wife and two children. I have published two books (Indispensable and The Intentional Life) and continue to write on leadership and life on my Substack. You can often find me running my rescue dog through the foothills, driving kids to theater rehearsals, or obsessing about running a ‘no waste’ kitchen.
