Our success in helping leaders excel is grounded in our extensive line management experience, both in Fortune 100 companies and entrepreneurial start-ups. We blend this practical perspective with executive coaching and psychology expertise. Our approach to executive and team development is both business focused and insight based. We draw on our diverse and multi-disciplinary capabilities to match your particular needs. Our goal – real results and real change for you and your organization.

Mary Nelson

Mary Nelson offers her clients a unique blend of management experience and insight into executive development and behavioral change. She specializes in helping senior executives, high-potential managers and their teams create positive, sustainable change in performance.

With more than 20 years of experience in major corporations such as Kraft, Inc., Mobil ChemicalCompany and S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., Mary has seen firsthand the profound impact of leadership on business success and employee engagement. Her informed and pragmatic approach to coaching clients grows out of her work as a marketing director in the United States and in Latin America. In addition, Mary has experience in entrepreneurial ventures, having served as owner and operator of her family’s specialty manufacturing company and as a board member for entrepreneurial firms.

Mary has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago as well as a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Northwestern University. She is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor. She has delivered workshops and training presentations on leadership development and the benefits of diversity to The Conference Board, The Society for Industrial Organizational Psychologists and numerous corporate audiences.

Linda Balkin

Linda Balkin has a practical and insight driven approach to helping leaders and teams improve overall effectiveness and performance. She helps her client’s gain self awareness and identify clear development goals that create positive, lasting change. When working with senior and high potential leaders, she focuses on building capacity to drive results with greater authenticity and leadership versatility. With teams, she emphasizes accountability, transparent communication, and trust.

Linda’s expertise is grounded in 20 years of experience working with senior business leaders across multiple industries. She worked as the Director of Consulting Services at a healthcare information start-up, now Thomson Reuters Healthcare. As a business partner to her clients, she developed growth strategies that identified new service lines and revenue streams. She also helped client organizations build their strategic planning capabilities. Additionally, Linda served as a principle in two retained executive search firms: Witt/Kieffer, a leading firm specializing in healthcare and a boutique, general industry firm that focuses on rapid growth entrepreneurial organizations. Placing executive talent and building leadership teams provided her with an in-depth understanding of the key characteristics and capabilities that drive performance and make senior leaders successful.

Linda has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BA from the University of Michigan. She is certified as a coach through the International Coaching Federation and The Coaches Training Institute. As a strong advocate of continuous growth and learning for leaders, Linda has delivered workshops and presentations to numerous corporate and Kellogg School of Management audiences.

Fraser Clark

Fraser Clark has earned a reputation in the corporate world for developing people to achieve results. He offers clients powerful, pragmatic feedback derived from his extensive knowledge of business tools and the realities of the executive suite – knowledge gained from more than 30 years in the business world. As Vice President of Strategy and Development at Kraft, Inc., Fraser headed many flagship consumer businesses in addition to new product initiatives. He trained and facilitated teams in strategic analysis, innovation, and change management. In addition, Fraser was co-founder and owner of a specialty custom-furniture retailer, Sawbridge Studios. Today Fraser works with individuals and executive teams in consumer packaged goods, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, education and the non-profit sectors.

Fraser brings a warm, upbeat and rigorous perspective to coaching.  He helps clients leverage their strengths while addressing their current limitations. He believes that individuals should never stop growing and discovering untapped potential.  Fraser’s approach is grounded in a well-rounded fact base, employing a variety of formal assessments and discussion. Using the fact base, he and his clients develop personal insights that  lead to new perspectives, more highly effective behaviors and, ultimately, better business results.  The client’s process of discovery, practice, and change are supported by frequent progress check-ins against interim markers.

Fraser has a business degree from the University of Michigan and is a candidate for a Masters in Counseling Psychology at the Adler School of Professional Psychology. He is currently serving as facilitator of the Next Generation Leadership Institute at Loyola University's Family Business Center.  Fraser has been a speaker on innovation and entrepreneurship at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Sam Manoogian

Sam Manoogian is an independent consultant located in Greensboro, North Carolina working in the areas of executive coaching and leadership development and training. He has multiple organizational affiliations including ARC Leadership Associates, LLC, Executive Development Group, Leadership Forum Inc., and Kaplan DeVries, Inc. In addition, he has had either a fulltime or adjunct relationship with the Center for Creative Leadership, also based in Greensboro, North Carolina, since 1981.

Sam’s expertise is in the areas of executive assessment, feedback, and coaching, as well as leadership training and development. He was the Chief Assessor at the Center for Creative Leadership from 1996 through 1999, during which time he managed, monitored, and governed the feedback process and the specialists who provide feedback and coaching services for the organization. In 1997, Sam was given the additional role of Director of the Awareness Program for Executive Excellence (APEX) where he directed a team of senior professional staff who provided top level executives with extensive assessment and coaching services designed to enhance self—awareness and leadership effectiveness. While at the Center for Creative Leadership, Sam co authored “Ongoing feedback: How to get it, how to use it.” He has a 25 plus year history delivering leadership development related coaching with senior executives.

Sam Manoogian holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from St. Louis University and is a licensed psychologist in North Carolina.