INDIVIDUAL PROFILES

SUSAN WRIGHT, Ed.D.

Profile

  • An executive coach with a purpose-driven planning process designed to achieve client goals
  • A senior Human Resource strategist with unique experience in leading major corporate transformation
  • A dynamic leader and educator with the energy and focus to drive individual and organizational change
  • A skilled facilitator in empowering diverse interest groups to reach common goals
  • An author and leading conceptual thinker in the field of adult learning and development

WORK EXPERIENCE

The Coaching Project Inc.
1998-
President
Established a corporation focused on executive leadership coaching and coach education.

Executive Leadership Coaching

  • Coach senior executives on identifying and addressing personal learning and transition needs, creating focused development plans for current and future leadership, and accomplishing meaningful behavioural change.
  • Coach senior teams on group dynamics, goal-setting and accountability. Coach the senior decision-maker on organizational learning and development issues - leadership, succession, talent management.
  • Administer a variety of leadership and organizational survey assessment tools - 360, MBTI, Org. Profile - and provide in-depth feedback, interpretation and analysis.
  • Work at a strategic level with partner clients to build high performing Leader Coach® Cultures in their organizations.
  • Clients include: Nationwide Enterprise, Citigroup, West Group Publishing, Johnson & Johnson, American Express, Mettler-Toledo, New York Life, Franklin Templeton Investments, Bayer Inc.

Coaching Education

  • Program Director in the “Leaders Coaching Leaders®” Program, a three-month Leader Coaching certificate for line leaders and the HR partners who support them.
  • Program Director in the “Internal Coach Certification” program, a four to six month learning process for HR professionals.
  • Academic coach, thesis supervisor and workshop leader in Athabasca University’s Executive MBA program. Residential seminars include Coaching for Peak Performance and Leadership in Turbulent Times.
  • Numerous in-company coaching and leadership development programs, both design and delivery.

Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara
1999-2003
Program Director in the Hudson Institute’s Professional Certification Program, an eight-month advanced learning process in individual and organizational coaching.

Ontario Hydro
1989-1997
Vice President, Corporate Human Resources 1995-1997
Assistant Vice President, Human Resources Strategy 1994
Senior Advisor, Executive Succession & Development 1993
Director, Organization Effectiveness Division 1989-1992

  • Responsible for all aspects of Human Resource strategy and policy for a unionized work force of approximately 23,000 employees.
  • Personal advisor to the CEO and staff resource to the Board of Directors on change management and cultural transformation in support of industry deregulation.
  • Played a leadership role in developing a new competitive strategy and a total restructuring of the organization.
  • Developed and implemented the first HR strategy integrated with corporate goals.
  • Created a leadership succession and development system that reinforced the new culture and put new leaders in place.
  • Through the International Business, worked with executives in Africa and Malaysia on strategic change programs.

Organization Strategies Group
1987-1989
Partner
Consulted on the strategic management of change and leadership development with clients including: Ontario Government Human Resources Secretariat, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of the Solicitor General, Sun Life of Canada and the Travellers Group.

The Manufacturers Life Insurance
1983-1987
Director, Corporate Organization Design
Responsible for the company’s human resource development and organization change strategies. Played a key role in a two-year assignment to reposition, restructure and revitalize the company, including merger and relocation, decentralization and culture change.

Independent Consulting
1981-1995
Consulted on labour/management cooperation, participatory planning and quality of working life. Designed and delivered a wide range of management and executive development programs in Canada and internationally.

Part-time Assistant Professor
1986-1990
Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University
Taught graduate-level courses in management and organizational learning in change; advised and directed students and acted as faculty examiner.

EDUCATION

Certified Coach - The Hudson Institute, Santa Barbara, California - 1999 - Individual, Team and Organizational Coaching

Doctorate in Education - Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto - 1989 - Adult Education and Developing Human Resources

Masters in Environmental Studies - Graduate Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University - 1981 - Organization Change and Design

General Management/Business Administration Programs:

Canadian Institute of Management, University of Toronto - 1977-79
Life Management Institute - 1983-84

Honors Applied Arts Program in Design - Humber College - 1974

MEMBERSHIPS, ASSOCIATIONS

  • Member of the International Coach Federation, the Canadian Human Resource Planning Society, ACCORD, the Socio-Technical Network.
  • Advisor to the Ontario Government Task Force on Technology and Human Resources.
  • Participant in the Premier’s Council on Economic Renewal.
  • Board member of the Canadian Council on Working Life.
  • Board member of the Roehrer Institute for the intellectually disabled

PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS

2004. “The Leader as Coach: Creating High Performance in Change.” In Leadership Compass, Banff School of Management, Spring Issue.

2003. Leadership Alchemy: The Magic of the Leader Coach®. Co-authored with Carol MacKinnon, TCP Publications, Toronto.

2001. “Dowagers and Dreams: Coaching Women’s Later Career Stages.” In Career Planning and Adult Development Journal, Vol. 17, Number 1, Spring Issue.

1998. “Coaching Contexts and Competencies. A paper prepared for a graduate presentation to the Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara, California.

1994. “Does Business Success in the ’90s Depend on Women?” in A New Golden Age for Women. World Media Network Publications, Paris.

1994. “The Dark Side of Leadership in Turbulent Times”. Paper prepared for an International Symposium on Managing Organizational Cultures, Gottlieb Duttweiler Insitut, Zurich.

1989. Learning Works: Searching for Organizational Futures. Co-edited with D. Morley, ABL Publications, York University.

1989. “The Design Process and Social Change”, in Learning Works: Searching for Organizational Futures, ABL Publications, York University.

1989. Developing Leaders in Turbulent Times. Doctoral Thesis, University of Toronto.

1989. Community Policing: Leadership in the ’90s. A federal/provincial report of the Ministry of the Solicitor General, Toronto.

1983. “Making QWL a Way of Life: The Air Canada Case”, in Cunningham and White (eds) Canadian Experiences in QWL, Labour Canada, Ottawa.

1981. The Interior Design Community as an Organizational Ecology. Masters Major Paper, York University.

1982-Present - numerous conference presentations including: The Conference Board of Canada, The Cooperative College of Canada, various Government Ministries, the Ecology of Work, York University, University of Toronto, the HR Planning Society, the Canadian Management Institute, Certified Management Accountants, Canadian Diabetic Association, Health Promotion Summer School, Sodexho-Marriott, Association of Career Professionals, etc.

REFERENCES

On request