LEADERSHIP TEAM
Bill Shepard
Founder & CEO Bill Shepard is the Founder and CEO of COO Forum, a 14-year-old professional development association for Second-in-Command Executives. He founded the COO Forum in 2004 expressly to enable COOs and Second-in-Command Executives to have an opportunity to learn and problem-solve with their peers. Find Bill on LinkedIn bshepard@cooforum.org (408) 206-7953 |
Laura Weikle
Executive Vice President Laura Weikle brings extensive organizational management experience to the COO Forum. She spearheads chapter growth and development, manages member services, oversees the administrative functions of the association, and works directly with CEO Bill Shepard on the association's day-to-day operations. Find Laura on LinkedIn lweikle@cooforum.org (408) 206-2994 |
EASTERN REGION CHAPTER DIRECTORS
Elizabeth Bailey
Greenwich, Connecticut Elizabeth Bailey is CEO of Breakthrough Group, a boutique C-level leadership and business advisory firm. She serves as a trusted adviser in areas such as: next-level vision casting, innovative growth initiatives, and leadership/board planning. She provides counsel on succession planning and has on-boarded hundreds of senior executives (top 1%). Elizabeth speaks on leadership, the path to CEO/Boards, and innovative best practices. A lifelong learner, she holds a Doctorate in Law, Doctorate in Ministry, and BA from Kenyon College. Find Elizabeth on LinkedIn elizabeth@breakthroughgrp.com (203) 542-2877 |
Monique Gaw
Tysons, Virginia Monique Gaw is a senior financial and general management leader who can assess situations and determine the impact of decisions on market value and overall business success. She has served as COO for a diversified energy development and integration company serving public and private sector clients around the world. Monique started her career on Wall Street where she established global expertise in financial services—and moved on to Washington where she became a regulatory expert to ensure company operations and interests are served by regulation both domestically and abroad. Find Monique on LinkedIn m.gaw@riverviewca.com (703) 657-6045 |
Gunilla Girardo
Tysons, Virginia Originally from Sweden, Gunilla Girardo has spent most of her career in the United States helping companies and organizations grow and succeed. She is a results-driven and agile—internationally recognized—leader backed by strong market development skills and a vast network. She has a keen entrepreneurial understanding of the possibilities of growth and transformation by understanding, identifying, and capturing emerging markets and needs—all while helping companies find talent, meaning and building a foundation for success. Find Gunilla on LinkedIn gunillagirardo@yer.com (571) 488-0426 |
Gwen Kinsey
Reston, Virginia Gwen Kinsey helps people navigate the gap between the way things used to be and our fast-emerging future. She facilitates leadership meetings that explore strategic direction, workshops designed to help people navigate the inevitable challenges that arise from organizational change and leadership executive coaching that supports change makers. Gwen incorporates holistic practices that help people learn as they go. Her workshop expertise includes developing soft skills, the dynamics of change management, building collaborative teams and experiential, natural systems approaches for collaborative problem solving. Find Gwen on LinkedIn gwen@gwenkinsey.com (605) 212-8462 |
Lisa J. Kuruvilla
New York City, New York Lisa Kuruvilla brings 20+ years of C-level experience and certifications as a Professional Certified Coach by the International Coach Federation, Certified Master/Executive Coach from MentorCoach, and as Project Management Professional by the Project Management Institute. Lisa applies real-world experience in her executive coaching practice, and consulting services on organizational assessments, developing transformational strategies, succession planning, and building highly resilient business operations and leadership teams. Find Lisa on LinkedIn ljk@ccpathways.com (347) 674-0440 |
Maryanne Peabody
Boston, Massachusetts Maryanne Peabody is co-founder and Vice President of Stybel Peabody. As an organization development consultant, she has assisted companies in the areas of leadership effectiveness and career management since 1981. One of Maryanne's areas of expertise is assisting individuals rising through the professional ranks to become leaders without their having received specific education in management. Maryanne has been a guest on various national and local TV and radio programs to discuss career issues. Her work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, and The Boston Globe. Find MaryAnne on LinkedIn peabody@stybelpeabody.com (617) 371-2990 |
Larry Stybel
Boston, Massachusetts Larry Stybel is a licensed doctoral-level psychologist, co-founder of two companies, a national expert on corporate governance/leadership and careers. He and his partner Maryanne Peabody are co-authors of monthly perspectives on leadership published in Psychology Today and downloaded 240,000 times. They are co-authors of Navigating the Waterfall, a book on leadership in the 21st Century. One of Larry's companies focuses on providing leaders for Board of Directors. Another company focuses on Leadership & Career Success. Larry received his doctorate from Harvard University. Find Larry on LinkedIn lstybel@boardoptions.com (617) 594-7627 |
SOUTHERN REGION CHAPTER DIRECTORS
Gina Folk
Tampa, Florida Gina Folk bridges the gap between operational agility and leadership abilities. She finds that too many organizations compartmentalize departments, work in silos – not fully understanding their purpose which creates massive waste and chaos. Productivity and profit are gushing out of these companies. Gina takes her 20+ years of corporate experience working with people, process and change to help small to medium size businesses become more operationally efficient, eliminating waste and increasing productivity and profits. Find Gina on LinkedIn gina@ginafolk.com (727) 482-0782 |
Erik Gagnon
Atlanta, Georgia Erik Gagnon’s 25+ years of cross-industry executive management experience includes a stint at William Sword & Company, a boutique investment banking firm specialized in M&A; and completion of GE Capital's world-renowned Management Development Program during the Jack Welch era. A thought leader and innovator, Erik held executive leadership positions with GE Capital's Consumer Financial Services Division, Advanta, Alta Colleges, Delta Air Lines and Ashworth College before leaving the corporate world to start his first business venture. Find Erik on LinkedIn erik@chirho.consulting (770) 715-7216 |
Chaks Karuturi
Charlotte, North Carolina Chaks Karuturi is an experienced Consultant in Business Process improvement, Strategic/Financial Planning and Performance management, with over 30 years of leadership, operational and international experience in premier companies, namely Xerox, Bank of America, AT&T and IBM. Find Chaks on LinkedIn ckaruturi@cooforum.org (215) 667-8891 |
Rick Kloete
Nashville, Tennessee Rick Kloete has more than 25 years of recruiting, search, talent acquisition, sales, sales leadership, and coaching experience. Rick has extensive global and national sales and management experience with Siemens, AT&T, NEC, GTE, Lucent Technologies, Verizon, AVAYA and leadership roles with Chamber of Commerce, Nashville Association of Sales Professionals, Toastmasters International, Wholesalers, Professional Associations and community and non-profit organizations. Find Rick on LinkedIn rick@kloetegroup.com (615) 823-7723 |
MIDWESTERN REGION CHAPTER DIRECTORS
Adam Kaplan
Detroit, Michigan Adam Kaplan is a retained executive search consultant who helps mid-market CEOs grow their companies faster and better by hiring a COO who fits. Prior to his time in search, Adam served as a Regional COO for a Dental Services Company acquired by Morgan Stanley Private Equity, and as an organization design consultant at PwC. Find Adam on LinkedIn adam@kaplanexec.com www.kaplanexec.com (877) 366-6562 |
Cathy Lieberman
Chicago, Illinois Cathy Lieberman is an executive coach, facilitator, change management consultant and a skilled public speaker. With 25 years of corporate and non-profit experience, she coaches individuals and teams in leadership, career and skill development. Cathy serves as a board member for World Chicago and as a Mentor for the Leadership Circle of the Executives Club of Chicago and is certified in Coaching for Learning and Performance from Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy. Find Cathy on LinkedIncathy@cdlbusinessconsulting.com www.cdlbusinessconsulting.com (773) 935-0206 |
Margaret Ricci
Minneapolis, Minnesota Margaret Ricci is the Founder and CEO of Cultural Strategies, LLC. Margaret is the first triple-qualified Gallup Coach in the Twin Cities area. She is a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach, Gallup BP10 Coach, and Gallup Q12 Employee Engagement Champion. Margaret uses a broad knowledge gained from over 30 years in business at multiple levels. She understands the needs of business owners to develop themselves as leaders to build strong teams and businesses that benefit their clients and employees. Margaret also has a keen interest in helping leadership teams excel, getting past problematic conflicts, and becoming more productive in their interactions with one another. Find Margaret on LinkedIn mricci@culturalstrategiessllc.com (651) 206-1470 |
MOUNTAIN REGION CHAPTER DIRECTORS
JB Braden
Denver, Colorado JB Braden has worked with companies and organizations for more than 10 years to help them achieve significant gains in community engagement, team member relationships and leadership potential. He’s helped them to develop better communication and create confident, empowered cultures. JB’s coaching clients consistently experience tremendous clarification with their mission and vision, formulate effective plans and strategies to move to action and develop supreme confidence and inner strength giving them the ability to move towards their goals. As a keynote speaker and workshop facilitator, JB inspires people to create a life filled with success, prosperity and championship moments. Find JB on LinkedIn JB@BeyondTheFieldCoaching.com (256) 457-0793 |
WESTERN REGION CHAPTER DIRECTORS
Bill Shepard
San Francisco & Silicon Valley, California Bill Shepard is the Founder and CEO of COO Forum, a 14-year-old professional development association for Second-in-Command Executives. He founded the COO Forum in 2004 expressly to enable COOs and Second-in-Command Executives to have an opportunity to learn and problem-solve with their peers. Find Bill on LinkedIn bshepard@cooforum.org (408) 206-7953 |
Aiphi Wang
San Francisco, California Aiphi Wang is a senior finance executive, developing finance and accounting functions by recruiting talents, setting up processes and implementing new systems. She has enabled growth, analytics, and strategic development at multiple VC-backed companies. She has also worked at a Fortune 300 company and PwC transaction services on IPO and M&A deals. She holds a Masters in Financial Engineering from UC Berkeley and is a CFA and CPA. Find Aiphi on LinkedIn aiphi.wang@fei-sfba.org |
Adam Guziewicz
San Diego, California Adam Guziewicz is a retired Navy Captain with over 30 years of leadership and management experience gained while on active duty in the Navy, as a senior consultant in the defense sector and as a small business owner. Adam's Navy background in the Explosive Ordnance Disposal community provided fertile ground for developing a rich theoretical and practical understanding of leading and managing small teams and large complex organizations. He is a John C. Maxwell certified leadership trainer, speaker and coach. Find Adam on LinkedIn adam.guziewicz@gmail.com (719) 685-6765 |
Paul Herrerias
Marin, Northern California Paul Herrerias has more than 21 years in retained executive search and coaching for high-performance business teams. Previously he worked as a CPA with Deloitte & Touche, and as an entrepreneur. Paul’s focus is serving his clients so they can be better achieve their organizational goals by having the right people on the team, in the right role, at the right time. Additionally, he teaches on the topics of ethics, leadership, and career success. Find Paul on LinkedInp.herrerias@stantonchase.com (415) 302-5300 |
Rich Horan
Sacramento, California Rich Horan, a former Air Force Colonel, provides extensive leadership and operations expertise gained over 28-years in a wide variety of global management roles. Currently he provides cognitive diversity and insight to entrepreneurs and organizations as a coach, mentor and angel investor. A national Association of Corporate Directors Board Fellow, Rich is an independent board member of a private company, serves on the Yolo County Financial Oversight Committee and served as a not-for-profit board member. Find Rich on LinkedIn rhoran@cooforum.org (618) 407-9084 |
Juan Montermoso
Silicon Valley, California Juan Montermoso is an executive consultant in Marketing and Leadership Development. Juan enables high-tech organizations to reach, touch, and retain their best customers through effective marketing planning and implementation. Juan also is a professor of Practice in Marketing at the Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University and is a core faculty member and mentor at Silicon Valley TVLP (Technology Venture Launch Program). Find Juan on LinkedIn jp.montermoso@comcast.net (408) 390-6475 |
Ralph Young Seattle, Washington Ralph Young is partner of Top Gun Ventures, a premier global executive search firm that specializes in recruiting proven executive GameChangers. With a background in a variety of vertical markets at Microsoft, including executive leadership positions within multi-billion dollar business units, Ralph understands what it takes to build and run a world-class organization across a wide array of markets. Find Ralph on LinkedIn ralph@topgunventures.com (425) 785-0251 |
INTERNATIONAL CHAPTER DIRECTORS
Alain Gardner
Montreal, QC, Canada Alain Gardner is the ‘go to’ person in the fields of high-performance teams, change management, performance management and business transformation (from strategy to bottom-line results). Alain has over 25-years leading businesses through change by training/coaching of management, employees and teams into surpassing their own perceived limits. He is experienced with large, medium and small businesses with international experience in North America, South America and Europe. Find Alain on LinkedIn agardner@agardnerassociates.net (514) 594-0705 |
Geoff Shorter
London, United Kingdom Geoff Shorter is a vastly experienced recruiter and sales manager with an enviable track record of high performance. As a professional recruiter with a strong commercial background and former owner and manager of two recruitment enterprises, Geoff supports SMEs with growth, cash flow management, corporate governance and compliance, recruitment and retention, and coaching and mentoring. He currently works with start-up businesses within the recruitment industry, and in the personal development and training industries. Find Geoff on LinkedIn geoff@gtex.org.uk +44 780-1-19-17-04 |
Brad Horan
Sydney, Australia Brad Horan is the founder and director of Lucrature-Financial Peak Performance. Brad helps business executives get out from under the day-to-day management of their companies by putting the management infrastructure in place that teaches the business to manage itself. Brad has an extensive career in management accounting and global business transformation with such firms as HSBC, MetLife, Vodafone and Otis Elevator. Find Brad on LinkedIn bhoran@lucrature.com +61 42-425-9058 |