Suzanne Coonan
ABOUT ME

Suzanne is an accomplished Executive Coach, Consultant and Human Resources Leader, with 20 years of success in partnering with all levels to lead strategic workplace initiatives and provide solutions that help organizations and individuals achieve results. As an executive coach, Suzanne partners with high-performing, high-achieving leaders to navigate challenging and complex environments, advance their careers or explore new options, find more meaning and balance in work and life, and reach their highest leadership aspirations. 

 

Key Areas of Career Expertise and Accomplishments

·         Strategic Consulting:  Specializes in organizational & leadership development, succession planning, and employee engagement to drive strategy and business growth. Was lead facilitator/consultant for highly visible Knowledge Harvesting project for top 20 critical leaders at $2B privately held educational services provider. 

·         Talent Management - Created and executed comprehensive plan for integrated talent management program, including emergency succession plan for President.  Facilitated talent reviews with Board of Directors for executive leadership team.  Defined leadership competencies and redesigned performance management process.

·         Organizational Design - Led all phases of 4 organization-wide restructures.  Introduced productivity ratio tool to assess viability of adding headcount to support growth plans, which contributed to hiring an additional 20% staff.  Partnered with CFO and created Cost Reduction by Stage model to reduce costs in lieu of layoffs, resulting in less than 5% head count reduction during 2008-2010.

·         Leadership Development Facilitation - Experienced workshop facilitator, speaker, and panelist. Developed and presented keynotes and workshops at conferences and numerous Fortune 500 corporations. Recently awarded Excellence in Teaching Award. 

 

Professional Experience
  • Executive Coach and leadership development consultant, speaker/facilitator
  • VP, Human Resources – MBA school
  • Faculty Instructor, Association of Talent Development (ATD) – Coaching, Integrated Talent Management, and Consulting Skills certificate programs
  • Resource Manager – Technology consulting firm
  • HR Generalist – Legal publishing firm
  • HR Systems Analyst – Professional services firm
    Education, Certifications, Memberships, and Recent Speaking Engagements
  • EducationMS Positive Organization Deveolpment & Change - Case Western University.  Bachelor's in Organizational Behavior, minor in French - Northwestern University. 
  • Coach Training:  Coach University – Graduate, Core Essentials & Advanced Coaching Program; Certified in Marshall Goldsmith’s Stakeholder Centered Coaching approach (SCC).
  • Certification: Hogan Assessment Certification.
  • Speaking/presentations: Keynote speaker and facilitator on leadership and career development at companies including: Allstate, Abbott, Baxter, BCBSA, Discover, GE, HSBC, Kraft, Pactiv, Pfizer, Navistar, Veolia and Walgreens among others.  Panelist/speaker at several association management events such as: HRMAC –  Influencing Strategies and Gaining & Sustaining Executive Sponsorship for Strategic Initiatives; NHRC – The Value of Executive Coaching; NISHRM – Moderator, What Keeps HR Leaders up at Night; and GC-HERC – Presenter/moderator, Implementing Mentoring Programs.