Career Coaching

I have switched industries many times. From being a corporate slave to an entrepreneur, from a management consultant to a VC. I understand the difficulties in the journey, and I only provide hands-on tips.

I've spent the past decade building and scaling companies from early-stage through IPO, while coaching professionals at every stage of their careers. My background spans executive leadership, talent strategy, business operations, and neuroscience research, giving me a unique perspective on both how organizations work and how people succeed within them. As a senior leader at companies including Asana, The Trade Desk, and Flow Traders, I've helped build teams, hire and develop leaders, design career frameworks, navigate promotions, compensation, performance management, organizational change, and executive decision-making. I understand how hiring and advancement decisions are actually made because I've been the person making them. Prior to my business career, I conducted neuroscience research at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital. Today, I combine that research background with real-world operating experience to help clients think more clearly, make better decisions, and accelerate their careers. Whether you're pursuing a promotion, changing industries, negotiating compensation, stepping into leadership, navigating workplace challenges, or figuring out what's next, my coaching is practical, direct, and grounded in experience. My clients have landed roles at leading companies, significantly increased their compensation, transitioned into new industries, built stronger executive presence, and gained the clarity and confidence needed to take meaningful next steps in their careers.

Finding a better job (and sooner!) has amazing compounding benefits. You feel stuck, fatigued, lost, or need a jolt to get moving? I don't pretend modern job hunting is easy, but I'm optimistic we can get you somewhere great. I'm a former Director at Spotify, a Harvard Business School grad, and have career coached for 10+ years — I'd be honored to help. Three beliefs inform my work as a coach: 1) Job hunting is a skill set which, like many others, can be practiced and improved 2) Careers are long and dream jobs often take multiple steps to build 3) You are capable of more than you think — let's work together to unlock what you’re missing I draw from real-world experience on both sides of the hiring table: I've hired for dozens of roles and interviewed for hundreds of jobs. So I know what recruiters and hiring managers look for, I know how to avoid the many mistakes that can impede success, and I know how to set you up to win. I can help you identify companies to target, get your foot in the door, and get your interviews sharp. I can help discern whether tech, startups, or scaleups are right for you. I'm most interested in helping folks find roles as product managers, sales leaders, managers, and marketers, but most of my practice can be employed nearly universally. My sessions are pragmatic, but I'm not shy about wisecracking. I believe personality fit matters with a coach even more than industry fit. If you're still not sure, but you've read this far, that's a good signal we may be onto something. I'm happy to offer a free intro call so you can feel confident you've got the right coach in your corner — you've got nothing to lose. For a limited time: Send me a connection request on Linkedin and mention Leland, and I'll drop $47 off the second session (the intro call is still free!)

Do you see your career as a strategic asset? This executive career coaching engagement is for senior professionals in Fortune 500, global, or complex enterprise environments who are making thoughtful decisions about their next leadership chapter. You may be considering an internal promotion, preparing for a Director-to-VP move, submitting your executive promotion package, evaluating an external opportunity, repositioning after a major transformation mandate, returning to the market after a long tenure, or deciding whether your next chapter belongs inside a company, in advisory work, in a founder/operator path, or across a portfolio of roles. At this level, career strategy is not simply about resumes, interviews, or visibility. Those may matter, but the larger work is about judgment, positioning, timing, fit, and leadership narrative. It is about understanding where your experience creates the greatest enterprise value — and how to communicate that value with clarity, credibility, and authority. As an MCC executive coach with 20+ years across Fortune 100 innovation, organizational transformation, people systems, coaching, board service, and business building, I bring a strategic and developmental lens to senior career decisions. Our work is confidential, rigorous, and grounded in respect for the complexity of the choices before you. Depending on your priorities, we may focus on: • Clarifying your context and the leadership chapter you are ready to pursue • Defining the roles, environments, and mandates that fit your strengths and ambitions • Strengthening your executive narrative and your unique market positioning • Translating a complex or nonlinear career into a coherent leadership story • Preparing for promotion conversations, executive interviews, or senior stakeholder discussions • Thinking through internal versus external moves, advisory paths, entrepreneurial options, or portfolio careers • Examining the leadership identity, confidence, and presence that your next chapter will require This kind of coaching is not for transactional job-search coaching. It is a strategic career partnership for accomplished leaders who want strategic career leverage and a clear, credible, well-positioned next move that is personally congruent. If you are exploring your growth direction or weighing an important career decision, I invite you to book an introductory call so we can clarify whether this kind of work would be a good fit.

Careers are rarely linear, and the best opportunities often come from understanding how your experiences fit together into a larger story. Over the past decade, I've built a career across Wall Street, private equity, commercial real estate development, entrepreneurship, higher education, and public policy. My experience includes structured finance at Wells Fargo Securities, distressed investing at Lone Star Funds, commercial real estate development at Trammell Crow Company, leadership in affordable housing, and advising investors and organizations through my firm, Meridian Advisory. I also serve as Director of Financial Wellbeing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, teach Real Estate Capital Markets at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, and am completing an Executive Master of Public Administration at the London School of Economics. Throughout my career, I've interviewed with leading financial institutions, government agencies, universities, and private companies, while mentoring students, early-career professionals, and executives navigating pivotal career decisions. My coaching combines practical hiring insight with long-term career strategy. I work with professionals seeking promotions, career pivots, graduate school, leadership opportunities, or greater alignment between their work and their purpose. Together, we'll clarify your goals, refine your personal brand, strengthen your resume and interview strategy, and develop a career narrative that reflects both your accomplishments and your future potential. My approach is thoughtful, candid, and strategic. Rather than focusing solely on your next job, I help you build a career that compounds over time.

Welcome to my profile! With over 12 years of experience in data science and AI leadership roles at top companies like PayPal, Meta, and Amazon Web Services, I bring a wealth of industry knowledge to my career coaching practice. As a Career Coach and Mentor since 2019, I've guided numerous professionals in navigating their career paths, leveraging my expertise in personalization, AI, and marketing science. My approach is tailored to each client's unique goals, whether you're looking to break into tech, advance in your current role, or pivot to a new field. Let's work together to unlock your potential and achieve your career aspirations. Reach out to start your journey today!

Welcome to my profile! With a robust background in leadership and innovation from NYU and an MBA from Columbia Business School, I bring a wealth of experience in career development and strategic talent acquisition. At Google, I have successfully built and led recruiting engines for teams of over 5,000, translating aggressive growth targets into actionable hiring strategies. As a co-founder of the non-profit Technology for Families In Need, I have also demonstrated my commitment to social impact and innovation. Having coached numerous individuals to achieve their career goals, I am passionate about helping you navigate your career path and achieve success. Let's connect and create a tailored plan to elevate your career!

Your career is shaped by more than your skills or experience, it's shaped by the decisions you make along the way. As a former Fortune 100 Vice President with more than 20 years of experience, I've hired, developed, promoted, and mentored professionals at every stage of their careers. I've led through organizational transformation, navigated complex leadership challenges, and made high-stakes decisions in fast-paced, high-pressure environments. Today, I help professionals do the same with greater clarity and confidence. My approach goes beyond traditional career coaching. As a Leadership Behavior Strategist and Trauma-Informed Certified Coach, I help clients uncover the behavioral patterns, assumptions, and success strategies influencing their career decisions, whether they're pursuing a promotion, navigating a career pivot, stepping into leadership, leaving corporate, or redefining success altogether. Together, we'll clarify what's next, strengthen your decision-making, and develop a strategy that aligns with your goals, values, and the leader you're becoming. My objective isn't just to help you land your next opportunity, it's to help you make career decisions you'll feel confident about long after the offer is signed.

My approach to career coaching combines practical professional experience with an understanding of what it takes to navigate career changes, position transferable skills, and pursue opportunities with intention. My background spans interior design, project management, retail, entrepreneurship and military service, giving me firsthand experience adapting across industries and translating diverse experience into a cohesive professional story. I help professionals identify the value they already bring to the table, communicate it more effectively, and develop an actionable strategy for where they want to go next. Whether you're considering a career pivot, strengthening your resume and professional brand, preparing for interviews, or determining your next move, my goal is to help you leave with clarity, practical next steps, and a strategy you can actually execute.

As a professional mentor to rising executives for over 20 years, and as a coach to professionals working in a wide array of industries, I have found supporting clients navigate this area of life to be extremely rewarding.