
Kirsten J.
5.0
Studied at Yale School of Management
Works at Black Isle Group
Available July 8 at 4:00 PM UTC
I'm currently fully booked in June but will be taking on new clients beginning in July!
Questions? Start chatting with this coach before you get started.
About Kirsten
Hello! Thanks for visiting my profile! I'm a certified executive coach with a background in executive and leadership development, supporting professionals in financial services, technology, and education firms. Prior to joining Leland's coaching platform, I was the Global Head of Leadership and Management Development and an executive coach at D.E. Shaw & Co. and before that, headed up leadership development and coached vice presidents and managing directors at Goldman Sachs. As an executive coach, I've worked with professional of all levels, from early career to C-Suite, helping them to get from where they are to where they want to be. Examples of the types of coaching engagements I've had include helping an operations leader transition successfully into a more senior role; supporting a technology manager to improve their delegation and feedback skills; helping junior traders to build emotional awareness and drive idea velocity to make more profitable trading decisions; working with high-performing mid-level managers who were feeling burned out and needed support with time management, stress management, and delegation skills; helping senior leaders to build their skills in managing larger teams; helping experienced professionals to navigate career choices that led them to either take on a new role in their existing organization or move to a new organization; and working with high-performers to build their emotional intelligence skills. Past clients have described me as results-oriented, insightful, and approachable. In addition to working as an executive coach, I have 20+ years of experience leading global teams of 10 to 100+ people and am able to leverage those experiences when supporting other managers and leaders to navigate through periods of growth or change. I received my MBA from Yale and hold an MA in Education from Columbia University and a BA from University of Virginia. I have an executive coaching certification from Columbia University and am also certified in a number of personality assessments that I sometimes find beneficial for clients to receive as part of a coaching engagement. As a coach, I'm happy to provide "spot coaching" across a couple of sessions, where we are targeting a specific skill you'd like to work on (e.g., delegating effectively, giving feedback) or work with you on a weekly or biweekly basis to focus on broader and bigger goals. Feel free to reach out for a free 15-minute consultation to explore how we can work together to help you to reach your goals!
Why do I coach?
I coach because I love helping people to reach their full potential and thrive in work and in life.
Work Experience
Leadership Coach & Talent Assessment Expert
Black Isle Group
January 2025 - Present
Providing individual and group executive coaching, facilitating leadership development and innovation workshops, and debriefing Hogan assessment results with leaders in financial services firms.

Global Head of Leadership and Management Development; Internal Executive Coach
The D. E. Shaw Group
2019 - 2024
Responsible for development of all managers across managing director, senior, new, and intern manager populations. Created bespoke talent development experiences for leaders and teams across business groups. Led mentoring and career development initiatives.

Global Head of Leadership Development and Internal Executive Coach
Goldman Sachs
2017 - 2019
Responsibility for learning strategy, design of leadership curriculum, and development of leadership programs for 6,000 managers globally from intern manager to managing director populations across all divisions. Internal executive coach and talent partner to Merchant and Consumer Banking Divisions.
Executive Director, Strategy
College Board
2015 - 2017
Crafted learning strategy to strengthen instructional support for 170,000 Advanced Placement teachers globally. Designed blended learning modules for 34 subjects with videos, self-paced assignments & assessments. Created online mentoring product; scaled to 5K teachers globally; profitable in second year of operations.

Deputy Chief Executive Officer
New York City Public Schools
March 2009 - 2015
Progressively senior roles (chief of staff, executive director, deputy CEO) leading human capital reform efforts focused on talent assessment, talent and leader development, and organization design.
Head of Learning and Development
Teach For America
2006 - 2009
Led learning and development function for the organization, supporting 1200 staff across 31 locations.
Education
Yale School of Management
MBA, Strategy

Columbia University - Teachers College
MA, International and Comparative Education
University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Bachelor’s Degree, English Language and Literature
Columbia University
Executive Coaching Certification,
6 Reviews
Overall Rating
5.0
Kirsten has helped Leland clients get into Cahn Fellowship