Biography

Margaret Chan

Certified Executive Coach

Margaret Chan is a Certified Executive Coach experienced in career transitions and leadership development.  In her 25-year career in executive search, including 18 years at Spencer Stuart and Korn Ferry, the global search firms, she has assessed over 3,500 executives on their qualifications, skills, competencies, and leadership styles as they pursued the next stage of their careers and leadership development.  Working with executives, including Chairmen and Boards of Directors, CEOs and their direct reports, she understands their perspectives and expectations and leverages this knowledge in her coaching practice.

Margaret partners with executives to identify their strengths and gaps that need to be addressed to reach their next level of leadership.  She partners with clients to build coaching plans designed to help them increase their self-awareness and practice new behaviors.

She has coached clients on a range of coaching goals, including increasing influence by building stronger relationships, using more strategic communication, showing greater confidence and executive presence, networking effectively to gain visibility, being a more mindful and active listener, using more collaboration skills among peers, and building stronger teams.  In addition, Margaret has experience with board governance, trends, and best practices which provides a solid foundation as she coaches clients preparing to serve as new board members.

Margaret also works with professionals seeking career advice, and who are changing, returning to, and launching careers.  She takes a holistic approach to her clients’ lives, of which a career is an important component, to prioritize their key values and identify careers which best match their life objectives.  She helps identify their skills from both their corporate and volunteer experiences to target fulfilling careers that match their strengths and leverage their skills.

Her range of experience includes assessments, career strategies, target careers, resumes/LinkedIn profiles, career narratives/positioning, interview preparation, returnships, offer negotiations, and support and confidence building throughout the process.

She has a broad base of knowledge about multiple sectors, including financial services, insurance, consumer goods, retail, technology, consulting, and nonprofit.  She has in-depth knowledge of multiple functions, including board directorship, general management, finance, strategy, marketing, communications, sales, operations, consulting, technology, and nonprofit development.

Margaret is an Executive Coach for The Leadership Lab at Columbia Business School. She is also a recommended coach on alumni websites of top tier business schools, including Wharton, Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, and Booth (University of Chicago).

She had an earlier career at General Foods, Citigroup, and Oppenheimer Management.  She earned an MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University where she was in an accelerated one-year program and was also a Johnson & Johnson Leadership Fellow.  She holds a BS with honors from New York University.

She is a Certified Executive Coach at the highest level through Columbia University and is also certified to administer and interpret Hogan Assessments.

She serves as a board member for the West Side YMCA where she is Vice Chairman of the Board Development Committee.  She lives in New York City with her husband and their two children.

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