Ellen Wingard

An early innovator in the field of leadership development, Ellen Wingard has for 30 years coached and advised CEOs and emerging leaders in health care, financial services, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, technology and higher education. She is co-author of Enlightened Leadership: How Women are Transforming the Practice of Leadership.

She is past Board Chair of World Pulse Media, an media channel linking 50,000 grassroots leaders across 190 countries, and a member of the Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard Kennedy School, where she engages with 150 top global corporate leaders on the latest practices in global talent development, gender inclusion and socially responsible business. She is part of the Executive Coaching pool of the Harvard Business School Executive Education Program and has been a commentator on career navigation and intergenerational mentoring to the Committee of 200, the Fletcher School International Business Program, Harvard Kennedy School, and NPR Marketplace.

She has also served as a Mentor for the Impact Center a program affiliated with the Federal Leadership Program for distinguished public sector women leaders.

Her clients include Baystate Health System, Citizens Bank, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Diageo, Genentech, Harvard Business School, Harvard Medical School, Hispanic Access Foundation, KPMG, The New York Times, Partners Healthcare, Pfizer, Visa, Wells Fargo, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, West Elm and WSPF+K.

Ellen Wingard’s deep and broad experience in the field of coaching executives— she practically invented it after all — is unique and gives her an unparalleled ability to understand the nuance in communications, both spoken and unspoken. The sheer number of years and exposure she has had to personality “types” and her ability to embrace them without judgement, combined with her gentle sophistication and empathy, make her brilliant at levels seen and unseen. She has ability to transform, even in the face of an executive’s deep self-doubt. I cannot recommend her with more enthusiasm. Beyond all, she is authentic and encourages the same in her clients— a quality that as rare and, in my view, essential to transition and transformation.

Karen E. Watson, former Nielsen executive