Testimonials

"Selecting Anna to serve as my coach was one of the best decisions I made as the Executive Director of the UC Center for Health Quality & Innovation. She is extremely adept at understanding and translating organizational culture and helping clients learn about their own strengths and challenges, particularly why some of the same issues come up repeatedly."

Terry Leach, Health Policy & Innovation Consultant

"As a strong team player, Mary collaborated easily at all levels of the Integration Management Office (IMO) to align the TS project plans. She displayed strong execution skills and came up to speed quickly demonstrating diplomacy in getting teams to complete tasks. Mary brought a sense of fun acknowledging contribution of others."

Thomas Tanner, Integration Program Manager, Technical Support, Bay Area Hi Tech Company

"Fast on her feet, she helped us change course by designing a workshop focused on managing ambiguity, performance, and morale during times of transition. She had the credibility to partner with a senior manager to sponsor the workshop. I recommend Mary because of her depth of knowledge, ongoing insights, sensitivity to the employee mood, and ability to adapt to the situation quickly and effectively to meet changing needs. "

Jeannette Opalski, Director Human Resources, CSR Technologies Inc.

"Coming from a large corporation in Germany to be CEO of this start up into this new culture in Silicon Valley and working on a disruptive technology with a stellar team was very exciting, but also challenging. Anna found always the right words and put me on a steep learning curve. Not only was she a great adviser, who constantly came up with new ideas, lessons learned from others that she had worked with but also was very quick in understanding what kind of concern I might have at any given point in time."

Dirk Shapeler, Digital Director at Bayer Healthcare

"New roles, responsibilities and relationships affected all levels of the organization. Anna's expert skills coupled with her sensitivity, integrity and adaptability positioned us for transformational success."

Jack Devlin, Director and Project Manager, Underwriting California State Automobile Association

"This included methods for embedding change management within all aspects of the revamped business and process strategies. She is very bright and a real pleasure to work with."

Steve Flinn, CEO Manyworlds, Inc.

"Anna brought deep understanding and expertise to the project without any of the jargon that consultants are known for. She was task focused and delivered impressive results while at the same time bringing process insights that ensured a quality product tailored to our needs. She was diplomatic without compromising. And, her strong leadership skills balanced with her relaxed, down-to-earth approach grounded the team, helping us work more effectively under a very tight deadline."

Brendan Geary, Associate Director Human Resources, Robertson Stephens

"Anna’s collaborative approach not only produced better results, but also ones we bought into . . . we had a sense of true partnership in the process, rather than being its passive participants. And, they helped customize our tools, making them fully accessible and acceptable to staff."

Steve Marshall, VP Claims, California State Automobile Association

“Mary took the lead in “unfreezing” the organization through a series of steps: building the business case; asking consultants external to the organization to share their resources which support the new direction; identifying the “early adopters”, sharing best practices. She displayed patience, diplomacy, creativity, and persistence during this unfreezing process.”

Joe Podolsky, Executive Briefing Center Manager, Hewlett Packard

"Anna was very effective in helping us discover behavior patterns that got in our way and kept us from being an effective management team. Newly learned tools are assisting us in breaking these patterns and greatly improving our interaction."

Joyce Miller, formerly Director Company Measures, Pacific Bell

“Mary’s collaborative style encouraged active participation at all levels of the organization and her gentle coaching ensured that sponsorship for the change remained steady.”

Nancy Calcese, former HR Manager at Hewlett Packard

“After assessing a critical content and skill gap in a customer-facing organization, Mary quickly seized upon the opportunity to solicit sponsorship for a series of webinars to align the workforce with the organization’s new strategic direction.”

Joe Podolsky, Executive Briefing Center Manager at Hewlett Packard

"In a project intended to produce an entirely new structure, Anna played a prominent role in the organizational design and implementation. She skillfully helped us clarify the roles and responsibilities of management and staff, which resulted in a more productive organization. Just as importantly, she facilitated the cultural changes essential to making the transition to that new structure successful."

Steve Marshall, VP Claims, California State Automobile Association

"Our team consisted of several recently merged groups, whose members were very senior technical engineers, including many PhDs. Anna gained the management team's respect and helped us recognize the different cultures within the new team and how to start taking the best from each group to create a new, unifying culture."

Tricia Jordan, Manager Core Java, Sun Microsystems

“Mary co-designed a regional deployment structure for a US-wide professional services organization. She brought change management expertise, a fresh perspective and an energetic personality to the management team responsible for the change.”

William Rees, former Partner, HP Services, Hewlett Packard

“Using the feedback data as a catalyst for action, Mary involved the management team in creating a change plan that would shift the whole organization to a more customer-focused strategy through newly defined leadership behaviors and competencies.”

Nancy Calcese, former HR Manager at Hewlett Packard

“Anna’s strategic visioning process was one of the key components enabling change in a traditionally static company."

Tom McLaughlin, former Associate Corporate Medical Director, Blue Shield of California

"Anna was probing and pointed without ever being aggressive. And, she never sacrificed an honest look at genuine issues to help us reach our goals."

Steve Marshall, VP Claims, California State Automobile Association

“Mary brought change management expertise, a fresh perspective and an energetic personality to the management team responsible for the change.”

William Rees, former Partner, HP Services, Hewlett Packard

"Anna helped me clarify the critical issues and provided a framework that let me move out of my comfort zone and take effective action."

Richard Lee, Manager EDI Department, Blue Shield of California

"Anna gave our managers and me a vocabulary to do business more productively with each other and has accounted for long-haul improvements in our effectiveness. . . . Anna has continued to be a helpful "backboard" counselor to me."

William Stone, President Emeritus, Stanford Alumni Association

"Anna was a very sensible investment for our organization. Anna is a quick study, comfortable to work with, and open. She invites participation and insights, and is a good blend of listener, encourager, admonisher and defuser in organizational and team planning discussions."

William Stone, President Emeritus, Stanford Alumni Association