team bios
founders
Ellen Keithline Byrne, PhD – Co-Founder
Ellen is an executive coach, social scientist and leader who develops people to be mindful, courageous and innovative so they can thrive in their roles. She believes with guidance, individuals and teams become more aware of how their thoughts, feelings and behaviors influence their outcomes. Ellen holds a doctorate in Organizational Development and Change and has over 18 years of experience working both on a global learning and development team, and as a consultant servicing Fortune 500 companies like Morgan Stanley, Walmart and Microsoft, smaller firms, and non-profits including Save the Children. Ellen is a contributing author to Harvard Business Review, Forbes and Mindful.org.
Denise D’Agostino, CEC – Co-Founder
Denise, CEC, HR Leader and Executive Coach brings practical approaches and a high level of energy enabling leaders, teams and organizations to perform and deliver. Her 25 years of real-world experience as the Head of HR for both Bayer HealthCare and Ciba Specialty Chemicals offers a powerful advantage for her clients. Leaders value her creativity, ability to challenge the status quo and design comprehensive solutions that build talent at all levels of an organization. Equipped with her extensive HR experience and certifications in multiple psychometrics, Denise is well poised to help clients, ranging from Fortune 500 to start-ups reach their fullest potential. She is an adjunct instructor at Cornell University, the ILR School of Human Capital Development.
Karen Kirchner MS, PCC – Co-Founder
Karen Kirchner, MS, CPCC is an executive coach who challenges and supports women to amplify their voices and increase their impact. She has a 20-year track record of catapulting clients to greater levels of leadership effectiveness. Her years of HR at Citigroup and Reader’s Digest provide a business-savvy perspective, which combines powerfully with her optimism around people’s potential for change. Karen’s unique blend of intelligence, insight and creativity has made her a trusted partner to an impressive list of organizations, from Fortune 500 companies like Aetna to technology start-ups like Datto. Executives report that working with Karen helps them to elevate their presence and make better decisions, resulting in enhanced reputation and results.
advisors
Wagner Denuzzo, LCSW – Consultant and former Head of Capabilities for Future of Work, Prudential Financial
Wagner is a Latino executive currently leading the Future of Work Talent CoE at Prudential. His team is responsible for Organizational Capabilities, Work and Org Design, Change Management, Workforce Transformation Delivery, and Organization Effectiveness for a future-ready enterprise. Prior to this role, Wagner was leading Leadership Talent Transformation at IBM where he also served as the Global VP, Leadership and Management Development for the enterprise during IBM’s largest transformation in its history. Wagner has been a Talent Strategy Leader, Leadership/Organizational Development Consultant, Executive Coach, and HR strategist for over 20 years. Wagner is a frequent speaker on the Future of Work and his ideas are driving a new way of thinking in HR. He was born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and holds a bachelor’s degree in communications, and earned a Master’s in Clinical Social Work from New York University.
Ted Fleming – Talent Development Consultant and former Head, Talent Development, CVS Health.
Ted is passionate about helping people reach their potential, find enjoyable work and perform their best. He offers proven talent development solutions gained from more than 30 years of experience advising individuals and businesses. Ted is the author of Develop: 7 Practical Tools to Take Charge of Your Career. He speaks frequently on topics including managing your career, driving business results, and innovation.
Carol Jensen – Consultant, Former Chief People Officer and Chief Marketing Officer
Carol is an energetic, goal oriented C-Suite executive with a successful track record in both Human Resources and Marketing. She has broad industry expertise, with leadership roles in technology companies (Flatiron Health Chief People Officer), retail/foodservice (Wawa Chief Marketing Officer and Chief People Officer), and financial institutions (ING and Citigroup, VP People). Carol builds strong, trusting relationships to help develop individuals she works with to recognize opportunities and build the confidence to deliver better performance. Carol currently consults with CPOs and CEOs to ensure their people team strategy and approach aligns with business strategy and will enable desired outcomes. Carol also serves on the Board of Alula, a management consulting company that uses the principles of applied behavioral science to positively impact performance.
Cathy Jirak – Founding Partner and COO of QueBIT
Catherine Jirak is a founding partner and the COO of QueBIT, a Planning and Analytics consulting firm. QueBIT’s advises and implements enterprise wide planning and analytic solutions to companies of all sizes and across all industries. As COO, Cathy is responsible for company operations including sales, service delivery and support. Cathy also plays a key role in QueBIT’s strategic and technology partner relationships. Much of QueBIT’s growth can be attributed to Cathy’s advocating for a strong internal training program in conjunction with an active college recruitment effort. This has enabled QueBIT to develop a strong company identity and culture, which values the contributions of all members of its diverse workforce. This by far is what sets QueBIT apart from its competitors. Cathy began her career in public accounting before working in finance for a Fortune 500 company. Just prior to founding QueBIT, Cathy was the principal of her own accounting and tax firm. Cathy holds a BS in Accounting from the University of Scranton and her CPA. Outside of work Cathy loves to travel and is a passionate skier and golfer.
Kelsie Johnston – Head of Beauty & Personal Care, TikTok
Kelsie is an eCommerce and Omnichannel expert with a track record for driving transformation in digital and retail organizations. Creating value across various CPG and Luxury businesses, Kelsie has fostered diverse and innovative thinking to support organizational change at Macy’s, Saks, Gilt Groupe, Jet.com/Walmart eCommerce and Coty Global Beauty. Kelsie now works at Coty where she leads the transformation of US Digital & eCommerce initiatives, with a focus on building customer-centric, process-driven solutions to accelerate local market P&Ls and futureproof the digital Beauty experience.
