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Coach Kelly Bio

“It’s good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”
— Ursula K. Le Guin

Coach Kelly Holm Profile Picture

Kelly L. Holm, MCC

Founder & Chief Coaching Officer
Senior Executive Coach & Strategic Thought Partner

Former C-Suite Executive & “Forty under 40” Leadership Honoree.

Top 5% of Professionally Credentialed Coaches Worldwide.

Master Certified Coach (International Coaching Federation & Hudson Institute of Coaching) & Accredited Coach Supervisor (Coaching Supervision Academy).

Award-winning Impact

Master Certified Coach (International Coaching Federation & Hudson Institute of Coaching) & Accredited Coach Supervisor (Coaching Supervision Academy).

Why Coach Kelly?

Kelly’s specialty is visionary, entrepreneurial executives in high-growth, international environments with billion-dollar P&L responsibility, and “Best Company”, Certified B Corporation sensibilities.

The top five strengths Kelly’s clients refer to:
• Breadth of business and leadership experience.
• Depth of coaching expertise.
• Strategic, organized approach
• Ability to zoom from big-picture perspective to situation-specific nuance.
• “Velvet Hammer’ style of challenging that unlocks deeper insight.

This translates to a potent ability to help you authentically and effectively scale your impact for sustainably higher return on your time.

Popular Programs

Confidential Sounding Board & Strategic Thought Partner

Senior executives desiring dedicated ‘think time’ with a partner skilled at drawing out, expanding, exploring, and pressure-testing approaches, particularly during fast-paced periods of significant growth and organizational transformation.

Accelerating Executive Leader Effectiveness

Rising Star (Senior Leader Bench) and ‘Diamond in the Rough’ executives navigating fast growth, expanding roles, international rotations, onboarding to new roles, and/or senior executive bench (C-Suite succession planning).

Accelerating Leadership Team Effectiveness

From accelerating the ‘forming’ and ‘re-forming’ stages of new or transitioning Leadership Teams (“Tuning the Orchestra”), to deepening your team’s ability to leverage diverse strengths and build perpetual momentum for accelerating growth and strategic impact at scale (“Leadership Team Flywheel”).

Kelly Holm

Dedication to Excellence

  • Master Certified Coach (International Coach Federation & Hudson Institute of Coaching); the highest ICF professional accreditation (fewer than 5% of ICF certified coaches worldwide).
  • Accredited Coach Supervisor (Coaching Supervision Academy); Referred to as “The Coach’s Coach”, and requires annual work with an accredited Coaching Supervisor, continuing education units, and professional growth plan to sustain.
  • Certified Systemic Team Coach (Academy of Systemic Team Coaching)
  • “Forty Under 40” Leadership Honoree, Puget Sound Business Journal, Seattle, WA
  • “Coach of the Year”, PRISM Award, International Coach Federation, Washington State
    Certified to administer over 14 leadership and team development instruments. Please see “Dedication to
  • Excellence” page for details.
Coach Kelly Cycling

Executive Leadership Journey

Coach Kelly developed a “leadership from the inside-out” philosophy over two decades of leading diverse teams through significant transitions, including the dot-com boom, bust, and recovery, mergers and acquisitions, and privately-held to employee-owned ESOP business transitions. She became a Puget Sound Business Journal “40 under Forty” leadership honoree, affirming the vision to make her passion for coaching leaders, teams, and entrepreneurs the central focus of her work.

Prior leadership roles include:

  • President & COO, Technology Services Firm
  • Board Member, Serving on boards of privately-held non-profit and for-profit organizations.
  • VP of Core Services (HR, Finance, IT), Information Technology Firm.
  • Regional Program Manager & Senior Consultant, International Management Consulting firm specializing in mid-market enterprises.
  • Director of Operations, Western Region Digital Media, a division of a publicly held, global branding, eLearning, and events agency.

Client Relationships

We foster long-term client relationships, including organizations Kelly has worked with in various capacities since 1990, and executives who reach out to us repeatedly throughout their careers. To honor the confidentiality policy of the ICF and individual client preferences, we refrain from publishing client names here. Additional client testimonials can be found on LinkedIn and references are available upon private request.

Personal Background

Raised in a family transferred every three years by IBM (fondly referred to as “I’ve Been Moved”), from an early age, Kelly attended an international K-12 school and became fluent in a second language. This immersive experience greatly informed her facility and passion for working with diverse executives, contexts, and organizational cultures. Kelly and her partner of 27 years are now based in the greater Seattle area, where she specializes in working via phone and video with diverse leaders, teams, and entrepreneurs worldwide.

Industry Segments Served Include:

  • Advertising/Branding
  • Banking
  • Beverage
  • Business & Professional Services
  • Coaching / Training / Executive Development
  • Construction
  • Consumer Goods
  • Digital Media
  • Education
  • Electronic Devices
  • Energy
  • Engineering
  • Executive Search
  • Family Foundation
  • Health Care
  • Hospitality
  • Information Technology
  • Internet Services
  • Legal
  • Manufacturing
  • Medical Device
  • Medical Imaging
  • Pharmaceutical
  • Real Estate
  • Retail (both Internet and “bricks & mortar”)
  • Software
  • Sporting Goods
  • Telecommunications
  • Travel