Denise is an executive coach, leadership consultant and author who coaches her clients in how to master the power, political and influence challenges at work and establish a personal brand that helps them stand out among the crowd. For the past 18 years Denise has been delivering transformational leadership experiences for executives and key leaders in the high-tech, bio-tech, health care and financial services industries.  

Whether through a leadership program, team consultation, or with executive and leadership coaching, Denise's unique processes help leaders design the roadmap that gives them the practical means for achieving success, personally and professionally.  

Following a successful career in education in two teaching hospitals of the Harvard Medical School system -- the Massachusetts General Hospital and The Cambridge Hospital -- and as vice president of a consulting firm in Boston, Denise moved to San Francisco and launched her leadership development work in the Bay Area. Since then she has founded two companies, The Innovative Edge in 1994 and in 2006, The Women's Edge in Leading (formerly Hairpin Turns), a leadership consultancy for women leaders.

Denise brings a wide range of experience to her work. She has expertise in management and leadership development including executive and leadership coaching, building high performance teams, planning and managing change, the nuances of organizational influence and negotiation, power and politics in organizations, and developing leadership presence / personal branding for executives in the making. She specializes in working with leaders in high-technology, bio-technology, health care and financial services, and her clients range from start-ups to industry leaders in the Fortune 500.

Denise has certification in a number of world-class leadership assessments including Lominger International's Leadership Architect Suite, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator -- both the original and expanded Step II versions, Management Research Group's Strategic Directions suite of products, and the Emotional Competence Inventory from the Hay Group. She has designed The Innovative Edge's Power, Personal Brand, Political Intelligence and Negotiation assessments used throughout the programs and executive coaching offered in her company.

Denise received her MBA from the Simmons School of Management, Simmons College, Boston, and her BS with honors from Boston University. She is a certified coach through The Coaches Training Institute of San Rafael, CA. 

A frequent presenter at professional conferences, Denise is a dynamic and engaging speaker. Her work has been written about in the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, ABCNews.com, Women.com, Arizona Republic, Christian Science Monitor, San Francisco Business Times, Graduating Engineer and EETimes. Martha Finney, the editor of Praeger Publishers 2008 3-part book series, Building High Performance People and Organizations, built the chapter "Women in the Workplace" in Book 3, Case Studies and Conversations, from interviews with Denise's on her research on and work with executive women. 

Denise writes a leadership blog and is authoring a book Get What You Want: 31 Ways in 31 Days to Master Influence at Work (September 2010). When she's not working Denise enjoys running, hiking and backpacking into the wilderness, has been known to dive off cliffs and out of airplanes, and is a tri-athlete.

Read Denise's personal bio here.