Who We Are

At Partners International, we believe in the power of people. Our Art of Alignment recognizes an employee’s true potential and positive impact on a company can only be realized when they feel a deep connection with the company’s culture, mission, and operations. Through our tailored solutions and scalable strategies, our team will drive maximum value for your organization by unlocking the full potential of your talent throughout the employee journey: from onboarding, to development, to transition. We’re not just another consulting firm – we’re Partners.

Management Team

Coaches

Our Core Values

Integrity

We align our actions with our words, values, and beliefs, and apply the highest professional, ethical, and personal standards to our work.

Emotional Intelligence

We base our work in a strong sense of empathy, rationality, and fairness to deliver the best outcomes for our clients.

Relationship Focused

We build quality, trusting relationships by putting our client’s needs first and fulfilling our commitments.

Creative Agility

We bring you unique solutions that draw from our collective knowledge while making sure to respond to changes in the market.

Our Management Team

Amy J. Friedman

Founder & CEO

Will Perry

Chief Operating Officer

Andrea Chester

Talent Delivery

Jim Hajny

Career Transition

Amanda Buschi

Talent Management

Paula Kupka

Vice President of Client Solutions

Our Executive Coaches and SMEs

We have a diverse bench of over 250 coaches around the world! Here are just a few:

Kim Bealle

Joanne Bobes

Pam Borton

Işilay Çabuk

Cecilia Carter

Frank Faeth

Theodore Gerber

Susie Warman

Josette Goldberg Klopfer, MSMOB, PCC

Bill Guerin

Katherine Hosie, M.Sc.

Peter James

Julie Jansen

Cheryl Jordan, Ph.D.

Hannah Kiernan, Esq.

Gina Lepore

Steven Morvay

Leslie Rolison

Yaprak Sapanlı Görür

Jaye Smith

Brian Szepkouski

Ash Varma

Beverly Wallace

Elizabeth Ward, Ph.D.

Walter Slade

Harness the expertise and experience of Partners International.

Email us to get the conversation started.

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Amy J. Friedman, Founder & CEO

Amy is a leader in the human capital, human resources, talent consulting, and talent development industry whose focus is creating alignment among shareholders and stakeholders. After establishing a record of corporate success, Amy founded Partners International, a large-scale boutique firm, as one of the first certified women-owned businesses in the industry in 1994. In the decades since, top companies have come to value Amy’s collaborative style, and her ability to create stronger, more positive organizations through diversity and emotional intelligence. Her foundation is in industrial and organizational psychology, and she continues to approach challenges with the same academic rigor today.

Will Perry, Chief Operating Officer

As Chief Operating Officer for Partners International, Will is responsible for developing and executing corporate strategy. His focus areas are designing new offerings for clients, and continuously improving operational efficiency and financial performance. He acts as the key interface point between the individual practice teams, ensuring all activity within the organization remains client-centric. Will leads both internal and external initiatives, including sales and marketing campaigns, business process improvement, and software implementation programs.

Andrea Chester, Talent Delivery

Andrea leads the operations and delivery of Partners International’s Executive Coaching (EC) practice. Her central commitment is ensuring a best-in-class experience for clients, and focuses daily on building or maintaining new or existing client relationships. At Partners, Andrea has assembled a world-class team of consultants across the globe. She oversees the management, communication, training, and recruitment of these consultants. Andrea is also responsible for the EC practice’s strategic direction, and maintaining the practice’s alignment with central business objectives.

Jim Hajny, Career Transition

Jim Hajny is a human resources professional with over 20 years’ experience in outplacement and career transition management. He has a proven track record of building relationships with senior management, employees, and clients. Jim is exceptionally skilled at aligning vision and strategy to achieve business objectives. He coaches and motivates high-performance teams, and effectively provides strategic and tactical counsel to managers and executives. He is responsible for the recruitment, training, and management of all Partners International career transition coaches.

Amanda Buschi, Talent Management

Amanda is an experienced global leader and subject matter expert in talent management. She specializes in identifying, recognizing, and upskilling top talent, enabling organizations to attract, develop and retain key leaders and employees. With a keen understanding of success metrics developed through international experience across Europe, North and South America, and the Caribbean, Amanda acts as a trusted advisor for human resources business partners on strategic talent management and culture initiatives and executive development. She is fluent in Spanish and proficient in French.

Paula Kupka, Vice President of Client Solutions

As Vice President of Client Solutions, Paula Kupka brings extensive expertise in Account Management, Operations, and Business Development. Her career spans diverse sectors within Fortune 1000 companies, providing her with a broad perspective and deep understanding of business-to-business services, particularly in Human Capital and Employee Experience. Paula’s strategic vision and commitment to excellence have consistently driven successful outcomes in her previous roles. She is renowned for her innovative thinking, ability to foster strong client relationships, and dedication to delivering exceptional service.

Kim Bealle

Kim’s coaching practice is informed by her decades-long career in advertising and marketing, where she learned to understand the perspectives and needs of client companies across a range of industries. She meets her coaching clients, and their companies, where they are, designing coaching plans calibrated to individual and organizational goals. Her approach helps clients deepen their self-awareness, and move that learning into action. Kim’s empathy, intuition, and practical activation tools help clients achieve the transformations they want and need to make.

Prior to becoming a coach, Kim spent more than 30 years at major advertising agencies, working with domestic and global clients. While at Y&R, Kim was the EVP/Director of Account Management. Kim also sat on executive and leadership committees at Y&R, Kraft Foods, and Saatchi&Saatchi. Kim was trained and is certified by the Coaches Training Institute (CTI), where she also completed the intensive Leadership program.

Joanne Bobes

Joanne is an executive coach and leadership advisor with 20 years’ experience working with individuals and groups both in-house and as a consultant. Joanne is also a psychotherapist, affording her an additional vantage point to help clients manage the oft-accompanying uncertainties, stressors, and concerns associated with growth, change, and transitions. As an executive coach, learning consultant, and clinician, Joanne has a depth of knowledge and ability to support people to successfully build and manage career progression. She guides clients to strengthen insights, skills, and behaviors required to enhance interpersonal and leadership effectiveness. Joanne effectively coaches Managers. Directors, VPs, and C-Suite Executives, bringing her unique blend of business and clinical skills to help clients achieve both personal and professional goals. Coaching topics include communicating effectively, executive presence, influencing skills, building partnerships, succession planning, managing differences and conflict, stress management, and work/life balance.

Pam Borton

Pam is an ICF Senior Executive Coach PCC, professional speaker, leadership trainer, and author. She is committed to taking C-suite executives and senior-level leaders and their teams to that “next level.” Pam is highly sought-after for her uniqueleadership experience, business acumen, and proven track record. She has been featured in Sports Business Journal, Twin Cities Business Magazine, Artful Living Magazine, Human Resources Executive Online, Business Opportunities Handbook, Wharton Business Radio, WCCO CBS Morning News, ESPN Radio, and others. She stands apart with 27 years of high-level, Division 1 coaching experience, including 12 years in the Big Ten Conference as the head basketball coach at the University of Minnesota, where she remains the winningest coach in the University of Minnesota women’s basketball history.

Işilay Çabuk

Işılay’s brings 15 years’ experience in finance and coaching, having managed, trained, and coached teams in New York, London, and Beijing at all organizational levels. Her career began with the Standard & Poor’s Index and Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, where she interfaced with international companies in over 100 Stock Markets. At the S&P organization, Işılay developed a keen interest in human behavior, and began to hone her natural ability to coach with other analysts. Today, Işılay’s extensive business expertise, leadership, excellent communication, interpersonal skills, and creativity add great value to her coaching engagements. Işılay has also coached in sectors such as education, engineering, healthcare, and nonprofit, automotive, and tech.

Cecilia Carter

Cecilia brings a unique combination of communications, diversity, and human resource experience to her engagements. Fluidly moving between coaching and consulting, she leverages her experience to increase executive alignment with client values, brands, and missions. Passionate about developing diverse talent, Cecilia creates a safe place for clients to share personal and professional challenges that might impact their career growth. Cecilia focuses on executive coaching and presence, new leader assimilation, diversity strategy, team alignment, conflict management, and leadership development. She has worked with all management levels in coaching and strategic consulting, including Executive Vice Presidents, Chief Diversity Officers, Chief Corporate Marketing Officers, Chief Human Resource Officers, Chief Communication Officers, as well as middle management.

Cecilia has served in a broad array of leadership roles for several world-class brands, advancing to Vice President positions in PepsiCo and Starbucks. Known for her visionary style and strategic focus, she is adept at aligning executive engagement, mission, values and business strategy. Her background combines experience in both the public and private sectors across many industries including retail, finance, consumer brands, and entertainment.

Frank Faeth

As a former Fortune 500 senior executive, Frank understands exactly what it takes for leaders and managers to overcome challenges and seize opportunities. He applies his business background to coach high potential individuals on how to perform at their personal best. Principles of clear communication, relationship building, compassionate leadership, and curiosity underpin his coaching approach. Frank partners with clients to turn powerful personal and interpersonal insights into positive action that advances their careers and the missions of their organizations. He has coached all levels of management, focusing on senior leaders across a wide range of industries and functions. Frank’s source of differentiation is his knowledge of how organizations and people operate based on his executive level experience.

Theodore Gerber

Ted’s practical approach to his engagements is born from his extensive management and consulting experience. His areas of experience include business strategy facilitation, conflict management and negotiations, team alignment, organizational and leadership development, and executive coaching. He has worked with all management levels in both coaching and facilitating team alignment sessions. Ted has coached C-level executives including Presidents, Executive Vice Presidents, Chief Legal Officers, Chief Financial Officers, Chief Operating Officers, Executive and Senior Vice Presidents of Sales and Marketing, Vice Presidents of Logistics and Manufacturing, and middle management. Previous, he served as head of U.S. business operations for Krauthammer International, an international executive development, training, and consulting firm, where he worked with organizations to improve their business decisions. Ted also was a partner in Decision Processes International, an international strategy consulting firm facilitating senior level strategy sessions with companies in the U.S., Europe and Africa.

Susie Warman

Implementing leadership development solutions that link individual effectiveness to organizational performance has been the focus of Susie’s work for nearly two decades. She has extensive expertise in executive coaching, leadership coaching, training high-performing teams, team coaching, leadership programs, and organizational development consultation. Drawing from a deep understanding of human behavior and organizational structure, Susie coaches C-level executives, including CEO, Presidents, General Managers, as well as entrepreneurs. Through her successfully proven coaching process and unique style, many executives have developed the vital tools to reach their full potential. Susie possesses recognized capacities to listen and abstract, to understand client needs, and for human touch based on solid principles and values. She constantly challenges clients into moving from comfort zones and discovering new areas of opportunity, creating breakthroughs for individuals and leadership teams struggling to enhance performance and achieve desired results.

Josette Goldberg Klopfer, MSMOB, PCC

Josette specializes in taking already successful business leaders and their teams to the next level of performance. Josette’s passion is challenging leaders to understand every aspect of their company, evaluate what makes them unique, and leverage each team member’s talents. Her goal is to create an environment where each leader can improve their performance and thrive. Her top-down approach to coaching has a cascading effect on the entire organization. Prior to coaching, Josette held C-suite executive and officer roles for over 20 years, guiding several Fortune 500 companies through mergers and acquisitions, financial and cultural turnarounds, and rapid growth using initiatives that expanded industry impact, increased sales, and improved margins.

Bill Guerin

Bill has helped many organizations drive change and improve business performance while also generating greater commitment, engagement, and loyalty among their employees and customers. Bill produces change using powerful catalysts to challenge assumptions, remove barriers, and stimulate fresh thinking and new behaviors. His approach creates more authentic and meaningful conversations and breakthrough experiences, enabling his clients to work smarter, faster and more effectively in achieving lasting improvements. Bill’s coaching philosophy is grounded in helping executives understand and leverage their greatest strengths. He works with his clients to develop a clear and compelling desired future state for both the executive and the business; honestly and objectively describe the current state, and then work on high-impact areas to move the executive and the business from where it is to where it needs to be. Bill is a seasoned executive with over 35 years’ experience in a variety of executive roles across various industries. He has held several corporate leadership positions, including Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Strategy for Prudential Insurance; Executive Vice President at global market research firm TNS; and Director of Sales and Marketing for PPL, a Fortune 500 diversified energy company.

Katherine Hosie, M.Sc.

Katherine is one of only three coaches in the United States qualified to offer master’s-level evidence-based coaching psychology from the University of Sydney, which leads the world in this arena. She partners with successful leaders in reinjecting meaning, authenticity, and sustainability into how they lead their organizations, including learning complex adaptive leadership approaches required for our changing world. Katherine has been coaching full-time since 2003 and has over 10,000 hours of coaching experience across a multitude of industries. She combines cutting-edge evidence-based coaching psychology with a humanistic approach to adult development, and has held board and leadership roles for several years including President, International Coach Federation (ICF) Australasia, the leading global organization dedicated to advancing the coaching profession. She is Australian and has been based in San Francisco since 2013.

Peter James

As a business and leadership coach, Peter brings a unique combination of emotional intelligence, leadership and strategic thinking into all of his coaching engagements. His background as an officer in the US Army and experience in corporate marketing allows him to look for both discipline and strategic thinking within his clients. His focus on helping senior executives and leaders transform from average to high-performing is a main framework to many of his coaching relationships. This is accomplished by the unwrapping of a leader’s potential to amplify their own performance. Subsequently, this causes them to learn and grow freely. He believes that leaders can find their own solutions, set their own goals and devise their own strategies for the purposes of change; however, having a coach to help manifest these criteria and outcomes is essential.

Peter offers more than two decades of leadership-laden experience stretching from his service within the U.S. Army to marketing within the Pharmaceutical Industry to his role as the Chair of a Business School within a major university and currently, as the President of the Chicago Chapter of the International Coach Federation.

Julie Jansen

Julie helps individuals and businesses reach their fullest potential in today’s chaotic business world. Her areas of expertise include communication and presenting, executive presence, time management, career development, building confidence, problem-solving, decision-making, and self-awareness. She currently coaches clients in the areas of new leader development, performance acceleration, and enhancing and improving existing leadership skills. Julie is the author of the best-selling career classics, “I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Know It’s Not This: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Gratifying Work (3rd Edition),” and, “You Want Me to Work With Who? Eleven Keys to a Stress-Free, Satisfying, and Successful Work Life…No Matter Who You Work With.”

Cheryl Jordan, Ph.D.

Cheryl is a change agent, leadership and team development master, executive coach, and wellness promoter with a history of demonstrating creative, innovative and progressive thought leadership in environments where millisecond change is the norm. As a coach, Cheryl effectively guides leaders, teams, and women leaders to come from a place of inspiration, to imagine stellar outcomes, and to execute on their professional aspirations and goals. Cheryl has coached C-Suite, Senior Vice Presidents, Vice Presidents, and middle managers in the media/entertainment, sports, financial services, NGO, and healthcare industries. She has over 30 years’ experience developing talent to meet the immediate and emerging needs of the business. Cheryl co-authored the article, “The role of societal privilege in the definitions and practices of inclusion”, which was published in the international journal, “Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.”

Hannah Kiernan, Esq.

Hannah is a certified executive leadership and team coach who has over 20 years’ experience coaching business professionals. She started her career as a litigator and moved into practice and business development roles at global law firms in New York, Boston, and Northern New Jersey. Hannah’s business experience includes managing large international teams where she was known as a highly successful leader with wide-ranging responsibilities that encompassed budgeting, marketing, staffing, business generation, client retention, talent management, and organizational design. Hannah’s strengths-based coaching process focuses on helping business leaders gain greater self-awareness and develop skills and behaviors that better align with their organizations and enhance work performance. Her current practice includes coaching professionals and teams in leadership skills, adaptive behavioral techniques, career management, and in co-designing successful business strategies that help clients improve their professional outcomes. Hannah has been recognized by Diversity Lab as one of their “Top Lawyer Coaches” for her pro bono work coaching women attorneys who are transitioning back into private practice after exiting the workforce.

Gina Lepore

Gina is a board- (BCC) and ICF-certified insightful business coach and consultant with more than three decades’ direct leadership experience. Gina’s coaching practice focuses on guiding managers and professionals in a number of different industries—including healthcare, financial services, tech, and education—through complex transformations of people, process, and technology. She is passionate about helping her clients develop skills to face today’s challenges, and building effective organizations and teams. By pinpointing problems and offering solutions with impact, Gina supports her clients as they lead their teams through periods of significant change. Her clients become the leaders people are inspired by and want to work with. Her effectiveness as a coach lies in helping people learn and leverage soft skills including complex problem solving, conflict resolution, negotiation, and how to operate with an empathetic mindset. In her career prior to coaching, Gina moved through the ranks of several companies and industries, and spent three decades in COO roles in education, financial services, and tech. Team leaders draw on Gina’s decades of experience in climbing the corporate ladder, transforming organizations, and teaching in master’s degree programs in management at NYU and Pacific College of Health and Science.

Steven Morvay

Steven brings to every engagement a breadth of problem solving experience developed within a breadth of environments, from small entrepreneurial ventures to multinational corporate giants, and from startups to turnaround environments, in both private and public companies. He’s been successful working with individuals to explore their next career steps, as well as coaching senior executives, facilitating business strategy, managing conflict, and optimizing organizations. Steven also has added capabilities addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion aspects of executive responsibilities. His approach to working with clients is based on establishing a well-defined objective with a measurable result. Most recently, before consulting, Steven served as CEO of Acquirgy, a $100 million acquisition marketing company, where in just two years he propelled its fledgling digital practice to its place among the top ten independent providers of SEM in the U.S.

Leslie Rolison

Leslie is an experienced executive coach, whose partnership with her clients encourages change, clarifies goals, and enhances their impact. She leverages her background working as a senior executive in complex business environments to gain the perspective, insights and behavioral tools to reach their potential. Leslie works with her clients to identify solutions that work best for them, while helping them to increase their self-knowledge and develop confidence as a leader. Her style is passionate and direct, and she provides her clients a safe environment to reflect, share, discuss, and strategize to solve their more challenging situations. Leslie specializes in supporting smart, successful female leaders to embrace their strengths and seek opportunities for increased inclusion. She is certified to administer various assessment instruments and uses them, and other coaching tools, to enhance client experience. Prior to becoming an executive coach, Leslie was Chief Administrative Officer and a member of the executive management team at Jennison Associates LLC, a $170B asset management firm.

Yaprak Sapanlı Görür

Yaprak has over 20 years’ global executive human resources and leadership development experience from 3M Company. She is passionate about developing leaders, helping them create the best version of themselves, and achieving results. Having held senior positions, led leaders across various geographies, and being an expatriate located in a multicultural environment, she understands the challenges global leaders face. Yaprak offers an in-depth understanding of multicultural diversity, matrix organization, and organizational dynamics, which leads to more informed, emotionally intelligent consulting engagements. Her coaching style is transformational, results-oriented, direct, and developmental. She has a track record of successfully helping senior leaders strengthen their leadership skills during significant transformation periods. She has coached all management levels, including C-suite executives, senior-level leaders, and their teams, in biopharma, industrial, tech, retail, engineering, and healthcare, for clients ranging in size from Fortune 500 to startup companies. She also served on the board of directors of Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity in 2017-2019.

Jaye Smith

Jaye is an engaging, compassionate, challenging and intuitive coach to executives, entrepreneurs, and innovators. She has blended experience as a serial entrepreneur, executive, author and university faculty member. Jaye has worked with Fortune 100, Fortune 500, midsized, and startup companies as a talent expert, leadership coach, and team facilitator. Using her team building expertise and her interactive, innovative approaches, Jaye has helped over 100 companies synthesize strategies, overcome conflict, and align intact and cross-functional teams. Jaye is fueled by helping others uncover their purpose, direction, and leadership brand, as well helping them build a roadmap to realize their goals and full potential as leaders. She is co-author of three books, including “The Retirement Boom: The All-Inclusive Guide to Money, Life, and Health in Your Next Chapter,” as well as “Reboot Your Life: Energize Your Career and Life by Taking a Break,” and “Venus Unbound: A Guide to Actualizing the Power of Being Female.” Jaye has been interviewed on radio, TV, and print media discussing strategies for building successful careers and businesses.

Brian Szepkouski

A leading authority on international executive leadership development, Brian capitalizes on his extensive global experience to offer high-impact executive coaching to corporate leaders facing the challenges of leading with influence and inspiration, as well as developing a signature presence. His niche is his astuteness in discerning—and helping his clients navigate—a wide cultural range, from personal cultural backgrounds through corporate, regional, and national cultures. Brian has a true passion for helping his clients reach their highest potential.

Ash Varma

Ash brings to his Executive Coaching practice a multitude of business, finance and legal experience gleaned from his prior tenures as an international tax attorney at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, as CFO of the world’s largest billboard company, as an entrepreneur, and as COO of several talent management firms. His coaching focus is how to best assist executive talent in terms of what they are trying to achieve relative to organizational goals. Thus, Ash’s key focuses often include issues surrounding C-Suite leadership, HiPo women leadership, strategy and execution, and working through personality concerns such as low self-esteem, confidence, introversion, emotional intelligence, and many others. His individual coaching style encompasses full listening, asking numerous questions, motivating, and continuous two-way communication. Ash is often sought after to bring individuals and teams together in times of change and conflict, and forge a collaborative environment that gets the organization “unstuck.”

Beverly Wallace

Beverly is an ICF-certified executive coach with more than 15 years’ expertise in executive and leadership development. Her focus is on accelerating the growth of leaders as they drive toward improved business results. Through her candid and insightful coaching methodology, Beverly helps leaders increase their influence, executive presence, and communication effectiveness, always keeping the business strategy as the primary goal. She specializes in helping leaders overcome barriers to success and create impactful, sustainable results. Most recently, Beverly was the Vice President of Executive Development at a Fortune 50 Company, focusing on accelerating high potential leaders’ development through challenging program experiences and executive coaching. She has also held leadership, sales, and marketing roles, and has coached leaders in pharma, tech, financial services, retail, engineering, and healthcare.

Elizabeth Ward, Ph.D.

Elizabeth knows that performance is everything in the world of business. To achieve levels of excellence that gain recognition, executives need to develop the same skills as those required of elite athletes: self-awareness, sharp focus, and strategic application of their strengths. Elizabeth uses her background and training as an athlete and psychologist to help her clients mitigate stress, develop practical skills, and achieve their goals. Using her extensive experience in business, sport and life, Elizabeth collaborates with her clients to identify and enhance behaviors that will both enable them to excel and provide better well-being. As Elizabeth works with executives, entrepreneurs, and other professionals to deliver their best performance, she helps them to increase self-awareness and motivation, manage pressure, leverage strengths, and work more effectively with colleagues and clients.

Walter Slade

Walter believes that everyone is a leader and that the first person you lead is yourself. As such, his passion is partnering with leaders, teams, and groups to identify, understand and work through roadblocks to being their best and doing their best work individually and collectively. He sees himself as a “Lid Lifter,” opening minds and hearts to other possibilities. Walter’s openness, passion and non-judgmental style and approach enables him to quickly develop trusting and accountability-based relationships with senior executives, middle and first level management as well as employees on the shop floor.