The Partners

Michael Manzagol

Leadership Coach/Organizational Performance Consultant

Biography
Michael is the founding partner of Global Reach Leadership. Michael specializes in empowering technically and strategically oriented executives to lead during rapid change, entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial initiatives, shifting power, and mergers and acquisitions. He leverages his extensive experience of leading teams in both corporate and startup environments to enable leaders to become powerful business communicators, build and lead high-performing teams, and manage effectively in cross-cultural and global settings. Michael results-based approach to coaching emphasizes the ability for leaders to lead and influence others to achieve their strategic objectives and drive the bottom line. Coaching engagements focus on leadership ability through strengthening of key competencies, leading through others, performance management, cultural  and developing self-honesty and awareness.

Consulting Expertise: Leadership Programs, Executive Coaching, Assessments/Performance Measurement, Organizational Transformation, M & A and Cross-cultural Management

Consulting & Executive Coaching Experience:

  • Leadership development and leading high-performing teams
  • Organizational Transformation
  • Business development strategy and client engagement
  • Effective business communications, organizational awareness and influencing.
  • Performance measurement systems, strategic planning and change management programs.
  • Building support for entrepreneurial and strategic initiatives.
  • Managing in 24/7 and cross-cultural environments.
  • Developing new executives: transitioning, succession-planning and on boarding.
  • Certified in team and individual assessment instruments, including the PDI 360 Feedback Survey, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Leadership Style Inventory and Performance Measurement
  • Facilitation, mediation, negotiation and conflict resolution.

Background

Prior to founding Global Reach Leadership, Michael served as the President of Critical Mass Media Group (CCMG), a Silicon Valley-based consulting company specializing in strategic marketing and branding for Fortune 500 companies, venture capital and funded startups. While at CMMG, Michael was responsible for driving business development and managing client relations during seven years of rapid growth. He has also run marketing and sales programs for software, wireless and hardware companies, including Tandem Computers, Swan Systems (funded by Crosspoint Venture Partners) and Exwire, a wireless Internet provider. Most recently, Michael has been a specialist mentor to semifinalists in the California Cleantech Open as well as sits on their Investor Relations committee. He recently worked with the CEO of the Sustainable Brands conference to launch the Innovation Open, a competition honoring innovation in sustainability.

Education

Michael earned a Masters of Journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, a BA in Political Science and Philosophy from Antioch College and received his coaching training at New Ventures West. Before turning his attention to consulting, he worked in documentary and feature film production, earning an Emmy Award in the Current Affairs category.

Marina Illich Ph.D.

Leadership Coach/Cross-Cultural Expert

Biography

Marina is a Columbia and Oxford University trained educator and leadership coach dedicated to helping leaders develop the agility, vision, accountability, and influencing skills needed to succeed in today’s global marketplace. Taking a results oriented approach, Marina empowers leaders to master emotional intelligence, cross-cultural fluency, and strategic thinking—key drivers of innovation, risk-taking, and optimized organizational performance. An Asia expert with global work experience, Marina maintains that leaders must cultivate strong multi-cultural competencies to thrive in a highly competitive workplace. Marina brings deeply human solutions to business challenges, believing that personal mastery is the key to modeling and embodying effective leadership. Marina is a partner at Global Reach Leadership.

Leadership Coaching Expertise

  • Leadership development
  • Developing emotional and social intelligence competencies
  • Leading in cross-cultural environments
  • Effective business communications, organizational awareness, and influencing
  • Talent assessment and development: certified in the PDI 360 Feedback Survey

Education

Marina earned a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University in New York City and was a Visiting Scholar at Oxford University. She completed her BA in Religion at Wesleyan University. Marina is a credentialed leadership coach from New Ventures West, a coaching program accredited by the International Coaching Federation. Marina is fluent in Tibetan and has a working knowledge of French, Spanish, Italian, and Sanskrit.

Background

Prior to her work as a leadership coach, Marina was a scholar and professor of religion. As part of her doctoral research, Marina examined how contemporary Tibetan leaders leverage emotional and social intelligence competencies to generate resilience, strategic vision, and effective communication under highly volatile political and social conditions. Through her studies of Tibetan leadership models with the Dalai Lama and Tibetan leaders across China, Tibet, India, Nepal, the UK and Belgium, Marina gained firsthand experience of the way personal mastery is a key cornerstone of effective leadership. After completing her doctorate, Marina co-founded a non-profit dedicated to teaching personal mastery skills including self-regulation, resilience, and effective communication in medical and educational institutions, prisons, and non-profit organizations. An experienced facilitator, she has designed and led dozens of seminars on transformational leadership to culturally diverse audiences. A former visiting professor at New York University and teaching fellow at Columbia University and Barnard College, and a cross-cultural mediator and interpreter for the Federal Immigration Courts, Marina brings a passion for communicating complex ideas to culturally diverse audiences.

Timothy Swords

Leadership Coach/Strategy Execution Consultant

Biography
Timothy is a partner of Global Reach Leadership. Timothy has provided executive coaching and consulting at the president and senior executive levels across diverse industries including pharmaceutical, technology, and professional services. Representative clients include Merck & Co., Inc., NCR and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Timothy specializes in delivering strategic focus and produces immediate profit improvements by integrating business planning, strategy execution, executive coaching, leadership team development and organizational change.  His achievement-oriented approach to coaching emphasizes the importance for leaders to leverage self-assessment and 360° feedback to develop action plans that leverage key strengths and eliminate derailers in order to accomplish career growth and business results.

Consulting Expertise: Business Planning, Strategy Execution, Executive Coaching, Leadership Team Development, Balanced Scorecard

Consulting & Executive Coaching Experience

  • Leadership development and leading high-performing teams
  • Organizational Transformation
  • Business development strategy and client engagement
  • Effective business communications, organizational awareness and influencing.
  • Enterprise-wide performance measurement systems, strategic and execution planning
  • Building support for entrepreneurial and strategic initiatives.
  • Managing in 24/7 and cross-cultural environments.
  • Certified in team and individual assessment instruments, including the PDI 360° Feedback Survey, Group Development Questionnaire, and 360° Leadership Practices Inventory.
  • Mediation, influencing, negotiation and conflict resolution.

Background

Prior to joining Global Reach Leadership, Timothy served as the Managing Principal of T. Swords & Associates, a Boston-based consulting firm specializing in aligning strategic planning, leadership capacity development and execution discipline. Prior to founding his firm, Mr. Swords held leadership roles at consultancies: Renaissance Solutions/Balanced Scorecard Collaborative (firms co-founded by Robert Kaplan and David Norton, authors of the Balanced Scorecard concept), CSC Index (collaborating with thought-leaders Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema, authors of The Discipline of Market Leaders) and Coopers & Lybrand Management Consulting Services.

His industry positions include Vice President of Strategy & Planning at Fidelity Investments, Vice President of Waverly Investments and General Manager of Illuminations, Inc., a gift manufacturer.

Timothy is an active Board member of the Harvard Business School Association of Northern California Community Partners, which provides pro bono consulting assistance to not-for-profit organizations.

Education

Timothy earned his MBA from Harvard University, his BS in Accounting from Boston College and received his Graduate Certification in Executive Coaching at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology.