I am a San Francisco Bay Area-based management consultant with over 30 years of experience partnering with individuals, leadership teams, and boards of directors to drive success. While my career spans decades, my approach is fresh, innovative, and deeply rooted in the science of what works.
The insights I share on this blog reflect my own perspective and are not affiliated with my clients’ views.
As the founder and Managing Principal of Back West, Inc., I’ve been dedicated to helping individuals, teams, and organizations thrive since 1996. From 2006 to 2014, my consulting practice flourished as a full-time venture. From 2014 to 2019, I stepped into a corporate role as the Vice President of Talent & Culture at Atara Biotherapeutics, where I played a key role in scaling the organization from a team of three to over 300. In 2019, I returned full-time to my consulting practice, bringing that added wealth of hands-on leadership experience.
My professional journey spans a wide range of industries including financial and professional services, high tech, and biotech. I combine theoretical expertise with pragmatic, real-world applications, drawing on my own deep experience as an insider in the business world with an outsider’s fresh eyes perspective. I’ve held roles across all levels—from cubicles to the executive suite—and have developed a strong reputation for fostering fast starts and sustainable results.
Coaching and Consulting Focus:
• Executive Coaching: Empowering leaders to navigate challenges, sharpen their skills, and realize their potential. Over 80 unsolicited recommendations on LinkedIn speak to my effectiveness in the coaching area.
• Team Coaching: Facilitating team startups and leadership teams to achieve better alignment and stronger performance.
• Leadership and Board Advisory: Helping leadership teams and boards of directors, through my decades of diverse experiences, navigate the often challenging organizational decisions they face.
My formal training in coaching comes from the Hudson Institute of Coaching, complemented by team and group facilitation expertise honed by training and workshops at the Grove Institute, Interaction Associates, Case Western University, Gallup, and The Cape Code Institute. I’m also a certified practitioner of assessment instruments such as the MBTI, though I prioritize real-world insights over rigid assessment tools.
Over the years, I’ve worked with a wide ranging roster of organizations, including:
• Startups: Atara Biotherapeutics, Good Medicine Consult & Advocacy, Orexigen, Inc., Culture Biosciences, Karius Diagnostics, Totus Medicines, and Mnemo Therapeutics, Inc.
• Mid-Sized Companies: Asia Alternatives Management, Pliant Therapeutics, Olema Oncology, Nurix Therapeutics, Imago Bio, Rigel Inc., and Nkarta, Inc.
• Fortune 500 Firms: Synopsys, Inc., Genentech, Google, Cypress Semiconductor, Symantec, Inc., Gilead Sciences, AT&T, Visa,
• Nonprofits: SRI International, the Robert Toigo Foundation, Sonoma County Economic Development Board, Mission High School, 18 Reasons, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the University of Utah, and Code for America
I’ve held corporate roles as the Head of Talent & Culture for Atara Bio, Senior Vice President of Human Resources with McKesson , Director of Human Resources for Chiron Corporation, Managing Principal and Director of Human Resources for Fluid, Inc., and as a Principal and senior HR practitioner with Barclays Global Investors (now part of BlackRock), a San Francisco-based asset management company and during my tenure the world’s largest money manager. My first job out of graduate school was serving on the faculty and staff at the University of Southern California.
The name Back West reflects my roots in the Pacific West and a period living in Chicago, where “back west” always felt more like home than the usual “out west” term.
To connect, email me at Info@BackWest.com.