Dr. Karen Coplan, Ph.D.
Karen has nearly 20 years of corporate and consulting experience working across a variety of industries, including pharmaceutical, industrial, consumer packaged goods, telecommunications, utilities, technology, financial services, education, private equity, healthcare, and food and beverage. She has extensive experience in executive coaching, leadership development, and assessment. Karen’s coaching approach focuses on helping clients see patterns and trends in their behavior/experiences, challenging their assumptions, in order to help them push beyond their own boundaries. She is fluent in Spanish, completed an expatriate assignment in Spain, and has also led global talent management projects. These experiences enable Karen to be particularly effective in coaching leaders who are working in global or multi-cultural environments.
Experience and Expertise
Karen is experienced in coaching leaders from the United States, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean who range from the C suite to high potential managers. Examples of recent client engagements include: executive coaching for leaders transitioning to senior leadership roles, coaching as part of an ongoing leadership development program for emerging women leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean, and providing assessment, development planning, and coaching for an organization’s high potential leaders for the past 4 years. Karen also serves as an occasional lecturer in the Effective Leadership series at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business MBA program.
Karen has developed a keen understanding of ‘best in class’ leadership, as she has had the opportunity to work with clients across a wide variety of industries. She has conducted in-depth assessments of hundreds of executives for purposes of executive selection, internal development, succession planning, and mergers/acquisitions, as well as provided subsequent feedback and coaching for clients. As part of this work, she provided feedback and coaching in Spanish to dozens of individuals who were located in Latin America. Previously, at Motorola she led large scale projects, both domestic and international, within the areas of corporate succession planning, high potential leadership development, expatriate selection and repatriation, and training.
Karen’s key areas of expertise include:
Partial Client List
She has worked with numerous clients including: Caterpillar, Inter-American Development Bank, PepsiCo, Shire, Abbott, Kimberly Clark, UL, Sterling Partners, Fortune Brands Home & Security, Laureate International Universities, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, Horace Mann, Zurich Financial Services, Fifth Third Bank, EDS, Northwestern Mutual, Banner Health, Notre Dame University, DuPont, Skyline Steel, Henkel, Phelps Dodge Corporation, Hampton Sydney College, Seminis, Cornerstone Records Management, HarborCrest International, Brooks Automation, UGI, and Cervecería Regional.
Client Quotes
Professional Certifications
Education and Professional Associations
Karen holds a B.A. in Psychology and Spanish from the University of Texas and a Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Houston in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. She is active in the Human Resources Management Association of Chicago and the Society of Industrial/Organizational Psychology.
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