Cerulean Leadership Associates and Partners

Roberto Blain

Roberto Blain, CEO and founder, brings to clients over 30 years of in-house and multi-industry consultancy experience in domestic and international strategy development, executive coaching and integrated talent management/human resources. His background encompasses strategic planning, workforce planning, talent acquisition, leadership and organizational development, performance management and succession planning. Other areas of focus include organizational transformation and change management, communication skill building, team building and workplace innovation. Central to his work is delivering programs that build leadership, accountability and personal mastery across all levels of the organization.

Recent accomplishments include facilitating strategic planning and transformation efforts for a major healthcare organization, developing a leadership academy and blended learning program for a large U.S. university, and providing executive coaching, strategic planning and organizational development support for several non-profit organizations. Recent international engagements include delivering talent acquisition solutions for a Middle East greenfield operation requiring rapid, 5,000-plus staffing. Additionally, Blain has provided talent solutions for organizations as far afield as South America, Europe and Asia.

A graduate of New York University’s Stern School of Business with a Masters in Leadership from the University of Southern California, Blain began his career on Wall Street and has held leadership positions in Fortune 500 and other large companies such as The Walt Disney Company, University of Southern California, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Warner Bros. and Sidra Medical and Research Center. He is co-founder of c3 (Center for Conscious Creativity) and is authoring a book on new paradigms in integrated talent management.

Lindsay Barnett

Lindsay Barnett is a certified executive coach, corporate consultant and facilitator, talent strategist, author and professional speaker. She has passionately dedicated her career to transforming workplace cultures, leaders, teams, and individuals in a human-centered way. Lindsay is creative and pragmatic, knowing the little things have power to make a big difference. Known for her positivity and high-energy style, clients generally walk away from sessions with Lindsay feeling more resourced in mind, heart, and body.

Team coaching clients appreciate the safe way Lindsay helps them challenge certain beliefs and patterns that may be holding them back from their desired goals and relationships. She helps her clients see their strengths and gifts to bring forth with confidence and empowerment. As a development expert, Lindsay also has a variety of tools to share with leaders to effectively manage relationships, advance their team goals and increase organizational effectiveness without burning people out.

Lindsay brings over 20 years of global experience working with an array of Fortune 500 and enterprise clients, including: Amgen, Mattel, Gilead Sciences, Corcept Therapeutics, Gap, Inc. Lattice, Warner Music Group, and others. She has held progressively larger roles often in fast-growing companies, most recently serving as the Head of Talent Development and Inclusion at Kite Pharma, a Gilead company.

In addition to leadership roles in the HR function, Lindsay also was a Professor of Organizational Culture and Employee Outcomes at USC’s Bovard College. She is a co-founder of Our Kind of Club, an organization dedicated to creating a healthier and kinder world for all by inspiring kindness in everyday actions.

Notable recent client achievements: • Coached senior leaders to promotion within six months • Coached business executives to lower stress levels and increase strategic focus • Coached leader to mitigate imposter syndrome resulting in longer contract and salary increase • Team coached a cross-functional leadership team through successful product launch

Her areas of expertise include:

Executive & Leadership Coaching
Group and Team Coaching
Leadership & Manager Development
Cultural Transformation & Organization Development
Team Member Development & Individual Coaching
High Performing Teams & Cross-functional Teaming
Employee Engagement & Wellbeing
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Integration

Lindsay earned her undergraduate Anthropology degree from the University of California, Berkeley and her Master of Business Administration with an emphasis in Entrepreneurship and Organization Behavior from The UCLA Anderson School. She holds certifications in Integral Coaching (New Ventures West) including ICF PCC accreditation, 360 Coaching (Center for Creative Leadership), FYI for Teams (Korn Ferry), Systemic Team Coaching (Peter Hawkins), The Change Cycle and is an experienced facilitator with DiSC, Insights, MBTI/Myers-Briggs, Gallup Strengths Finder and 5 Behaviors of a Team (Lencioni). Lindsay also was a Professor of Organizational Culture and Employee Outcomes at USC, Bovard College. She is the author of the book, Working Hell to Working Well: Making Your Company Work For You.

In her free time, Lindsay is a passionate traveler and global citizen, having lived in Latin America and Asia Pacific. She is a dedicated yogi and believer in mind and body connection. Playing pickleball and taking beach walks with friends also brings her joy. She lives in the Los Angeles area and regularly chauffeurs two teens around town, with just enough time left to walk her very large dog.

Pearl Hilliard

Pearl Hilliard, Ed.D brings to clients a wealth of multi-industry experience in strategic organizational development, learning and leadership development, integrated talent management, organizational improvement, team building, communications training, and coaching. Pearl received her doctoral degree (Ed.D) in Human Performance at Work from the University of Southern California and an M.S. in Counseling from California State University at Northridge. She has a B.A. (Honors) in Applied Psychology from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, and a B.A. in Business Studies from Manchester Polytechnic, England. Her training certifications include Achieve Global, Coaching, Connecting With Others, DiSC, Emotional Intelligence, and Myers-Briggs. Prior to joining Cerulean Leadership, Pearl served as Associate Director of Professional and Organizational Development for the University of Southern California.

Lee Miller

Lee Miller is an international, multi-industry human resources consultant, executive coach and corporate trainer specializing in leadership, influencing, negotiating, innovation, and assessment and development of high performance teams. A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, he is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University and at the Seton Hall University School of Business, where he teaches graduate level courses in influencing and negotiating, decision-making and human resources management and is a five time recipient of the business school’s “Award for Teaching Excellence.”

He is the author of UP: Influence Power and The U Perspective: The Art of Getting What You Want and, and co-author, with Jessica Miller, of A Woman’s Guide to Successful Negotiating. He co-authored with Dr. William Owen, Chief Executive Officer of Sidra Medical and Research Center, the chapter on Communications in Enhancing the Professional Culture and Accountability of Academic Health Sciences Center in a Policy Context and authored the chapter on social media in the PRNews Guide to Best Practices in Non-Profit Communications.

With over 30 years of practical experience in the field as C-level corporate officer and consultant, Lee was the Chief Human Resources Officer at TV Guide Magazine, USA Networks and Barney's New York and the Corporate Vice President of Labor and Employee Relations at Macys. Lee is also the former Chair of the International Association of Corporate and Professional Recruiters and currently serves as an advisor to, and an honorary director of, the Tianjin Society in Singapore. Lee is currently co-authoring a book on influencing for innovation with the former Global Head of Marketing Innovation at Merck.

Denise Lopez

Patricia “Denise” Lopez, PhD, SHRM, is Associate Professor in Organizational Psychology at Alliant International University. Her areas of research, teaching and consulting expertise are in work motivation and employee engagement, leadership and organization development, and multicultural and global management. Prior to teaching at Alliant, she served as Project Director of global engagement surveys for International Survey Research (now part of Towers Watson). She also managed the MBA program at the Asian Institute of Management, where she taught MBA and executive education courses. She has 18 years of consulting and training experience with clients from diverse industries in the United States and Asia. She received her B.A. in Psychology (summa cum laude) from the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines, and her Masters and PhD in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University, New York. Denise brings to clients a wealth of evidence-based knowledge combined with strategic understanding and practical appreciation of management priorities and processes.

Robert Dickman

Bob Dickman is a facilitator for Cerulean Leadership. Called “a mirror- for- hire,” Bob works with leaders who need to become more influential. He coaches them to have the courage to look at themselves closely. Collaborating with senior management teams, he has developed training programs on persuasion and influence for The New York Times Company, Banana Republic, California Academy of Science, Nike and the U.S. Naval Post Graduate School among others.

His seminar “Make Me Care: Leveraging the Power of Story” has been conducted throughout the U.S. for clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to rapidly expanding small business enterprises. As a thought leader in the field of leadership influence through story, he writes often on story and its use as a means of persuasion. Bob's book, The Elements of Persuasion (HarperCollins, co-authored with Richard Maxwell), was nominated as one of the top business books of 2007 and has been translated into fourteen languages.

Bob holds a BA from Goddard College and is a graduate of the Hudson Institute's master coach program in organizational coaching.

Jacque TD Huynh

Jacque is an ICF Certified Coach, Master of Neuro-Linguistic Programing (NLP) and Certified Hypnotist. She specializes in leadership development, organizational transformation and culture, communication skills training, employee engagement, strategic thinking and time management.

She brings in 15 years of experience and integrates her coaching with her knowledge and life experience as a California real estate broker/developer, corporate paralegal and manager to create a work/life balance and real sustainable results for her clients. Her strength in communication, time management, leadership and strategic thinking has ignited her clients into taking action in their own lives.

She helps her clients explore their values, limiting beliefs and get out of their fear by using an in-depth process of shifting perspectives, raising engagement and formatting plans of action with support and feedback for her clients.

Tina Barry

Tina Barry's specialty is improving the communication effectiveness for in-tact teams as well as providing executive coaching and leadership development for individuals in management and executive roles. She has over 23 years of experience in the Training and Leadership Development field. Tina is the founder and President of Barry Consulting Group serving both for-profit and non-profit organizations throughout the Southern California region.

Tina was formerly with the Walt Disney Company, where she spent 10 years providing leadership training and organizational development services for a variety of divisions both domestically and internationally. Prior to The Walt Disney Company, Tina worked in the banking industry for 15 years in areas of training, sales and sales management. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communications and a Master's degree in Behavioral Science, with an emphasis in Professional Counseling.

Judy Weinstein

Judy Weinstein is a Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) with over twenty years of compensation experience, most recently as a Principal at JRW & Associates, a Human Resources consultancy she founded in 2006. Judy has provided compensation program consultation to clients in a variety of industries including entertainment, healthcare, insurance, media, aerospace, financial, consumer goods, hospitality, and non-profit.

Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Judy held various Compensation and HRIS roles for Walt Disney Pictures and Television. Her last position at Disney was in the corporate role of Director Executive Compensation where she was responsible for developing management bonus programs, long-term incentive plans and equity-related projects.

A big believer in community involvement, Judy has volunteered for a number of organizations including Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Conservancy, and Inner Circle Foster Care and Adoption Agency, where she served as Board President for three years. She is currently serving on the Board of Trustees of the Pacific Clinics Foundation.

Judy has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from California State University, Northridge and a Master of Arts degree in Human Development from Pacific Oaks College. She also has a certificate in Human Resources Management from California State University, Northridge.

Leslie Schwartz

Leslie Schwartz provides Talent Management solutions to companies of all sizes across multiple industries and verticals. Her professional areas of expertise include Talent Acquisition, Career Consulting, and Multicultural Initiatives on a domestic and global scale covering a variety of industries such as entertainment, healthcare, financial services, and not-for-profit.

Leslie has extensive experience building and leading high performance Human Resource and Talent Acquisition teams domestically and abroad. She works as a strategic business partner with C-suite executives and other organizational leaders and their staffs to help them achieve their vision and organizational objectives through innovative talent management practices. One of her most recent assignments included leading staffing efforts to build a 5,000+ employee, state-of-the-art hospital and medical research center in the Middle East.

Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Leslie served as Executive Director of Multicultural Initiatives and Executive Director of Talent Acquisition for The Walt Disney Studios for 16 years, leading talent management initiatives in live action and animated films, music, and live stage plays. She also consulted with C-suite and executive level professionals managing career transitions and facilitated training for two of the largest global career consulting firms, Drake Beam Morin (DBM) and Lee Hecht Harrison.

Leslie received her B.S. degree in Business Management from Arizona State University, Tempe and has done Masters level coursework in Clinical Psychology at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA.

Linda Cole

Linda Cole is Manager of Client Relationships for Cerulean Leadership. Her greatest passion is employee well-being, personal mastery and physical fitness. A former Los Angeles Times International Advertising Sales Executive and founder of a fitness studio (4 Ideal Fitness), Linda joined Cerulean Leadership to pursue her interest in helping organizations leverage strategic planning, organizational improvement, leadership development, and personal mastery training. One of Linda's achievements includes implementing highly successful international sales training programs while at the Los Angeles Times. She has her BA in Anthropology from UCLA and her MA in Human Development from Pacific Oaks College.

Tejashree Chawla

Tejashree Chawla is committed to excellence in partnering with clients through her coaching and training services. While she has facilitated trainings on various workplace wellness and success areas and topics, she is most passionate about Managing Change, Stress and Leadership. She has conducted trainings for numerous clients, which include corporate, government and non-profit organizations. These include Hawker Beechcraft, Twining Laboratories, Westfield Corporation Inc., Dept. of Aging, City of LA-Emergency Services, LA, Union Bank of California and more.

She has coached individuals, and also groups including high potentials in Microsoft Corp.She is known by her coaching clients for her ease in getting them out of their head, transforming mindsets, and collaborating for focused actions for their personal / professional success and fulfillment!

Tejashree has an MA in Clinical Psychology from University of Mumbai, India and an MS in Agency Counseling from Indiana State University, USA. Tejashree has also successfully completed advanced training in Guided Imagery from Synergy Seminars, CA, USA. In 2005, she received Coach Training with Coaches Training Institute (CTI), CA, USA and in 2016 she became a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach [CPCC].

Before becoming an independent Trainer and Coach, she worked as an Outpatient Therapist for over 12 years. She integrates her eastern heritage, education, and work experience gained in India with her education and professional growth in USA.

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