Tawny Lees, M.B.A

Tawny Lees is an executive leadership coach to senior leaders operating at increasing scale, complexity, and visibility.

Before becoming a coach in 2004, Tawny spent more than 18 years as a corporate executive, rising quickly into VP roles across operations, risk management, sales, service, marketing, and change leadership. She built functions from the ground up, turned around underperforming organizations, and led in fast-paced, high-pressure environments.

For more than 20 years, she has coached leaders, primarily in technology and other demanding, high-growth sectors, helping them operate with greater clarity, impact, and range.

Her clients value her ability to be both highly candid and deeply supportive—a trusted thought partner who brings real-world perspective, sharp insight, and practical wisdom to the work.

  • Tawny’s approach is grounded in practical wisdom—the ability to apply insight, experience, and judgment in real-world leadership situations.

    Her work focuses on helping leaders:

    • Clarify what exceptional leadership looks like for them

    • See themselves and their impact more clearly

    • Strengthen how they think, decide, and lead in complex environments

    • Experiment with new behaviors and ways of operating

    • Integrate those changes into how they lead day-to-day

    The work is both reflective and highly practical—anchored in real situations, real decisions, and real leadership moments.

  • Tawny has coached leaders from Director to CEO across technology, biotech, and other high-performance environments.

    Her clients are often high-achieving executives who are already delivering results but want to elevate how they lead (and live) as demands and opportunities expand.

    Examples include:

    • CFO at post-IPO tech company scaled her function and became a stronger, more influential partner to the executive team

    • Chief Digital Officer at Fortune 500 retail company increased enterprise impact while reshaping culture

    • SVP in a growing biopharma company expanded from functional strength into enterprise leadership

    • Founder CTO built his organization while shifting from deep technical contribution to broader leadership effectiveness

    • 25 year CEO strengthened her executive team and prepared the organization for its next stage of leadership

    Representative companies include: Amazon, Corcept, Google, Maze Therapeutics, Meta, PayPal, SixFold AI, Sequoia, Zappos.

    • M.B.A., Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley

    • B.S., Finance with Economics minor at California State University, Hayward, cum laude

    • Certified organizational coach by John F. Kennedy University

    • Ongoing trainings in the Enneagram and other coaching and leadership development modalities

Warm - Candid - Savvy

Clients appreciate Tawny’s ability to connect with them quickly and deeply and be both a supporter and challenger. On the personal front, she has three kids from college-aged to adults and considers herself a recovering workaholic. She understands first hand what it takes to juggle it all while wanting to bring your best work and self to the world.

  • "My individual progress with Tawny as my coach brought me a new-found level of professionalism and leadership on a local and industry-wide basis. For my team Tawny created and led a smart program that exceeded our expectations. She challenged us, taught us, and left us a better team and improved results. She's a results-oriented professional - I’m still seeing improvements in our organization's effective and efficient use of communication, feedback, and collaboration. I wholeheartedly recommend Tawny as a coach and group facilitator!"

    - Director at top 5 university in the world

  • “Having never worked with a coach previously, I really didn't know what to expect...and was somewhat skeptical about the process. I worked with Tawny over the course of several months and she exceeded my expectations. Tawny invests the time and energy to really understand her clients (their strengths / weaknesses / personalities) and tailor recommendations that reflect that understanding. I found our time together to be very productive and would certainly enjoy working with her again.”

    - VP Corporate Partnerships

  • “Tawny is one of those few people who can both see the big picture and make sure all the details are running correctly. She has a talent for quickly discerning the right course of action in ambiguous situations and her communications and technical skills enable her to work effectively with others of diverse backgrounds. Her ability to remain calm in stressful situations, her self-effacing manner and her sense of humor make her an effective leader. It would be my privilege to work with Tawny again in the future.”

    - Former colleague/direct report

  • "Tawny was amazing. She was able to relate to my desire for professional growth but the struggle to balance my ambition with my three (very busy) kiddos. She was never judgmental (even with my sometimes questionable priorities) and was able to ask great questions and get to the root cause of a lot of work anxiety and problems. She pushed me outside my comfort zone."

    - VP Operations